Female Link in Zelda U?

Last year, when Linkle was announced for Hyrule Warriors Legends, I already thought about having her as an option for the new Legend of Zelda on Wii U / NX. The game seems to focus on the bow a lot more and instead of making Link look even more feminine, it would be interesting to have the option to play as Linkle instead.

Now, there are three new rumors by Emily Rogers about the new game. She always was a trustworthy source, so we should pay attention. First of all, she confirms the double release of the game for both Wii U and NX. We've already been over this, so nothing new here.

The last rumor is about voice acting. As long as Link doesn't talk and they can get good English voice actors, I'm all for it. The dubbing might be in issue for the German version, but they also might do the same as in Hyrule Warriors, where you have German subs and the English story teller (which I liked).

The real interesting rumor is the middle one: apparently you can chose the gender of your "playable character". It doesn't say "Link" or "Linkle" and there are many possibilities, what this could mean. It might be that the new protagonist isn't even Link, but a new one, where you have more customization options including the gender. Or it might be that Link can simply be female this time. Or it's really Linkle as an option.

Linkle, however, is a character on her own, who talks (unlike Link) and is a lot of fun. I enjoyed her campaign in Hyrule Warriors Legends, where she keeps going in the wrong direction and shows all this positive energy, believing that she's the Hero of Legend. I love, how she's supported by an army of Cuccos and her crossbow fighting style is pretty good. They even used music from Link's Crossbow Training for her ingame theme. Overall Koei Tecmo created another great original character here and I would love to see more of her.

But she technically isn't a female Link. She's a completely different character, who only believes to be the hero. This may or may not fit the protagonist of the new game - the idea of playing as someone, who only believes to be the Hero of Legend, is as old as this blog. What does fit is her affinity for crossbows, since the bow seems to be a real important item this time around. And this leads also to another question: will the choice of gender have any influence on the story or the gameplay? Playing as a female Link might alter the gameplay, because she could use crossbows instead of a bow for example or different items in general.

Or is it really just a way to customize Link so that he finally becomes a real avatar for the player? In that case I might have trouble making a choice here. In general I prefer playing with female characters, because if you're looking at the same character for so long, it might as well be a pretty one. On the other hand I always was able to identify with Link quite well and I might miss playing as him.

And if the character is supposed to be neutral in every way, the game will certainly lack any implied "romance" like you got with Marin, Malon, Ruto or Zelda. It's not something that you get in every Zelda game, so it's not a "must", but if you're hoping for another Zelda harem game, this most likely won't be it. And if I can play as a female Link, I certainly wouldn't want to have another Adam Malkovich character or any male love interest at all. Linkle simply saving Zelda in Hyrule Warriors Legends, because it's her "specialty", was fun and it did work for me.

We'll see about this. But I'm certainly not opposed to having this option and right now I just want to see, how the female Link will look and play like. E3 can come.

Update: Another alternative, which people seem to forget right now (including myself), would be a playable Zelda. So, you can either play as Link or Zelda. This even was something that was considered by Nintendo in the past.