Hiku said:
Nautilus said:
Nintendo is known to make different things, and even change things from estabilished franchises.So if they truly intended to Link to be female, why wait for 30 years?It makes no sense.Unless Link was always male, of course.
And if they want to make a female lead for the franchise, why not a brand new one?Or even Zelda?That would result ina much more interesting result than just making a female Link skin.You could work with new concepts, like Mario and Luigi.An example would be this:Link would be the equivalent of Mario, the steriotype hero, while this new heroine would be Luigi.A more humane person who would naturally be afraid of something that could get you killed, but would find the courage to do so.This way you keep(most) fans happy, and could give a much better and interesting direction to the franchises, switching betwenn both heros betwenn titles.
Maybe Link could have been seen until A Link to the Past as an avatar, and I emphasize on the maybe, but after OOT, its impossible to say this in my opinion.He has always the same appearance, has expressions, and even though he dosent talk has a personality that stays mostly the same through the games.That is not the definition of a avatar.And the problem with different genders is that you may miss some oportunities, like romantic interest and jokes that are restrictive to the gender, and so on.In the end, you could lose alot of oportunities for caracther growth and such.It would limit the game for no good reason.
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Sure, they wouldn't wait 30 years just for that. But at some point tradition comes into play, and it's not always easy to break away from it unless you do it in a good way. Still, the ratio of male to female leads in Nintendo's main games are still fairly unproportioned. And it's like that for most other developers as well.
Having the option to play as Zelda would be a really cool idea, imo. Though that would obviously result in a different storyline for her, than for Link, if there's still the option to play as Link. And don't you think there's a big risk of upsetting people if they forego Link as an option entierly? "Then they may as well call the game The Legend of Zel... oh wait?!"
Making two different storylines can be challenging on the development side of things. Though some times it works well, and we have many examples of that in the past. Sadly these days, those portions are sold as DLC instead of being included in the game, just because they can easily make the argument that it's not part of the original game. And given what Nintendo did with Fire Emblem Fates, I wouldn't be optimistic about getting the option between Link and Zelda in this game. Although I would buy that DLC, and I can imagine it would be worth it.
As for avatars, I dunno if there's any specific criteria. For example, in Dragon Age Inquisition, you can alter their appearance, but they do speak. And the main character in Fire Emblem Awakening is refered to as either Avatar, or Robin. And they have a distinct personality and mannerism. Although you can alter their appearance and gender. While in a game like Persona 4, you can't alter the appearance of the character.
Anyway, that's an impression I got personally. Same with the main characters of most Suikoden games. And perhaps that's why Nintendo have been getting requests for a female Link. I don't think there are as many requests for certain other characters who do speak, and you can't change their names and whatnot.
But when we think about the role that Link's gender has played in the games, there hasn't been much of significance that I can think of in the games I've played. Certainly between him and Zelda, I don't recall any love story between them. But I do remember the young Zora princess in OOT wanting to marry Link. But you can even this thing out by having another male character say something similar to a female Link.
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It dosent need to necessarily have two different storylines in the same game, even though if fully fleshed out that could be a really good idea(Maybe even switching betwenn them, like if one is stuck in the dark world and anothe rin the light world and make them interact with one another in some way).I was thinking more in the lines of having a game only for the female lead, that only stars her.It would give a fresh new protagonist, and would shake things up.As far as complaints go, I personally think this would have less repercussions than making Link female, but I will admit that I may not being entirely objective in this analysis, since I dont like the female Link idea.
About the avatar criteria, you may have a point there, but then again, every example you list have some level of customization to the main caracther, while in Zelda you can only change Links name top.For me an avatar would be someone who has zero personality, or next to it, like in XCX(As far as I know, since Ididnt play that game.So please no spoilers),or that you can change his personality to being a saint to a total dick, without having the developer tell you that one specific personality is the canon.Its really hard to pinpoint a real categorization of being an avatar, but for me Link is far from being one in my vision.
And the romance part dosent necessarily have to be consumed or extremely expliced(read:to be said they are in a relationship or that they want).It could also be implied, like it is in TP, with you-know-who.And if Link was female in that game, well it would create another range of problems.
For me, making Link female seems so... unnecessary, especially when there are so many better options at hand.Its like pissing off people that would care about it for no really good reason.
