After decades of patiently explaining to older relatives that “No, Zelda is the princess,” 2024 will be the year she’s finally right. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is boldly going where no main series has gone before by putting the princess in the driver’s seat. How shocking How bold! How unlike anything we Zelda fans have been clamoring for in years. Yeah yeah.
The ‘Zelda is a hero’ reveal was only surprising because it took so long. Aside from the obvious confusion about the main character, the series called on the Hylian queen to take the lead role. She shined as Sheik in Ocarina of Time (We apologize to those who have avoided that thing spoiler in the past 25 years), she stepped into the limelight in Spiritual song Even though it’s still Link’s adventure, and Breath of the Wild And Tears of the Kingdom really leans towards fun magic tricks. Sounds like a game leading hero, if you ask us.
We hope that Echoes of Wisdom is the first of many games with Zelda at the forefront (they may exist next to Link-led projects are standard fare, fear not), but we can’t help but wonder if Nintendo has plans to push this change even further. If the Zelda series can welcome new protagonists with open arms, why stop at two? Especially when the third Triforce-wielder is sitting right there.
Of course, we’re talking about Ganondorf, The Demon King / Dark Lord / Wicked Man of the Desert / Hunky Heartbreaker (only some of which are canon).
You see, as long as Zelda was caught up in the proceedings, so was Dorfy. She had long possessed the Triforce of Wisdom, and Link had the Triforce of Courage, while the man with Demise’s touch held the Triforce of Power. These things go in trios, so it makes sense that a project led by Ganon would be maybe will appear at some point in the future. Right?
Yes, it is possible. Ganondorf is playable in Hyrule Warriors and he was the mainstay of Break list since then close combatBut a game where the big green machine is the main character is a hard one to imagine. In general, Nintendo tends to stay away from games where you play the bad guy — unless you consider Olimar to be the ultimate villain of Pikmin series (we totally do). They can be playablelike with Ganondorf in Smash or King Boo in Mario KartBut the family-friendly Big N would never risk having someone with corrupt morals as the lead.
Or will it? It may not have the same level of “Give us a playable Ganondorf!” energy as we’ve seen with Zelda in recent years, but we’re not the first to consider the idea. An extremely powerful, ‘evil’ protagonist seems a little out of Nintendo’s comfort zone (but then again, it’s preparing M rated horror game at the time of writing, so who knows what it has up its sleeve), but a Ganondorf game could also easily offer a more empathetic take on the gorgeous Gerudo à la The Wind Waker for inclusion in PEGI 12 / ESRB 10+. Nintendo is not completely While the game doesn’t care about the fans’ wishes, it doesn’t mean the basic concept of the Ganondorf game is discarded.
And that could be a great concept! The all-powerful, near-indestructible approach we saw in Hyrule Warriors is all well and good, but we can see it getting tiresome after 20-30 hours, and it hardly fits the puzzle-adventure gameplay expected of the series.
What if we saw a classic instead? Metroid setup, with the fully-powered Demon King falling into the hands of an annoying Time Hero only to be reborn without his abilities? Suddenly, we have something to aim for. The Gerudo Big Bad is on a quest for revenge, the real goal, and the ultimate goal isn’t quite as anti-Nintendo as ‘Bring the Apocalypse: 75 XP’.
Oh, and what about something more real-time strategy? Echoes of Wisdom is about to bring monster summoning to the forefront of Zelda mechanics, and isn’t that basically what the Demon King is all about? Sure, he swings his sword when he and Link finally face off at the end of each game, but what has he been doing for the past 40 hours if not keeping an eye on his forces (except for crunches and pull-ups, obviously)?
And let’s not forget that aside from a little slip-up in Wind Waker, ‘Ganondorf The Sympathetic’ never really got a chance to shine. We’re not suggesting a complete moral shift where it turns out, ‘actually, the Big Bad was right all along!’ but there’s certainly room for a more likeable portrayal of the Dark Lord that hasn’t been tapped yet.
This is a man who suffers from the curse of Demise, a man whose upbringing is rarely explored—a Gerudo man every 100 years and raised by Twinrova surrogate mothers is hardly the most in-depth analysis for a character with such a long history in the main storyline—and a man whose sole mission in life is thwarted, time and time again, by a child in a nightcap. The avenues for a personal story are endless.
Look at God of WarKratos. This is a character who constantly struggles with the evil that lies within, but is determined to improve himself for the sake of his loved ones. He is not a complete “hero,” but has enough sympathy to capture our attention and root for his success. Now we are picturing Ragnarok-fighting style when Ganondorf confronts the Hylian army. Possibly an action-oriented approach will job.
It’s all fun and games to speculate, but we’re not developers—we’ll leave that to Nintendo (or whatever mysterious studio they hired to develop this game in secret). All we’re saying is that it has potential.
The Zelda series could be on the verge of a major change, one where its heroes no longer look Link-y and its gameplay no longer feels like dungeons. Echoes of Wisdom finally giving Zelda control of her own series is an exciting prospect, and we desperately hope this isn’t a one-off starring role for the princess. We also wonder if this is the start of Nintendo’s expansion. Is this a long-awaited fan satisfaction or simply the second chapter in a Rashamon-What style is the Triforce?
What do you think? Does introducing Zelda as the main character open the door for Ganondorf to get a similar starring role, or is that completely out of the question? Fill out the following poll with your thoughts and then comment to pitch your dream Ganondorf game.
