Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom nearly broke Link's 30-year vow of silence, but Nintendo decided to keep him mute because no one knew what he would say

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"Whatever we tried to make him say, it just didn't feel right"

Link seen wielding a sword in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
(Image credit: Nintendo)

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was supposed to buck one of the series' longest-running trends, but Nintendo eventually changed its mind because it "felt too wrong."

Speaking to Famitsu (translated by Automaton), series producer Eiji Aonuma explained that since Zelda herself is the main character of Echoes of Wisdom, she had to lose the ability to talk out loud. "After all, in the Zelda series, the protagonist does not speak. This is why Link doesn't talk either," Aonuma explained.

However, with Zelda newly mute, narrative development got a little tricky. To help drive the story forward, Nintendo and Echoes of Wisdom development partner Grezzo added in Tri - a companion fairy, similar to Ocarina of Time's Navi - to act as a voice for Zelda. Tri's existence became particularly important once Nintendo realized that getting Link to speak for the first time in three decades was a bigger challenge than expected.

"We made Link talk a bit at first [...] but it felt really wrong," Aonuma says. "We kept thinking 'he'd never say that!'" Echoes of Wisdom director Satoshi Terada agrees, saying that "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!"

Thankfully, that confusion eventually helped build out the story - with Nintendo and Grezzo requiring a setting where it made sense for Link to remain silent despite Zelda's presence in the story, "part of the game's storyline" could be built around him staying quiet.

Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.