Echoes of Wisdom delivers multiple first-times for The Legend of Zelda series. Zelda is finally the main playable character in a mainline Zelda title, for instance. But, for the first time ever in the series, one amusing detail about our usual main character, Link, has been given a little bit of an explanation.
Despite only being a playable character briefly in the opening of the game, Link can't actually speak in Echoes of Wisdom. He makes his usual grunts and noises as he does in other Zelda games, which on the surface is totally normal — except he doesn't speak at all. Even if Zelda also only makes noises, she at least speaks because you have dialogue options with her.
There are some minor spoilers below, so if you really don't want to know more about Link in Echoes of Wisdom, then here's your chance to leave.
As it turns out, there's actually a reason for Link's muteness in Echoes of Wisdom. Once you've beaten the first dungeon of the game, head downstairs into Lueberry's basement and you'll spot his diary on the table. Examine Part Two of the diary and you'll find out about Link rescuing the inventor.
Not far into the entry, Lueberry's writing reveals that many of the kids who have been trapped in the rifts have "lost something", and for Link, that's his voice. So Link lost his voice because he got trapped in the rifts.
"All of the kids who were taken by rifts have lost something. For Link, he lost the ability to speak."
There are a couple of instances in Echoes of Wisdom where you'll come across people who have been taken by, and then escaped from, the rifts appearing across Hyrule, and they'll all have slightly different problems. So Link's own muteness lines up with events in the game — if other people have been trapped and lost something, then of course Link will have.
Worth noting, this explanation only applies to Link's appearance in Echoes of Wisdom. And while he doesn't "speak" in other Zelda games, he does have dialogue options and gestures in other titles, suggesting he can speak, but we just don't hear him.
Still, it's a fun anecdote and, while the explanation is a little simple, it amused us when we found out that Nintendo and Grezzo went out of their way to explain why Link doesn't speak.
What do you think of this explanation? Do you wish Link spoke in Echoes of Wisdom? Let us know in the comments.