Final Legend of Zelda Echoes Of Wisdom Team Interview Talk Map Size And Creating A New “Feeling”

Tomorrow is the launch of The Legend of Zelda Echoes Of Wisdom, and the hype is ever-growing. And Nintendo has been doing a great job of adding to that hype with the interviews from the dev team at Grezzo. It’s clear that this team, who have worked on numerous remakes within the series in the past, were up to the challenge of creating something familiar yet new. To that end, they worked hard with the Zelda-starring title to make it feel like past games while also doing numerous new things. One of the byproducts of the team’s familiarity was, according to designer Satoshi Terada, making the map much bigger than the last title they worked on:

“So even now, when making a new top-down game in the series, we’re always thinking about how we can bring that “Legend of Zelda-like” feeling to the game. However, we packed in so many things we wanted to do to create this “Legend of Zelda-like” feeling, and the map ended up eight times the size of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.”

That’s a pretty big jump in scale, and it should be noted that the title, in either form, wasn’t small. It was a full-on island with eight dungeons and other things to do within it. To that end, Producer Eiji Aonuma noted that while things are “bigger,” they aren’t meant to be “intimidating” to players:

“At first it was four times the size, but then, before we knew it… (Laughs) However, although the map has become much larger, the feeling of a top-down Legend of Zelda game, where you can easily enjoy gameplay in a compact world, is still there, so it isn’t intimidating to explore.”

Another benefit of making The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom as they did, especially with the Echoes themselves, is that they made a game that appeals to numerous people, including those who didn’t like the “sword and shield” gameplay that the series is typically known for. Terada talked about this with:

“People who aren’t so good at action games might have felt that it was too difficult for them. However, with this game, you can play using echoes and try out lots of different things. So, I think it’s enjoyable even for players who usually struggle with more demanding action gameplay. Also, just like Aonuma-san playing through it eight times, your experience changes every time you play this game. The gameplay changes depending on which path you take and when you get each echo. So I think there can always be new discoveries even if you play it multiple times.”