My wife always plays female wizards of elven variety in TTRPGs, and prefers to solve everything (to dissatisfaction of some other party members) via diplomacy or clever solutions. But when things get ugly, she's more than happy to burn someone to crisp with a fireball...because, in her words, "she is the most powerful".

Yeah a re-skin of Link would be pointless.

I'm glad they went this route - cant wait to see more of the gameplay.

My take is the game deserves the benefit of the doubt. The series is nothing but stellar for 40 years.

Also people mocked mario vs rabbids.... and the game was super.

It certainly feels like if they've got time for experimenting with a few different ideas than the usual molds of yore, it has to be now. Whilst we're at the end of the Switch life, not when we are gonna take a new a new step into the next generation.

Same reason why having that Princess Peach this year was important too.

I like this new concept for her, and I have confidence in their ability to make it feel engaging throughout the whole game.

But to play devil's advocate, they could make Zelda weild a sword without playing too similarly to Link.
And aestetically, the times she has held a sword, I think it looked good on her, so I wouldn't mind either way.

Having said that, the combat aspect of Zelda games have become less than secondary for me, as I'm much more interested in the exploration of secrets, followed by the puzzles.
So the fact that they are sort of incorporating aspects of puzzle solving into combat here is very interesting to me.

For me it feels like they took what made Links Awakening great on Switch with the charming art and layout, but then decided to focus purely on Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdoms "powers" to drive the gameplay.

I always said I wanted more games like Links Awakening on Switch... I.E. A remake of 4 seasons or something. - So this makes me extremely happy as Links Awakening is the best current gen game for me on Switch... And Breath of the Wild was my second.

Yeah given the Zelda team's track record, I'm more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. If anyone can make this kind of more indirect gameplay engaging, it's them.

We do actually see Zelda taking a big fuck-off cannon to a bunch of baddies in the trailer, so she's still definitely going to get to kick arse. She just doesn't need a sword to do so.

Not that Zelda with a sword wasn't cool in games like the two Hyrule Warriors, but in this case I feel like her playing very differently to Link makes the game a lot more interesting.

I'm sure it will be good game but not a fan of these graphics and a Zelda game with out link is wierd.

It looks meh to me. The art style is not impressive and the gameplay looks horrendous. Putting a bunch of beds together in the middle of the wilderness to overcome an obstacle/puzzle is laughably stupid. lol! This shit is weird. After the great BotW the LoZ series seems to be going downhill again. Sad

For the most part, no, I don't think she needs to do it with a sword. That said, she is a Cleric of a sort, and it would be nice to have at least some basic weapon (let's say, that staff itself), instead of completely relying on "magic" (cause that's what Echoes translate to, more or less, conjuration magic).