Hyrule Warriors art book bits – “female Link” clarification, Lana/Cia as fairies, Zelda’s design, and more

Update: Kotaku has a slightly clearer shot of the “female Link” page, and notes that the character was “devised as being sister-like”. That should clarify things once and for all!

Some fans in Japan have already gotten their hands on the special Hyrule Warriors art book. And thankfully for us, a few images have already popped up online.

The photos are a bit fuzzy, but they do seem to reveal some interesting information. What’s been receiving the most attention today is the “female Link” design. It seems that this was an original character named “Linklu” or “Linkel”.

The beginning of the text states “Hero Link’s girl […]”. This has led some to speculate that the character would have been Link’s child.

There are plenty of other noteworthy bits from the art book as well. One of the pages mentions that a white fairy was an early design for Lana. Meanwhile, there was a black fairy imagined during the early design stages for Cia.

Continuing on the topic of characters, in the concept art, there was a spirit-like woman who helped Link. The text wonders what her real form or identity would be. It seems to be an original character that was scrapped from Hyrule Warriors.

Head past the break for some smallish spoilers from the relationship chart and a quote about Zelda’s design!

Moving on to the relationship chart, it’s mentioned that Ganondorf manipulates Cia, while Ghirahim and Zant obey her. Valga and Wizro also serve Cia. There is additionally a dotted line between Cia and Lana with the text, “Same group of witches?”

Let’s close things out with this interesting quote from one of the designers regarding Zelda’s design:

In this installment Zelda is a princess who participates in battles, so we needed to to add the easiness of movement to her elegant princess-like design. As a result, the attire – which may be the sexiest princess Zelda costume in the history of the series – was born. Personally I also really liked the negligee costume so I wanted to choose that one instead… (laughs)