Echoes Of Wisdom Is A 3D Zelda In 2D Clothing

Nintendo has released a new gameplay trailer for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom that is all about traversing the bountiful fields, deserts, and climes of Hyrule. You’d think this focus on travelling its open world wouldn’t reveal much in terms of the game itself, but to my surprise, it is filled with new mechanical reveals, and glimpses at a reimagined world I fooled mysel𝐆f into thinking I already knew. And sur🐎prising nobody, it looks positively darling.

As you’d expect, Princess Zelda is free to walk around Hyrule with staff in hand as she plans to save Link and free her homeland from a mysterious dark energy. But she has plenty of other ways to get around too, including a trusty horse you can summon by spawning a carrot they can munch on. Not only can they run much faster than Zelda can walk, horses can also slay weaker enemies who would otherwise prove a nuisance. Fast travel is also possible to a few select points on the map, removing the long-held frustration I’ve had with 2D Zelda titles and backtrackඣing.

You even have a quest log this time around which feels pulled right from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Breath of the Wild and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tears of the Kingdom, so much so that it feels slightly alien in a game like this at first. I welcome it though, since Zelda is free to embark on myriad optional missions apart from saving Link from mortal peril. He leaves her in the lurch often enough, s🉐o the queen has earned a bit of downtime.

The trailer also con𝓰firms that the usual races and cities will return such as the Zora, Gerudo, Gorons, and Hylians. This is classic Zelda but with plentiful twists found ac🐎ross it.

Zelda can also travel with the help of enemies and objects she summons into the world too, thanks to a new ability known as Bind. This links her to a moving item, enemy, and basically anything you can think of and allows her to move over gaps, reach ൩new heights, and act similarly to giant insects and monsters otherwise designed to squash you.

Echoes of Wisdom - Zelda feeding her horse

She also has the power to possess objects much bigger than her and when she moves it will as well, even if it’d prove much too heavy for the princess in general. This will come into play with a number of puzzles, but also in battle, traversal, and finding secrets across👍 Hyrule. There is mechanဣical depth to this feature that will only come to light when the full game arrives.

But already I’m floored by how this single mechanic is shaking up what is possible within the design constraints of 2D Zelda. For decades, we have come to appreciate its pattern of doing dungeons, gathering new ♛items, expl💟oring Hyrule, and eventually defeating the big bad. Yes, we’ve seen games like A Link Between Worlds shake things up, but Echoes of Wisdom is the first step towards something greater. Like Tears of the Kingdom, it takes conventional ideas and puts their very creation and application into the hands of players. Every puzzle and fight can be completed in literally thousands of different ways, and no single one is set in stone.

Zelda meeting other characters in Echoes of Wisdom

Zelda can even make smoothies that provide her with distinct buffs and abilities, so it also means yoꦐu’ll have plenty of ingredients to find and gather. I haven’t even ta🍌lked about the outfits you can craft and wear, but I’ll save that for another article.

Previously, if I hit a broken bridge, high wall, or steep incline, I’d have to turn back and return when the game🦂 deemed me prepared. Now I can laugh in the face of linearity with one look at my surroundings. Maybe there is a tree stump nearby that I can turn into a ladder or even a spider hanging out in a cave who, with a single summ🍸on, can climb mountains.

If a solution can be found, it’s more than valಞid, and thank goodness Echoes of Wisdom is being kind with its fast travel options, so you can experiment whenever you like. I am curious how the world and dungeon design will change to reflect this philosophy though, since 2D Zelda titles are so often set in stone with what they𝓀 ask of the player and how you achieve that.

Either way, being offered this level of freedom in a 2D Zelda ga🥃me is immediately liberating, and it seems Nintendo is making all the right decisions when it comes to rewarding us for thinking outside the box. This is the face of modern Zelda, and I’m absolutely here for it.