The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (contains spoilers)

Yeah people are not happy about voice acting or the Western elements gonna be a very divided game when it comes out.

See also: Literally every other Zelda game ever. Except the first, and that's just because there was no concept of Zelda as a franchise then.

I'm really annoyed because a customizable character is a major element of most WRP Gs and yet "LOL Zelda would be easier for a female character"

Anyone else think that the trailer music was pretty damn good

It's not like adding Linkle into the game would be that hard. Seriously, it's just a new character model to splice over Link's scenes There's not much voice acting that would have to change, especially if they cut the -le off her name and just let her be a female Link.

Especially since Zelda games typically expect you to name your character anyways.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:27:34 PM by TobiasDrake

Man, Aonuma's reasons for the lack of a female PC is a bit of a downer in an otherwise great game presentation.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:27:46 PM by FawfulCrump

It is quite the downer, because everything else has been pretty great

It's not a deal breaker, especially after everything else, but yeah, Aonuma('s translator?) was really tone-deaf in a way that reminded me too much of that incident with Assassin's Creed.

People, Linkle isn't Link. She's a Link wannabe.

HWL has been out for a while and a lot of people still don't know this?

@Zarek: That's basically exactly what I was going to say. People will complain that this is the Worst Zelda Ever until the next few come out, and which point everyone will consider it a masterpiece except for a few people who think it's overrated.

As far as female protagonist goes, I can see why they wouldn't want to use Zelda (she'd play a very different role in the story and the gameplay itself would have to be overhauled to focus more on magic), but a female Link would be pretty easy. The only reason I can see for that is that they view Link as sort of singular reincarnated character who happens to be male, but that could be written around pretty easily. If nothing else they could just go "gameplay wise you can choose the gender but canonically Link is male", like they do with the name.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:37:35 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Exactly. They're not the same thing. Linkle was originally based upon the concept of a female Link, yes, but she has her own identity. There's a reason she has a different name.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:39:36 PM by Irene

Wax, some people like Linkle. Maybe don't be so condescending with your phrasing, yeah?

Anyway, what exactly was said about the no female character thing? I'm not exactly keeping up with E3 so I have no idea what's happened so far.

When people say "Linkle" in this case they mean an actual female Link and not that specific character. Let's not split hairs about it.

So basically they just ignored the possibility of gender-bending Link for whatever reason.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:39:27 PM by wehrmacht

Why you guys caring about people saying this will be the worst Zelda ever? We literally go through this song and dance with every single home console Zelda game

And I guess it's a bit of a shame that the two playable characters rumor wasn't real. Link's design has always been relatively consistent, even when super deformed; guess they had to stick to some traditions while breaking every other one.

No it hasn't. Earlier games presented him with different hair colors even in the official art. His age is highly variable. Even in this game he's more feminine than he's ever been portrayed as before.

EDIT: Ninja'd into irrelevance.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:42:41 PM by JapaneseTeeth

I wasn't expecting the feature to be there, but it sucks that it was shot down.

So, presenter, you say I can take on Ganon in the nude

Challenge accepted.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:41:22 PM by Bur

If people are editing the pages to whine, then sure, something can be done.

Who cares about offsite stuff.

Also, the point Waxing is making(I do agree his tone could be better) is that Linkle is a completely different person. Linkle is not female Link. If we mean female Link, it makes way more sense to say that. Linkle herself is unique enough as an interesting option, sure. She has enough of a design that she could be used as a female Link's model without issues. That said, it's too bad we're not getting a playable female character as is, whether it's Link or a completely different person.

I eagerly await the first nude speedrun.

@Rhyme: Relatively consistent. Even with differences like hair color and age, you could show the different Links to different people and they woud most likely go "Yup, that's Link"

edited 14th Jun '16 12:43:26 PM by Elbruno

That's going to be hilarious.

And it sucks that they shot down the idea of Zelda as a fighter. She's the title character, for fuck's sake. one of these days, Aonuma. Even like a gaiden game would be cool. That Tinkle guy got one.

It's disappointing but Aonuma is an old japanese man. It's sad to say this but a tone-deaf response from him (or from his translator, maybe, hard to say) is hardly surprising.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:45:12 PM by wehrmacht

@Irene: I'm getting the feeling that the devs sort of view all of the "Links" as something of incarnations of one character. I.e. the different Links are technically different people, but they're all a manifestation of the same "Hero who saves Hyrule" character, and they presumably view that archetype as male. Similar how to Zelda is probably always going to be female; there's a sort of "Zelda" archetype for the series and that's something they consider an inherent part of what makes her Zelda. Note: not saying I agree with that interpretation (I honestly don't care if they have a female Link or not as long as the gameplay is good), but that's where I think they're coming from.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:46:19 PM by JapaneseTeeth

Tingle also was immensely popular in Japan. XD

And Zelda does have two games she stars in(which is better than nothing). It'd just be nice to have games that Nintendo made that she stars in. Not 3rd party-esque stuff. And not even on a Nintendo system.

The problem is the story doesn't really support Link as a male, just as a generic hero. The latest game is showing this even more. Thus, it's a useless view since Link has actual iconic points. The weapon mastery. The vehicle mastery. Shapeshifting. The tunic and hat. Male is the least important to him, and they have yet to make the male part actually important to the story in any way. Heck, the only media(manga/games/shows/etc.) where Link being male seems to make jack is the non-canon TV show. And that's cause he's nothing more than a perverted male hero. It's a stereotype, sure, but it does actually try to make the male part prominent.

edited 14th Jun '16 12:48:36 PM by Irene