The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Will Have Playable Link, ESRB Rating Reveals

The soon-to-be-released The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom stands out for more than just being another addition to the Zelda franchise; it is also heralded as an unexpected classic installment that has surprised the gaming community. More importantly, it's the first time in the franchise's history that Princess Zelda, the titular character, steps up as the key playable character. While the spotlight primarily falls onto her character, Link, the series' usual protagonist, doesn't entirely fade into the background.

This conclusion can be drawn from the game's newly published ESRB rating, indicating that Link remains a playable character in this upcoming action-adventure saga.

According to the ESRB rating synopsis, the game is conceptualized as an adventure where players embody the character of Zelda. She embarks on a journey to close the odd rifts appearing all over Hyrule and successfully save Link. Players, from a ¾-overhead perspective, set out to explore diverse surroundings and combat stylized adversaries, including both humans and creatures. As Link, players wield a sword and use arrows to vanquish foes; as Zelda, a magic wand is available to conjure up creatures such as wind-up knights, pig soldiers, and slime for battle. Enemies can be rendered helpless by setting them ablaze, and some vanish into mist upon defeat. Multiple enemies often engage in combat simultaneously, making the battle sequences quite intense.

No definite details are given on how pivotal Link’s playable role will be in the game. It's plausible that players begin the game playing as Link in the introduction, with Zelda taking over as the driving character for the remainder of the game as she strives to save Link - a clever role reversal. Nevertheless, this is simply conjecture and should be interpreted as such.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will launch on the Nintendo Switch platform on September 26.