Princess Zelda finally got her own starring role in the new Nintendo game “Echoes of Wisdom.” The game was a surprise when it was announced, and it introduced a new play style where Zelda can copy items and enemies to solve puzzles. The game’s producer, Eiji Aonuma, and its directors, Tomomi Sano and Satoshi Terada, talked about making the game. They were nervous about how fans would react to Zelda being the main character and the new gameplay elements.
Aonuma said he played the game eight times during development. He realized there were many ways to solve the puzzles after his first playthrough. The developers wanted players to experiment with different solutions.
Some players have criticized the game’s performance on the Switch console.
New gameplay elements in Echoes
They say the frame rate, which controls how smooth the animations are, is unstable.
Sano said the developers used a variable frame rate because they thought it was the best option. Players also complained about the menu system used to select the “echoes” Zelda collects. By the end of the game, there can be 127 echoes, and players have to scroll through a long row of icons to choose them.
Terada said the developers wanted to encourage experimentation, and there is a faster way to access the echoes using a notebook. Aonuma said “Echoes of Wisdom” is similar to the original Zelda game from 40 years ago. He thought it might be impossible to add new elements to the top-down style of older Zelda games, but he thinks this game satisfied many players.
Aonuma didn’t give any hints about Nintendo’s future plans, but he said he hopes they can continue making both 2D and 3D Zelda games.
