Why Zelda is Playable in Echoes of Wisdom??

Princess Zelda is playable in the new Echoes of Wisdom! But why?

Basically, the short version is: because people bothered Eiji Aonuma until he caved. Sure, there's a lot more nuance going on here, but let's be real, he got asked about a game where you play as Zelda in almost every interview for over a decade, and now we have Echoes of Wisdom.

There's a lot of debate online on certain social media platforms run by rich weirdos (take your pick given that description) about Zelda the Tri Rod to create echoes rather than just having a sword. If you're wondering about that yourself, feel free to look at all the quotes in this video through the lens of Nintendo developers wanting Zelda to have a distinct play-style.

Is the new play-style appropriate? That'll depend on how fun it is to actually play. That's probably the thing that matters most.