Nintendo’s been surprisingly good with gender representation in the upcoming Wii U game Hyrule Warrior so far; the overwhelming majority of playable hero characters are women and girls from the Legend of Zelda franchise. But we could have had it all, if this art book is any indication. We could have had… Linkle.
Yup, that’s the name of the female version of Link that was apparently proposed by the design team, according to newly released photos from the Japanese Hyrule Warriors artbook: “Rinkuru,” which roughly translates in English to “Linkle.” LINKLE! Be still my heart containers.
The character was designed to be a “girl version of hero Link” (勇者のリンクの女の子版) who is “little sister-like” (妹的) but is not related to Link in any way. Here, have a close-up:
Cosplayers, start your engines.
Unfortunately the character appears in a section of the book marked off for unused or rejected ideas (along with previous designs for “Black Fairy Shia,” and “White Fairy Lana,” the antagonist and her good counterpart), so odds are that we will not see her in Hyrule Warriors. Given the excitement over the mere possibility of a female playable Link in the upcoming Legend of Zelda trailer that we saw this past E3, though, it would really behoove Nintendo to consider Linkle further as a possible option for future games. Tell me you would not play the heck out of a Linkle game, right?
(via The Escapist and Kotaku, images via GoNintendo and Nintendokyo on Weibo)
- Hyrule Warriors‘ New Character Lana Hands out Beat-Downs in Her Character Trailer
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- Oh Ok, Thanks: Wii U Zelda Producer Was Just Joking, Link Is Most Likely The Lead After All
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