With the Switch 2 expected in 2025 the Zelda team are likely working on the next Zelda game. Echoes of Wisdom was the most recent Zelda game, and while Grezzo worked with Nintendo, this game wasn’t from the core Zelda team, and there are some great ideas in Echoes of Wisdom which could be iterated upon in the next mainline 3D Zelda game, so today I’m going to have a look at some of the lessons the Zelda team could learn from Echoes of Wisdom.

Before I get into the details, I’m going to be discussing Echoes of Wisdom in the game, including potential spoilers. So if you haven’t played Echoes of Wisdom and you want to avoid spoilers, consider this your spoiler warning.

Dual protagonist

First of all we have the concept of a dual protagonist. The Echoes of Wisdom team touced on this in the final level of the game, with Link and Zelda working together to overcome the final dungeon. This is definitely something that could be built upon in the next mainline Zelda game. In Tears of the Kingdom we fought alongside Sages, however, I think the Zelda team could take that futher and have Link team up wither another player from the story. It doesn’t have to be a single character, it could be multiple.

There are a couple of options for how this could work. We could fight together alongside another character other than Link, or we could take it in turns playing as Link and another character for different parts of the game. This was done very effectively during God of War Ragnorok, where you could play as Atreus (and other characters) for some levels, then back to Kratos for parts of the story. We could take it in turns playing as different characters, or play together either with a computer controller player or in co-op.

New bad guy

It would be good to see the Zelda team mix up the formula. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom had similar structures where we played as Link. We had limited interactions with Zelda and ultimately faced off against Ganondorf, or some version of our standard big bad character Ganon (in Breath of the Wild we fought Calamity Ganon). It would be good to mix it up regarding the great evil we’re facing. Echoes of Wisdom introduced us to Null.

In the next mainline Zelda game we could face off against someone other than Ganon or Ganondorf. Echoes did something interesting suggesting Null controlled or had captured Ganon in the past, given he appeared as an Echo in the game. While I do like the standard Zelda/Link/Ganondorf dynamic, it would be interesting for the Zelda team to mix things up with a new bad guy, and even take us to new lands like we saw with Termina in Majora’s Mask or Koholint Island in Link’s Awakening.

Have a central mechanic

Many Zelda games have a central mechanic which is core to the gameplay. Ocarina of Time had the Ocarina, allowing Link to play various songs which would translate into different abilities or effects. Echoes of Wisdom introduced us to the Echo ability, allowing Zelda to copy items and enemies and then use them to her advantage. I’d like to see the Zelda team move away from giving us everything at the start of the game, for example in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom we acquire our new abilities in the start location or tutorial zone. That was the Great Plateau in Breath of the Wild and the Great Sky Island in Tears. While this worked for those games, I’d prefer for Nintendo to simplify things down and bring it back to basics, and unlock progression throughout our adventure, rather than getting everything at the start.

While the Echo system in Echoes of Wisdom worked for that game, I don’t know if I want to see that come back for the future. I like the central mechanic idea, pairing it back to an ability which then branches out into complexity through the echoes you can create. Perhaps the Zelda team could pair back the ability, so rather than copy anything, Link could just control enemies for a short amount of time through another ability. Being able to copy anything, and then deploy anything also made the game feel to passive, like I was sitting back and watching what was going on rather than taking an active part in the adventure.

Simplify traversal

Echoes of Wisdom made efforts to simplify traversal. She could run and spin and we had a horse to help us get around. Unfortunately that was broken pretty quickly when players realised we could pick up birds and fly with them. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom made traversal too easy, especially Tears. It made getting across Hyrule very easy and effortless. Once I had figured out the correct combination of Zonai Devices, I could simply fly anywhere.

For the next Zelda game I want to be grounded. Just give me a horse and remove any ability to fly around the place, as that takes the fun out of exploration. This is something that Elden Ring does very well. It has verticality. The terrain is difficult and oppressive, sometimes scary. I feel much more connect to the exploration when I can run or ride my horse to locations.

Enemy variety

Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom lacked depth when it came to enemy variety. Many of the enemies were the same in Tears of the Kingdom compared to Breath of the Wild, which may amplify that feeling of lacking in enemy variety. Echoes of Wisdom did a great job with it’s enemies, largely due to the echoes system and needing to include a wide variety so Zelda could use them for her abilities. For the next Zelda game I’d like to see at least double the amount of enemies, increase that variety so help maintain interest when it comes to combat.

Real-time story

One thing Echoes of Wisdom did really well was the real-time story, and having the world react to the events of the story. For example, after you complete the first few dungeons new areas of the world open up. Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom suffered in the story department, largely because the main story beats happened in the past and we were not taking part in them. We were exploring this vast Hyrule, impacted by events from the past and learning about them through memories.

However, we need to take part in the story and affect the outcomes. Ocarina of Time is a great example, where after completing the first 3 dungeons, you go to the Temple of Time to take the Master Sword and then you are sent to the future and have to deal with a Hyrule that has fallen into disrepair under Ganondorf. You are impacted by the story, and we have to see a big story improved in the next game.

Bring back good dungeons

Echoes of Wisdom did a good job with it’s dungeons, especially the later dungeons with classic puzzles. There were some great puzzle solutions where you had to use echoes to press buttons at the same time as standing on another, something brought about through the unqiue powers of the echoes. Both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom suffered with their dungeons. Tears did a better job, for example the Wind Temple and Lightning Temple were pretty good. But that is only comparing those dungeons against the others around it. The Water Temple in Tears wasn’t good, I didn’t like the Fire Temple in the Goron region at all.

All the dungeons in Breath of the Wild were lacklustre and felt like a slog to get through. In the next Zelda game the team should take a leaf from the Echoes of Wisdom team and return to the roots of the series with their dungeon design. Study Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Wind Waker and expecially Skyward Sword. Skyward Sword gets a lot of flak, however, you can’t deny the dunegons in that game are some of the best in the series.

Play as Zelda

Finally, I would like to play as Zelda in the next mainline 3D game. Zelda had her outing in Echoes of Wisdom, however, I felt she was too passive. While the Echo abilities were cool, more often than not I didn’t feel connect to the fight. We touched on it before playing as Zelda alongside Link, either in co-op, or as an AI companion. Link could be our melee specialist with swords, shields and spears, and Zelda could lean into being the magic user with spells. Many action RPGs have shown us what we could do with magic users in game, they don’t have to be passive protagonists like we saw in Echoes of Wisdom, they can be active and central to the narrative and action. I’d like to see Link and Zelda together, not just Zelda like we had in Echoes of Wisdom, but them teaming up either taking it in turns or side by side.

Next up we have some ides from the community.

Community Comments

@vianabdullah2837
An expansion on the dual protagonist gameplay that was present in the final dungeon. There’s even an opportunity for co-op gameplay too. Imagine a Zelda game where you’re constantly switching between playing as Link and Zelda.

@victorcastanedab
I think this is a fairly basic anwer, but I feel like the most relevant thing that I would like to mention is: the development of the story actually impacting the world in meaningful ways.

For example, in TOTK, it doesn’t matter which dragon tears you have witnessed, as the rest of the characters and the world don’t adapt too much (or not at all for most characters) to the changes in knowledge that the player (and thus Link) experiences. Like you have learned that Zelda is in the past, but the main quest still keeps the “why is Zelda acting so weird?” mistery despite that. So you have this really cool story, but it feels detatched from the game itself in a way.

On the other hand, in EOW you have, for example, new rifts appearing after a certain point (giving the feeling that the threat is going on in real time) and it feels like your actions and what you learn as Zelda actually impact the world, although of course not as much as it could with a larger storyline (like 3D Zelda games tend to have).

While I liked both BOTW and TOTK’s stories, and they were more elaborate than EOW’s, the latter felt more connected to what the player is experiencing. I feel like the next Zelda game’s story should probably focus a bit more on things happening at the time of the game, and a bit less on the past (or maybe they could make it OOT-like, with having a past and a present be both playable, which actually, thinking about it, I think would have worked really well with TOTK’s story). I think EOW proves that you can mix a somewhat linear storyline with freedom of exploration without sort of detatching much of the story from the main quest.

@athorem
Echoes makes some good changes but the biggest thing I want is no paraglider. Echoes made me realize I prefer Zelda games where you have to engage with the overworld level design

@PixelPikmin
If we’re gonna keep getting open world Zelda games, don’t give us this many tools. Botw felt fine enough because you still had to explore the ground and at least attempt the puzzles, but Totk and EoW gave you so many options that exploration doesn’t even matter and the puzzles are mind numbly easy because they’re made to be solved any way

@Romulus879
I liked the new mechanic with the echoes. New aspects and mechanics are most important for me in a new Zelda game. That‘s why TotK felt boring after a short time, because it was to similar to BotW. Then we could play as Zelda, there was a new villain and several new aspects, which made the game very interesting.

But there are weak aspects of the game as well, which could be made better. For example:

Like in the open world games, EoW was to easy with the many potions/smoothies you can get. Older Zelda games had 1-4 potions you could use at once and I think they should go back to that way.

@darkdragonmedeus705
I think Grezzo and the director could work on an Original 3D LoZ game. Whether you play as Princess Zelda or not could be on table, but summoning monsters in a more N64 or Twilight Princess style title would be innovative. And more enemy variety for sure.

@ggbetz
Honestly, loved eow, I think copying enemies to fight for you would be fantastic. I got my kid eow as their 1st zelda game, and she is not excited that you just hit everything with your sword in all the other games. Also, she liked you could talk to animals.

@GamingReinvented
The idea of using a new villain again. After nearly 10 years of 3D Zelda games having Ganon as the main antagonist, and most of the series making him the surprise baddie behind everything that happened lol (poor Zant), the idea of the next 3D Zelda game shaking it up a bit and introducing a new antagonist would be amazing to me. Give us another Majora or Demise or what not, rather than Ganondorf reincarnated yet again.

Also enemy variety. The enemy variety in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom was poor, and the enemy variety in Skyward Sword was going that way too, even if did a better job than the wild era games after it. Echoes of Wisdom just filled the world with enemy types, including ones we’d not seen in years. Darknuts, Redeads, Wolfos, Freezards, Leevers, Deku Babas, various types of Skulltulas, actual Ginis and Poes, Mothulas, etc. Heck, we even had enemies no one in their right mind expected to see return, like Arurodas and Moas from Adventure of Link!

Give us that sort of enemy variety in a 3D game again, like we had in the N64 and GameCube era Zelda titles.

@cherrytonshawty9120
Zelda deserves the Breath of the Wild treatment. Let’s be real.

@butter0989
Let you play as Zelda

Let me know what you think in the comments.