Today’s Nintendo Direct brought a surprise reveal fans have been waiting for literal years – a Legend of Zelda game where you can play as Zelda. It’s here, it’s happening, sound the alarm. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is coming to Nintendo Switch in September.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the latest entry into the iconic franchise. Rather than going down the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom route, the upcoming title leans more into the chibi style of the Link’s Awakening remake from 2019. It just so happens that rather than playing as the Link, the Hero of Hyrule himself, players will finally get the chance to play as Zelda.
Link gets swallowed up by a purple rift in the early moments of the trailer (and likely the game too), and it’s up to Zelda to save Hyrule this time. Based on what we’ve seen of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom so far, it’s going to be pretty puzzle-heavy as opposed to a blend of action adventure and puzzling. While we don’t have all the details just yet, from the glimpses we’ve gotten so far it looks like Pig Ganon is in on the mischief (and likely Link’s disappearance to a different realm), and the strange rifts that swallowed up Link are doing the same to other inhabitants of Hyrule.
Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma popped up during the Echoes of Wisdom reveal to introduce the gameplay, and said the goal was to introduce a new playstyle that “breaks conventions” seen in other entries in the franchise.
While Zelda doesn’t appear to wield a sword like Link, she does have the ‘Tri-Rod,’ which can create ‘echoes’ of items wherever and whenever you want. One of the examples seen in the trailer is Zelda recreating the echo of a table to reach high up locations, or that of a garden shrub to block a wind tunnel while walking past it.
It looks like recreating tables and other items isn’t the only thing Zelda will be able to do in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom as she tries to save Hyrule, though. Players will be able to create echoes of monsters once defeated, and send them into battle in Zelda’s stead (or, you can just create boulders to yeet at enemies instead, if you prefer). Overall, the echo ability seems prime for all sorts of innovative ways of solving puzzles and traversing the world: and we all know how into unique solutions to the same problem through building and creation went in Tears of the Kingdom (the answer is extremely well).
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is set to release on September 26, 2024, so you won’t have long to wait until we can see the world through Zelda’s eyes. Here’s hoping that despite not leaning into the expansive RPG style of Tears of the Kingdom, the game will do Zelda as a protagonist justice nonetheless.
If you want to check out all the rest of the June Nintendo Direct announcements, we’ve got you covered with all the trailers from the 40-minute livestream here, including Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and more.
What do you think of the new Legend of Zelda game? Let us know in the comments.
Image: Nintendo
Leave a Reply