When Nintendo debuted its latest The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom trailer on Monday, it became ever more clear how much the new game references the rest of the iconic franchise. Echoes of Wisdom will be released on Sept. 26 on Nintendo Switch, but ahead of that date, there’s plenty to analyze.
From the two different Zora together, something that hasn’t been seen since The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, and the Bind ability, which is basically Ultrahand, Echoes of Wisdom looks to pull from the franchise’s wealth of history to create a game that’s pushing the series forward.
It’s common for The Legend of Zelda games to use similar formats and reference each other, but here’s what we noticed that stands out in Echoes of Wisdom.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
Image: Grezzo/Nintendo
The most obvious comparison to Echoes of Wisdom is 2019’s The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening — it’s got the same top-down, 3D look that renders Hyrule and its people in an adorable, playful art style. But Link’s Awakening is a remake of the original 1993 game for Nintendo’s Game Boy system, and Echoes of Wisdom is an entirely new game, with new ideas.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
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Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
As two of the most recent Zelda games, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are still fresh in our minds — and likely in the minds of Echoes of Wisdom’s developers, too. You can see influences from the two open-world games within the new game’s user interface and menus: They’re not the exact same, but the core of the design is there. Beyond that, you can see the essence of these games — specifically Tears of the Kingdom — in Echoes of Wisdom’s gameplay. One of the core pieces of Tears of the Kingdom is that your journey is unlike another player’s; there are so many different ways to solve puzzles or travel through Hyrule.
This seems to be the case with Echoes of Wisdom, too. Zelda’s Tri Rod lets her use an ability called Echoes, which adds copies of objects or enemies to the world. You use these, instead of a sword, to fight and solve puzzles. Paired up with the Bind ability, which is essentially Ultrahand from Tears of the Kingdom, the sorts of solutions to come up with seem to be endless.
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Image: Nintendo
Link is also seen in the original Echoes of Wisdom trailer wearing a cape and using a bow and sword with designs that, well, echo the Zonai elements from Tears of the Kingdom. The Zonai ended up playing a huge role in Tears of the Kingdom after being set up in Breath of the Wild.
Lastly, Echoes of Wisdom uses Breath of the Wild’s and Tears of the Kingdom’s naming conventions for several of its locations, like using Eldin Volcano over Death Mountain from previous games.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
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Image: Nintendo
There are two different types of Zora that appear in The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages, the 2001 game for Game Boy Color: one type of Zora that live in the river, and another that lives in the sea. These two Zoras are in conflict with each other in Oracle of Ages — and that conflict appears to continue in Echoes of Wisdom.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Ganon that appears in Echoes of Wisdom looks a lot like Ganon from the 1991 Super Nintendo Entertainment System game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which is a similar Ganon as in Oracle of Ages. It’s a pig-faced, blue Ganon with Horned armor and a red cape. However, the weapon that Ganon uses in Echoes of Wisdom is a double-headed trident, not a single-headed one as depicted in A Link to the Past. Notable, there is a double-bladed trident in Link’s Awakening, when Link is fighting the Shadow Nightmare.
