One of the best things about jumping into a newZeldagame is seeing what Nintendo and the other developers involved do to freshen up the franchise. From the first trailer alone, it looks likeThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomis going to wow players. There are some obvious features in the trailer and then there are some hidden ones as well.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomisn’t fully original of course as it does pay homage to other entries includingThe Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. It still looks like it will be a treat for fans come September. Here’s a look at how the game is going to change things up a bit in the franchise.
6Zelda Is The Hero
Not The First Solo Adventure, But The Biggest In A While
Zelda: The Wand of Gamelonwas the first timeZelda was made playable in the series. It was released for the Philips CD-i in 1993 and received a sequel with Zelda as the star again. Link got a game too. All three Philips CD-i games were not received well but Nintendo would make good on other collaborations later like with the various forms of Zelda made available inHyrule Warriorsfrom the classic princess to Sheik to Tetra.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomis the first major title to put Zelda as the key hero though which is a big deal even if it is a smaller top-downZeldaadventure. If the game sells well, maybe Nintendo will green-light a 3D game starring Zelda like so many fans have been clamoring for. She does a lot of things Link can’t like talk, which will be interesting to see play out in this new adventure.
5The Tri Rod And Echoes
Conjuring Items From Nothing
TheZeldaseries is known for big gimmicksfrom Link turning into a wolf inThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princessto dancing around inCadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda. The big gimmick forThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomis Zelda’s Tri Rod which allows her to copy ordinary objects in the world. This copy ability forms an Echo and players can summon things like boxes, tables, beds, and more.
It’s not known how many objects players can summon at one time. Can players break the game by summoning a hundred beds like players tried to do with cheese inThe Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim? There might be a magic meter but it isn’t shown in the trailer so that would be different on top of the Tri Rod’s unique Echo ability.
4Using Enemies To Your Advantage
Turn Zelda Into Captain Olimar
Zelda has another ability that she can use with her Tri Rod. She can use it to summon monsters that she has collected. The trailer shows her using Moblins, a plant to catch Crows, fish, and more. It’s kind of like Nintendo turned Zelda into Captain Olimar of thePikminseries as he sends the titular Pikminto do everything from fighting monsters to gathering materials.
It makes sense for Zelda to take more of a backseat offensively inThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomsince she is royalty and must be used to sending others to do her dirty work. Besides sending monsters to automatically attack enemies, Zelda is shown in the trailer wearing a robotic Octorok on her head and firing it like a canon. What other weird combos can players use enemies for in the final build of the game?
3The Art Style And Perspective
Zelda Is Breaking Barriers
There aren’t a ton of truly new things inThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomcompared to other entries intheZeldafranchise. There are some rare elements not often used though. The art style, for example, has only been used once so far.
The 2019 remake ofThe Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakeninghad a toy-like aesthetic to everything from the trees to the people almost as if everything weremade of Amiibo. That’s the art style inThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomtoo. Also likeThe Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Zelda can go into 2D. Again, these art styles and perspectives have been done before, but not often enough which makesThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomstill feel fresh.
2The Rifts
How Does Zelda Traverse Them?
There has been inter-dimensional travel in the series before. For example, there is the mirror world inThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Pastaka The Dark World.The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princesshas the Twilight Realm and so on.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomhas rifts opening up across Hyrule, sucking NPCs up along with thefabled hero, Link. This breaking of reality via rifts is a bit different than the other dimensions shown in the series so far. It seems like Zelda can traverse them because she can be seen absorbing water in a pocket dimension in the trailer. How often she can go into rifts is beyond anyone’s guess right now though.
1The Mini-Map
New For The Top-Down Genre
Maps have been a big part of the series from the beginning. With the packaging, Nintendo often included foldout maps of Hyrule for players to hang up on their walls. To view maps in the game, players usually had to open up a separate menu though.
There are exceptions likeThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildwhich has a mini-map built into the HUD.The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomhas a mini-map too which is a big step up from most of thetop-down entries in theZeldaseries. More games should give players the ability to have mini-maps in the HUD and thankfully Nintendo is wisening up to modern trends even with a throwback title like this.
