Topic: Nintendo balancing the gender bias

It's not 1830 anymore. Women are allowed to be sexual. She's cheeky and playful, like a female Remy LeBeau. It's not like she's the female equivalent of Duke Nukem.

@Peach64 I wouldn't mind. Link's gender is hardly an important piece of his character. Most of his relationships aren't even dependent on his gender. Girls tend to fawn over him, sure, but it's not so overtly romantic that him being a girl would change it that much.

Powerful female lead characters, even sexualized ones like Bayonetta, are a step in the right direction regardless of the fact that she may not be the most ideal representation of women. Gaming has been for males, by males for so long that these first steps are obviously going to be a bit clumsy and adolescent in the way the women are presented

I think it would certainly get Nintendo crazy amounts of press. I'm totally on board for a female Link, but considering just how immature and sexist a lot of the gaming community is it might just be too risky. You, never know with Nintendo though... they have a way of not playing by the rules while also appealing to the mass public.

EVERYBODY and their grandma love Toon Link nowadays, so I don't think it would be that big a deal. Nintendo fans are more open minded than they were 10 years ago... Or I hope so at least... Great artwork by the way, i'm starting to really dig FemLink

@Peach64 Is that fanart, or is it official? I know Link kind of looked like a girl in the trailer, and hey, I wouldn't mind if he was.

Talking bout Smash, it was a nice touch to have the villager with boy and girl options, similar to Wii Fit Trainer.

@Peach64 i would probably be one of the people who would be upset about it. i just really dont like the idea of changing any characters gender for no real reason.

Oh my that's so freaking gorgeous. AT the end of the day why would there be a problem if Link is supposed to be a link to the player. I tend to pick the guy character in these build a games but women charcters can be more awesome. I love the female Shepard from Mass Effect and the female from Fable much more than their male counterparts.

I think this is a young son of Link in the future.

@Peach64 I could see an overall positive reaction to Link's gender, but if you HAVE to be Female Link, I can also see some very heavy backlash. If it's an option, though, I can't see to many people having much to complain about.

On that note, I can't help but notice that no one (aside from Skywake) really pointed it out. Hyrule Warriors ha for playable characters that we know of, so far, and three of them were female. Not to mention the main antagonist is female, too.

As a former resident of Japan, I can safely say that the Anime/Manga/gaming market is just as populated with women as they are with men. In the school I used to teach in, the art club was made up of all girls and they did nothing but draw all kinds of anime characters, and talk about anime stuff, and look at anime magazines. In fact, they were much more social about it than the boys. There are all kinds of games and comics characters in Japan with a HUGE female fan following. We just don't hear much about it in north america because the gaming culture here segregates women, and, on a larger scale, femininity.

I don't care what you guys say, Samus Aran is the representative of Nintendo Female characters. Suck it.

true.

I don't think this "Link" is a girl. People have always said Link is feminine. I wouldn't be against a girl "Link", but I don't think this one is.

Also, with the Smash Bro. and Mario Kart having more girls thing... I think they just have more girl characters, and characters like Paletena have become more relevant since the 3DS game. Rosalina and Wii Fit Trainer are fairly new characters, and this is the first time the villager has even been in Smash Bros, so I think it's more of a case that they just have more girl charatcers and variances between character choice, like Mii. A girl villager and Wii Fit Trainer is possible. There isn't a girl Mario, for example. Peach is the girl from Mushroom Kingdom, and uses Toad(male) as a shield. Does anyone want Peach to use Toadette as a shield?

What if there was a chance she might pull out Toadette on rare occasions and the counter is much stronger, when she does? I mean, I know it won't happen because Sakurai has been actively removing elements of randomness, but what if?

@UGXWolf
What elements has he been removing? I don't think it would happen, anyway, I was just trying to give an example of how things could vary more, but it might not matter. Toad or Toadsworth is usually Peach's assisant, not Toadette. I think Toadette was made specifically for there to be a playable girl version of Toad.

@SCAR392 The PIKMIN no longer appear in random order, tripping is gone, Dedede now always pulls Gordos. There's more, I'm sure, but that's all I can come up with off the top of my head. Seems whatever random elements still exist can be turned off at will.

@UGXWolf
I just see that as refinement, or possibly balancing. As far as I'm aware, there wasn't any known way to avoid tripping, so it was luck based. I dodn't know why Olimar plucks Pikmin in a differnet order, but I think that's how it is, because it gives the player more control over what attacks Olimar can use. You also don't have to have to rely on pikmin to attack as much. Lastly, King Dedede probably pulls out Gordos for balancing reasons.

That's the thing. We don't know why he makes changes like that.

tripping off just makes so much sense.

Interestingly enough, Polygon's front page is currently littered with stories about huge titles such as Assassin's Creed and Far Cry 4 opting to NOT include female playable characters. Just thought this was insterestingly relevent to this topic. Meanwhile, Ninty keep on rocking the inclusivity!