The Legend of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom finally makes the titular princess the playable star of the show. After a short prologue as Link, players leave the Hero of Time behind for a completely new type of Zelda adventure. However, one player recently discovered there’s a way to keep playing as Link, and the glitch behind it raises questions about just how much of the game can be beaten as the elf-like warrior.
Japanese speedrunner Ikaboze uploaded proof that the glitch was possible earlier this week and YouTuber ZeldaMaster published a handy English-language guide for how to pull it off (via IGN). The trick requires messing around with menu screens and save files. When it works it kind of breaks the game, but it’s worth it for speedrunners pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the latest Nintendo Switch Zelda.
As ZeldaMaster explains, the first part of pulling off the glitch is simple enough. Once in control of Link during the prologue, make a manual save. From then on, don’t save again until controlling Zelda after the map opens up and can be explored as needed. At that point, go get the Sign echo and head to the Eternal Forest. This is when things start to get tricky. The next step requires planting a sign as close to where the forest warps you back to the start as possible. The goal is to pause and bring up the save screen at the exact moment Zelda finishes reading a sign and begins to get transported.
If successful, she’ll still be able to move around while the menu is up on the screen. Next, the goal is to load the existing manual save while Zelda is in the process of dying. This requires finding some nearby enemies and having them deplete her health. Bringing up the menu screen again the second she dies and Game Over is about to pop up will get the game bugged out and from there it’s possible to select Retry and load the original save at the same time, swapping Zelda back to Link on the current overworld near the forest. The game state will regress and certain gameplay features will become locked again, but Link has his gear and can freely explore the map.
It’s a neat glitch because people love Link, but it raises the interesting possibility of whether the entire game can be beaten with him. He doesn’t have the magic rod that lets Zelda create echoes, effectively locking him out of solving any of the game’s puzzles and progressing through to the end as the developers intended. But what if he could get the Tri Rod and start making them while retaining all his other abilities? If players can swap an entire character model, I’m sure they can figure out a simple item.
After all, Zelda speedrunners are the same folks who figured out how to rescue the unbreakable Master Sword from the beginning of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Whether it takes a dozen weird menu screen glitches or one hundred, I feel like they’ll find a way.
