Miyamoto: Link will always be the hero in mainline Zelda games

[Jester Joe]

It's quite a jab to them both. Link never gets credit and every game is named after that helpless girl.

Zelda is probably the least "helpless" of the whole damsel in distress thing. Just look at Ocarina of time, where she becomes Sheik just to help Link and literally hid for 7 years waiting for him to come back
Or Wind Waker, where she was Tetra all along (and I hope I don't need to explain how important Tetra was)
And then in Spirit Tracks, where she's literally with you every step of the way as a giant suit of armor.
Skyward Sword she was pretty independent too and did her own thing.

[KrazyK923]

But Zelda gets kidnapped.

So therefore somehow everything else she does is rendered invalid!

[minkage]

I would rather play as the king of mad disrespect before I get a game where we play as Zelda or Sheik anyway. Not enough games let you play as the villain.

all the mario games where you play as bowser are freaking awsome

[dextersmith]

Zelda is probably the least "helpless" of the whole damsel in distress thing. Just look at Ocarina of time, where she becomes Sheik just to help Link and literally hid for 7 years waiting for him to come back
Or Wind Waker, where she was Tetra all along (and I hope I don't need to explain how important Tetra was)
And then in Spirit Tracks, where she's literally with you every step of the way as a giant suit of armor.
Skyward Sword she was pretty independent too and did her own thing.

I didn't get far in Ocarina of Time and didn't play the others you mentioned.

[The Casualty]

We also live in an age where radical feminists have pushed people to the point where even suggesting that you add a female to something makes everyone flip their shit. If Nintendo doesn't want to add a female to their game, then they should just come out with it, instead of saying that they want Link to be the focus of the game and not Zelda when people didn't want Zelda, they wanted a female version of Link. I don't care whether Nintendo wants to add a female protag to their game or not. I just think their reason misses the point of what and why people want it.

In the OP's quote, they never said that wasn't a possibility to have a game set in the Hyrule universe with a female protagonist. It's just that if they do create one, it will not be titled "Legend of Zelda: <sub-title>".

Which makes sense. LoZ has been pretty formulaic over the past 30 years. When you buy those games, you know you are playing as Link, often Gannon and the Tri-Force will be involved and you get to wield the Master Sword. That shit has sold and sold well, and it seems that they are not interested in altering the recipe that's brought them all that revenue.

[WarpedAcorn]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the reason given that Link is always the protagonist is because he possesses the Spirit of the Hero right? Functionally, I don't see this being a big deal if two models were created and players could choose and male or female Link. Per the series, Link is always silent so you don't have to worry about loads of voice acting, and I never got the sense that Zelda and Link had a romantic relationship, so that shouldn't be a problem either.

However, if the creators never envisioned Link to be anything other than a dude...well that's perfectly ok. They are entitled to their artistic vision, and with Link being one of the iconic characters that built up the Nintendo franchise, it would be foolish to think they would be cavalier with that character. I think a lot of parents who grew up with Legend of Zelda are happy to share that similar vision with their children, and that's not a bad thing.

[Faroth]

Works for me. If they made a game with Zelda as the playable protagonist, though, I wouldn't want Sheik. I'd want Zelda as Zelda.

Make it even more puzzle based than the mainline series and add in some aspect of managing the kingdom, making decisions that affect the people and can work out good or bad, sometimes with decisions being hard to choose and some with unexpected consequences. Zelda isn't the wielder of the Triforce of ninja'ry or Triforce of magic. It's the Triforce of Wisdom. Play that up with puzzles and having to make wise decisions for the kingdom.

You could even consider it a prequel to a mainline series with the things Zelda has to manage and deal with before Ganon returns and the Hero of Time has to be awakened or called upon.

[Drilnos]

I regard this about as seriously as if people were requesting a male Samus Aran with equal force.

[Rennadrel]

I regard this about as seriously as if people were requesting a male Samus Aran with equal force.

Samus was a guy, for the first 20 or so years. I think Fusion pretty much confirmed that Samus was indeed female.

[The Casualty]

Samus was a guy, for the first 20 or so years. I think Fusion pretty much confirmed that Samus was indeed female.

Samus has been female since the very first game. Its shown in the end credits and if you enter the password "JUSTIN BAILEY" you get to play as her without the power suit. Every game since then that I can think of has at least a shot of her without the armor at the end.

[Rennadrel]

Samus has been female since the very first game. Its shown in the end credits and if you enter the password "JUSTIN BAILEY" you get to play as her without the power suit. Every game since then that I can think of has at least a shot of her without the armor at the end.

Early on it wasn't very well implied unless you knew these secrets though. And Metroid is such an old series now, I know I never played the games until Metroid Zero Mission and Fusion came out on the GBA, even though I am old enough to have played the NES games, I was fairly young for those kinds of games.

[Amerrol]

Female Link? Yeah thats totally going to go well.

That is one sexy Link.

[Poppincaps]

Early on it wasn't very well implied unless you knew these secrets though. And Metroid is such an old series now, I know I never played the games until Metroid Zero Mission and Fusion came out on the GBA, even though I am old enough to have played the NES games, I was fairly young for those kinds of games.

But you said she's be male for 20 years before Fusion which isn't true. No matter how secret it was, she has always been female.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Early on it wasn't very well implied unless you knew these secrets though. And Metroid is such an old series now, I know I never played the games until Metroid Zero Mission and Fusion came out on the GBA, even though I am old enough to have played the NES games, I was fairly young for those kinds of games.

Doesn't really matter what your first Metroid game was... she was a female in the very first game.

[Socialhealer]

I didn't get far in Ocarina of Time and didn't play the others you mentioned.

time to not talk about a game you don't really play?

that's a lot of big zelda titles to have an opinion on then say "lol not even played them"

[Rennadrel]

Doesn't really matter what your first Metroid game was... she was a female in the very first game.

I understand that, but I was several years behind actually finding that out :P

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But you said she's be male for 20 years before Fusion which isn't true. No matter how secret it was, she has always been female.

No, I said the perception was that she was a male character for a long time, at least by a reasonable portion of the gaming community anyway.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Link is so effeminate he may as well be female anyway.

[Drilnos]

I understand that, but I was several years behind actually finding that out :P

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No, I said the perception was that she was a male character for a long time, at least by a reasonable portion of the gaming community anyway.

This wasn't exactly a well-kept secret. It's the "Norman Bates was pretending to be his mother" of video games. In any event, when you finally found out Samus is in fact a she, that was not a gender change. It was a gender reveal.

[unholytestament]

I understand that, but I was several years behind actually finding that out :P

No, I said the perception was that she was a male character for a long time, at least by a reasonable portion of the gaming community anyway.

Your perception is irrelevant. It was known fact for decades. Just because you learned it later doesn't change anything.

[dextersmith]

time to not talk about a game you don't really play?

that's a lot of big zelda titles to have an opinion on then say "lol not even played them"

I've played earlier ones and half of Ocarina of Time. My opinion is based on what I've played, not what you think of big titles.