The "Linkette Aspect"

[EmilyAnnCoons 7]

I'm curious...who here thinks Nintendo should allow a gender option in the Zelda games? I mean...Link is the person playing the game...so why not let you choose between male or female? I'd love to play a "Linkette" for once, instead of having to play a game as a male just because there's no gender option. Nintendo has put gender options in a lot of their games that didn't originally have gender options, so why not Legend of Zelda?

 

Discuss. =D

[formlesstree4 18]

It could be interesting, but would totally defy the tradition of having Link (male) save Zelda (female). What they do after she is saved is left up to the imagination (;))

 

It could be an interesting twist, to actually play as Zelda instead, and be the one in the dungeons and torture. You'd have to try to fight your way out to meet Link and what not, but meh...I don't know.

 

Nintendo has put gender options in a lot of their games that didn't originally have gender options, so why not Legend of Zelda?

Mind listing a few please?

[Polraudio 122]

I think this is a good idea. I like games with more options.

[EmilyAnnCoons 7]

Mind listing a few please?

Pokemon didn't have a gender option. Mario let you play as more then just Mario (you got to play Peach in one game). So far, though, LoZ has only ever let you play Link, and only ever given you the ability to play a male Link.

[formlesstree4 18]

Pokemon didn't have a gender option.

I think game data size and coding limitations on the Game Boy prevented that until the second generation game (Crystal).

 

Mario let you play as more then just Mario (you got to play Peach in one game).

Mario games are just Mario. The way the game is, you can easily swap the main character. Zelda games aren't so. Since it first started (way before Pokemon) on the NES, Link has always been a guy, because the typical save princess story goes: Damsel in distress, Man goes on journey, Man beats evil, Man saves Princess, Man gets lucky, repeat. Of course, details are missed in the middle, but you get the idea.

 

In Mario games, all the main characters that save Peach are guys. You don't see Daisy charging into Bowser's Castle to save Peach. Just doesn't work like that.

Pokemon is an exception to this rule, because it doesn't apply to the same mentality of the other games. Even in the Anime series (god help me if I start watching it again), the male/female thing has never been a boundary, least a mental one.

 

Unless Zelda starts becoming a Tomboy like she did in Ocarina of Time to become Sheik, I don't think this will happen.

[EmilyAnnCoons 7]

Actually, you did get to play Peach in one Mario game back for the NES. Yes, all the games so far otherwise, it's all been guys saving Peach, but they have done a game where you can play as Peach as the main heroine. However, figuring that Daisy is a huge tomboy (her personality just seems to be, sorry), I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to make a game with her as a heroine.

 

The fact is, though, all of the Zelda games have been just that "Princess is captured, Hero is found, Hero fights evil, Hero saves Princess". If they wanted to be really original, I think a female Link would be as original as Ocarina of Time (honest truth!) and that would easily cause a huge boom in the franchise...though...there are a lot of fans who are all "LINK IS A GUY" so they might get upset...but -shrugs- sometimes you need to take risks to be original.

[Tomo2000 60]

I'd like that too; more genders more options and different game play :D .

 

But with Pokemon Games they use something called Hex. Hex has a total of 255 and thats why all Pokemon games have glitches, particularily Blue, Red and Yellow, because:

 

151 Pokemon, 255 Slots. 101 Glitch Pokemon.

 

So, if they were to add a gender they would have to have something like this:

 

2 Genders, 255 Slots. 253 Glitch Genders.

 

I'm not sure if, in the newer generations, they have fixed the Hex thing, but it could be fairly complicated.

[EmilyAnnCoons 7]

I dunno...but if they did it like RPG Maker (using variables) they could set male = 0, female = 1 and go around the hex code (or so it seems).