Since Nintendo unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom yesterday, the community has speculated about where this game sits in the series’ timeline, discussed trailer details, and most importantly, shared fan art.
Echoes of Wisdom will be the first mainline Zelda game to feature the titular princess in a playable role. Instead of a sword like Link, Zelda will battle her way through Hyrule with a new item known as the Tri Rod, which allows her to copy and paste items she finds in the world. She can also pick up rocks and throw them at enemies, and copy enemies to do battle for her.
But where do the Echoes of Wisdom fall in Zelda’s expanded timeline? While nothing definitive has been shared yet (and, let’s face it, it probably never will), there are some theories.
Shortly after the game’s trailer went live yesterday, many noticed that Echoes of Wisdom’s map was similar to that of A Link to the Past. A post on the Zelda Reddit highlighted several repeating landmarks. Poster Ryon21 believed that this new map could be an “expansion of the original A Link to the Past Hyrule with the addition of a new volcano northwest of Hyrule Castle and also more areas to the west”. They also noted that the “river courses and roads…are almost the same as in [A Link to the Past]”.
User FelipeKits also pointed out the similarities between the two games’ maps in a separate Reddit post. There are also some differences between the two maps, leading one user to speculate that A Link to the Past’s map “will be integrated into a ‘larger Hyrule’ map” in Echoes of Wisdom. Does this mean the game takes place before or after A Link to the Past?
A fan known as ZeldaExpert74 has speculated that there are three possibilities, one of which is Echoes of Wisdom, the “origin of the Downfall Timeline”, and takes place after Ocarina of Time (where many believe the timeline was split) but before A Link to the Past.
They additionally suggested that Echoes of Wisdom takes place between Link’s Awakening and A Link Between Worlds, or after A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes. “I don’t think this link is a link we’ve been before. The links of [A Link to the Past] And [A Link Between Worlds] They both have a yellow brim on their hat, this one has a green brim,” they concluded.
[EoW] Echoes of wisdom and a link to maps from the past
byu/Ryon21_inzelda
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The fandom seems to generally agree that Echoes of Wisdom takes place somewhere on the “fallen hero” timeline, which is what would have happened if Link hadn’t defeated Ganon in Ocarina of Time.
Another little detail worth mentioning is that the Echoes of Wisdom announcement trailer features both the original and more recent Zora designs, showing that the game is merging old and new with this upcoming release.
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As for the artwork, many are clearly excited to finally see Zelda as the hero, and a number of creations have been shared online, ranging from the heartfelt to the more humorous.
For example, here’s Zelda taking out an enemy with a chair like a WWF champion, while Link cheers from the sidelines.
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Another shared artwork of the princess arming the most terrifying Zelda enemy: Cuccos! I mean, if you can copy a Bokoblin, why not an angry fowl?
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This one is titled The Legend of Link and sees Zelda standing proudly as she says, “It’s my turn”.
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This next one made me chuckle. In a callback to Link’s Awakening, where Link can obtain islander Marin as an “item” of sorts, this manipulated screen from the Echoes of Wisdom trailer instead shows Link holding up aloft.
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Last but not least, for this selection of some of the best Echoes of Wisdom creations, we recreated a moment from Tears of the Kingdom using the two main series, but with their roles reversed.
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The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will be released on Switch on September 26. For everything else announced yesterday, check out our Nintendo Direct recap here.