The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild producer explains why they didn’t go with a female Link

Gotta keep that Triforce balanced

There was a lot of confusion surrounding the protagonist of the next Legend of Zelda game, which got its first proper trailer at E3 this week, particularly with regards to their gender.

The first teaser for the game Nintendo released showed a more androgynous Link than usual, and when producer Eiji Aonuma was asked about them he said cryptically: "No-one explicitly said that was Link,” leading to speculation that Princess Zelda herself might be the playable character this time around.

To confuse matters further, Nintendo later introduced a straight-up female version of Link, named Linkle, to the Zelda universe in the Hyrule Warrior Legends game.

It seems the team behind the new game did toy with using both characters in it centrally, but ultimately felt it was best to stick to the series’ established mythology.

“We thought about it, and decided that if we’re going to have a female protagonist it’s simpler to have Princess Zelda as the main character,” Aonuma told Gamespot.

“[But] if we have Princess Zelda as the main character who fights, then what is Link going to do? Taking into account that, and also the idea of the balance of the Triforce, we thought it best to come back to the original makeup.”

The announcement trailer for Breath of the Wild shows a vast and beautifully rendered new playable world, and there’s now plenty of lengthy gameplay videos to pour over too.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be released for Wii U on 30 December, 2016, with pre-orders available now and Wii NX launch to follow.