The mad lads at Nintendo finally did it; they gave Zelda a sword in her upcoming game, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
Nintendo released a deep-dive trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom earlier today. Throughout the narrated trailer, Nintendo gave a brief overview of why poster boy Link is taking the backseat this time around to give instead leading lady Zelda her long-overdue time to bask in the limelight. TLDR: a mysterious rift gobbled up all of Hyrule and left Zelda to fend for herself to save her kingdom. Little did the purple rift know, Zelda isn’t just armed with her wit to solve various platforming puzzles and magically assembling chairs to throw at her foes, she also studied the blade.
At some point in the game’s dungeon crawling, Zelda encounters a mysterious sword, transforming her into the appropriately named swordfighter form: a ghostly cosplay of Link’s iconic hero fit. In this new form, Zelda can cut down obstacles blocking her path, repost enemies, or join her allies in the heat of battle. As with most extraordinary things in gaming, Zelda’s sword comes with the caveat that she can’t maintain the form for long.
A gauge—which you can replenish by collecting little icons throughout Hyrule and the “Still World,” the alternate dimension created by those mysterious rifts and where Echoes of Wisdom‘s dungeons will be set—will empty the longer you’re in her sword form. Fortunately, Echoes of Wisdom‘s sword gauge’s “lv. 1” flavor text heavily implies some upgrades for players, which may result in more powerful swings or a longer time limit for the Hyrulean princess to display her sword dancing skills whenever she’s not taking a power nap mid-battle.
It’s not the first time Zelda’s technically taken up arms–in Spirit Tracks she could possess suits of armor to help Link in combat, and of course Zelda has fought in games like Smash Bros. and Hyrule Warriors–but it’s good to see after the initial reveal kept Zelda’s combat prowess firmly rooted in letting others do the fighting for her, she’ll still be able get stuck in herself when it comes to protecting her kingdom.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom releases on the Nintendo Switch on September 26.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
+ There are no comments
Add yours