Does Link's Gender Matter?

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UltimateMaster4351d ago (Edited 4351d ago )

When you have an existing character, you don't change him... let alone is genre. (Poison anyone?)
Like how they ruined Dante. When the formula works; keep it.
Say no to Link being a Black Woman. (Stupid ass petition)

randomass1714351d ago

Dante was crap because they wrote him to be a jackass. There were no likable traits about him. He was just as scummy as the world around him which hurt the character exponentially. Link's personality is mostly undefined, so altering him from boy to girl wouldn't have a massive impact on the character, but other characters might react differently to a woman being their savior. I think there are some interesting stories that can be told that way.

Dark skin is different because that clashes with the idea that Link is Hylian and the Hylians are typically light skinned by nature. That petition was trolling anyway I think. :P

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SpiralTear4351d ago

First off, the petition is a joke. No one in the right mind believes that Nintendo would follow through on it, even if it succeeded.

Secondly, get over the Dante thing. DMC was not canon, and if you played DMC, you'd know that the gameplay was exactly the same as other Devil May Cry games.

As random said, it doesn't change how the game plays. The Assassin's Creed franchise changes main characters all the time and the gameplay stays, for the most part, the same.

Let Link be female if Nintendo wants. It's not like the sudden presence of a female protagonist will completely change all of the puzzles, remap the dungeons, and wreck the series. If you think it will, you clearly don't have faith in the developers.

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randomass1714351d ago (Edited 4351d ago )

@PostMesmeric

The thing is I actually have to side with the angrier fans on how lousy DmC was. Capcom took their established universe and really screwed with it beyond belief. Furthermore, the gameplay was actually streamlined and made much easier and basically "newbie-safe" because of the lack of fighting styles. If you want a perfect example of how they botched the gameplay, just look at this gif.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j...

^Something like this should never even be possible in Devil May Cry. So story is not the only issue with the game.

edit: Just gonna add another example here. http://i110.photobucket.com...

Lastly, the game only ran at 60fps on PC. This is crippling for a Devil May Cry game and explains why they opted to streamline it and make it easier overall.

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FarEastOrient4350d ago

Take the Tales of Xillia approach. Get a chance to play both characters, this would be an evolution of the series as a whole. Link stays male, Zelda is still a princess. The Xillia approach would allow two perspectives to the same story or even better a co-op experience that runs through the whole story.

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jebabcock4350d ago

Well if the newest uncharted came out and Drake was a female... i think it would definitely ruin the story for me. In my mind I see link as a boy elf. A legend of Zelda without a boy elf named link is no longer the legend of zelda... create a new ip...

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Bimkoblerutso4350d ago

@Jebabcock

That's not the same scenario in any way, shape or form. That is literally the same character being randomly switched to a female, so it would make no contextual sense.

You play as a different "Link" in (almost) every Zelda game, because the story being told is exactly as it's namesake implies: a Legend.

It would not necessarily be unfaithful to the character to make Link a female.

That being said, I don't want Nintendo to ever feel OBLIGATED to change Link. If they want Link to be a dude for every game they make, then let them do what they do. If they feel compelled to make Link a female, then....let them do what they do.

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+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 4350d ago

fenome4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

Link always was a male character though, if they want to have a female protagonist why not just let us play as Princess Zelda??

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EliteGameKnight4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

for some reason that picture of male Zelda reminds me of the Happy Mask Salesman.... probably just the outfit

wonderfulmonkeyman4350d ago

Spirit of the Hero.
NOT, Spirit of the Heroine.
There's canon storyline reasons behind Link always being a guy.
Playing as Zelda or as Zelda's daughter might be cool, but leave Link's gender the f*** alone.

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NovusTerminus4350d ago

Link is a guy, want to change it up? Have Zelda be the main character, I prefer her design anyways!

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TheSaint4350d ago

Does anything truly matter?

Wni04350d ago

seriously just stfu.

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Ogygian4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

Lazy social 'justice' article riddled with spelling mistakes, poor grammar and shallow thought. On an objective level nothing matters, and there is no 'we' in the gaming community on divisive issues (we all hate intrusive DRM, while we were split on the ME3 ending); I was against it but some were in favour and I respect Bioware's decision to compromise between the two groups...though I believe many more were against it than pro).

And yes it does. I like playing games where a handsome prince rescues a beautiful princess; don't blame me for this, as it was my parents who gave me Disney movies to watch as a child. Fighting those deep subconscious media preferences isn't worth the effort (I don't plan on becoming a social justice monk) and I rather enjoy media which satisfies them.

So I'd naturally be very slightly less likely to buy Zelda with a female protagonist as a result but to ge honest, I'm just one voice among many, and I'm sure Nintendo have the market research to collate our preferences to appeal to the majority.

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renerak4350d ago

I too like rescuing princesses. That was the sole motivation which made me play supermario brothers over and over again. And it is also the motivation for me to finish the long zelda games, so that link and zelda can be togather. And sure as hell, i was very hurt when i finished shadow of colosus and irrespective of how good the game was and is, i will never play it again. The zelda games are brilliant, they give adventure, challenge, we get visit some out of this world places, but best of all we know there is something good at the end of the journey.

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jeeves864350d ago

I think you give your parents more credit than they deserve when it comes to what you like and dislike in a video game. Particularly if you base that on what kind of movies you watched as a little kid, thus resolving you of any responsibility for your own opinions or actions whatsoever. Your argument is like saying "Don't blame me if I don't like black people in my video games, my parents were racist and I never grew out of the phase of listening to everything they said."

OT, Link has always been fairly androgynous. Other than the traditionally masculine concept of "save the princess," there's not much there that would really restrict what Nintendo could do in regards to his gender. They've gone through different timelines, hell, they've even made Zelda a sassy pirate - yet they can't write the story to where this particular Link is a woman?

Maybe they could write the lead character as a descendant of Link? Does that really make you that uncomfortable? Sad.

Vkmies4350d ago

Far from social justice my good friend. I said I don't care about the gender of Link. I said I find it irrelevant due to the theming of the series. Can't see much social justice-fighting behind that idea.

Ogygian4350d ago

But then with the theming of the series what factors actually are relevant beyond the title?

I mean, Bioshock indicates quite well its own important features: "There’s always a lighthouse. There’s always a man. There’s always a city". Changing one of these factors thus renders a title 'not Bioshock'.
I would argue that having a young man (Link) and a princess (zelda) are quintessential parts of the series (perhaps the only remaining).
If they drop this then the series just has names remaining and may as well just end and split into multiple new games with new titles.

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MWH4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

it matters to many, it doesn't to some and some don't even care. got your answer?

next article; Does Lara Croft's gender matter? let's have a Larry Croft instead and pit him against Nathan Drake.. oh wait, does Nathan Drake's gender matter? Solid Snake? how about,, Kirby? hmmm.

a free advice; Link is a guy get over it, stop thinking about this shit and go out with friends.

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Drithe4350d ago

Oh look, another LGBT "THERE IS NO SEX WE ARE ALL ONE" post. Sorry Chaz Bono, but you have a vagina, therefore, you are a girl. Doesn't matter that you take steroids to rage and grow facial hair.

Link is a dude.

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wheresmymonkey4350d ago

Yeah because the legend of zelda needs more strong female characters, Except that it doesnt.

Zelda has been an active participant in saving hyrule since Ocarina of Time. Everyone always seems to ignore the fact that Sheikah, and tetra are zelda to suit their own arguments, or that she goes on her own adventure in skyward sword, or that mindna does most of the fighting in Twilight princess, or the fact that Royal family of hyrule is protected by impa.

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our_games_are_art4350d ago

I know these things dont matter to us 20 something gamers. But little kids play these too. my niece adores legend of Zelda would she like it more if link was female who knows. But id like her to be able to decide how she experiences L o Z herself

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jebabcock4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

You are the one being ridiculous now... One thing kids don't get taught enough of is that you don't always get what you want just because you want it... I don't think it makes sense to bastardize an existing series just so your niece can have a unisex version of legend of zelda to play...

Why would you want to change it if she already adores it anyway? Your argument really doesn't make much sense...

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our_games_are_art4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

You have so little faith in Nintendo that you think adding a female character would bastardized the series... we live in a society where racism sexism and neo colonialism were/are the main tenets of our social structure.. to properly heal from these scars of humanity. You know Fuck it Fuck you ill forgive your ignorance because you obviously do not understand other peoples plight.

And I'm sorry if you viewed my little anecdote as an argument but it was nothing more than a little anecdote that I foolishly believed would share a smile from my life with someone out there

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lilbroRx4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

What she would be experiencing would not be the Legend of Zelda at everyone has celebrated for the last 20 years. It would just be some game made with same namesake to immediate fads and trends.

It would be DmC, Other M, Ninja Gaiden 3, Xenosaga 2, etc. It would be game built around a forced change that alters things that made the series popular in the first place.

The Legend of Zelda is the story of a boy who saves a princess in distress. This what it has always been at its core. A traditional story with a unique take(an elf boy instead of a burly knight) and his adventures.

Perceptions of male and female, as well as what is allowed for them to not only do, but be done to them(romantic subplot with Peatrice in Skyward sword, Link getting bodied by Ganondorf at the end of Wind Waker, etc) would lead to plot being altered because people will rage about it, thus creating many new problems just to address this one thing that was never considered a problem before all of this forced gender mitagation becamse so popular.

vazurahan4350d ago

"However, there is one boy who does not have a fair..."

Link is a character and he is a boy.

I don't care what Aonuma says about Link being a an avatar. Aonuma didn't create Link, Miyamoto did. Miyamoto based him on another boy, Peter Pan. Link is a character of his own even before Aonuma was assigned as the director on newer games.

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lilbroRx4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

I don't care about he impending disagrees and down bubbles. I am with you %100 on this.

Aonuma is killing The Legend of Zelda. Miyamoto made the series popular and Aonuma is undoing all of the things that made it memorable and celebrated to pander to fanboys.

Just look at a Link Between Worlds. A game filled with watered down puzzles and and short oversimplified dungeons with little side content because he pandered people who were whining about the gaming being Linear?(Zelda is one of the least linear series I have ever played). Look at the Zelda timeline. A ridiculous tree branched monstrosity pulled out of his butt to force all Zelda game into one big continuum of endlessly reincarnating to fight the same enemy for eternity to pander to fanboys who insistent on their being some greater connection just because a few of them were put in the same timeline.

The Legend of Zelda may soon be a dead series to me just like Final Fantasy which I was once a solid fan of, but now refuse to buy anything with the name do to how far the series has degraded.

I'm running out of console games that I find enjoyable. Pretty soon it will just be PC only for me if these trends keep up.

LightDiego4350d ago

Not again, please.
Feminazis complain about everything.

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Vkmies4350d ago

Saying The Legend of Zelda wouldn't neither gain nor lose anything from a genderswap (thus implying it's irrelevant) doesn't sound like feminazism, to me. It's funny, anything not obviously anti Social Justice Nazis is nowadays immedately grouped with them.

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Chrono4350d ago

Zelda's gender doesn't matter too.

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renerak4350d ago

Seriously whats up with all the feminism. Final
fantasy for the last six games have had main lead
as female, and half of jrpgs have female. I don't
understand, why do people want to shoe horn
female leads into games? I would have a well
written whatever is available than a pathetic
character. And while link is supposed to represent
us, he has grown into a character from the many
games, and we ourselves have given him many
personalities throughout. And i don't want that to
be destroyed by some ridiculus fictional feminism
and ur personal agendas. I can understand if
games completly ignore the existence of females
(call of duty) or represent female characters in a
bad way, but this is taking away freedom from
the devoloper and pressurising them with ur
selfish agendas. And to most of u, understand
what sexism is, go read its defenition if u do not
know.

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renerak4350d ago

I think only the people who don't know zelda lore
properly were crying. Link will always be a male,
go read the wikipedeia to know why. Now for
those that say links gender doesn't matter, why
do u think zelda is a female? Go play zelda 2 or
atleast read the plot synopsis, it will tell u abt their
relationship. And u say link should be female and
zelda should be male? Well thats why i said go to
wikipedia and read abt link and u should realise
that very basis of zelda games start with a very
simple setting or base story which thoroughly
states why link will always be a male and why
zelda is always a female. Also, Link is Zelda's warrior. And before u people write articles atleast take some time to research.

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Gezmoyassine4350d ago (Edited 4350d ago )

It's Nintendo's IP let them do with it as they please.End of story.

ExiledBlitz4350d ago

Link's gender doesn't matter to me. It's a different Link in nearly every game anyway. I play Zelda for the lore, the cinematic stories and the classic gameplay. I don't play it for one mute character that I happen to be controlling.