It's been revealed that this week's issue of Famitsu has information on three new playable characters in Hyrule Warriors. Sheik, Princess Ruto, and Darunia are all part of the roster. So not only is Zelda's disguised form a distinct player character, but the roster will also have Goron and Zora representation. I'm holding out hope for Saria and/or Malon as additional playable characters, but those are three solid choices from Ocarina of Time.

EDIT: Here's a trailer for Ruto:

EDIT 2!: A Darunia trailer is now online. It's hammer time!

EDIT 3! A Sheik trailer was posted earlier tonight. Holy god damn, does she look badass in this game.

Aw shit, these are all fantastic choices. I was hoping I'd get to play as a Goron.

It's like they actually want me to go get a Wii U and play this.

Man......I want to play this game.

OK, debate time: I always refer to Sheik as a "he", because the Sheik persona is meant to be male (unless I've been reading it wrong and he was always meant to be androgynous). My friend says I am wrong, since Sheik is Zelda and therefore you should refer to Sheik as a she, since in retrospect we all now know who Sheik really is.

Who do you agree with?

@bisonhero: I remember someone in Ocarina of Time, possibly Ruto, refers to Sheik as "that boy". I wanna say it's in the Water Temple after Sheik/Zelda saves her from the ice. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure someone calls Sheik "boy" at one point. I think Sheik is meant to be sort of androgynous looking, but I'm pretty sure it is a male disguise.

Technically, Sheik=Zelda so together they are a "she". But separately, like how they're split up in Smash now, I'd probably say "he".

The more of I see this game the more I want to get a Wii-U. Damn you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that Sheik is supposed to be a "he" as part of the disguise, but given that it's still Zelda under all that wrapping, I usually refer to Sheik as a she.

@bisonhero: Both of you. For all intents and purposes, the Sheik persona is supposed to be male. However, Sheik is obviously still Zelda at the end of the day whether or not she is disguised as a dude.

This and Bayonetta 2 are making me want a WiiU.

Well played Reggie.

Aw no fanservice redesign for Tecmo's sake.

This question is less about what pronoun should be used and more about the specific lore stuff. It's been a long time since I played Ocarina of Time, so I don't remember, was the purpose of the Sheik disguise to hide the fact that she's a woman in order to do "unladylike" stuff like fighting (in other words, Mulan)? Or was it just to hide the fact that she's Princess Zelda in order to keep a low profile and evade Hyrule royal guards?

I always assumed the latter, that Sheik was "inconspicuous commoner vs high profile royal target" rather than "man vs woman". But again, I haven't played OoT in like 15 years.

I suggested they do the Goron and Zora transformations from MM as characters, but this is better.

As long as Darunia plays like the MM transformation and I can roll into hordes of enemies and not stop for nothing, then I'm in

Now all I request is Fierce Deity and I'll be a happy man

@cdub901: I'm always amused by how Fierce Deity Link has no lore explanation whatsoever, and it's literally just a cool character design.

@bisonhero: I figure that Fierce Deity Link will be just an alternate Link skin, if anything, but who knows?

@bbalpert: Well, if I recall correctly, in OoT, Zelda just says the disguise was necessary to hide from Gannondorf. She doesn't try to get into details. However, I think it was Ruto who straight up refers to Sheik as a man which, if you also take into account Sheik's undoubtedly more masculine appearance, suggests their gender was never even up for debate inside that universe. Everyone thought it was a guy.

Also, this has nothing to do with anything, but I was reading some comments and I also feel the need to ask when the shit are they going to announce Tetra and Medii? Don't hold out on me, Tecmo and/or Nintendo.

@bisonhero: That's pretty much it. Plus his over powered sword that shoots beams out of it was a blast to use and would be fun to use in Hyrule Warriors I think.

Maybe one day FD will have some lore added to him. Deity obviously means a God and judging by your other transformation masks in MM Fierce Deity was once an actual person who died. What could have killed a god and trapped his powers within a mask? I'd love to know.

I really do hope FD and Majora appear in another Zelda again one day. The lore of those two could be taken much further and there are fans who would love to see it.

@cdub901: In this one post, you have literally put double or triple the amount of thought into FD Link that Nintendo has.

Three sages to go. C'mon, Rauru, Saria and Nabooru!

Zelda's a lady; Sheik's a guy. Two completely different people. Sort of like how Norman Bates is a man, but the killer is a woman.........Wait........

Glad we're getting to some characters I care about, couldn't give less of a shit about their Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword choices (WHY NO GROOSE?!). Hope we get some Majora's Mask and Wind Waker characters, even if they have to radically redesign the Wind Waker ones. It would be cool to see Medli or Tetra in a more realistic style.

Darunia = insta buy

Awesome. Darunia is a king of kings (fighters?), Ruto is okay enough, but everyone knows Sheik is the pimp of pimps.

And it's a She. @bisonhero

If my cousin was disguised as a man I would only refer to her as He to keep up her disguise, but around people who know the truth, it'd be She. I feel like that makes sense.

**** YEAH! DARUNIA IS MY BOY! God it's getting harder and harder to choose between a Wii U and PS4.

I want to play as the King of Red Lions.

And yes, in his boat form.

I remember asking someone why they so adamantly thought that the Fierce Deity should be a character in the game when all we've ever seen of him is the mask and Link's form while wearing it. The response I got was based entirely on fan-crafted theories and suppositions that the deity is a super-powerful being somewhere in the neighborhood of Goku.

Fuck that! I wanna play as The Moon. In moon form.

@hailinel said:

It's super depressing that I'm sure there are multiple fanfics out there where Fierce Deity Link is basically treated as Super Saiyan Link. All but guarantee there must be a fanfic where Zelda dies in Link's arms, and he goes so ballistic over this that he goes Fierce Deity.

Like, look guys. I get it. It was a cool character design. He had a neat curvy sword, and maybe some kind of weird chainmail vest thing? It had it's time, and that's cool. Hell, I'm not at all opposed to it somehow making an appearance in Hyrule Warriors. Why not? But just...guys. Listen. Don't sit around thinking there is some super elaborate explanation behind Fierce Deity Link, or ever will be. They just thought "I dunno, what will we give the player for collecting like, damn near everything in the game? I know, a super OP mask transformation that lets you obliterate bosses". That's it.

The Zelda lore fandom sure is a strange one.

Malon attacking with horses and cows would be so fucking awesome.

Im pretty sure there was some sort of Majora's Mask manga that touched a bit on the origin of the Fierce Deity. I think that's where a lot of the speculation comes from.

@hunter5024 said:

Yeah, in getting into this topic, I looked up the Zelda wiki, and they have a section on what the manga says about the Fierce Deity, but even they, the cray-cray Zelda wiki people, acknowledge that the manga isn't canonical and is basically just some random manga writer's version of what he thinks everything in Majora's Mask is.

We need to get some Wind Waker and Majora's Mask characters up in here stat. Yet another OoT character doesn't do much for me even if the game does look pretty cool.

What do you mean "yet another"? These are the first and so far only Ocarina of Time characters announced.

Honestly now I'm just a bit sad that the boss monsters aren't gonna be playable. I'd love to wreck shit as Gohma, especially the Ocarina of Time or Wind Waker versions.

I'm liking the way this roster is shaping up. I wish they add some odd-ball choice no one sees coming, like the mailman or something along those lines.

Just came to the realisation that at this point I associate Sheik more with Smash Bros. than I do with Zelda or anything else.

Well shit. Of all Ocarina of Time characters I thought Saria would be a safe bet. Guess that isn't happening.

Happy that they picked these characters, though. I'm guessing Majora's Mask will be the next set? Guessing Skull Kid, Fierce Deity Link, and the girl with the Fox mask. (Hoping for the sword instructor... "CAWWW!!!")

WHERE

IS

TINGLE?

@turtlebird95: These three aren't necessarily all of the OoT characters that will be playable.

@hailinel: Yeah, I kinda jumped the gun there. I just remembered Ruto, Impa, and Darunia are all sages. Hopefully they go for the full set.

Who knows, I guess. They've got three weeks until the game is due in Japan. That's plenty of time for more reveals. (And I'd have to imagine there will be characters that don't get special announcements)

@turtlebird95: Saria seems like one of the most pacifist characters, so if they include her they're gonna have to be pretty cavalier with her. Maybe they intend to include all the Sages.

I feel like Nabooru is a much more obvious inclusion.

@bisonhero: I can picture Saria using long range attacks with the power of the forest or something. It's hard to accurately describe, but I can see her working. Plus she's a pretty popular character, and this game seemingly has no shortage of female characters. I think she has a shot.

@bisonhero: Since they've gone and made Agithaa character who can sweep through hordes upon hordes (upon hordes) of moblins and take down dodongos like they ain't no thang, I figure Saria's not a stretch at this point. They could probably do a lot with her undefined [FOREST POWER], really.

But, yes. I want to see Nabooru in action. The ability to make her go toe-to-toe with Ganondorf would be a great bit of fanservice.

@superkenon: Also super hot.

...Just me?

@bisonhero: I'm a Darunia man.

@superkenon: What about Ganondorf/Nabooru/Darunia? I genuinely wonder if anyone has ever written that slashfic.

@bisonhero: Now that it's been observed as a possibility, it does -- and always has -- existed.

So, way to go. High five??

@superkenon: Up high! Down low!

what if sheik was a girl?