This is proof that really, truly, anyone that has ever appeared in the Zelda canon is fair game for being playable in Hyrule Warriors. In the latest issue of Famitsu, it was revealed that Agitha, the bug princess of Twilight Princess, is a playable character. Yes, this young lady:

Ladies and gentlemen, holy shit. If Agitha can make the playable roster, the sky is the limit. (OK, maybe not Tingle, but still!) So those of you holding out hope that they'll let loose the Groose, it's quite possible.

And there's a gameplay trailer with her now!:

Bow down to the Bug Princess.

The developers seem to really like Twilight Princess.

Who doesn't like giant magical muscle spiders?

I'm just waiting for Fierce Deity Link and I'm sold.

Midna and Agitha both have pretty memorable designs and personalities, so I can see why the dev team would want them both in the game (Midna being the more obvious choice). The same Famitsu article also indicated that Zant is in the game, though it didn't specify if he's playable or not.

@marino said:

This is the best possible response this thread could ever hope for.

I'm kinda inexplicably looking forward to this. You could say it's just because I love Zelda, but I honestly thought this whole idea was really stupid until I saw it played on the Treehouse E3 streams. I dunno. I can't explain it.

Also, just waiting on Postman to be announced.

If Groose isn't in this game I'm gonna riot

@marino said:

Also, just waiting on Postman to be announced.

I could only see this working if Hyrule Warriors was multiplayer and the Postman's only function was to draw aggro.

I'm excited about this because it shows they aren't afraid to go weird with the playable characters, also she was one of the more memorable parts of TP. My one hope is for a playable Skull Kid, though Groose could also be pretty great. This also still leaves Link as the only confirmed playable male character so far, yeah? Kind of amusing.

And if Tingle isn't playable I'll be somewhat shocked/disappointed.

Considering A Link to the Past is the best one (I will fight you about this), I'm really hoping for a character from that game to make an appearance. I'm just having trouble trying to come up with a playable character though. The swordsmiths as a tandem character? Kiki? The sweeping old lady?!

I have no idea.

Well, there's always Agahnim. The Warriors games typically allow you to play as villain characters, even if they're restricted to post-story unlockables.

I'm hoping for Marin from Link's Awakening to show up, myself.

My money is on Skull Kid

Not Ganon/Zant. No fucks given.

Ganondorf is in the game. He shows up at the end of the E3 trailer. Whether he or Zant are playable is up in the air at the moment, but I'm betting that yes, they are.

I'd like that guy that runs around in Kakariko Village in OoT to be playable, please.

Not any his brothers either. Him.

I haven't played Twilight Princess in many years, but I somehow managed to remember that Agitha was from that one.

Sure, why not. If we're at the point where we're letting minor characters like Agitha in, I can't wait to see what other crazy characters they pick. The Groose is loose.

The hippie sword trainer guy in Majora's Mask better be playable.

I'm betting this will never happen, but I want to see something from Link's Awakening, Wind Fish super move would make sense. Dr Wright playable character would be crazy, as crazy as that game was.

But Agitha sounds cool.

I totally forgot who Agitha was until I saw that picture and I was like "Ohhh right, bug girl". I can stand behind weird, offbeat choices like that.

If they let me play as the Moon, I will buy a Wii U.

I'm buying a Wii U anyway for Smash Bros. They should still let me play as the Moon.

@mariachimacabre: I can tell you right now that the moon is in the game based on E3 Treehouse demos. I won't say how, but it's in the game.

I don't think I got far enough in Twilight Princess to see her. I wish I knew what size they're targeting for this roster. I know there are a few dozen in Dynasty Warriors, but I bet this will probably be smaller than that. I'd like to see them get some form of representation for each of the main games. It does seem like a lot of Twilight Princess at the moment.

@hunter5024: I believe they confirmed the roster has 9 characters at e3. Which is a bit disappointing, honestly, as there will be lots of awesome characters that won't make the cut.

Edit: Never mind, they didn't officially confirm that. Just seems that's what previewers were saying from the e3 build. (Where there were nine character slots)

@turtlebird95: If that's true, then I feel like Agitha is a huge waste of potential. Admittedly I don't even know who she is, but we've already got Midna to represent Twilight Princess, and if there are only 9 characters, then I don't think there's room to hit the same game multiple times.

@hunter5024: Yeah, I think the roster will have to be a lot bigger if obscure characters like her get put in. If they were going for nine characters I'd imagine they'd pick the nine most iconic Zelda characters. Not these obscure oddballs nobody remembers.

But yeah, regardless of roster size I hope most of the Zelda games get some great representation. (Come on, Shopkeeper from Link's Awakening!) Except Wand of Gamelon and those other god awful things that should be erased from existence.

@grantheaslip: At first I thought that Kangaroo was Charizard.

@hunter5024 said:

If they plan to turn this into its own series like all of the other Dynasty Warriors spin-offs, then it seems likely that they'll again use the same method of slowly increasing the roster per sequel like they do with the rest. While Dynasty Warriors is always viewed as starring a ridiculously expansive roster of characters (think it has nearing 100 by DW8), that's not usually the case for the other series until a few more sequels.

Nine characters does seem a little low, though, and I would be surprised if there was to only be that many in the full game.

@yummylee: They made a Kamen Rider Dynasty Warriors and that had 18 characters in the first installment (19 if you include an alternate form of a character that plays completely differently and 21 if you include the 2 free DLC alternate forms.)

Only 9 characters is kinda gross. Hope that isn't true.

I'm still waiting for the snot kid from Wind Waker.

They need to announce Tingle is playable and then game of the fucking year (and I don't even like Dynasty Warriors)

They've announced 6 playable characters and 5 of them are female. I shouldn't be surprised by this, but I am.

[Edit - Insert Joke about the 6th being androgenous Link]

I want to be able to play as that motherfucker from Wind Waker that you played Battleship with.

"Splooooosh".

If they Loose the Groose I may actually be interested in this game.

I loved Twilight Princess... But who the hell is Agitha?

@vikingdeath1: Agitha is the giver of the golden-bug collecting side quest.

Cool, I barely remember anything about Twilight Princess but Agitha stood out to me. I hope you can shoot bugs at people.

If they are going obscure then maybe Kafei could be cool? unless they just picked Agitha for the "moe" appeal, I honestly wouldn't put it past them.

Oh and Skull Kid wearing Majoras Mask, that's gotta be in.

I don't see them doing that, personally. I don't mind either way but Nintendo strike me as the sort of company that would urge Koei to space out possible future Hyrule Warriors games much more than they do with say Gundam or One Piece. I bet if there's another HW it wont be for a few years, likely near to the end of the Wii U's life cycle.

But who knows! Maybe they'll surprise me. I'm sure the fans wouldn't mind frequent HW games.

There is no way Tingle isn't playable. I cannot envision this game without a playable Tingle. Same with Gannondorf.

Skull Kid and Groose would be cool.

My long shot choices would be the Happy Mask Salesman and Longbeck.

I read "few years" as "few weeks" and didn't see anything wrong with that. Let that say what it will.

Huh.

I don't have any real affinity for Agitha, but I like the pick anyway. It shows that they're going for off-the-wall choices, and literally anyone can show up now.

The only bad news here is that this probably does, in fact, pave a good road for Tingle.

@superkenon: HOW IS THAT BAD NEWS. Tingle is the most badass motherfucker in the entire Nintendo pantheon.

I fear there's almost no way they could implement him as a fighter that isn't completely nightmarish.

BUT MAYBE THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT.

YOU MONSTERS.

I've never really thought about it before, but there's not a lot of real major male characters in the series outside of Link and Ganondorf, are there? Groose is probably the most notable, alongside... say, King of Red Lions. Linebeck? The rest of the time, Link's support cast is made up of the girls. Even the six sages of Ocarina were mostly women. (Speaking of whom, practically all of them would be great additions. DARUNIA/SARIA TAG TEAM.)

Of course, with Agitha setting this new weird precedent, all sorts of dudes should be fair game. DAMPE! MIDO! INGO! MUTOH! RUSL! BEEDLE! HAPPY MASK MAN!

(actually, happy mask man is probably of a higher tier than that)

Oh wow. That's surprising.

If Tingle is in Hyrule Warriors, I want it to be the scumbag con artist version of Tingle from Windwaker. I want all of his attacks to use rupees as weapons. That would be grand! Haha.

But Agatha sure is a weird pull. If she's in the game, and Groose isn't? Crime. Crimes against good characters. Also, I really hope all the villains are playable with Zant and Ganon. Playable Ganon wiping out legions of Hyrule troops sounds like a good time. Or Zant just being his insane self? Great.

Really, I think I'm most excited to have a Zelda game where you can play as someone other than Link. The fact that it's a Musou game is kinda secondary at this point.

The time is now!

Man, that's a DEEP cut. Could be pretty cool--throwing out bees and shit like BioShock. Still not gonna be sold until they announce playable Skull Kid, though.

Wind waker Ganondorf or bust.

@hailinel: Now I want that to happen so bad.

Man, what about that warrior lady from Twilight Princess? She would work well.