The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Nintendo and Grezzo’s recent action-adventure title, has captivated the gaming world with its Zelda-centric narrative, earning a place among the franchise’s most celebrated stories. Interestingly, the game’s origins lie in a planned sequel to the 1992 SNES classic, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. This fascinating backstory came to light in an interview with the development team.
In a discussion with Polish website naEkranie, Echoes of Wisdom creators Tomomi Sano, Satoshi Terada, and Eiji Aonuma delved into the game’s development, marking their sixth collaboration with Grezzo, the studio behind the acclaimed 2019 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Fans quickly noticed similarities between Echoes of Wisdom and A Link to the Past, particularly in the map layout and the presence of familiar races like the Zoras and Deku Scrubs. Addressing these observations, Echoes of Wisdom director Tomomi Sano explained:
“First, we made decisions about gameplay and specific locations. Once we had those, and we had locations related to water and forest, for example, we chose specific races – River Zora and Sea Zora in water locations, and Deku Scrubs in forest. Grezzo also worked on the Majora’s Mask remake, which featured those races. We wanted to introduce them in a way that made sense to our game.”
From Sequel Plans to Original Narrative: The Evolution of Echoes of Wisdom
altElements like the Deku race sparked connections to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, hinting at the game’s initial concept. Grezzo’s previous collaborations with Nintendo have revived classic Zelda titles, including The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the Nintendo 3DS. While Grezzo had previously worked with Nintendo on an original Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (2015), the shift to a completely original story for Echoes of Wisdom stemmed from changes in gameplay and character focus.
Developing a new gameplay style presented challenges, but the “echoes” mechanic offered a unique approach, drawing inspiration from the distinctive visuals of Grezzo’s The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake. Director Satoshi Terada discussed the team’s focus and initial concerns surrounding the echo design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94RTrH2erPE[/embed]
“There’s a lot of variety in the game when it comes to Echoes. It was really hard to predict how players would use and play with them. That’s why we focused on goals, like reaching a certain height, pressing a specific enemy, or defeating an enemy. We left the process in the players’ hands. All we cared about was making it possible to do it and not breaking the game. At first, we thought it would be hard to balance, but with this approach it turned out to be easier than we thought.”
Echoes of Success: A New Zelda Classic
The innovative echo mechanics and Zelda’s prominent role have propelled Echoes of Wisdom to become one of Nintendo’s top games of 2024. While some fans might have hoped for a direct remake of A Link to the Past, the potential for such a remake on a future platform like the Nintendo Switch 2 remains a possibility. With no new mainline Zelda titles currently announced, fans can anticipate further exciting collaborations between Nintendo and Grezzo.
