WithThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom,Nintendowent all out to differentiate the titular princess from the tunic-clad Hero of Time — at least, on a mechanical level. Link swings a sword, shoots a bow, and chucks bombs, while Zelda can summon an Echo of any object or creature she’s encountered to fight for her. Link fights directly, while Zelda functions more like a magic class in an RPG.
Oh, and she can do all those things Link can do, too, except with a time limit.
Why Do Link And Zelda Both Need To Be Silent Protagonists?
As distinct as Zelda is in gameplay, Nintendo bizarrely opted to slot her into the exact same role as Link in how she relates to the narrative. Like Link, this iteration of Zelda is a silent protagonist. If she’s asked a question, her character model makes motions that suggest she’s talking, but we never get to read her words. Or, in other cases, Tri just speaks for her.
This is howThe Legend of Zeldahas always handled Link. But, unlike Link, there is a long history of Zelda speaking. She’s not an unknowable blank slate, and making her a cypher for the player removes the characterization that Nintendo has given her over the past four decades. This feels especially notable because Echoes of Wisdom offers an explanation for Link being a silent protagonist. When you talk to villagers who know Link, one of them mentions that he can’t speak. So, if Link doesn’t speak because he’s canonically mute, what’s Zelda’s reason?
I often appreciate Nintendo’s anachronisms. The company’s hesitance to follow the crowd has kept it from embracing many of the more destructive trends in gaming. There’s a reason thatSonyandMicrosofthave barely put out any new first-party games this generation, while Nintendo has released two mainline Zelda games, a 2D Mario platformer, a new Pikmin and Fire Emblem, a Princess Peach spin-off, and multiple Mario RPGs (two remakes/remasters, with an entirely new game arriving next month) since the start of 2023.
Nintendo Being Old-Fashioned Is A Blessing And A Curse
Nintendo always has something big coming down the pipe, and that’s largely due to its emphasis on fun gameplay over bleeding edge graphics. Itexpressed interest, but it didn’t end up getting in on the NFT fad, and isavoiding AI tech, too, because it takes a longer view of its history and doesn’t get caught up in every new trend. That’s admirable in the modern gaming landscape.
But it can also lead to Nintendo games feeling bizarrely behind the times. And its major characters (Mario, Samus, Link, Yoshi, Kirby, every Pokémon lead) being silent protagonists feels like a relic of a bygone era. The only reason Zelda doesn’t talk in this game, despite a long history of having far more personality than Link, is because she’s playable now. Why should a character being controlled by the player negate 40 years of characterization?
It makes Echoes of Wisdom feel less essential than it otherwise could have. If I squint, I could imagine that I was playing as Link, same as always. And though Zelda’s position in Hyrule society is different, her interactions with the characters she meets are largely the same. But, imagine if Nintendo had taken a different approach, opting to give players a whole game’s worth of new Zelda dialogue. Imagine if we got to see her play off Tri, instead of letting Tri speak for her. Imagine if she got to express as much personality as a playable character as she does as an NPC in Tears of the Kingdom.
The game would feel markedly different from other 2D Zeldas. Instead, it mostly feels like another adventure Link could have gone on.
