Actually considering Karane, I don't think a girl with pointed ears and the classic tunic explicitly has to be "female Link" any more. Those cosplays are probably from before Skyward Sword, so the intent is clear, but pretty much anybody can dress like Link and just be a Hyrulean knight. The outfit will always evoke Link, but without the presence of more explicit symbols of the hero (Master Sword, Triforce mark), it's essentially a gender-neutral, boarderline non-character-specific costume.

Basically what I'm saying is that if those ladies are "female Link" simply by nature of wearing the tunic despite carrying no proof of their status as the hero, then so is Karane and therefore "female Link" has already been done.

In the same fashion, I don't think this "female Link" is going to replace his role in the story in Hyrule Warriors, so she's really not.

In that case, behold the new Link!!!

>:( Link can't be a cat! It goes completely against everything the series has always meant! That's it I'm never buying anything from Nintendo ever again and I'm going to burn all of my Zelda games and my copy of Hyrule Historia! This is an absolute crime against video games and against humans, what an absolute atrocity.

So cute. Unfortunately, I hope he is not the new Link or Aonuma will take another 3 or 4 years into development to do the fur's cat.

so the cat is the reason for the delay?

It's not about whether or not you like cats Rol, it's the principal of the matter. Link is a person, he always has to be a person. Why do these cat-lovers have to ruin everything? You don't see me saying Big the Cat or Panther from Star Fox should be humans. They already ruined Mario by making him a cat, what's next, Cat Marth? Cat Samus? Cat-ain Falcon?

If Nintendo wants to have more cats in their games they have to create new characters or better yet make an entirely new game centered around cats. Aonuma can't be allowed to just go slapping cats wherever he pleases, it's a sacrilege! It compromises the integrity of the Zelda franchise! It's about cat-thics in game journalism!

Rabbits are okay though obviously Link can be a rabbit just like he was that one time. Wolves are also fine. But cats are just against the rules. >: (

Anyway, Link is a boy in green garb, no need to change that.

Considering this game is all about fan service, that'd be cool

Its not liek its cannon

We're talking about hyrule warriors a complete offshoot divorced from the real series based deeply in fanservice (something female link isn't new to), we're also talking about a character that is reinvented (within confines) every entry so its different from Bayonetta or Peach. FInally we're talking about an optional character selection of out of a dozen others including normal link, this is no biggie for those who don't like it. Only a cool bonus for those who do ;)

:p