Hyrule Warriors 3DS Linkle Crossbow
A still from the leaked Hyrule Warriors trailer, with the crossbow in question highlighted. Nintendo

Update: Linkle's appearance as a playable character in Hyrule Warriors Legends has been confirmed.

Original story: A glimpse at a crossbow may have revealed that the forthcoming Hyrule Warriors 3DS game will star the first ever female version of The Legend of Zelda protagonist Link.

Called Linkle, the character was first revealed in an art book for the Koei Tecmo-developed original game for Wii U, but never made it to the final version of the game. In that book we see the character wielding a crossbow.

Eagle-eyed fans spotted a similar crossbow in the leaked announcement trailer for the 3DS Hyrule Warriors. One of these fans was GameXplain, who put up the video below. As you can see, there are certainly a few similarities to Linkle's weapon of choice.

The trailer, which was accidentally published early by Koei Temco, is likely to be officially revealed during Nintendo's E3 Direct broadcast. In it we see for definite that two new characters will be joining the Dynasty Warriors-style hack-and-slash game: Tetra and King Daphnes from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.

Nintendo's E3 Direct event takes place on Tuesday 16 June at 5.00pm BST. IBTimes UK will be covering the event live.

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