"Zelda: Breath of the wild" the gender swap drama

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Nintendo is one of the greatest creators in the history of gaming, and of course home console technology. When the new “The Legend of Zelda” was announced many cried for Link to be a Female lead due to his androgynous appearance, and non speech it could happen right? Well apparently not, as Nintendo has decided not to make it happen despite giving fans a character swap in “Hyrule Warriors” in Linkle last year. Unfortunately, it didn’t get any better from there because, Kotaku, and recently The Verge jumped all over the interview Eiji Aonuma did with Gamespot when he was asked about the “possibility” of Link being a female lead in the new game “The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild”.

the legend of zelda breath of fire the verge

I dare you to read through this article without feeling one little bit of anger.

Aonuma’s answer didn’t seem to sit too well with the politically correct “journalist” at Kotaku, and Gamespot. He stated that “We thought about it, and decided that if we’re going to have a female protagonist, it’s simpler to have Princess Zelda as the main character.” However, apparently, that idea was shot down because “if we have Princess Zelda as the main character who fights, then what is Link going to do?”

At first glance, the excuse does sound text-book, but it does have sound reasoning. However, If we flip the character’s roles around, or offer a separate storyline as a second playthrough with Linkle as the main character it could work. Imagining Link removed from the game entirely, off on his adventure in his main storyline for “The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild” with Linkle, doing her own adventure in another land might sound appealing to some, yet to core fans of the series it’s a change they don’t want—and may refuse to accept.

the legend of zelda breath of fire kotaku

Kotaku´s Stephen Totilo is 100% politically correct as always (no surprise there).

Now while this does sound sensible (and even logical), let’s look at it from a corporate standpoint for a moment. Nintendo knows that for the last 30+ years they’ve had a character in a position with a formula that works every time and doesn’t want to jeopardize it by doing something like this. Said character is the face of their brand and makes them millions of dollars in revenue, advertising, and public appearance money annually especially at the Tokyo Games Show, or E3.

Would they put that at risk for one title that isn’t a sure thing yet? No they would not, and we shouldn’t expect them to. As the face of Nintendo Link was in “Soul Calbur II” for the Nintendo Gamecube, and even the recent fan movie where he’s a detective looking for Ganon. As you will find Ganon on everything from postcards, breakfast cereal, soda cans, notebooks to commercials in Japan.

the legend of zelda breath of fire gamespot

Most Gamers don´t mind having a female version of Link (kind of like in the case with the female version of “Mass Effect´s” captain Shepard). However, it has to be done right in-order to work (no clash with the story, the Zelda universe and so on).

If Nintendo upsets its fans at home, they’ll lose everything. Especially by tossing up the possibility of a commercial game flopping because they decided to gender swap a household name. Regardless of political views on feminism, gender equality, or cultural bias, we must understand it has no bearing on a foreign corporation’s profit potential—especially Nintendo, who is based in Japan—which is a country that doesn’t believe in promoting the ideal of a strong female character in an award-winning franchise like “The Legend of Zelda”. Well, let’s say Nintendo wouldn’t want to damage the reputation of a robust character like Link In an world-famous franchise like “The legend lf zelda”.

In “Hyrule Warriors Legends” for the 3DS you can play as Linkle (which is an all-new female “Zelda” character, whom is also known as “the female Link”).

As fans, we are willing to embrace change, with the understanding that it’s just a game and not built on binary or gender. We can accept it if Nintendo wants to change Link to a female with a different storyline, we don’t care. What do we want if that happens? We want a great gameplay experience with the same character that we have played for 30+ years. Diversity in video games is important, but what’s even more important is not bending the knee to political views just because someone doesn’t like a character’s gender not being diverse. If that was the case, we would yell at Capcom for creating Makoto in “Streetfighter III Third Strike”.

And with that said, what´s your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

Source:
Why Zelda: Breath of the Wild Won’t Have a Female Hero
The Verge
Zelda Producer Explains Why, Despite Speculation, The New Link Is A Guy

Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor
Francesca Lavuri – The female Link 3D model

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.