Zelda: Clockwork Empires

Inspired by the Tropes vs Women series, it seems there's been people proposing the idea of a Zelda game with her as the heroine saving Link instead.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/13/4220020/legend-of-zelda-clockwork-empire-concept-aaron-diaz-tropes-vs-women

Yeah, saw that earlier today. I'd buy it.

I would too, even if the only thing it had going for it was Ganondorf in a monocle.

...so...

why isnt zelda royalty anymore? no, better yet, why is link royalty? D:

and why is that the part that bothers me?

oh whatever, itd probably turn out she's secretly royalty and she and link are related.

edited 15th Apr '13 2:09:03 PM by Tarsen

Not sure why she has to even rescue Link.

Link could've been just in the background giving advice and go from there.

The problem is that all they did was reverse the roles, instead of giving Zelda a reason beyond Link to actually fight.

Same problems with the Luigi games and Super Princess Peach. They don't revolve around anyone but the "new" hero and same main hero. And the usual villain.

Not bad, but I don't approve of the idea of Link needing rescue for at this time.

Meh. If this is just gonna be a genderswapped verison of the old games I don't think I approve very much.

Why?

Zelda is not Link. She is her own character and has actually shown throughout the series that she can hold her own if need be. She deserves a unique game of her own.

Also what Irene said. Hai honey!

edited 15th Apr '13 2:14:21 PM by Azure

She doesn't rescue Link. He sneaks out and has his own adventures in the background while occasionally helping out, like Shiek in OOT. Her reason for fighting is to rescue/protect her (adoptive?) family.

Have you seen the FAQ he made? He made a point of emphasizing Wisdom over Courage in her approach (while acknowledging that Link possesses wisdom and Zelda has plenty of courage.) That's one of the reasons that she has a magic gauntlet instead of a shield - you don't wade in like Link would.

edited 15th Apr '13 2:23:44 PM by Durazno

I admit I skimmed. And starting reading from the opening of this topic.

...Which was clearly incorrect. Apologies.

It does sound a bit better now. IMO, I'm a fan of playing as both a Female!Link and a form of Zelda, as well as playing as Ganondorf in a Zelda game.

Art's kind of mediocre. Zelda's face looks like a young boy's, for starters, which is kind of odd considering he's trying to make some female empowerment character here. Just seems like a Tumblr artist trying to cash in on the recent pro-feminism wave in video gaming to me, and I don't see why it's anything to get all hyped up over like some journalists are; it's not like Miyamoto and Iwata are gonna fly out to this guy's backyard and give him millions of bucks and control of a dev studio to make this. Some of the ideas are cool, though, and I'd like to see some stealth in a Lo Z game.

edited 15th Apr '13 2:34:48 PM by Kev-O

Though you do point out an important concern - if this game actually were in the works, I think that there would be a huge temptation to treat Zelda as "Link in a purple tunic" regardless of how differently the adventure starts out. The creators would have to be vigilant.

edited 15th Apr '13 2:35:13 PM by Durazno

Reading the FAQ it could be interesting and I sincerly hope she doesn't turnout to be Link in a purple tunic. Rather Why have the tunic anyway? I would actually like to see this stray away from Link as far as possible. I would like her to keep her princess status because this could have been one of the few special times when Royalty actually does something. And I would like to see her back in her dress and her usual feminine self because like I said before. Zelda is not Link. Let us kick Gannon's ass in a dress.

yup.

Didn't Spirit Tracks predate this by giving us a semi-playable Zelda?

I'd prefer if it was done in the sense of Wind Waker, where you fully play as them, not treat her like a vehicle at best.

Really, other than Smash and some of the CD-I games, you can't really play as Zelda while controlling more than her movement. Which is the problem here.(well, romhacks too, obviously)

Even if this turns out to just be barely different from the regular Zelda formula, it's a nice start~

Eh, I'd buy it. The setting seems interesting enough, and having a character with a more Magic Knight kind of approach to combat would be an interesting variation on the formula. If anything, the "feminism, yay" seems more like an added bonus, which is exactly what it should be.

Egrh, how do I put this: The guys a great artist (although I havnt been reading his comic because Im at the ax capacity for webcomics at the moment), but when he does fan art stuff like this it tends to feel a bit.....pretentious is an over used word isn't it?

OK, let me put it like this: A year or two back he made a series of redesigns for DC characters, and while some of his ideas were good, or even great ( Ditching the Earth-whatever BS for Power Girl, removing most of the Superman elements from the Martian Manhunter), most of them just felt like changing things for the sake of changing things: Superman is an alien shapeshifter whose backstory is even more confusing than it is now, Wonder Woman being a literal golem made of marble, his Green Lantern using the lantern symbol on her chest because "lol they're called green lanterns why are they using rings derp". It really reeked of "I'm doing this to prove my ideas are better than the people who make the material its based on."

I have a similar problem with this, but even more so than the DC stuff because this uses the oldest gender flip in the book, make the damsel the warrior and turn the warrior into a damsel, and has the same air of smugness.

Then again, why are we making such a big deal over this? Oh yeah, because he said he was inspired by Anita Sarkeesian so everyone has to explode over it. This is really just over exposed fan art, and he has every right to make it, same as me making my shitty fan art.

edited 15th Apr '13 3:09:07 PM by Paperbritt

I dunno, I'm, uh, "exploding" over it because I think it looks cool.

Boy, this sure is a hot-button topic, isn't it though?

Ayup.

Incorrect. Link has his own untold adventure this time, though the intersections with Zelda's may indeed end up with one of them needing a rescue. Less of what you read it as and more 'Your damsel is in another game'.

It's also interesting because Ganondorf is finding out about this magic stuff at the same time she is - this would be one game where the antagonist is growing and actively working against you, rather than sitting in a throne room playing an organ while you crash all over their kingdom of darkness.

that does found nice.

I'm just scared that clockpunk is going to become the next steampunk. "Just add some monocles and some cogs, it's suddenly a new setting!"

So is this an actual game or overblown fan-art? Because Zelda fan-games tend to not last, due to IP laws. And I don't see anything on the page about this being anything more than a concept pitch.

I don't think there's anything concrete yet but it sounds like they've at least got a group of people to make it.

It's just fan-art, and the creator isn't blowing it up to be anything more than that.