{"id":987441,"date":"2026-01-07T05:45:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T05:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=458224"},"modified":"2026-01-07T05:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T05:45:16","slug":"a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom<\/a><\/em> is a big deal for the franchise because it\u2019s finally the first mainline game where you get to play as Princess Zelda. Yes, despite her name being the dang title of the series, she\u2019s never been the main character in a mainline Zelda game until Echoes of Wisdom<\/em> came along.<\/p>\n

But I have to say mainline<\/em> because it\u2019s actually not the first game where you can play as Zelda. Not by a slingshot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Famously, or perhaps infamously<\/em>, players got their first chance to control Zelda in two games for the Phillips CD-i. If you\u2019ve never heard of this sort-of-a-media-center that\u2019s also kind-of-a-game-console, don\u2019t feel bad, these are some of the worst games in the franchise! Later, Zelda fans would get the change to play as her and her alter ego, Sheik, in the Smash Bros. and Hyrule Warrior\u2019s franchises, but beyond that she was rarely cast in any role beyond the \u201cdamsel in distress<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are bright spots, including the aforementioned Sheik, and Zelda\u2019s other alter ego, Tetra, even if in both cases she still gets damseled eventually. She also gets a central, fully voiced role to play in Breath of the Wild<\/em> and Tears of the Kingdom<\/em>. However, Zelda\u2019s larger part to play in the Switch games made it even more painful when rumors of her being playable Zelda turned out to be nothing but rumors.<\/p>\n

Behind the scenes, there were debates about how to make her the main character without diminishing Link\u2019s role or simply making her Link in a different outfit. To that end, Echoes of Wisdom<\/em> seems to have fully realized Zelda as a main character while giving her a identity all her own. You can find out exactly how in the video above, which covers the entire history of Nintendo NOT letting you play as Zelda.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a big deal for the franchise because it\u2019s finally the first mainline game where you get to play as Princess Zelda. Yes, despite her name being the dang title of the series, she\u2019s never been the main character in a mainline Zelda game until Echoes of Wisdom came along. But I have to say mainline because it\u2019s actually not the first game where you can play as Zelda. Not by a slingshot. Famously, or perhaps infamously, players got their first chance to control Zelda in two games for the Phillips CD-i. If you\u2019ve never heard of this sort-of-a-media-center that\u2019s also kind-of-a-game-console, don\u2019t feel bad, these are some of the worst games in the franchise! Later, Zelda fans…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":987442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-987441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nA brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a big deal for the franchise because it\u2019s finally the first mainline game where you get to play as Princess\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a big deal for the franchise because it\u2019s finally the first mainline game where you get to play as Princess\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-07T05:45:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-07T05:45:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":330,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Polygon\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/\",\"name\":\"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-07T05:45:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a big deal for the franchise because it\u2019s finally the first mainline game where you get to play as Princess\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/10\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":270,\"caption\":\"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda | Arcader News","description":"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a big deal for the franchise because it\u2019s finally the first mainline game where you get to play as Princess","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda | Arcader News","og_description":"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a big deal for the franchise because it\u2019s finally the first mainline game where you get to play as Princess","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2026-01-07T05:45:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":270,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda","datePublished":"2026-01-07T05:45:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/"},"wordCount":330,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg","articleSection":["Polygon"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/","name":"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-07T05:45:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a big deal for the franchise because it\u2019s finally the first mainline game where you get to play as Princess","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda.jpg","width":480,"height":270,"caption":"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/a-brief-history-of-nintendo-not-letting-you-play-as-zelda\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A brief history of Nintendo not letting you play as Zelda"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1453076,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987441\/revisions\/1453076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/987442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}