For the first time in nearly 40 years, fans will be able to play as Princess Zelda in the latest installment of the best-selling "The Legend of Zelda" franchise.
The gaming giant has just announced the upcoming release of "The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom" for Switch during its yearly Nintendo Direct livestream on Tuesday.
Along with the announcement comes a new trailer, featuring a gameplay demo with commentary by series producer Eiji Aonuma.
"This time around, Link has vanished. Now, it's up to Princess Zelda to step into the protagonist role," he says.
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The trailer begins with Link, the series' previous hero, in a climactic final battle with the main antagonist, Ganon.
He manages to defeat Ganon, but the villain leaves behind a growing dark portal that traps the hero.
Right before Link gets sucked into the portal, he manages to fire an arrow at Zelda's crystal prison, freeing her.
This begins her quest to save Hyrule and Link.
Echoes of Wisdom will feature a whole set of brand-new mechanics to differentiate itself from previous games.
This includes the introduction of the Tri Rod, a magic wand that players can use to create copies or "echoes" of objects and creatures to solve puzzles.
Princess Zelda has only been made available as a playable character in spinoff games, such as the Hyrule and Super Smash Bros. titles.
The Legend of Zelda's Iterations
The Legend of Zelda is the fourth largest franchise in Nintendo's portfolio of games, selling over 164 million copies since its inception in 1985.
Previous installments of the franchise on Switch have been some of Nintendo's most successful games in recent years.
"Breath of the Wild," released in 2017, has sold over 31 million copies as of March 2024.
Last year's "Tears of the Kingdom" has sold about 20 million copies so far.
Unlike its two predecessors, "Echoes of Wisdom" ditches the "open-world" format in favor of traditional top-down gameplay.
The game is set to be released on September 26.
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Editing by Katherine 'Makkie' Maclang
