Few of us expected a new mainline Zelda game for the Switch at this point in its lifecycle, let alone a 2D one (let alone one starring the eponymous Princess herself as the main protagonist), but The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is not only coming, it’s also now under two months away. Ahead of its looming release, Nintendo has released an extensive new gameplay trailer, unveiling a fresh batch of details.
The trailer starts off with details on the various biomes you’ll be exploring as you traverse Echoes of Wisdom’s version of the kingdom of Hyrule, many of which will be familiar (to varying degrees) to series fans, including the shining sands of the Gerudo Desert, the villages of both the sea and river Zora in the Jabul Waters region, the idyllic Kakariko village, the cliffs and lava rivers of the Eldin Volcano region, and more.
When it comes to navigating this large and varied map, players will have a variety of different options. For starters, you can find objects known as waypoints scattered throughout the map, which effectively serve as fast travel points that you can instantly warp to at any time once you have discovered them in the world.
Zelda can, additionally, also ride across Hyrule on horseback, from where she also has an advantage against enemies that she can either rush past or simply gallop into to deal damage. Once Zelda acquires the Echo of the carrot item, she can create that echo to summon her horse at any time- and yes, it does look like different kinds of horses will be available.
While exploring Hyrule, players will also discover smoothie shops, where you can combine the ingredients that you have gathered to create different kinds of smoothies, each providing unique buffs and bonuses. Additionally, you’ll also be able to outfit Zelda with different kinds of equipment, some of which will bring gameplay advantages and buffs, with others being purely cosmetic.
Meanwhile, the trailer also reveals another major new ability that will seemingly be crucial to Echoes of Wisdom’s core gameplay loop. In addition to being able to create Echoes of objects, creatures, and enemies, Zelda will also be able to use her Tri Rod to use her Bind ability, with which she can Bind objects to her movement.
In a nutshell, that means the objects move as she does- so if you come across a particularly massive boulder blocking your path that you can’t move any other way, you can Bind it to yourself, and move around so that it mimics your movement until, say, it falls off a ledge into the abyss, thus clearing the way forward for Zelda. That, as you might imagine, can be used in a variety of ways. Zelda can, for instance, use Bind to unearth bury treasure or even, say, reposition an enemy above a large drop so that it falls to its death mid-combat. And yes, Bind can also be used on Echoes.
Alternatively, Zelda also has access to the Reverse Bond ability, which, as its name suggests, Binds Zelda to an object or creature’s movement, so you can, as an example, Bind yourself to a bird to be able to fly across a gap, or to a fast-moving enemy so that you can navigate the map a bit more quickly. Check out the trailer for for more details.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom launches on September 26 for the Nintendo Switch. A recent ESRB rating for the title suggested that though Princess Zelda is its main protagonist, it will also feature usual series protagonist Link as a playable character. Read more on that through here.
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