Echoes of Wisdom announcement thread - Zelda Universe Forums (2024)

Quote from Okami Takahashi

I know some people are really getting tired of the BOTW/TOTK.style and I admit it has worn a bit thin, but imo it's still cool to see it applied to 2D Zelda.

I actually think it will work better with smaller-scope Zeldas where everything is more well-contained, minimalistic and not that long, unlike the enormous AAA-productions. Also the fact that this is a 2D-Zelda gameplay-wise, which means that it will probably be way less complicated and clunky with the controls. But yes this trailer really scream 2D-BotW/TotK to me.

As great as it is that Dekus and River Zoras are back in a new mainline game, I really hope that they won't be stuck on less ambitious 2D-games forever.

A bunch of new images on the website. Here's a couple I found noteworthy:

king. The woman with blue hair in the corner was also in a Sheikah house with Zelda in the previous trailer.

new town

Quote from MVM

I'm probably in the minority, but I can't say that I'm a fan of the artstyle which feel too much toy-and-plastic for my taste. Kinda like the Zelda-equivalent to New Super Mario Bros. At the same time not terrible, but more like "meh".

I'm with you on the art style. I'm not a fan either. With that said, it's not something that would push me away from enjoying the game.

Quote from MVM

I'm probably in the minority, but I can't say that I'm a fan of the artstyle which feel too much toy-and-plastic for my taste. Kinda like the Zelda-equivalent to New Super Mario Bros. At the same time not terrible, but more like "meh".

I don't mind the general look of the characters I just don't like they all have the same face. Also some of the objects could be less shiny.

Quote from Angopik

I'm with you on the art style. I'm not a fan either. With that said, it's not something that would push me away from enjoying the game.

It must be horrific in order for me to actually skip a game because of the artstyle alone. The only game so far that actually have made me wanna puke a little is that popular Cup Head-game. I just dislike the art-direction and how it runs. I hate to watch it in motion with all the flickering on the screen, the old-Disney-artstyle and the music, it just feel nauseating for me. Ugghh.

Quote from Mango The Magician

I don't mind the general look of the characters I just don't like they all have the same face. Also some of the objects could be less shiny.

The faces are minor for me. I think Zelda herself looks fine with it, but Link look a bit stupid haha. But definitely too shiny, plastic and toyish IMO. Would have been cool if they just went all-in with 2D and skipped 3D-models altogether. I think Minish Cap has the best artstyle of the 2D-Zeldas, so seeing something similar to that with a brand new 2D-Zelda would have been great.

Quote from MVM

It must be horrific in order for me to actually skip a game because of the artstyle alone. The only game so far that actually have made me wanna puke a little is that popular Cup Head-game. I just dislike the art-direction and how it runs. I hate to watch it in motion with all the flickering on the screen, the old-Disney-artstyle and the music, it just feel nauseating for me. Ugghh.

Totally wild considering how many people got into it *because* of the style and then stayed for the gameplay lol

Quote from Mango The Magician

I'm gonna be honest that bind ability doesn't inspire confidence. It being directly tied to Zelda's movement makes it less game breaking than Ultrahand, but it's still immensely op.

Same opinion here. This will be used to cheese puzzle, thus rendering them either pointless or less creative.

Quote from MVM

It must be horrific in order for me to actually skip a game because of the artstyle alone. The only game so far that actually have made me wanna puke a little is that popular Cup Head-game. I just dislike the art-direction and how it runs. I hate to watch it in motion with all the flickering on the screen, the old-Disney-artstyle and the music, it just feel nauseating for me. Ugghh.

That's interesting. While I don't care to play the game, I do like the art style haha

Quote from Pkjoan

Same opinion here. This will be used to cheese puzzle, thus rendering them either pointless or less creative.

While I agree, I just won't use it if I'd rather not take the easier route.

I do like that the games provide many options though. It gives more opportunities for people

Of everything I saw in there, I'm most excited at the prospect of accessories. I've said for a long time that I wanted to see something along the lines of Skyward Sword's medals make a return to the series. Looking back on it, I'm still surprised they never appeared in either Era of the Wilds game. With how open ended those games were and how much they allow the player to use their own unique approach to progressing, equippable items that gave you varying stat boosts would have been right at home.

I also really like that they seem to be bringing in the elixir brewing, only now known as smoothies.

Quote from Abyss Master

The game looks hella charming, and I especially love how much control is given to the player. When I saw the horse I was like "okay, so this is gonna just be a way to move faster, right?" and then I saw that thing jumping over ridges and fences and I was like "oh it is ON".

Okey I didn't even notice that. I was stunned that someone pointed out in the comments that Zelda is wearing Link's cape xD.

I am just looking forward for the Zelda themed Switch Lite bundle. At this point I think I have a lot of chances of buying one. I think if you are interested enough you will find one eventually.

Edit1. So that was on a new trailer.

Quote from Reign

I feel like a Sheik outfit is all but guaranteed since we know the Sheikah are present, but I wonder what else there'll be.

Maybe some references to other franchises, such as Mario, Xenoblade and Metroid? Peach would be boring though since it would look too similar to the classic princess Zelda-look.

I knew we'd get more than the one ability for the wand! (It wouldn't surprise me if there's a 3rd one as well.)

There's a lot of interesting details in the new trailer. One I haven't seen mentioned (maybe because it's only interesting to me) is there were two different horses, meaning there may be an option to tame horses like in BotW/TotK instead of unlocking a specific one at some point.

Overall it does look like they've taken a lot of ideas from BotW/TotK (that new ability looks a lot like Ultrahand) but that's not surprising, has there ever been a Zelda game which didn't build on what came before it? It'll be interesting to see how they work in a 2D game.

A few more things I noticed:

* New area - Suthorn - including a village, beach, prairie and forest. (During the warp demo the village and beach are marked on the map, south west of what might be Lake Hylia. After Zelda warps the location shows up in the bottom right as Suthorn Prairie and the forest was mentioned earlier in a quest.)

* The smoothie ingredient menu includes a seahorse, a fang and what might be a rock. Either there's more crafting options or we're going to be making some really weird smoothies. (Also Zelda might be about to challenge Link's reputation for eating anything.)

* The Zora shop is selling what looks like red and blue potions (but might be smoothies or something else).

* 4 accessories are shown: Zora flippers (increase swim speed), Zora scale (hold your breath underwater for longer), Frog Ring (jump higher), Heart Pin (find hearts more often), these are worn in addition to outfits.

Quote from Pkjoan

Quote from Mango The Magician

I'm gonna be honest that bind ability doesn't inspire confidence. It being directly tied to Zelda's movement makes it less game breaking than Ultrahand, but it's still immensely op.

Same opinion here. This will be used to cheese puzzle, thus rendering them either pointless or less creative.

I think it depends a lot on how many objects it can be used on, and how it ties into the other abilities. Also how the puzzles are designed. In some ways it looks much more limited than Ultrahand (you can only move objects by moving Zelda) but in others it's got more versatility, like being able to use it on monsters.

I have mixed feelings on the abilities and flexibility of puzzle solutions in TotK. Sometimes it does feel like it's too easy to circumvent the intended solution even if you know what that is . I've mentioned a few times that one of the most common things I build is 'a lot of logs' (I even have it saved with autobuild), but sometimes I've chosen to do that even when I think the intended solution would actually be quicker. (Like building a long bridge instead of a raft.)

I've often gotten the impression that TotK is kind of a sandbox for the developers as well as the players. They wanted to push the boundaries of what could be done with an open-world game and a physics engine (apparently a more detailed one than most games have) and see what happened as a result.

The next question is what do you do with that information? How do they use what they learned, and what they saw players do with it, in future Zelda games? This one looks like it's trying to answer that question and it won't surprise me if part of the answer is bringing back some limitations to reign in what players can do to avoid times when a simple but boring answer is the most appealing.

The heraldry over Hyrule Castle at the start of the trailer is missing a wing on each side (there are usually four marks on each side of the Hyrule crest). It's probably just a case of the artstyle simplifying the icon, but to remove a whole wing doesn't seem necessary... Lorule's crest had three wings instead of four, too...

Jabul Waters is a new namesake for the Zora region, but it's still a play on "Jabu" so I wonder if the water god's around.

Lots to unpack here, I'm excited! We're finally getting horses in a 2D game which is awesome (FSA technically had those but it was more of a power-up than a full-on mount you use to get around the world). I'm also weirdly hyped about the return of Deku Scrubs, it's been way too long!

I'm glad we have more tools for combat than just summoning enemies, it's still not exactly the same as swinging an actual weapon, but it looks varied enough to be fun. Heck, the fact that you don't have a basic combat-centric option available might just make all the tools you have more interesting. I'm assuming there's still gonna be some stuff that are like "ok this echo is clearly the best thing for fighting most enemies so I'm gonna stick to it," but it'll be fun to experiment.

I see a lot of people worried that this is too much like the Tears of the Wild games but I think it's gonna feel different enough in practice. While we see a lot of elements from those games (open-ended tools, "creative" gameplay, quest logs, outfits) I feel like it's gonna be way different in practice. For one, this is not a massive open world, but a traditional 2D Zelda map. The combat is also set up as more of a puzzle you have to solve rather than a typical weapon system but with limited resources. Still, this is clearly not a return to the traditional formula, and from what they've shown I wouldn't expect a linear game with dungeon items and sh*t. Heck, I wouldn't even be surprised if the rifts end up being some kind of Shrine equivalent.

The one thing I'd personally be worried about is something that dragged TotK's late-game down for me compared to BotW, and that's the fact that puzzle solving was so open ended that once you figure out the ways your abilities interact, the vast majority of puzzles can be solved in more or less the same way (by pretty much bypassing them entirely). Which kinda changes the game's challenges from "how do I solve this"? into "of all options I have available, which one should I use to make this actually interesting?". I still had fun doing that, but I'd like to be actually challenged by puzzles once again.

We'll see though. Some of the design goals are pretty much the same as in Tears, but the mechanics are still very different. I basically just hope that puzzles are harder to "break".

Quote from logicalpencils

IS THAT PERSON ON THE RIGHT A MALE GERUDO!?

I kind of hope it is just so we'll have proof that Ganon existing doesn't mean no other male Gerudo can be born. But also, I really hope it is so we can finally see a male Gerudo other than Ganondorf.

The water town reminds me of Gaponga Village. It even has a Zora in the corner.

I think this game is going to be really good.