Nintendo Made Link Talk in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom But ‘It Felt Really Wrong’

Nintendo tried making the historically quiet Link talk in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom but ultimately decided against it because it “felt really wrong.”

In an interview with Famitsu translated by Automaton, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma and Echoes of Wisdom director Satoshi Terada explained how Nintendo considered breaking a 38-year tradition by having Link explain how things work to protagonist Zelda.

“In the Zelda series, the protagonist does not speak,” Aonuma said. “This is why Link doesn’t talk either.” But with the role of Zelda supporting Link reversed in Echoes of Wisdom, it now fell on Link’s shoulders to guide Zelda along.

Nintendo therefore gave Link a voice for the first time after nearly four decades of Zelda games. “We made Link talk a bit at first but it felt really wrong,” Aonuma added. “We kept thinking, ‘He’d never say that.'”

Terada expanded: “Whatever we tried to make him say, it just didn’t feel right. No one knew the answer to the question, ‘What would Link say?’ And of course we wouldn’t; he has never spoken before. Because of that, we needed a setting where he couldn’t talk, and that led to a part of the game’s storyline being formed.”

The question of Link talking will presumably be answered by the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie, which Nintendo has said will be released before the end of the decade. While we know next to nothing about the movie itself, director Wes Ball has said he wants it to be “live action Miyazaki,” referencing beloved filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, the director of Studio Ghibli and creator of myriad anime classics such as My Neighbor Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Spirited Away. Ball still plans for the Zelda movie to be a “serious” adaptation that feels real, and has made clear he doesn’t intend to use much motion capture in the “grounded” film. Casting has yet to be announced.

Echoes of Wisdom arrived as a new take on the beloved franchise by, as mentioned, putting Zelda at the heart of the adventure. It also focused on creativity, letting players create copies of anything in the game and spawn them as “echoes” to solve myriad problems.

In our 9/10 review, IGN said: “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is far more than some second-tier spinoff, combining the expertly crafted dungeons and item progression you’d expect from a 2D Zelda with the wild creativity provided by Tears of the Kingdom.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.