The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is promising something that fans have wanted since the dawn of time: the ability to play as Zelda herself. Sure, Link and the Master Sword are cool, but the “saving the princess” storyline can tend to get kind of stale. Why can’t we put Zelda in control of her own story, letting her save herself instead – or, better yet, completely flipping the script to save Link instead? Only one or two games in the franchise’s long history have ever come close to putting Zelda at the controls, but the new Nintendo Direct promises big changes with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
In the entire Legend of Zelda series, there have only been three games that put you in control of Princess Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, Zelda’s Adventure, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The first two are gaming experiences that most people would rather forget, and Age of Calamity is a hack-and-slash game that lets you switch between characters, so it’s questionable whether or not it counts. Nintendo is planning on expanding its horizons, though; in the newest Nintendo Direct, developers announced a new Zelda game that puts the princess in charge – for real, this time.
Nintendo Announces ‘The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’ with Playable Zelda
The latest Nintendo Direct was full of big news, with new Switch games including ports of Hello Kitty Adventures, Stray, and remakes of two Dragon Quest games. One of the most exciting announcements surrounded The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the latest Zelda game. As Zelda fans might be able to guess from the title, the new game is going to center not around Link, as per usual, but Princess Zelda instead.
According to the Nintendo Direct, the new game will task Zelda with saving the people of Hyrule – including Link – from the strange rifts that have appeared all over Hyrule. She’ll enlist the help of a mysterious fairy named Tri and a weapon called the Tri-Rod that allows her to create “echoes” of things found in the environment. Anyone who played Tears of the Kingdom might note that Zelda’s ability bears some similarities to the Recall ability, but there’s been no confirmation that this game will be linked to that one. The game announcement trailer has showcased a chibi animation style similar to Link’s Awakening, so it might be connected to that, if anything.
The desire for playable Zelda has ramped up in the last couple of years, mainly driven by a Tears of the Kingdom trailer that had fans convinced we were going to be able to take control of the princess. After the game was released, this was proven incorrect, but some fans never gave up hope. Now, it looks like Nintendo is ready to give fans what they’ve wanted for so long – assuming they deliver on the promises they’ve made, of course.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will be coming to the Nintendo Switch on September 26th.
