The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildand its sequel,Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, undoubtedly changedThe Legend of Zeldaforever by taking the series in a brand-new direction that drew from its roots but ultimately blossomed into a completely different animal altogether. Despite both of them being critically acclaimed titles, they haven’t been universally received due to their stark contrast toThe Legend of Zelda’s traditional formula, along with their open worlds simply being too massive to maintain the interest of gamers who prefer a more linear experience. In fact, the open world ofZelda’s new era is partially responsible for its biggest shortcoming. Now,The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomis soon to arrive on the scene, with a shot at atoning for one of the greatest sins ofBotWandTotK.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomis the first mainline installment in the series to feature Zelda as a playable character, effectively setting it apart from every other game in the franchise. While some might have expected the nextZeldagame to be similar in style and execution asZelda: Breath of the Wildand its sequel,Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomtakes an entirely different route by adopting the art style and visuals of theZelda: Link’s Awakeningremake and seemingly offering a scaled-back experience. Thankfully, these differences set upZelda: Echoes of Wisdomto make up for one of the heights thatBotWand TotKfell short of most.
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Needs to Be More Story-Driven Than BotW and TotK
Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Its Sequel Largely Neglected Narrative for Their Open Worlds
There is no denying the success ofThe Legend of Zelda’s new era, withZelda: Breath of the Wildeven winning 2017’s illustriousGame of the Year awardandZelda: Tears of the Kingdomlikely coming very close to winning 2023’s. Even so, one of the greatest sins committed by both of these games is that they largely neglectedThe Legend of Zelda’s traditional story-driven format for their open worlds. Of course, their open worlds are brilliantly crafted and widely deemed standards in the industry. However, the one area in which many open-world games fail is in their abandonment of narrative for size.
The larger a game’s world becomes, the more difficult it is to maintain a linear focus on its story. This is primarily due to the number of distractions — necessary or not — that are in an open-world game, as the chances that the story will be either overlooked entirely or mostly forgotten are perpetually increased. This is most likely whyZelda: BotWandZelda: TotKfell short in this area, but it is nonetheless a grave offense against the franchise that was once linear and primarily driven by its narrative.
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Needs to Be a Traditional Story-Driven Zelda Experience
To atone for the sins of its predecessors, there is little doubt thatThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomneeds to be much more story-driven. Based on what has been revealed so far,Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomseems much smaller in scale, which makes it possible to keep players more focused on its story than anything else. At the same time, there does seem to be a great deal of freedom in exploration, especially withZelda’s Tri Rodgiving her the ability to explore every nook and cranny of the map.
To make this happen,Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomneeds to rein in its mapand optional activities to ensure the main story remains the top priority. Perhaps this particular installment has managed to strike a balance between size and story, but that likely remains to be seen untilZelda: Echoes of Wisdomreleases on Jul 16, 2025.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
WHERE TO PLAY
Save Hyrule—this time with the wisdom of Princess Zelda!The people of Hyrule are being stolen away by strange rifts—and with a certain swordsman among the missing, it’s up to Princess Zelda to save her kingdom in the latest adventure in The Legend of Zelda™ series!Team up with the ethereal creature Tri and use the Tri Rod to create “echoes,” which are imitations of things you find in the environment—then recreate those echoes whenever you like to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. Use echoes like water blocks to reach new heights, make bridges out of old beds, throw rocks at foes, or find your own combination of echoes to do things your way. you may even make echoes of monsters to fight at your side in combat!
