Skip to main content

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.”

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…
Watch these 5 movies if you liked The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Link and Zelda under Hyrule Castle in "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom."

The Legend of Zelda franchise has left fans wanting to see Link and the titular princess go on an adventure on the big screen. This desire has only been intensified by the popular release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and debunked rumors that Illumination Entertainment was making an animated adaptation.

It may be a long time before Nintendo makes a Zelda film, but for those who enjoyed their latest gaming masterpiece, these five movies should give audiences a similar cinematic experience.
Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)

Read more
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom guides, walkthroughs, and FAQs
Link soon after awakening in Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is finally here. Already one of our favorite Zelda games of all time and a confirmed spectacular sequel to 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, this is a Hyrule adventure that players are going to spend hundreds of hours completing. While hunting down Ganondorf, Link will have to find hundreds of shrines, explore the Sky Islands and a massive underground world beneath Hyrule's great fields, and fight off enemies of all kinds while mastering new abilities and skills.

It's dangerous to go alone! Take these guides.

Read more
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Like Likes are absolutely horrifying
A Like Like appears in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is full of enemies for Link to strike down. Naturally, a lot of returning favorites from Breath of the Wild return, like Moblins and Lynels. But there are a lot of new monsters too, from Zonai robots to fearsome Gleeoks (which return from Link’s very first adventure).

There’s one new creature that steals the show, though. And by “steals the show,” I mean haunts my nightmares. Meet Tears of the Kingdom’s absolutely horrifying Like Likes.

Read more