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+--- Thread: Nintendo on why you can't play as a female character in Zelda: Triforce Heroes (/showthread.php?tid=6869)
Nintendo on why you can't play as a female character in Zelda: Triforce Heroes - A Black Falcon - 30th June 2015
http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/06/30/e3-2015-why-you-cant-play-as-a-woman-in-zelda-tri-force-heroes?utm_source=IGN%20hub%20page&utm_medium=IGN%20%28front%20page%29&utm_content=3&utm_campaign=Blogroll&abthid=5592dd286e0ef0a14f000007
Quote:IGN: So earlier, I brought up the similarities in the approach. The outfits remind me of gear-driven games like Monster Hunter and MMOs. Part of what ties into equipment-driven games is a player has a choice between choosing a male or female. I'm curious if, in this game, players will have a choice between a male avatar or a female avatar, especially since the story doesn't seem tied to a specific gender?
Hiromasa Shikata: I’m going to tell you a little bit about the story quickly and we'll circle around, here. There's this kingdom, an event happens, and the king needs heroes. So, he puts out a call for heroes to gather and one of those is this guy Link. He sees this audition, basically, ‘Heroes needed; apply here.’ And, that's the start of his adventure.
The story calls for this sort of legend/prophecy where heroes will come together to help solve a problem. And in that, they are male characters. So, because the game is set with that as the story background, you cannot choose a gender; you are a male character.
IGN: I guess I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't express some slight disappointment with that, especially because there is a Zelda outfit Link wears in the game. It just feels like it's one step closer to giving the Zelda series' female audience the chance to explore that universe from another perspective.
Shikata: Understood. I understand what you're saying, and just as general information, we do have a lot of female staff members who are playing this game and enjoying it. It doesn't seem to be a big issue to them. They still are getting emotional investment in this game. And to be honest, Link isn't the most masculine of guys in the world, depending on how you want to project yourself into the character.
That's one weak, weak excuse, Nintendo. Has this guy ever heard of the concept of a female hero before? And it'd be REALLY easy to make a female version of the model, too.
Nintendo on why you can't play as a female character in Zelda: Triforce Heroes - Dark Jaguar - 1st July 2015
Let me preface this by saying, let's not start up a twitter crusade over this. Can we all agree that's not going to do any good when those making the decisions are located in Japan and won't see any of our English outrage? I'm just saying it seems lately like EVERYTHING gets it's own crusade on twitter. Heck, they recently decided whole consoles can get banned from Miiverse and not just individual accounts, resulting in what appears to be numerous "SAVE MIIVERSE!" style campaigns on the twits (though in that case, it's pretty obvious they've got nothing).
That out of the way, frankly I never really got too upset over the lack of a female protagonist in Zelda simply due to the lack of ANY protagonists other than Link in the Zelda games. I've said it before, it would be interesting, and I've even got a few ideas for "other side" style stories in games like Ocarina of Time covering what Zelda/Sheik was up to during the whole game, but Nintendo's got to make a choice to actually go beyond just Link so we can get to that point first. Actually, there is that SNES Satelliview version of Link to the Past with both a male and female protagonist (neither of which look or are named Link). I suppose you could say that was the first time they broke that particular mold, but it never seemed to "take", plus it was never released outside Japan.
Japan's culture is way behind our's in terms of gender equality, that's for true, and that response really highlights it. I think you misread it though. He's "heard of the concept of a female hero before", his "argument", if you can call it that is "I have women coworkers who haven't complained, so I don't see what you're complaining about", but hey, what can you do? It's hard enough tackling women's issues in the US without trying to change a whole foreign country from the outside. I do have to say this though. Where before Link was specifically designed in a certain way and wasn't really alterable at all, so I never complained about the lack of alternate genders, here they've set themselves up so there's no such excuse. The plot says it's 3 strangers who aren't Link, and the game design has set up a huge assortment of different models for the characters already. The insistence that they are boys becomes rather painfully obtuse with those considerations.
Actually, there's literally nothing you'd need to do in order to make these into female characters. Link, generally, is THAT androgynous and in this game's art style in particular, especially so. The story is that a king searched the land high and low for 3 boys who, in his judgment, look just like 3 heroes of legend (meaning there's necessarily a prequel that starts this legend). That means that, in point of fact, you don't play as "Link" at all in this game, just nameless boys. The fix is so easy, it's hilarious, just change the game's DIALOG ever so slightly. Heck, they don't even need to add an option to "pick" a gender. Change the story so the king is just looking for 3 YOUTHS that he judges to look like the legendary hero (like how "actress" has faded out of use in favor of just making "actor" gender neutral, I think at this point no one really says "heroine" any more, though of course I have no idea which words are used in Japanese). Then, just be sure never to use a gendered 3rd person pronoun to refer to the heroes throughout the game. As they've already put in female clothing options (and as many clothing options appear to change hairstyles too), and Link already wears a tunic that's mocked for resembling a skirt, then it becomes up to you, the player, to decide whether your "Link" is male or female. It seems like a perfect solution to me. Heck, I've thought that of Mii design as well. Since you're able to use ALL of the design options no matter which "gender" you pick for your Mii (with that appearing to only alter whether you wear pants or a dress, making people who'd prefer to wear pants have to make an awkward choice), I wonder if there's even a point to HAVING a "gender" option in Wii design. XBox 360 avatars, for example, don't seem to have such a flag. You just pick some random avatar from the initial list and poke and prod it into the general shape you want.
The best part about my dialog based solution is that even if Nintendo of Japan doesn't hear my suggestion (and they won't, they won't even know about the "twitter storm" over it), NOA can still just implement it in the translated script with the slightest of adjustments (assuming, as always, that the main characters are still silent protagonists).
Nintendo on why you can't play as a female character in Zelda: Triforce Heroes - Great Rumbler - 1st July 2015
In the year of our Lord 2015, I should be able to play my videogames as a woman person if I choose to.
Nintendo on why you can't play as a female character in Zelda: Triforce Heroes - A Black Falcon - 9th July 2015
Your idea to just have a text gender choice probably would work in this game, really... it wouldn't in a game with better, closer-in graphics, but the overhead view and effeminate character design combine to make that a viable option. I don't think Nintendo will do it, but yeah, that could work...
Quote:Japan's culture is way behind our's in terms of gender equality, that's for true, and that response really highlights it. I think you misread it though. He's "heard of the concept of a female hero before", his "argument", if you can call it that is "I have women coworkers who haven't complained, so I don't see what you're complaining about", but hey, what can you do?That explanation for what he's saying is probably even worse than mine, in terms of sexism. And you're probably right about that being what he meant, too. :( I wonder if Japan will ever start to catch up in terms of gender equality.
Quote:That out of the way, frankly I never really got too upset over the lack of a female protagonist in Zelda simply due to the lack of ANY protagonists other than Link in the Zelda games. I've said it before, it would be interesting, and I've even got a few ideas for "other side" style stories in games like Ocarina of Time covering what Zelda/Sheik was up to during the whole game, but Nintendo's got to make a choice to actually go beyond just Link so we can get to that point first. Actually, there is that SNES Satelliview version of Link to the Past with both a male and female protagonist (neither of which look or are named Link). I suppose you could say that was the first time they broke that particular mold, but it never seemed to "take", plus it was never released outside Japan.Oh right, I really should remember that those exist... I really should play that game, in its translated ROM version. I still haven't, yet. But yeah, I definitely have been annoyed before about the absence of playable female characters in Zelda games before. See my thoughts on Twilight Princess, for example...