Echoes of Wisdom would have sat on a powder keg with a cut

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Arriving in what could be the Nintendo Switch's final year, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom managed to feel like a more mainline title while still looking like a spin-off. Done in the same chibi art style as Link's Awakening remake, Echo of wisdom has already sold over 2.58 million copies in its launch week alone, thanks in large part to the many new things it does with the traditional The Legend of Zelda format. The game implements open mechanics and world design that would feel right at home in Breath of the Wild or The tears of the kingdomand that's just the beginning.




Don't just do it Echo of wisdom match the ambition and ingenuity of a major The Legend of Zelda the title, it also goes there even they have not yet stepped foot. For the first time since the infamous CD-i Zelda titles, Princess Zelda is the sole protagonist, while the regular hero, Link, is indisposed. This has been a request from fans since before Breath of the Wild was released close to the Switch's launch, so it was important for Nintendo to do her justice. With the free Echo system encouraging the Triforce of Wisdom bearer to use their virtue, it did a good job, but Echo of wisdom almost got sidetracked by another series first.

Echoes of Wisdom Zelda trapped in a crystal with Links around her

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Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is Zelda's journey but still Link's story

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom may have the titular princess as its playable protagonist, but her journey still largely revolves around Link's story.

Echoes of Wisdom could not make a single major change from the norm


Ever since the original Famicom The Legend of Zelda title 1986, no dialogs have been attributed to Link. In the interest of allowing players to fully immerse themselves as Hyrule's savior, it became a tradition for Link to be a silent blank slate onto which players could fully project themselves. Link could still communicate with other characters through gestures and voice grunts and adaptations like the old ones The Legend of Zelda cartoon or the various manga iterations saw Link speak, but players never heard more than the implication of speech.

Now that Princess Zelda is in the driver's seat, this tradition has been passed down to her, but it turns out that there was almost a complete role reversal early on in Echo of wisdoms development. In a recent interview with Famitsu, director Satoshi Terada and producer Eiji Aonuma revealed that there were early considerations to give Link a voice, and even lines written for Link to say. This unheard dialogue could become some of the wildest content The Legend of Zeldas history, and rolling it back was finally too Echo of wisdoms advantage.


If imagines Link speaking in a Zelda the game feels difficult, you can be sure the developers felt the same when they watched him do it. Aonuma and Terada both noted that Link's speech was offensive no matter what he said, with Aonuma emphasizing that Link's silence was a consistent part of Zeldas history. Echo of wisdom instead, it justified Link's silence by wrapping it in the non-traditional story elements of its Still World, and it dodged a bullet in the process. If The Legend of ZeldaThe developers thought Link speaking was weird, the fan reception would have been even worse – and at the worst time, to boot.


Princess Zelda becomes the star of a Nintendo-developed The Legend of Zelda the game would be Echo of wisdoms main hook, and it would have stumbled at the finish line if Link's voice had become a topic of conversation. Even when you set out to break The Legend of Zelda traditions which BotW and TotK did, Echo of wisdom needed to ensure that players are not distracted by new events unrelated to its main goal. Echo of wisdom managed to give Princess Zelda the play she deserved, even if it meant relegating Link to the background in the process.

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