Link will be playable in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of the Wisdom
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of the Wisdom was a surprise announcement during the recent Nintendo Direct presentation. Following the release of Breath of the Wild, Link’s Awakening, and Tears of the Kingdom on Nintendo’s current platform, a fourth title so close to the launch of the next console seemed extremely unlikely. But, Nintendo looks to be going out with a bang before the rumored Switch 2 that could be released as soon as early 2025.
This next entry in the Zelda franchise sees players take control of the Princess for the first time in the series’ history, with the exception of spin-offs such as Hyrule Warriors, other IPs such as Smash Bros, and the…CD-i games that we will try and never mention again.
According to the ESRB rating summary for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of the Wisdom, which has listed the game as E-10 in the US, both Link and Zelda will be playable in the game.
“This is an adventure game in which players assume the role of Zelda as she attempts to dispel rifts throughout Hyrule and rescue Link. From a ¾-overhead perspective, players explore various environments while fighting stylized enemies (e.g., humans, creatures). As Link, players use a sword and arrows to defeat enemies; Zelda can use a magic wand to summon creatures (e.g., wind-up knights, pig soldiers, slime) for battle. Some enemies can be defeated by being set on fire; other creatures dissolve into mist when defeated. Battle sequences are somewhat frenetic, with several enemies attacking/fighting at once.”
This does make sense as the artwork for the game does show Link holding his Master Sword and Hyrulian Shield in a combat pose. It is fair to assume that this could be indicating a non-playable battle with Ganon that leads to the young hero becoming captured, leading to players taking control of Princess Zelda.
But, it looks like both characters will be playable, although how much gameplay we will experience as Link is unclear. I do suspect it could be similar to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which saw players briefly take control of Richter Belmont to face Dracula, before spending the rest of the game as Alucard. Perhaps we control Link at the beginning of Echoes of the Wisdom as he explores Ganon’s dungeon before doing battle with the villain, and then after being captured, we take control of Zelda for the rest of the game.
The announcement trailer from the recent Nintendo Direct presentation does show a fight with Ganon before showing gameplay of players controlling the Princess, so this does line up with what we could see in the opening moments of Echoes of the Wisdom. But, we don’t have long to wait before we find out how the story will unfold at The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of the Wisdom is set to be released in just over two months on September 26th, 2024 exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.
Check out the Echoes of the Wisdom announcement trailer below:
