After decades of serving as the named inspiration for the beloved series The Legend of ZeldaThe official princess of the series finally gets her own game. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of WisdomReleased September 26 for Nintendo Switch, gives Zelda her own journey to become a hero after Link goes missing. But sadly, it didn’t give her her own sword.
Players are calling on Hyrule’s favorite princess to take the lead in a fight Zelda game for many years now or at least playable in games like Tears of the Kingdom. The excitement surrounding Zelda’s victory was immediately clear on X after Nintendo announced the game on Tuesday during one of its Live presentations. (Sample article: “I make no excuses for the person I will become when I play PRINCESS ZELDA.”)
IN Echoes of wisdom, she is tasked with rescuing the residents of Hyrule, including Link, who are being swallowed by mysterious rifts. To save them, Zelda teams up with a fairy named Tri; Armed with the Tri Rod, Zelda can create simulations of environmental objects and enemies called echoes to solve puzzles and fight monsters.
For example, in the game’s introduction, Zelda learns how to recreate a table. She can then create echoes of that table anywhere she wants, which allows players to create stairs and bridges made of tables. Similar to Tears of the Kingdom‘S Ultrahand and Fuse abilities, the possibility of an echo seems quite open; the trailer shows her learning how to make boxes, beds, rocks, and water blocks to move around and overcome possible obstacles. Echoes of monsters become allies fighting alongside her.
Echoes of wisdom has a similar visual style to the remake’s The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening from 2019 but seems more in keeping with the experimental nature of the series’ most recent release, Tears of the Kingdom. During the presentation, longtime producer Eiji Aonuma said that the team “wanted to create a new style of gameplay that broke with the conventions seen in the past” with other top-down games. As for how many echoes there are, Aonuma said he hasn’t counted them all yet.
Nintendo is also releasing a yellow Nintendo Switch Lite “Hyrule Edition” alongside the game.
