Legendary Wisdom

Yesterday, we delved *briefly* into the world of Castlevania, as we continued to scratch the surface of what the everyday of Wallachia looks like when the Belmont’s take the day off.


Shenanigans, it turns out

Which is highly appropriate in many ways, more so speaking to how I riffed on the idea that my first article, which was totally suppose to be about Portrait of Ruin, was totally not about PoR. In that spirit, how else is one suppose to make a faithful follow up to such a fun concept through any other means than making the follow up as equally not about Portrait of Ruin, and having a laugh while doing so. In my defense, there were quite a few elements that at least alluded to my appeal of the grandeur that PoR effortlessly emanates, and I look forward to finalizing some thoughts on it in my ongoing series involving the Dominus Collection. However, just to spread things out a bit to avoid the idea I’m a one trick pony, I figured we could muse about Hyrule for a spell, and look at one of the most recent gameplay videos for Echoes of Wisdom.


Mario doesn’t have the copyright on the phrase, people.
Simmer down.

I’ve already horsed around briefly about how I am excited for Echoes of Wisdom, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to regular readers, as the Zelda franchise still stands as my favorite. DS games aside, the series has always found a way to reinvent itself, and influence the entire gaming industry while doing so. There are of course, times when you get the occasional side adventure or two which kind of brings everything back to basics, and Echoes of Wisdom looks to be more in that realm, as the title is a top down experience in the vein of Link’s Awakening, which Echoes looks to be borrowing the engine of as a basis for the adventure itself.


More like Zelda’s Awakening, am I right?

I was a bit late to the party on watching the most recent gameplay footage (one of the downsides to being so intimately entangled with Dracula related affairs), but we’ve got some good looking content to look forward to. As mentioned, EoW looks to borrow the engine for Link’s Awakenings remake, aesthetic and all, which I’m totally jazzed about. I thought the look the LA remake offered was charming as all hell, and the engine felt just as familiar as the best isometrically based Zelda game for the past, so it gets my thumbs up.


They’re even bringing back the side scrolling bits from Link’s
Awakening, which I’m totally vibing with

Zelda has never been big on story per-say, but the atmosphere, overall world and it’s inhabitants are usually the reasons to stay awhile to keep exploring your little Hylian face off. Both the King of Hyrule and Link have been shanghaied, in any case, so it’s up to Zelda to finally put foot to ass and take care of Hyrule herself this time. To all of you gamers out there who were asking yourselves the age old question “what if Zelda was a girl?”, your question will finally be answered.


I reached out to Nintendo for a comment on the rumors involving being able to play as Zelda transformed into a grill, they were unable to respond by the time this article was published.

The gameplay video emphasized a few major points to look forward to. The Still World is fairly par for the course in the land of Zelda, as it is this games version of the Dark World, Twilight Realm, Lorule etc, which are realms that usually take the place as a dimension adjacent to Hyrule itself in any given game, but where everything is popping off and where one generally you gets to discover what happens when keeping it real goes wrong.


Regardless of whether or not this is just a doppleganger or truly
Link just possessed, he is about to enter the “find out” phase of fucking around

The Still World is available via rifts in Hyrule through the overworld, and looks to be a bit harder to traverse, adding extra challenge to the navigation of the to and fro EoW will be providing. Both traversal and puzzle solving have been key elements running through the hype surrounding the lead up to the games launch, showcasing there are a number of ways to go about getting around. Not only does the gameplay showoff Zelda being able to replicate a number of objects at her disposal for regular every day use, but at one point it looks like she just nopes out of bounds, probably wondering to herself how Link even tolerates Hyrules bullshit mostly on foot most of the time.


Going by speedrunning logic, the answer is: he actually doesn’t
put up with Hyrule’s bullshit on foot most of the time, either.

The gameplay footage does emphasize that you will be able to acquire a Swordfighter Form at some point, reassuring fans that traditional combat will still be a regular part of the experience. I get why they went out of there way to underline this reality, as some Zelda fans are just old school sword swingers, if I’m granting a severely dubious side-eyeing benefit of the doubt as to the cries of push back of change, so the option to essentially play EoW as “Link in drag” does exist.


Which honestly, has been a very popular way to enjoy the series as of late

It is times like these where I do almost feel as if the reporting on these events almost writes themselves in terms of excitement levels, as Echoes of Wisdom easily checks all of my boxes in what the game has to offer, but I’ve been a fan of the series for a few decades at this point, so as long as I don’t see any trains kicking about, I’m likely to be head over heels excited for a new Zelda title. Nintendo is releasing a special edition console to celebrate the launch of the game, which I’m sure has already sold out in the pre-order phase as it is, so good luck finding one at all, let alone for a non-scalpers jacked up price.


You don’t need both kidneys to survive. I’m certain I read that somewhere.

Echoes of Wisdom launches on the Switch September 26th.
~Pashford