Capcom just clarified on Twitter its stance on a rumor alleging that Deep Down will have 12 main characters all of whom would be male, also giving further information on the story, and stating that a western release hasn't been decided yet

Producer Sugiura here: we consulted with our overseas subsidiaries since there was a mistaken foreign article saying that Deep Down will have 12 main characters, all male, and it's getting overblown, so I will explain as responsible of development.

The main protagonist of Deep Down is one and he's male. The story will expand around him and his fellow Ravens. Release overseas is still undecided, but thank you  for the attention you're giving to Deep Down.

We previously reported that Sugiura-san himself mentioned during a livestream hosted by Sony that in Deep Down "only male player character models will be available," (and we apologize if we created any confusion, even if it's worth mentioning that Japanese websites understood exactly the same thing, so we weren't alone in our understanding of Sugiura-san's wording) and then apparently other websites picked up somewhere that there were twelve of them, which simply isn't true and was never mentioned.

There's only one "main hero," and he's a man, but looks like there's still a possibility that some of his companions could be female. Whether they'll be playable or not, that hasn't been disclosed yet.