Nintendo reveals The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom game at Direct presentation

After spending an eternity as the damsel in distress, Princess Zelda will finally get the star treatment in The Legend of Zelda: The Echoes of Wisdom, the next entry in the 37-year-old fantasy series.

The upcoming game was one of the big announcements at the Nintendo Direct presentation yesterday (June 18), where the company revealed several titles that will see its seven-year-old Switch console through its twilight days.

Nintendo mascots Mario, Luigi and Donkey Kong appeared, but Zelda stole the show. For the first time, the waifish elf will be the protagonist in the massively popular franchise bearing her name.

What is The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom?

Taking over hero duties from her guardian Link, an elven warrior who has fallen prey to the purple portals plaguing the bucolic land of Hyrule, Zelda sets out to save her home from a mystery threat.

Let’s be honest, it’s probably all the doing of Ganon, the power-mad villain who can mutate into a monstrous beast. Link has had his fair share of scraps with the big G, next it could be Zelda’s turn.

Of course, every Zelda game comes with its quirks. This time, Nintendo is ditching swords in favour of a magical staff that can capture the essence, or “echoes,” of objects and enemies for use in battles and traversal.

After grabbing it from your fairy helper Tri, you can use the “Tri Rod” staff whenever you’re in a jam. Can’t get over a steep cliff? Summon the echo of a crate for a leg up. Stuck facing a horde of enemies? Call upon the echo of a monster to fight by your side. You get the drift.

What Zelda games is it similar to?

Despite the new tricks, Echoes still has the hallmarks of a Zelda game. The visuals are pure Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, the Switch remake of the 1993 classic, which features the same top-down view that makes everything look like a miniature toy set.

The ability to repurpose Hyrule’s everyday items and oddities, meanwhile, recalls the last game in the series, 2023’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. If it resembles those titles, players can expect numerous puzzles, dungeons, loot-filled treasure chests, and rubies tucked behind sliceable ferns.

When is it out?

Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom lands on Nintendo Switch on September 26.

To mark its release, Nintendo is launching a Zelda-themed version of its handheld-only console called the Switch Lite: Hyrule Edition. It comes in the series’ gold and black colours, with a Hylian Crest on the back and a tiny Triforce logo on the front.

Can you play as Zelda in other games?

While this is the first time Zelda has been a protagonist in the mainline Zelda series, technically speaking it isn’t her first time as a playable character. Players can control the princess in spin-offs such as the hack-and-slash Hyrule Warriors and rhythm game Cadence of Hyrule on the Switch.

Zelda and her alter-ego Sheik are also playable characters in the beat-em-up series Super Smash Bros. Notably, a long-forgotten (and generally despised) Zelda game called The Wand of Gamelon features Zelda as the lead. Released in 1993 on the Phillips CD-i, a console-like device that was a commercial failure, the game isn’t considered canonical with the main Zelda series.

Zelda isn’t the only Nintendo princess to get a starring role in a Switch game, either. Earlier this year, Princess Peach: Showtime! gave Mario’s beloved top billing, much to the delight of fans.

With the Switch on its last legs and a successor on the horizon, this could be the final Zelda game released on the best-selling console. What better way to go out than by putting a new spin on the epic series?