The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom is the latest entry in the series, but this time with a twist, we’re going on an adventure playing as Zelda rather than Link. The trailer for the new game switched things up pretty quickly, starting out as Link, then flipping to Zelda in a major reveal. Today I’m going to check out loads of other details and secrets you may have missed from the Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom trailer.

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It’s always exciting when we have a new Zelda trailer, I must have watched this 100 times now, and each time you find new little details and secrets. I love the older 2D style of Zelda games with A Link To The Past being my favourite of all time, and Link’s Awakening very high up there in the rankings too, and given everything we’re seeing in this trailer, that makes me very excited indeed.

Without further delay, let’s dive into the secrets and things you may have missed from the Echoes of Wisdom trailer.

Ganon Returns

Ganon here looks very similar to A Link To The Past Ganon, also Link Between Worlds and Oracle of Ages / Seasons. This could point towards the timeline placement being the branch where Link is defeated, however, Four Swords Adventure also has Boar Ganon too, so it could be the Triumphant Child Link branch of the timeline. The timeline is a big subject, so I’m not going to get into that here, we can get stuck into the timeline placement on another day (but I would be interested to know which branch of the timeline you think this is on, or is it a new branch?).

Link’s Sword

First of all we should check out the blade Link is weilding. It doesn’t look like the Master Sword. He clearly has the Hylian Shield when he’s running in there to face Ganon, but what is this sword? The shape isn’t quite right, plus the colouring seems off. Is this a new blade, or is this simply what the Master Sword looks like in the Link’s Awakening art style?

Crystal Cage

This isn’t the first time Zelda has been stuck inside a crystal. This has happened in Ocarina of Time, A Link To The Past, and Four Swords Adventures.

Link’s powers

Similar to Tears of the Kingdom, it looks like Link is starting with all his abilities and powers. He’s got a sword, the Hylian Sheild, a bow, he can jump (which he normally needs Roc’s feather for). Even though it appears Link dissappears quickly in Echoes of Wisdom, it’s interesting to see he has most of his abilities at the start.

Fast travel or save points

We can see these mysterious statues dotted around Hyrule. There’s one when we see the first shot of the overworld, plus you can see them in towns and other places too. You can briefly see them on the mini-map plus they glow yellow when Zelda passes close by. These could be fast travel points to help get around the map quickly, or they could be save points, or perhaps they are statues similar to BOTW where you can trade abilities.

Shadow Realm

You can just about make out ‘things’ in the purple dark cracks that appear across Hyrule, and that Link falls into. Looking into these cracks you can see floating platforms in the distance. In a quick shot int he trailer it looks like Zelda is IN this dimension getting some Echoes. I would imagine at some point in the game we can swicth back and forth between different dimensions, and it’s highly likely we’ll have to go into this Shadow Realm to save Link.

New Town

Echoes of Wisdom appears to share a map with A Link To The Past, but we can also see some major differences here. For example, we have a Town that’s suffered from the purple cracks that have appeared all across Hyrule. It doesn’t look like Kakariko Village, although could be similar to Castle Town.

Bombable Walls

This is something we’ve seen in plent of Zelda games, but here in the trailer we can see bombable walls. Echoes of Wisdom will have a focus on puzzle solving, so Zelda is going to have to find a way to make an Echo of a bomb to get into these hidden away spots on the map.

Zelda in jail

Zelda is back in jail once again. Here she’s meeting Tri, the new fairy that helps us out with Echoes and replicating items in Hyrule. Zelda is seen walking oast some guards later in the trailer, however, that seems all friendly, so I am interested to know how she got there, and how she got out. Zelda has been in jail previously, notably in A Link To The Past.

D-pad use

Eiji Aonuma said we’d get to see new gameplay features, and it looks like the Trirod is going to be the driving force here. Zelda creates Echoes throughout the trailer and they are selected with the Y button on the Switch controller, then we have other items mapped to the d-pad, similar to items in BOTW and TOTK.

Zelda’s Cloak

Zelda being in jail and her wearing a cloak maybe linked in some way. Link appears to be wearing the same cloak at the start of the trailer, so perhaps she’s wearing it with the hood up to keep her identity a secret and away from the eyes of Guards. This could explain why the Guards are being friendly, although a cloak doesn’t seem like a great way of staying hidden. The cloak is also very similar to what we see Link wearing in BOTW and TOTK.

Diving

In recent years with Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild, we’ve not been been able to dive under the water. However, here in Echoes of Wisdom it looks like things are about to change with Zelda able to dive under water. Zelda also has the ability to hold her breath and we have a new oxygen wheel too.

Gerudo

Link’s Awakening isn’t set in Hyrule so we don’t get to see some of our favourite characters and races. This changes with Echoes of Wisdom as we get a look at the Gerudo in the Link’s Awakening top-down toy art style. They look gorgeous.

Walking over trees

Normally in a top down Zelda game, trees mark the boundaries of the areas and you have to walk around. This isn’t the case in Echoes of Wisdom as it appears that Zelda can climb over the trees and bypass them all together. This is going to be a game changing mechanic, especially when you come across a maze in a forest, which is almost a certainty.

Side-scrolling

Much like Link’s Awakening we’re getting side scrolling sequences to paur up with the standard gameplay. This was introduced all the way back in Link’s Awakening on the Game Boy and it’s great to see it here again in Echoes of Wisdom.

Multiple Zoras

We can see an interesting conversation happening between River Zora and Sea Zora. We don’t normally see these two races in the same game together, although this isn’t the first time since they were both spotted in Oracle of Ages. They appear to be having a meeting, although whether they are getting along is another question. The sea zora appears to have it’s arms folded and it’s unclear whether they are haing an arguement or not.

ReDeads

We also see the return of ReDeads, the terrifying zombie creatures from Ocarina of Time. These awful zombies that scream at you don’t look half as scary as they have in the past due to the art style of the game, but I am sure they still shreik and will scare Zelda in the game.

Deku Tree

The Deku Tree makes an appearence in the trailer. The design is very similar to the Ocarina of Time Deku Tree, but we can also see a huge Triforce Mural on the ground. This is exactly the sort of place you’d find the Master Sword, but it doesn’t look like we’ve got that yet.

Monster emotions

In Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom we see monsters get surprised and they show exclamaton marks when Link surprises them. Here too in Echoes of Wisdom we see emotions from enemies, as we see question marks appear when Zelda is close by to enemies.

Impa

In one quick shot we see a mysterious old woman who looks like she has incredible fighting skills, that can only really be one woman and that’s Impa. It looks like Impa is taking out a bunch of Knights, but that does pose the question, what has Zelda done to be chased by Knights, also related to her being in jail earlier in the trailer.

That’s about for all the details and secrets in Zelda Echoes of Wisdom’s reveal trailer. We don’t have long to wait, the game releases on 26th September 2024, which is only a few months away, so very exicting times in the Zelda community. Let me know in the comments what you think about it.