Nintendo Reveals Link Was Originally Going to Speak in Echoes of Wisdom

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the first game in the series to star the titular princess if you don’t count the CD-i. As such, the idea of Link being an NPC who talked was initially proposed, but later scrapped.

This tidbit of information popped up in an interview with Famitsu (via VGC, who did the translation). Director Satoshi Terada and producer Eiji Aonuma revealed there would be written dialog for Link. In other games, Link never talked unless it was via a written dialog option the player could choose. Vocally, he hasn’t said any words, besides his battle cries. But since Zelda was now taking on the protagonist role in Echoes of Wisdom, it would mean she’d be silent. It only made sense, then, that her interactions with Link would include complete sentences.

Terada said, “I had Link talk a little bit. No matter what I made him say, it just didn’t feel right.” Aonuma added, “Link would never speak like that. It felt really strange. Nobody knew what Link would say – that’s only natural, because he’s never spoken before.”

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Due to the narrative dissonance of having two prominent mute characters, a story element explaining why Link couldn’t speak was introduced. Gamers don’t have to play far to hear this explanation, but there was still hope Link would converse by the end of the game. I’m a little bummed about it because I always wondered how Link would speak. Would he be a surfer bro or speak in flowery prose like a Shakespearian actor? I guess now we will never know.

Regardless of the lack of dialog from both Link and Zelda, there are plenty of characters in Echoes of Wisdom who do talk and are quite charming. The writing is one of the title’s strong suits, so players can rest assured they will be reading plenty of speech if they decide to go on Zelda’s adventure.