World’s Greatest Dad

Mike Hoye may have just made Father of the Year. This awesome dad modified Zelda, specifically, The Wind Waker, so that his young daughter could better experience being the hero of the story.

Maya and I have been playing through Windwaker together; she like sailing, scary birds and remembering to be brave, rescuing her little brother and finding out what’s happening to Medli and her dragon boat.

She’s the hero of the story, of course.

It’s annoying and awkward, to put it mildly, having to do gender-translation on the fly when Maya asks me to read what it says on the screen. You can pick your character’s name, of course – I always stick with Link, being a traditionalist – but all of the dialog insists that Link is a boy, and there’s apparently nothing to be done about it.

Well, there wasn’t anything to be done about it. As you might imagine, I’m not having my daughter growing up thinking girls don’t get to be the hero, and rescue their little brothers.

He goes on to mention that certain phrases are changed, using terms such as milady, but he hasn’t tested the entire game. These changes help a little girl truly become the hero, just as Nintendo originally intended with The Legend of Zelda.

Should this be seen as a good argument as to why the series should adopt gender options like other RPGs have today? Sure, many can simply put themselves in the role of the hero regardless of the on-screen character’s gender, but that is much harder to do if the player is very young. And, for a series that is meant to be enjoyed by players of all ages, wouldn’t this help cater to the masses?

Let us know what you think in the comments, and visit Mr. Hoye’s page to see how this dad modified Zelda The Wind Waker!