The Summer Direct hit last week and was full of good, new announcements. It has to be one of the most content-filled Summer Directs — or E3s — in a long time. Because E3 is permanently gone, some people might have been thinking that it was going to be a slow, dry summer in terms of Nintendo news, but with a new Mario and Luigi RPG, a Metroid Prime Beyond trailer, a Marvel vs. Capcom fighting game collection, and much more being announced it signals that there are some great, fun Nintendo experiences on the horizon.
Of all the announcements the one that got me the most excited was the announcement of a whole new 2D Zelda that no one was expecting. We know quite a lot about the game through the trailer and that the title will hit Switch in a little over three months on September 26. This article will examine what we can expect from this new Zelda game.
Great Nintendo Direct
Now, most summers we do usually have a Direct, especially around the time that E3 was traditionally going on. However, in 2020, because of the pandemic, there was no Direct, and what we got were trailers of individual games dropping. Such was the case with Paper Mario: Origami King. This year, thankfully we got the Direct. About halfway through the Direct, a trailer started playing, and you could see a small chibi-style cloaked character battling what appeared to be some kind of Zelda enemy. For people who have played the Link’s Awakening remake (2019), and maybe A Link Between Worlds (2013), it was clear that this was a Zelda game.
It was an exciting moment and as the trailer continued, Link defeated Ganon. He was then swallowed by a void (similar to the Twilight realm from Twilight Princess), and it dawned on us that Zelda would be a playable character. This is how many of us have been introduced to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
Zelda as a playable character is something that has been mooted for a long while. The creators of the franchise have said in the past that for Zelda to be playable, something needs to be different about the experience, she cannot just be a reskin of Link. The ability that will make her special, we now know to be the Tri Rod. The Tri Rod is an item that can spawn “echoes” of structures and even enemies. Its utility seems similar to the Cane of Somaria from A Link to the Past and Oracle of Ages. In these games, the cane is used exclusively to spawn blocks. In Echoes of Wisdom, the Tri Rod will be a much more useful and important item, potentially being the game’s most important gameplay mechanic, and “opening” up the game world to new kinds of exploration and new ways to progress and play with the elements of the game world.
Zelda as a playable character is great news because it shows that Miyamoto and Aonuma aren’t scared of shaking up series conventions. I don’t see this as Nintendo being too “woke.” Zelda is a character with her own assets, and I’m glad that we are going to see her use her unique abilities to forge new lore and also hopefully get more people into playing Zelda, who otherwise wouldn’t. Similarly to Nintendo using Zelda as a playable character, it seems like Echoes of Wisdom won’t emphasize combat and I think that that is a good temporary change to the series that will highlight the great puzzle possibilities in Zelda games.
Back to 2D, and the Return of the Deku Scrub
After the revolution that was Breath of the Wild for Zelda games, it’s nice that we’re going back to a 2D style with a brand-new game rather than another remake. Nintendo may have been developing Echoes of Wisdom towards the end of Tears of the Kingdom’s development, and it seems that some of Tears of the Kingdom’s and Breath of the Wild’s “free” game design philosophy has rubbed off on Echoes of Wisdom as I got vibes of Breath of the Wild when the camera panned back to show the game world in the Echoes of Wisdom trailer.
That shot that panned up and back and gave us a look at 2D Hyrule, combined with the new music, was a moment of awe. It really was impressive. Other commentators have noted that the world roughly matches the map in A Link to the Past, with bodies of water, and a structure reminiscent of the Eastern Palace being in comparable locations. This might imply that we are getting a third entry of the Link to Past strand of games, along with A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds. This is an exciting prospect, and it would be amazing to see how that world has evolved and how new characters will interact with Zelda. However, we don’t know that Echoes of Wisdom does use that same setting. From the trailer, the inclusion of races that we haven’t seen in a while might point to this game being more linked to Ocarina of Time.
There’s a shot of a Business Scrub selling his wares. We haven’t seen the Deku Scrub, as a race, since Majora’s Mask. It would be so cool if the Deku Scrubs had their own society like they do in Majora’s Mask. I can see a trading side quest involving them already and that would be so nostalgic. Moreover, we have confirmation from the trailer that the Gerudo are returning since a Gerudo lady can be spotted in the trailer. The only top-down Zelda where Gerudo appears is in Four Swords Adventures, so it’ll be great to have them here.
Not Long to Wait
Another interesting thing that the trailer shows is a meeting between the river Zora, and the Sea Zora, the two races of Zora that usually don’t interact. River Zoras were enemies located in water that originated from the original Zelda, while Sea Zora are the advanced race of Zora that live in societies, and use technology first introduced in Ocarina of Time. While River Zora are sometimes seen to have characteristics usually associated with Sea Zora (living in societies in A Link Between Worlds), it is even rarer to see the two races interact. In the trailer, it looks like there is some argument over something potentially political, and this is so interesting to me and I can’t wait to see what’s happening in their world.
So, the big gaming surprise of the summer, for many of us, is the Zelda series getting a brand new entry. We won’t have long to wait as the game is releasing on September 26.
Was there anything interesting in the trailer that you’d like to point out? Be sure to sound off in the comments.
