If you recall a certain post about The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom from yesterday, you’ll know that the dev team behind the title is breaking down the games’ many elements and how they came to be. You also know that there were some serious changes that went on from the beginning phases to when things “hit their stride.” To that end, you might think that this game was “made to be starring Zelda from the start,” but as the newest part of the interview reveals, that’s not true at all.
Longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma noted simply that there were “too many ways” to deal with things if Link was the protag:
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?
Even with that conundrum, it took a while for them to shift to Zelda because they tried to make it work with Link. Aonuma was the one to make that suggestion, as he had wanted Zelda to be the protagonist in the past if it could “do her justice” and this seemed like the right time. However, that then led to the question of, “Why would Zelda be on this journey and not someone else?”
It was a fair question, so that’s where they came up with the idea of Link and the King of Hyrule being taken by the rifts that were consuming the kingdom, thus leaving Zelda as the only true option to save the day. They even worked that into the hood attire she wears:
One of the themes for Princess Zelda this time was to find Link, so we thought that her wearing his hood would be a good reminder of her purpose to find him.
And even with all THAT settled, they had to be careful of the game’s lore, as they wanted to “go light” on the story, but that led to them being stuck. Thus, a “boot camp” was held to try and fix things:
At first, we were intentionally leaving any parts that might delve into Hyrule’s history vague, but partway through, we just couldn’t find a way forward that way… So, around last summer, we decided to hold a boot camp and work out the story there.
It was a group effort in every way, but The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom was able to get the story it needed to match the gameplay. We’ll find out on the 26th how well it all worked out!
