On September 23rd, Nintendo shared more information about their much-anticipated release of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. In Part 2 of their “Ask the Developer” interview, the developers discussed how they had “struggled with the ideas for echoes” because they were looking for the right combination of items that can both “help and hinder” the player but also work seamlessly between top-down and side-view perspectives. Grezzo director Satoshi Terada theorized that echoes proving to be “too useful” may end up being the only one that a player might use, so they sought balance as they “wanted to encourage players to try out lots of different things using a variety of echoes.”
As we’ve seen in other trailers for Echoes of Wisdom, it is clear that the development team was deeply inspired by the freedom given to players in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. This desire to encourage creative problem solving has always been a key gameplay element for The Legend of Zelda and it lead to over 100 echoes being included in the game. While that might seem overwhelming at first, Terada assured that the developers were “sure to give each one a specific characteristic so that players would remember what each one does.”
The team was also mindful about making sure that players feel engaged while using echoes since Princess Zelda “doesn’t have a way of attacking directly” at first. Early in development, it felt like Zelda was standing around waiting and watching her echoes do all of the work. Grezzo was asked to make adjustments to the gameplay for instant feedback. “For example, if you made an echo of a monster, that echo would immediately attack an enemy, just like you swinging a sword. Or if you wanted to light a fire, you could use an echo with that ability, and it would light the fire straight away,” Tomomi Sano stated.
Learning more about how echoes were developed can certainly put away any doubts people may have about the more passive approach to combat that Echoes of Wisdom is taking. You can check out the full interview on Nintendo’s website here.
