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Are you ok with making Link a customizable character?

GrooseIsLoose

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I thought of making this post on TotK sub forum. But from the trailer we saw that Link isn't customized.

So even though its less likely to happen, how would you take it if Link was a customisable character i.e you can not only change the armour but also his facial features build etc
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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Yes.

I've always found there to be kind of a disconnect between what we're told Link is (a player avatar) and what Link actually is (a set character). Despite being propped up as a player avatar during developer interviews, nothing about him actually allows the player to invest themselves into the game in his place. We can't customize his appearance or make any meaningful choices on his behalf. All we get is his name, and even that is disregarded by the big books of canon that refer to him as Link.

I'm of the mind that Link should either be a real player avatar that we can customize (gender included), or be set in stone as a protagonist. Call him Link, keep his appearance static, and personify him. As it is now the player avatar stuff is just an excuse to justify lazy writing.
 
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VikzeLink

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No

I want Link to be Link. Despite him not having overly much personality, I like him for what he is. Mario barely has more personality than Link, and no one wants him changed, so why change Link?
Zelda has never been an RPG with the "unnamed random hero" that rises up out of nowhere to save the world. Link has always been a character, despite what the developers have said about him being a sort of "link" between the player and the game.
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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I want Link to be Link. Despite him not having overly much personality, I like him for what he is. Mario barely has more personality than Link, and no one wants him changed, so why change Link?
Zelda has never been an RPG with the "unnamed random hero" that rises up out of nowhere to save the world. Link has always been a character, despite what the developers have said about him being a sort of "link" between the player and the game.

But if Link is Link then why do we name him most of the time? :eyes:
 

VikzeLink

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But if Link is Link then why do we name him most of the time? :eyes:
Do we? We are able to, yes, but that doesn't mean that most people do.
The uncustomizeable main characters from the earlier Pokémon games always had default names too (and tbh I always liked them better than the customizable ones we've got these days... They just feel so soulless...)
In one of my polls a couple of weeks ago, I asked about naming Link, and a majority of people here tended to lean towards letting him be named Link most of the time.
I guess in the first game it was more about naming the save file than the actual character. Link just happens to be the default name of this character
 

Bowsette Plus-Ultra

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Do we? We are able to, yes, but that doesn't mean that most people do.
The uncustomizeable main characters from the earlier Pokémon games always had default names too (and tbh I always liked them better than the customizable ones we've got these days... They just feel so soulless...)
In one of my polls a couple of weeks ago, I asked about naming Link, and a majority of people here tended to lean towards letting him be named Link most of the time.
I guess in the first game it was more about naming the save file than the actual character. Link just happens to be the default name of this character

I personally name him Lonk. :eyes:

I guess for me it's just that claiming Link is a player avatar feels inherently dishonest. Do they want to keep Link as a twinky male? I get that. My thing is just don't dress it up behind language like, "Ooh, he's a player avatar so that's why we never do anything interesting with his character." I'd rather the honest response than the sideways political talk-around.
 

twilitfalchion

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Rarely has Link ever been so connected to the story that he couldn't be swapped out for literally anybody else and the story remain the same, if they ever have been. If we're talking customizable Link, games heavy on story have easily blended in that kind of protagonist into the main plot without any meaningful changes whatsoever (FFXIV comes to mind as one I've personally spent time with).

That is to say, yeah. I'd be very down for customizable Link. Do it, Nintendo won't.
 

NastyLesley

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Personally I'm fine with Link staying how he is, I've never felt that the character I'm playing as has to look like me in order to identify with him. I'm neither female nor attractive and yet I can absolutely get behind an attractive female like Samus as a playable character for instance.
 

Chevywolf30

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No. It wouldn't really change much about the game, but it would be like if you said he has the "Triforce of Bravery" or if Zelda was replaced with "Prince Ezra" or some other random change like that. It wouldn't really change the game that much, but it would be taking away a key aspect of what makes it a Zelda game.
 

Link Floyd

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No...it wouldn't work. I say thing because Link is such an iconic character, it would feel weird to make his body features customizable. However, I think changing his gender might work, for example, you can choose to play as either Link or Linkle!
 

Dio

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I'm not ok with it. Whilst I enjoy the kind of RPG that allows that sort of thing such as Dragon Age, Skyrim and Fallout. Zelda is not such a series. Link is a character of his own with his own motivations and personality. His personality and character is that of a good natured hero, you can't play as an evil link who murders human nps who get in his way and that is just a part of what keeps the feeling of Zelda, it's a heroic adventure.

Link also has a certain look to him which is instantly recognisable as link even though different art styles and different ages are used across the games. To change that would not be a good thing. He's an iconic character just the same as Mario and should retain his signature look with some slight variations each time.
 
Maybe in a non mainline game. With a lot of the popular wants for Tears of the Kingdom being more domestic type stuff (source: a thread on ZD :goron:), I can't help but consider that the thing with the player customization in the context of Zelda games is that people really just want to experience living in Hyrule. Which in mainline Zelda games, that's not really the immediate focus. If they really wanna bring out the world building, then maybe we'd have a right to want to be more connected with our character and therefore customize them and participate in the cultural and social side of the world, but with the current standard for the series, I would say Link is established within his role and is fine to stay as Link with a generally predefined look and predefined objective of squashing Ganon.
 

thePlinko

What’s the character limit on this? Aksnfiskwjfjsk
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The most customization I would want is a few select items as an unlockable, be it ones with their own abilities like the different colored tunics in OoT or just cosmetic changes like the engineers uniform in ST. That’s about as far as I want it to go. The armor in BotW went too far with its mix and match stuff thats only purpose was to be items for its awful stat-based progression system, but I would’ve been more ok with it if Link at least started with the classic tunic early on.
 

The Dashing Darknut

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Sure, I guess, eye color or hair change or outfit change would be alright, though in BotW I was pretty content with all the outfits and changes in clothing you could give Link, and I don’t really care for having more than that, but It’d be cool to have more customization. But I don’t think they should go all out because I don’t think Link really needs that, especially in games like BotW where you can’t change his name and is directly referred to as Link in the story, so I don’t see why they’d need to go all out in that case, but otherwise outside of that, sure
 

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