The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomcontinues the innovative trends of recent titles, and even brings its own wave of firsts for the series. Of course, most notable is the fact that Princess Zelda is making her playable debut as the main protagonist in aZeldagame. Furthermore, Zelda’s inclusion inThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomseems to have done away with one series trend for good.
Featuring Zelda in a leading role immediately presented a major challenge. While Link makes use of the Master Sword and other weaponry, Zelda has rarely been shown to share such an affinity. Zelda never uses the Master Sword, as she’s always been closer to a master of magic. When adaptingZelda’s magical fighting style intoEchoes of Wisdom, developers may have shown that the series has fully moved on from traditional dungeons, as well as the arsenal of key gadgets or items that accompany them.
The Legends of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom May Have Changed Dungeons Forever
Recent Zelda Games Have Taken a Wildly Different Direction
By all means,Breath of the Wildushered in an entirely new era ofThe Legend of Zeldaas a whole. As different as it was, developers have explicitly stated that they simply carried on with the vision they’ve held ever since the first game. Still,Tears of the Kingdompushed boundarieseven further and made many wonder if the series had left certain traditions behind forever.
Although the changes have been both big and small, they all tend to point in the same direction. For example, theTriforce was absent fromTears of the KingdomandBreath of the Wild, resulting in the speculation that it may be gone for good. Similarly, the most dramatic change by far has been dungeon design. WithEchoes of Wisdomstriking the iron for a third time in a row, this shift in dungeon design seems to be set in stone.
Classic Zelda Dungeons May Never Make a Comeback
ClassicZeldagames mostly follow the same tried and true formula. Link travels to a dungeon where he faces a puzzle he isn’t prepared for. Then, he acquires an item that can help solve the puzzle, and eventually bests the dungeon altogether. This formula didn’t make it into the Switch era of games, with the exception of theLink’s Awakeningremake.
In these newer games, gradual progression is replaced with personal progression. Rather than acquiring new items over time, players are given a diverse toolbox at the beginning of the game and are expected to apply these tools in a variety of different ways. The scale of any given dungeon has gotten much smaller, but players can much more freely express themselves and are encouraged to be creative in how they choose to solve environmental puzzles.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Continues New Dungeon Design Trend
Echoes of Wisdomanswered the question of Zelda’s playable design with the Tri Rod, which does manage to perfectly capture her magical fighting style. As far as iconic weapons are concerned,The Tri Rod doesn’t compare to the Master Sword. In fact, the Tri Rod actually shares more in common with Ultrahand fromTears of the Kingdom. At least in terms of dungeon design, it certainly lets Zelda use the Swiss army knife method inEchoes of Wisdom.
Most puzzles are designed after the titular Echo mechanic and it’s quite possible that the creative solutions players can employ with various Echoes far exceed what the game might have allowed if it was designed more traditionally. Likewise,Zelda’s ability to create Echoes of monstersadds another dimension to combat, even outside of dungeons.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdomdoesn’t include dungeon itemsto the extent of classicZeldagames. This can’t be considered a failure to meet expectations, as this approach has become commonplace at this point. If anything,Echoes of WisdomadoptingZelda’s modern approach to gameplay may be a sure sign that linear dungeons are a thing of the past.
