Echoes of Wisdom Looks Amazing

Echoes of Wisdom* is shaping up to be an absolutely amazing game. It seemingly appeared out of nowhere just a couple of months ago, and after seeing the Traversing Hyrule trailer, it instantly became my most anticipated title.

Announcement Trailer
Traversing Hyrule Trailer
Still World Trailer

There is so much Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom DNA in Echoes of Wisdom and I am here for it. I recently played through Skyward Sword for a third time and one of my biggest complaints in that game is the lack of a proper quest log - truly a missed opportunity in that game. So I’m thrilled that they got this right in Echoes of Wisdom! The game neatly divides quests into Main Quests and Side Quests (no Side Adventures this time like in Tears of the Kingdom).

The game has it’s own simplified food/cooking system in the form of smoothies that give Zelda buffs and resistances. She can equip accessories for specific stat boosts and passive buffs, similar to the ring system in the Oracle games and the badge system in Paper Mario. I absolutely love this system. It can be a cool alternative to a skill tree depending on how it’s implemented but

Storywise, I was thinking that Link, being stuck in the Still World, would be doing his own adventuring down there. I predicted that Link would handle the dungeons in the Still World while Zelda made areas and dungeons accessible for him from the overworld. It was the ESRB rating that sparked that idea as it’s rating literature reads: “As Link, players use a sword and arrows to defeat enemies.”

After the Still World trailer, it’s now clear that Zelda acquires Link’s sword and can engage in melee combat for a limited time. The blue bar in the image below represents a energy gauge, which looks like it can be leveled, likely allowing Zelda to extend her combat time in Swordfighter form.

This is shaping up to be an absolute banger. I’m a huge fan of puzzle-box-style Zelda dungeons, and this entire game looks like on huge puzzle box! With the echo mechanics, the puzzle potential is going to be off the charts. This game is definitely going to put our Zelda puzzle-solving skills to the test.

Echoes of Wisdom is shaping up to be a game that both honors and evolves the Zelda formula. With its blend of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom influences, a thoughtfully implemented quest log, and innovative mechanics like Zelda's the echo-based puzzles, it’s clear that this game is going to offer a fresh yet familiar 2D Zelda experience.

I can’t wait! September 26th will be here soon enough!

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