There are many “inside jokes” in the gaming space that those “in the though” understand rather well. For example, in a certain fighting franchise, the character “Noob Saibot” is made up of the series co-creators spelled backward. Then, in Nintendo’s universe, Princess Zelda is often made fun of because the franchise she’s a part of talks about her “legend,” but it’s Link who is the protagonist. Thus, the joke, “What if Zelda was a guy?” has been popular for some time. However, with The Legend of Zelda Echoes Of Wisdom, things are finally changing, as Zelda IS the protagonist in this one, and her legend will truly grow because of it.
During a special team interview via Nintendo, Producer Eiji Aonuma revealed that Link was initially the protagonist for The Legend of Zelda Echoes Of Wisdom, but the Echoes gameplay literally got in the way of his sword and shield:
“We were initially thinking that Link would be the protagonist. But when we focused on the gameplay using echoes and had Link copying and pasting things into the game field, the sword and shield got in the way. If you have a sword and a shield, you can just fight using those. There’s no need to rely on the monsters’ power, right?”
The “answer” wasn’t as simple as “hey, put Zelda as the protag instead!” though. They tried to make workarounds, but every time, it would come at the cost of the gameplay itself, and they didn’t want to get rid of the Echoes.
It was indeed Aonuma who came up with the idea for Zelda to be the protagonist, as he had been wanting to bring her into that role for some time but never found the “right circumstance” for it:
“I had been trying in vain to figure out what would really do justice to her. But when I saw the team struggling to identify the ideal protagonist for this game, I thought, this is exactly the game for her!”
Ironically, the next problem wasn’t making Zelda in the leading role but deciding what kind of outfit the princess would reasonably wear for her journey. They settled on a hood because Link wears it initially, and she “inherits” it from him.
The story itself was another element that provided some difficulty, as they had to come up with a “good reason” why Zelda, and not Link or the King of Hyrule, would go out on this adventure. They even held a “boot camp” when some of the game’s lore didn’t seem to line up with how past games went. In the end, though, they were able to make it work.
