In The Legend of Zelda games, we play a taciturn Link who, although he seems to speak with a lot of people, never really expresses himself. A nod, a look, a gesture… But not the shadow of a voice. There are two reasons for this, that of the game and that of the lore. The first responds to the player's need to project themselves, to let their own imagination shape the character they play. The second varies depending on the games, chronological schmilblick obliges. It would sometimes be for “stay strong and silently bear your burden”sometimes because he lost his voice in the village of Suthorn. But who says change of protagonist, says possibility of exploring new horizons. And that was initially in Nintendo's plans.
“At first, Link spoke” explained the producer ofEchoes of Wisdom Eiji Aonuma with Famitsu. And after all, it seems logical. If we swap roles, why wouldn't Link become as talkative as Zelda who spends her time, especially in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, talking to advance the game's narrative? The problem when you're dealing with a character who's been around for almost 40 years is that suddenly giving him a voice can sound false. I'll give it to you in a thousand words, that's exactly what the director ofEchoes of WisdomSatoshi Terada, at Famitsu : “No matter what I made him say, it didn’t sound right.” As Aonuma admitted, “no one knows what Link would say”not even its own creators.
Leaving Link in silence therefore seems, indeed, to be the best solution. It must be said that one of the rare times we dared to give Link a voice, it was not very conclusive – those who were able to see the cartoon Princess Zelda still have cold sweats. Let's see how the live action film will fare, which risks having to make the impossible possible, the very thing that the main creators of the license do not dare to attempt.
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