Echoes of Wisdom’s swordless Zelda is not about what’s canon — it’s about good gameplay
It’s big, big news that in the Zelda game announced during Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct— The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom — players will assume control of Princess Zelda rather than Link. It’s the first time in history you’ll be able to play a full game as the title character (unless you count the notably terrible CD-i games, which director Eiji Aonuma doesn’t consider canon). But there’s one key point of intrigue: In Echoes, Aonuma said Zelda doesn’t fight with a sword — ever.
Related
Some longtime players, like myself, might find Zelda’s lack of a sword a bit disappointing initially. After all, she does have several swords in her possession at various points in the series: Zelda’s sword from Twilight Princess is definitively hers; she wields rapiers in the Hyrule Warriors games; and in Breath of the Wild, she hangs on to the Master Sword to protect it while Link takes a 100-year nap. Usually, like Zelda herself, these weapons only appear in cutscenes and other cinematics, and it’s only in a few moments that we see her defend herself using a sword.
But I have a hunch that it isn’t just her character’s canon that kept Aonuma from giving her a sword in Echoes. Sure, it’s true that some aspects of other Zelda tales would fall apart if suddenly Zelda were a master of swordplay. In Ocarina of Time, for instance, she uses the harp rather than a more traditional weapon when she’s disguised as Sheik. And she certainly can’t use the Master Sword, which famously only works if Link wields it.
That said, it also serves Echoes’ gameplay — and the potential for future games that include both Link and Zelda as playable characters — for the heroine to ditch swordsmanship for this game. The decision puts a clear distinction between Zelda’s mission to harness the “power of her wisdom” and Link’s frequent quest to find varied weapons and, eventually, the Master Sword.
According to the Nintendo Direct, Zelda’s character will use a wand to wield the Echo power, which she can use to
Read more on polygon.com
