Echoes of Wisdom is Zelda's first solo adventure in 38 years, but it lets her transform into a Link-lookalike anyway

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is putting the titular princess in the driver's seat for the first time in the series' 40-plus-year history, but it still lets players turn into good old Link regardless, prompting me to wonder: why can't Zelda just swing a sword?

Nintendo UK's Twitter account today revealed that - spoilers, I guess - "during her adventure, Zelda will find a mysterious sword allowing her to transform into a powerful Swordfighter form for a short time and battle enemies head-on!"

A capitalized Swordfighter implies that it's either one of many forms we can transform into, or that this is one very specific swordfighter that we might already be well acquainted with.  

Not only does this Swordfighter don Link's famous green tunic and iconic pose, the ethereal form also has Zelda wielding the sword with her left arm. Link is normally depicted as the left-hander in this relationship (except for the Wii games that rely on motion controls), while Zelda is canonically the right-handed one, adding even more fuel to the fan theory.

An ESRB rating previously revealed that "As Link, players use a sword and arrows to defeat enemies." Is Link trapped in the sword? What happened to his iconic Master Sword? Where do the arrows come in? Why can't Nintendo let Zelda - normal, un-transformed Zelda - just pick up sword fighting lessons? 

Either way, Nintendo seems to be trying to tie in old-school, top-down action into Echoes of Wisdom's new puzzley ideas. Zelda/Link/Swordfighter can do all your usual tricks, including holding down the attack button to swipe the air in a full 360 motion, which is always satisfying. 

Echoes of Wisdom only dishes out that ability temporarily, however. Most of the time, Zelda can only duplicate items in the overworld to traverse, solve puzzles, and have summoned beasties do the fighting for her. We'll see how it all shakes up when The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom comes to Nintendo Switch on September 26.

Weekly digests, tales from