Nintendo surprise dropped a new overview trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom today, and it’s clear how Breath of the Wild has influenced it.
Back in June, Nintendo revealed its latest Zelda game only a year after Tears of the Kingdom came out, but this time, the titular princess is finally the star of her own game. Today, Nintendo released a new Traversing Hyrule trailer that has offered a more detailed look at some of the places you’ll be visiting this time around, as well as another ability Zelda will have, and another companion she’ll be travelling with too. For the first time in a 2D Zelda game, the Gerudo will be making an appearance, in Gerudo Desert as always, a place with plenty of mysteries.
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Jabul Waters will be host to both the Sea Zora and River Zora, the two different types you might have seen in the first trailer. The Sea Zora are the kind you will be familiar with from Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, whereas the River Zora are the ones from A Link to the Past and other 2D games – this is the first time they’ve been in a game together. The Gorons are back too, in Eldin Volcano, but more importantly Deku Scrubs are back for the first time since Tri Force Heroes.
Business Scrubs can even help you make smoothies with items you gather that give you different effects based on what you mix. Oh, and you can wear different accessories and clothing items for different effects too!
It was clear from the first trailer that Echoes of Widsom’s game design was taking some queues from Breath of the Wild’s “play around with your toolset and see what happens” mentality, but that influence is stretching even further than it first seemed. Alongside the game’s main quest, there will be side quests too, with an Adventure Log just like in Breath of the Wild.
You do have the option of fast travel when you find certain waypoints, but who cares about that, when Zelda will also be able to ride around on probably the cutest horse the series has ever had (they let you jump over small obstacles too to boot). Using her echo ability to create a carrot can even summon a horse, which I absolutely love.
Lastly, the trailer also introduced another ability Tri will give Zelda, Bind. When you use Bind, you literally connect yourself to interactable objects, letting you move them around, kind of like Tears of the Kingdom’s Ultrahand. You can also use it on buried treasure or enemies, and your echoes too, which looks like it will have a tonne of different uses in the game’s puzzles.
The end of the trailer also shows how the rifts featured in the first trailer are making big important landmarks disappear across the world, and it looks like you’ll be able to enter a portal, presumably to save them, obviously reminiscent of A Link to the Past’s Dark World. It’s clear that Nintendo isn’t half-arsing this one, which is reassuring for Zelda’s first solo outing.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is out September 26 for Nintendo Switch.
