Echoes of Wisdom is a stunning top-down ode to some of the Legend of Zelda series' most iconic games - and it looks like even more vibrant 2D titles will come, coexisting with 3D gems such as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
As revealed in Nintendo's recent Ask the Developer volume by longtime series producer Eiji Aonuma, 2D Zelda games like Echoes of Wisdom and Link's Awakening have been on the lead's mind for quite some time - so much so, in fact, that he'd like them to stand as a sort of side series. "Actually, I've always wanted to establish a 2D top-down Legend of Zelda series that's separate from the 3D entries like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild."
Aonuma continues, explaining why the 2D entries and 3D titles are a bit different from one another - and how they coexist to create more "diversity" within the Zelda series as a whole. "The game style and how it feels are completely different when the world is viewed in 3D from behind the character to when the world is viewed from a top-down perspective. We wanted to cherish that kind of diversity in the Legend of Zelda series."
Link's Awakening marked the beginning of this top-down 2D line of Zelda games, according to Aonuma, as well as fellow studio Grezzo's work on it. "Amid all this, we felt that the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on Nintendo Switch, which we developed with Grezzo, had become our new approach in terms of graphics and gameplay feel, as a top-down Legend of Zelda game for the Nintendo Switch generation."
That's where Echoes of Wisdom and future 2D games come in, says the producer - fresh titles headed by Grezzo, with nothing quite like them before. "Grezzo had established an excellent way of reviving the top-down Legend of Zelda experience for a modern era, so I thought we could develop something completely new that had never been done before." As a dedicated fan myself, I'm excited - and shamelessly hopeful that A Link Between Worlds will come to the Switch one day.
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Zelda games that can "fly in the face" of game design theory look like the future: Eiji Aonuma worried Echoes of Wisdom had "too much freedom," then added more freedom
