Upcoming Zelda game Echoes of Wisdom, announced in Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct, has players assume the role of Zelda for the first time. We break down her mechanics and weapons.
It’s big, big news that in the Zelda game announced during Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct — The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom — players will assume control of Princess Zelda rather than Link. It’s the first time in history you’ll be able to play a full game as the title character (unless you count the notably terrible CD-i games, which director Eiji Aonuma doesn’t consider canon). But there’s one key point of intrigue: In Echoes, Aonuma said Zelda doesn’t fight with a sword — ever.
Some longtime players, like myself, might find Zelda’s lack of a sword a bit disappointing initially. After all, she does have several swords in her possession at various points in the series: Zelda’s sword from Twilight Princess is definitively hers; she wields rapiers in the Hyrule Warriors games; and in Breath of the Wild, she hangs on to the Master Sword to protect it while Link takes a 100-year nap. Usually, like Zelda herself, these weapons only appear in cutscenes and other cinematics, and it’s only in a few moments that we see her defend herself using a sword.
But I have a hunch that it isn’t just her character’s canon that kept Aonuma from giving her a sword in Echoes. Sure, it’s true that some aspects of other Zelda tales would fall apart if suddenly Zelda were a master of swordplay.
