Rewrite this title for a blog post. Remove any site names from it The title is: For the first time on Nintendo Switch, Zelda is truly taking back the reins of the series! We explain why this is important…

A new game from the cult license

Last June 18during the Nintendo Direct, a new Zelda game was announced called Echoes of Wisdom. A year after Tears of the Kingdom, we will therefore be able to return to Hyrule as part of a “minor” episode which takes up the visual identity of the Link's Awakening remake. But, there is a big change… For the first time in the main series, Zelda will be the protagonist of this opus. From the Link broom! This time, it is the princess of Hyrule who, armed with the Scepter of Sorting, will have to come to the aid of the Kingdom.

A surprising and frankly welcome role reversal which promises us original gameplay. Indeed, using her funny stick, Zelda will be able to duplicate different objects and creatures. An ability to solve a whole bunch of puzzles but above all to venture onto the map like never before.

Watch The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on Amazon

A non-playable character

It must be said that throughout the Zelda series, the princess and heiress to the kingdom of Hyrule has too rarely played the leading roles. Often confined to the rank of assertor or of a lady to be saved, the young woman nevertheless proved more than once that she was far from harmless. A powerful sorceress, she demonstrated her abilities to wield a sword in Twilight Princess, but also attested to her talents as an archer in Spirit Tracks. High skills and a resourceful temperamentwhich we see perfectly at work in The Wind Waker, when Zelda, then named Tetra, plays a proud and fierce young pirate captain.

So many reasons that have always made fans want to play the royal heiress in a main episode of the series. However, until now, the only occurrence of the genre was Spirit Trackswhere the princess is controllable during a brief gameplay phase in which Zelda takes possession of the body of a guard. Insistent demands, to which Nintendo has finally respondedand this comes just a year after the series' producer, Eiji Aonuma, teased fans in an interview for Vanity Fair :

If it turns out that the gameplay can be more interesting with Zelda, then it's possible that we'll go that direction. That said, since we don't know what the future holds, we can't say more at this point. – Eiji Aonuma, May 2023

Without exception

But in reality, this is not the first time that Zelda is the star of an opus. The case has already occurred several times, in adventures that do not belong to the main series (and that many players would prefer to just forget). The heiress of Hyrule has already been the protagonist in Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon and Zelda's Adventure. Two games that, with Link: The Faces of Evil, make up what is called the Triforce of Shame. Titles released on the CD-i console and developed by Animation Magic following an agreement between Nintendo and Philips. Agreement which provided for the exploitation of the flagship franchise by the electronics company in exchange for the development of a CD player for the Super Nintendo. A bad collaboration for the Japanese firmwho will have learned from his mistakes and will not let his license slip away so easily in the future. Proof of this is the highly regarded Cadence of Hyrule. A rhythm rogue-lite developed by the studio Brace Yourself Games, where Zelda is one of three playable protagonists, alongside Link and Cadence.

Finally, in another genre, the princess of Hyrule is also present in the roster of the Hyrule Warriors and Super Smash Bros. In the first, she has four forms: Zelda, Toon Zelda, Tetra and Sheik. And as for Smash Bros, she joined the license in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the second episode of the license, where she alternates between two appearances: that of Ocarina of Time and Sheik. This allows him to oscillate between two different playing styles, a rather defensive style based on projectiles and another offensive one with combos. From Smash 4, the two characters will be separated to better anchor these two identities. An identity that the heiress of Hyrule will therefore assume all the more, in the next The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, available on September 26 on Nintendo Switch.