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It looks like you’ll still be able to play as Link in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Link stuck on a big black and purple crack in a dungeon floor in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
Nintendo

Fans are excited for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom for a lot of reasons, but chief among them is that you can finally play as Princess Zelda after decades of playing as Link. However, that doesn’t mean Link is completely out of the picture. In fact, it’s looking like he’s still playable in some capacity.

The ESRB has rated the game E10+ due to fantasy violence, and the official page for that information contains a short summary of said violence. It describes Zelda’s combat style (she has a magic wand called a Tri Rod that can summon creatures), but also Link’s. Specifically, as Link, you can “use a sword and arrows to defeat enemies.”

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Echoes of Wisdom centers around helping Zelda rescue Link, so how much you play as Link is still unknown. It’s possible he’s only playable in a prologue. The announcement trailer that aired during June’s Nintendo Direct started with a little sequence where Link has to rescue Zelda, but he gets sucked into a rift. There might be a similar section in the full game. But you might also switch back and forth between the two characters as Link tries to escape from wherever he got sucked into.

The ESRB page doesn’t reveal much else we don’t already know from the trailer. Some of the creatures Zelda can summon with the Tri Rod include wind-up knights, slime, and pig soldiers, and you can set enemies on fire. It’s all pretty standard for a Legend of Zelda game. However, in the trailer, you can see that Zelda can also summon objects to help her solve puzzles or navigate the world. These are called “echoes,” and will likely still be the core mechanic in the game. But we’ll have to see when Echoes of Wisdom comes out on September 26 on Switch.

Carli Velocci
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
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Key art for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

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Key art for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

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Key art for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

Every new Zelda game feels like an event, and yet Nintendo managed to keep a new mainline entry hidden almost all the way up until its release. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is not the same size and scale as the 3D entries like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom -- it's actually the long-awaited continuation of Zelda's 2D titles. The last game we got in this style was 2019's The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, which was a remake of the 1993 Game Boy title.

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Release date
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will be released on September 26, 2024.
Platforms

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