13th November 2015, 6:50 PM
Actually, her fighting style and general "look" make her look kinda like female Green Arrow. :D (Though actually, I suppose that would be Artemis from the Young Justice cartoon show.)
It's a fact that designing more than one appearance requires a lot of extra art design, and lots of Japanese developers want to get every single expression and body movement JUST right in the cinematics of a game. (Even now, US games tend to use a bunch of more "generic" character animations which can work on any character, but aren't nearly as engaging to look at.) Well, it's also a fact that in both east and west, ideas of what a "good" expression on a male and female character are vary wildly, so that's an industry artist attitude that needs to be dealt with.
This is why I think the very first step needs to be establishing that Link DOESN'T have to be the main character in EVERY Zelda game. The closest we've gotten to that is the male and female "kid" sprites in that Japan-only LTTP spinoff, the Mask transformations in Majora's Mask, the Hyrule Warriors spinoff, and the most recent "technically these are just kids who look like a hero" Tri-Force Heroes game. If Nintendo doesn't want to invest in creating unique animations and character designs, then at least open up the role of "hero" in the next game so someone else is the star, and if not a brand new character, that someone could easily be some era's Zelda. I'd be all for that. Then, so long as they switch up the main character often enough, they don't need to worry about a character designer (at least in terms of assuring some diversity). Here's the thing. Even if it is still just "Link" every single game, let's change Link's appearence more drastically in each era. I mean, clearly it's not the same Link in each game (with a few rare exceptions), so why's he always gotta look almost exactly the same? The most drastic change to Link in recent years has been his hair color in Link Between Worlds, and that was a reversion BACK to the brown of the original games. Normally, about the best you can expect is that he might be a young adult instead of an older kid. "He" doesn't need to be a he, after all. There's nothing particularly masculine about the name "Link", and people can name the character whatever they like anyway, so what difference does it make if they keep his appearance similar between games?
I don't say that to diminish how often they completely shift the art style of the series with each new major game. I really have to give Nintendo credit for reinventing the Zelda "look" almost every game, when so very often major game companies would be too afraid to diverge too much from the art design "Bible" they have for a world. Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and Link Between Worlds look basically nothing alike aside from the regularly occurring Zelda elements between them, and that's a good thing. I'm just saying they can take it a bit further and start really diverging Link's appearence a bit. Heck, keep the pointy ears and general look of the tunic as the identifiable bits. Just make Link a woman, or black, or "plus sized" (within reason, we still need to believe Link can move like that), or even with a prosthetic now and again.
It's a fact that designing more than one appearance requires a lot of extra art design, and lots of Japanese developers want to get every single expression and body movement JUST right in the cinematics of a game. (Even now, US games tend to use a bunch of more "generic" character animations which can work on any character, but aren't nearly as engaging to look at.) Well, it's also a fact that in both east and west, ideas of what a "good" expression on a male and female character are vary wildly, so that's an industry artist attitude that needs to be dealt with.
This is why I think the very first step needs to be establishing that Link DOESN'T have to be the main character in EVERY Zelda game. The closest we've gotten to that is the male and female "kid" sprites in that Japan-only LTTP spinoff, the Mask transformations in Majora's Mask, the Hyrule Warriors spinoff, and the most recent "technically these are just kids who look like a hero" Tri-Force Heroes game. If Nintendo doesn't want to invest in creating unique animations and character designs, then at least open up the role of "hero" in the next game so someone else is the star, and if not a brand new character, that someone could easily be some era's Zelda. I'd be all for that. Then, so long as they switch up the main character often enough, they don't need to worry about a character designer (at least in terms of assuring some diversity). Here's the thing. Even if it is still just "Link" every single game, let's change Link's appearence more drastically in each era. I mean, clearly it's not the same Link in each game (with a few rare exceptions), so why's he always gotta look almost exactly the same? The most drastic change to Link in recent years has been his hair color in Link Between Worlds, and that was a reversion BACK to the brown of the original games. Normally, about the best you can expect is that he might be a young adult instead of an older kid. "He" doesn't need to be a he, after all. There's nothing particularly masculine about the name "Link", and people can name the character whatever they like anyway, so what difference does it make if they keep his appearance similar between games?
I don't say that to diminish how often they completely shift the art style of the series with each new major game. I really have to give Nintendo credit for reinventing the Zelda "look" almost every game, when so very often major game companies would be too afraid to diverge too much from the art design "Bible" they have for a world. Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and Link Between Worlds look basically nothing alike aside from the regularly occurring Zelda elements between them, and that's a good thing. I'm just saying they can take it a bit further and start really diverging Link's appearence a bit. Heck, keep the pointy ears and general look of the tunic as the identifiable bits. Just make Link a woman, or black, or "plus sized" (within reason, we still need to believe Link can move like that), or even with a prosthetic now and again.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)