Crossdressing and being effeminate are fine but being female is not - at least that is how it seems in Nintendo's upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. The game which is set to be released for Nintendo 3DS this fall does not let players choose to be a female character.

The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes is a cooperative multi-player action-adventure game. It allows a team of three players to embody differently colored versions of the character of the hero Link and work together to conquer dungeons, fight enemies and solve puzzles in the Zelda universe.

In an interview with IGN, the game's director, Hiromasa Shikata, was grilled about why there are no female characters to choose from.

Shikata explains that the story line calls for exclusively male heroes. As the story goes, something happens in the kingdom, the king needs heroes and basically calls a (male) hero audition - enter Link.

All this is based on a prophecy, and you can't argue with a prophecy, of course.

When confronted with the fact that having no female characters to choose from is somewhat disappointing for the female audience, Shikata becomes a bit defensive and scrambles to defend this lack of female power in the game by pointing out: "to be honest, Link isn't the most masculine of guys in the world."

Right. So an effeminate hero is fine but a female heroine would be incompatible with the story? Interesting twist, Mr. Shikata!

To further complicate matters, in the game, you get to choose from a whole bunch of outfits that all bestow special abilities on your Link character. Interestingly, one of those special outfits is Zelda's dress. Sorry Nintendo, but we're confused! So the integrity of the story does not allow for female heroes but male heroes wearing dresses is okay? Not that we are against crossdressing, but the logic here seems a bit weird.

Don't lose heart though, ladies, you may not get to choose a female character but you sure can make your male hero as feminine as hell!

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