Why Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom devs had to start over

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a watershed moment for Nintendo. Behind the scenes, several key developers that have worked with the Zelda franchise for many years have been finally given the chance to lead the creation of a game, rather than sticking closely to what they are told by senior figures such as Eiji Aonuma.

This does come with some drawbacks, such as Aonuma "overturning the tea-table" by persuading the team to completely rework their original idea for the game.

The result is a game that is wholly unlike anything else that Nintendo has done with Zelda in the past.

Lots of love,
BretonStripes, Kotor, and the kids

[kyburn]

Don’t you hate when your working on something and then like a year in you say “This isn’t working. We need to rethink this.”

[SonicTheCutehog]

The dungeon maker in the Link's Awakening remake makes way more sense when you learn about one of the original ideas for Echoes of Wisdom

[kyle]

I can tell none of the dungeon maker ideas went to waste bc these dunegons so far have been 💯💯❤️

[frickinfrick]

I definitely would have been the kind of player to only use my sword through the whole game. I love the choice to limit the sword and heavily focus on the echo mechanic with Zelda as the protagonist. It’s a really fun and fresh way to play, both limiting and freeing at the same time.

[Raul_]

I missed your narrator voice. A true Zelda fan.

[TheRedlotusblossom]

I am absolutely loving echoes of wisdom right now

[MisteRRYouTuby]

The moral of the story: it takes great courage to use wisdom to power through challenges…

[poleythepolarbear]

This was really pleasant to hear. It is a cool story, and I appreciate that the creative minds at Nintendo are willing to deliver new experiences rather than giving us the same game year after year.

[strawhat]

Ngl but I’m glad they flipped the script

[KryyssTV]

The fact Link is intrinsically associated with being a master swordsman and archer is why I felt Tears of the Kingdom had lost the identity the franchise had established for decades due to Zonai devices completely overshadowing the usefulness of Link's traditional skills. Even the "legendary" Master Sword became second fiddle to everything else in the game.

After seeing Echoes of Wisdom, I feel that Tears of the Kingdom should have had Zelda as the protagonist given how she would have been a more natural fit as a Zonai inventor given her well established history as a scientist and scolar. Having Link sent back in time and couragously sacrifice his life to become a dragon would have been far more befitting his role as the current host for the Spirit of the Hero.

[henke]

It may be appealing to take in ideas from everyone, but this isn't without risk. You need a clear vision and an understanding of what the game is and is not. The more people contributing, the greater the risk that this is diluted. Good ideas can come from the strangest of places, but so can bad ideas. And it's not easy knowing if an idea is good or bad in a given context.

[gavinferguson]

Great game so far, very happy with my purchase, some people are just unpleasable, you can hand them an amazing game and they will still be upset.

[devinsauls]

I find it funny how the series is called "The Legend of Zelda" yet Zelda is almost never the main character!

[cragworks]

So the millions if tutorials in mrio and luigi is also cuz of sano????

[youtubeuniversity]

At least could keep the old version to maybe rework later on maybe.

[bungalowfeuhler]

I like how you showed the Water Temple when you mentioned she didn’t finish it. I stopped playing for two months when I got stuck there. Finally got back to it and finished.

[trevorgrover]

How did I know it started as a Zelda dungeon maker? lol

[Radien]

It's a great story, but I'm a little tired of Nintendo leads portraying themselves as the wise sages of the project just because they listened to those under them for once.

The real credit for innovation often goes to the unsung young talent who grew up with these game series and worked hard to live out their dream of one day making their mark on them. And you can be darn sure that Peach and Zelda only got their time in the sun this year because the fans have been demanding it SO loudly.

[cragworks]

Sano is one of the reasons majora mask 3d was horrible?!???

[samvieten_official]

I really hope they don't do a dungeon maker but rather something like dragon quest builders did.
Echoes of the wisdom is one of the best games I ever played and for sure my favorite top-down zelda game. I grew up with links awakening and played every single zelda game. This one is awesome, the dungeons are back (yes!) but you got the exploration-part like totk and botw. But I am also craving for a dragon quest builder-esq zelda. Where you can share your islands / dungeons.

Just a dungeonmaker would be not that interesting for me... creativity is about more than that, and that's probably what nintendo knows too.