I would be lying if I said we have never heard Link’s voice. He hasn’t done so officially, but he has in non-canonical games like The Faces of Evil or The Wand of Gamelon, as well as the 13-episode television series that aired in 1989. However, in Nintendo’s official games, we have only been able to hear some “Come on!” and treacherous grunts. Although we see him talking to other characters in the game, what reaches us is “…”. It’s part of the magic of the saga… but Nintendo was about to break with everything in Echoes of Wisdom.
Link, what do you tell me!
28 years after her first game, not only have we been able to control Princess Zelda for the first time, but apparently, with her losing her voice as the protagonist, they intended for Link to speak. But during testing, no one felt too comfortable, as explained by Eiji Aonuma, the director of the saga.
“We made Link speak a little at the beginning, but we felt really bad. We kept thinking ‘He would never say that!’“ The game director, Satoshi Terada, follows the same line: “Anything we made him say didn’t feel right. No one knew the answer to the question ‘What would Link say?’. And of course, we didn’t know it, he never has before!“
What is the advantage of reaching the conclusion that Link cannot (and should not) speak? Well, it allowed Grezzo and Nintendo to create a story in which the hero of Hyrule has to remain completely still and silent, thus starting the game. Link was replaced by Tri, who serves as the voice of Princess Zelda, allowing them to say they have reached thirty years while respecting all the rules they imposed on themselves throughout the saga.
And yes, I am also curious to know who would have been chosen to dub him. Fortunately or unfortunately, we will never know.
