As Echoes of Wisdom’s title suggests, the central gameplay gimmick of the newest 2D Zelda is the Princess’ new Echo ability. After receiving a magical staff called the Tri Rod from a mysterious fairy named Tri, Zelda can recall the Echoes of various objects and creatures throughout the land of Hyrule. This ability has some incredible gameplay implications, forcing players to use their creativity to summon the right Echo to overcome whatever obstacles Ganon and the forces of evil might throw at Princess Zelda.
The trailers for Echoes of Wisdom have hinted at some awesome uses for Echoes in the game. Princess Zelda can use Echoes to fly, scale walls, battle enemies, and even call horses to help her move through this new and improved version of 2D Hyrule. Players will have the ability to call up Echoes of inanimate objects like beds and wooden boxes, as well as Echoes of classic Zelda enemies like Octoroks and Moblins. The Echo ability presents some truly exciting possibilities, with some Echoes shown in the trailers already standing out as being particularly useful for traversal and powerful in combat.
10 Keese Take the Place of the Paraglider in EOW
How They’re Used: Glide Through the Air like a Paraglider
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Keese are a classic Zelda enemy archetype that has been in nearly every mainline entry since the first Zelda on the NES. They’re monstrous bats who are quick and agile but are generally some of the weakest enemies in the game. Link can almost always defeat one with a single swipe of his sword, and they never do much damage.
In Echoes of Wisdom, Keese will likely play much the same role as enemy types that they have in past games, but their usage as Echoes has an interesting twist. While summoning them as minions for combat will probably be fairly pointless due to their weakness, Keese have an interesting new use-case as Princess Zelda’s glider in Echoes. By calling one out and grabbing onto it, the Princess can slowly glide through the air just as Link does with his paraglider in BOTW, or with the Deku Leaf from Wind Waker.
9 Moles Create Instant Bottomless Pits to Dispose of Monsters
How They’re Used: Dig Holes in the Ground
The Moles of Echoes of Wisdom are a new feature for the Zelda series. In previous games, "Moles" were more like Whack-a-Moles than animal creatures, and were often traps that appeared in dungeons. Alternatively, the Mogma people were a race of mole-like beings who lived in the Eldin region in Skyward Sword. However, while they emerged from the ground like moles, they didn’t quite have the same characteristics as the more life-like rendition of moles seen in Echoes of Wisdom.
What’s so cool about the Mole Echo is that it digs an instant hole in the ground wherever it’s summoned. From there, Princess Zelda can erase the mole, leaving a gaping hole in the earth to do with as she will. In the Traversing Hyrule trailer, Zelda was shown using this new hole in the ground as a makeshift trash receptacle to pick up and throw enemies into to get rid of them quickly.
8 Moblins Switched Allegiances in Echoes of Wisdom
How They’re Used: Minions For Melee Combat
Moblins are one of the most iconic Zelda enemy types. They’ve existed since the series’ inception, and have never wavered in their role as Ganon’s loyal minions. In Echoes of Wisdom, though, the loyalties of the Moblins are finally subject to change. After defeating a Moblin, Princess Zelda will be able to collect its Echo to summon on the fly as a minion of her own.
Given how the Moblin tends to be one of the tougher enemies in Zelda games, they’ll undoubtedly be a great option to use against the weaker basic enemy types Zelda encounters in the overworld. Being that Princess Zelda won’t swing a sword like Link did in previous top-down Zelda games, it’s possible that summoning Moblins may actually be her best method of attack in most combat situations. Players will undoubtedly have several options to choose from when approaching a group of enemies, but few will feel as satisfying as calling out an iconic enemy they’ve been fighting for years to fight on the side of good for once.
How They’re Used: Swim to Higher Altitudes or Across Gaps
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Water Blocks are one of the more fascinating new Echoes in EOW. As the name suggests, they’re blocks of water that Princess Zelda can summon to use to creatively propel herself over obstacles. By stacking several water blocks on top of each other, Princess Zelda creates something akin to a waterfall that she can enter in order to float to the surface, giving her added altitude. She can even place objects on the Water Blocks to lift those objects to higher levels, opening interesting possibilities for puzzle-solving.
The use of Water Blocks in Echoes of Wisdom makes summoning Echoes feel like a meta-ability that’s more like a dev tool than an actual in-game power. This is similar to how TOTK’s Ascend originally began as a tool for the development team’s testers to make traversal easier before they realized it would be a lot of fun for players to experience as well. Summoning Water Blocks makes Echo creation seem like an overpowered ability that leans into Princess Zelda’s origins as a Goddess more than ever.
6 The Deku Baba is the Perfect Trap For Unsuspecting Foes
How They’re Used: Quick Surprise Attacks in Battle
First introduced in Ocarina of Time, the Deku Baba was a Zeldafied spin on the Piranha Plants from Super Mario. While the Deku Baba has no mobility, it is extremely deadly in close-quarters combat. In OOT, the Deku Baba is the first enemy Link encounters in Kokiri Forest, and they’re fittingly easy to beat.
Players can likely expect the Deku Baba to be just as easy to defeat in Echoes of Wisdom, but they can also make clever use of it as an Echo. When Summoned, Deku Babas appear harmless at first, but they’re quick to snap at an enemy that comes too close. In the initial Nintendo Direct trailer, Princess Zelda used a piece of meat to lure an enemy within the Deku Baba’s range, turning it into a quick meal for the carnivorous plant.
5 Blade Traps Make For a Fun-Yet-Deadly Ride
How They’re Used: Swiftly Dash Toward Nearby Enemies
Blade Traps have continued to be a staple of Zelda games, particularly the 2D entries, since the franchise’s inception. In every appearance, they’re extremely fast-moving traps that mainly reside in dungeons. When Link crosses a Blade Trap’s path, it immediately rushes toward him in a straight line to deal heavy damage. In Echoes of Wisdom, Princess Zelda can summon Blade Traps as Echoes for some particularly cool effects. The most exciting thing about the Blade Trap Echo is that Zelda can hop on top of it and ride it, similar to how Link did the Spinner item in Twilight Princess.
This not only propels the Princess forward incredibly quickly, but it also destroys any monster foolish enough to step into its path. Traditionally, the potential downside to this would be that Blade Traps only activate when they spot an enemy in front of them, so Zelda wouldn't be able to use them to jet across the map at will. However, Nintendo's official website shows that Zelda can actually use her Reverse Bind ability to grab onto a Blade Trap while it shoots across the screen at high speeds. The only limitation is that she can't change its trajectory once it gets started.
4 Carrots Are Epona’s Favorite Food
How They’re Used: Summon Horses For Zelda to Ride
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Perhaps more than any other Echo fans have seen thus far in the trailers, the carrot is only cool because of its use case. On its own, the carrot doesn’t represent a classic Zelda enemy or give Zelda any specific abilities like many other Echoes in EOW. Instead, the carrot is amazing for one reason: because it lets Zelda summon a horse. This is only the second 2D Zelda title that lets players ride a horse, with the only other one being Four Swords Adventures.
Horses were summoned in exactly the same way in FSA as they are in EOW, with players picking up a carrot to call a group of horses that they and their friends could ride. Aside from carrots, players will be able to summon a number of other food items that have varying effects in EOW, such as meat skewers that attract nearby enemies as they did in BOTW. Laying a trap for enemies is already a fun concept, but using carrots to lure horses for faster traveling is a welcome addition to the 2D Zelda formula that more games in the series should have had.
3 Birds Let Princess Zelda Soar Over Hyrule
How They’re Used: Fly to Higher Altitudes and Fight Aerial Enemies
The possibility of flight in any video game is always exciting, and that’s particularly true of Echoes of Wisdom. While there appear to be hard limits on how exactly players will be able to fly using the Bird Echo, it’ll nonetheless give players an awesome ability to reach higher places, make a quick escape from combat, or simply take a leisurely break from walking.
The Princess is able to fly upward on the Bird without controlling its movement while using Reverse Bind but is able to control the Bird without moving upward when grabbing onto it after summoning it as an Echo. Interestingly, birds can also be summoned and used for combat as well. The Traversing Hyrule trailer showed the Princess sending a whole flock of Bird Echoes to attack flying enemies. This makes the Bird one of the most versatile Echoes shown thus far, as it has two extremely viable usages for players to take advantage of.
2 Skulltula Are More Crawly Than Creepy This Time Around
How They’re Used: Crawl Up Cliffs, Ledges, and Hard-to-Reach Areas
Skulltula are hard for any Zelda fan to forget, no matter how much they may want to. First introduced in Ocarina of Time, the Skilltulla were giant spiders that wore skulls as protective armor. Link had to first get them to spin around to reveal their weaker underbelly if he had any hope of defeating them. They would often dwell on the sides of scaleable cliff faces, making traversal more difficult for Link. In Echoes of Wisdom, Skulltullas return, but they’ve far ascended their roles as minor nuisances as in previous Zelda games.
When Princess Zelda uses them as Echoes in tandem with her Reverse Bind ability, Skulltulas allow her to crawl up the sides of walls. This is particularly useful since Zelda can’t climb in the same way that Link could in BOTW, forcing her to come up with creative ways to ascend cliff faces. The one downside to this method is that Reverse Bind puts Zelda entirely at the mercy of however the Echo decides to move, meaning that she won’t be able to force it to crawl sideways to avoid obstacles or other enemies (including Skultullas) who might be waiting to pounce on her mid-climb.
1 Redeads Will Finally Frighten Someone Other Than Link For a Change
How They’re Used: Scare Enemies Stiff in Combat
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Redeads are infamous for their creepiness in the Zelda franchise. They’re constantly the scariest enemy in every game they feature in, both due to their unsettling appearance and their ability to freeze anyone who comes too close. Players always dread hearing the Redead’s signature scream, but Redeads are far less scary when they’re fighting on the side of the player.
Like other enemies in Echoes of Wisdom, the Redeads are also a summonable Echo for Princess Zelda to utilize as she sees fit. In the original EOW announcement trailer, Princess Zelda was shown summoning a Redead to use on a group of Moblins to frighten them into submission. It adds a creative use for a beloved enemy type in the series that goes beyond just summoning a monster to do damage. The use of Redeads to utilize their iconic paralysis ability opens up innumerable possibilities for using the powers of other Zelda enemies that players have grown accustomed to being on the receiving end of.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Adventure
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
- Platform(s)
- Switch
- Released
- September 26, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+
