Highlights

  • Zelda takes center stage as protagonist in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
  • Echoes of Wisdom's trailer potentially teases a main villain other than Ganon.
  • Potential returning villains include Yuga from A Link Between Worlds and Dark Link.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is charting new ground for one of Nintendo’s greatest franchises. This new ground might spread even further than fans think though, as the villain of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is yet to be officially confirmed. Echoes of Wisdom is taking the Legend of Zelda series down a new path, ditching Link as the protagonist in favor of Zelda. With that major change in the formula, many aspects of the game’s design have changed as well.

Most notably, Zelda will be using echoes of things she’s come across for both puzzle-solving and combat. Not much about the game’s story has been revealed, save what fans were treated to in the reveal trailer. The most interesting thing about this trailer is that it begins with Link defeating Ganon before being plunged into darkness. Ganon then drops his spear, which causes some kind of rift to spread across Hyrule. So, with Ganon seemingly defeated, and this new threat not coming directly from him, the premise leaves room for a villain twisted in the game’s finale.

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Ganon Isn’t Always the Big Bad in Zelda Games

Ganon has become the default boss in the Zelda series over time, but some people forget that it hasn’t always been this way. Of course, with his piece of the Triforce and the fan popularity of Ganondorf, he’s a natural choice, but the series has plenty of other baddies waiting in the wings. Some of the best-regarded games of the series, in fact, feature major villains aside from the one seen as the series' overarching antagonist. The best example of this might be Majora’s Mask, in which Skull Kid acts as the villain without any link to Ganon whatsoever. Another prime example is Zant from Twilight Princess. Although he is allied with Ganondorf, he has goals of his own that kick off the game’s plot.

Other Zelda Villains Might Return

With so many characters in the Zelda mythos, bringing back an enemy from the past might be the best way to surprise fans in this unconventional entry. Plenty of allies and villains get overlooked in the Zelda series, and it may be time for a few of them to make their grand return. Determining which foes could reemerge is only a matter of considering the source of the game’s conflict. Focusing on the threat of the rift spreading through Hyrule, a few notable enemies from past games spring to mind.

After watching the reveal trailer, some fans noticed that Echoes of Wisdom’s version of Hyrule bears a resemblance to A Link Between Worlds’ version of the kingdom. In that game, Link could travel through tears in reality to the Kingdom of Lorule as a mirror of his own universe. With both games sharing a very similar setting and featuring deadly rifts, the threat might be coming from A Link Between Worlds’ main antagonist, Yuga. Many fans believe him to be Lorule’s version of Gannondorf, even merging with Ganon during the game’s final battle. After the battle, both Ganon and Yuga are presumed dead, but Ganon has a penchant for surviving defeat, so the same could be true of his mirror-world variant.

Another strong theory posits that The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will feature a surprise boss fight with Dark Link. Famously appearing in Ocarina of Time’s water temple, Dark Link is a mirror image of Link, usually implied to be made out of some form of shadow magic.

When Link disappears into the rift while trying to save Zelda, it leaves the question of where he went and what happened to him. It might stand to reason that when he fell, the darkness engulfed him, bringing forward the evil version of himself. The question of where Link is and the act of saving him are sure to be part of Zelda’s quest, so finding out that he’s the final boss would answer that major question in the most surprising and satisfying way, allowing players to free him by doing battle with the character they’ve so often controlled.