We’re less than two months away from the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Nintendo’s first Zelda game that stars the titular princess herself and Nintendo just dropped a new six-minute Echoes of Wisdom trailer detailing settlements around Hyrule and Zelda’s wild new Bind ability that looks like her version of Link’s Ultrahand power from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Much like the world of Hyrule, the footage was stuffed with secrets and question-raising mysteries, so we’ve compiled 10 things you need to know from the new Echoes of Wisdom trailer.
Bind Is Zelda’s Version of Ultrahand, and it Looks Crazy
Nintendo revealed a major expansion of Zelda’s abilities in Echoes of Wisdom with the new Bind power. With Bind, Zelda can latch onto any object in the world and make it follow her movements. We see Zelda use this on a giant boulder, a treasure chest, and even her own Echoes. She even uses Bind on enemies to toss them off giant cliffs.
Using the Bind and Echo powers together will surely open some crazy possibilities, much like the wild combos players unleashed with Ultrahand, Recall, Fuse, and Ascend in Tears of the Kingdom. Just one example from the trailer shows Zelda summoning a mole Echo to create a hole in the ground. She then uses Bind on a moblin and drag-and-drops it into the hole the mole left behind. I can’t even imagine the dozens of possibilities that players will uncover by combining these abilities.
Similarly, Zelda can use Reverse Bond (which appears to be part of the Bind ability, I couldn’t tell you why it’s not called Reverse Bind) to follow an object’s movement herself. We saw Zelda fly by using Reverse Bond on a bird Echo, scale a wall with a spider Echo, and travel across a pit by using it on a moving platform above her.
Does Echoes of Wisdom Have Dungeons?
Nintendo hasn’t explicitly told us that Echoes of Wisdom’s Hyrule has dungeons for us to explore and conquer, but the new trailer offers a few hints that the franchise’s classic labyrinths are present, at least in some capacity. When Zelda is speaking to a Sea Zora, you can spot an underwater entrance to what could be a dungeon, complete with an insignia that resembles the goddess Nayru’s symbol. Nayru is the Goddess of Wisdom, and given that wisdom is this game’s core theme, maybe the dungeons or shrines are called Trials of Wisdom, or something to that effect.
Later in the trailer when Nintendo is detailing the Bind ability, Zelda is in a room that really gives off strong dungeon vibes, as she needs to move a giant boulder to step on a switch that will open a closed door. This definitely indicates that some sort of dungeon-like structure exists in Echoes of Wisdom, but if that’s full-fledged dungeons seen in top-down games like A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds or the more bite-sized Shrine approach from BotW and TotK remains to be seen.
Zelda Can Equip Different Outfits and Accessories
The new trailer confirmed that outfits and accessories are part of Echoes of Wisdom, and Zelda can change clothes for both practical and stylish reasons. It’s unclear how many accessories you can equip at a time, but these are the accessories Zelda had in her inventory during the trailer:
Zora’s Flippers: Swim Speed Up
Zora Scale: Dive Time Up
Frog Ring: Jump Height Up
Heart Pin: Heart Appearance Up
There was also a flower pin in her inventory, but we didn’t get to see the description for that one. As for outfits, we see Zelda wearing Link’s hood from the reveal trailer, her classic dress without the hood with her hair in a ponytail, and a Gerudo Guard outfit.
The Smoothie Craze Hits Hyrule
Zelda can use materials she gathers around Hyrule to craft smoothies, each with their own healing properties and status effects. The one smoothie we see is the Mixed Milky Smoothie, which costs an Electro Apple, Fresh Milk, and 10 Rupees to craft. In return, it restores 13 hearts when consumed. This is Echoes of Wisdom’s take on BotW/TotK’s cooking mechanic, but I’m hopeful that it will fix one of my main complaints with how it’s worked to this point.
In the open world Zelda games, you can hold dozens of cooked meals at time, meaning if you prepare well enough, you can basically heal your way through any encounter. In Echoes of Wisdom, it looks like the Business Scrub who Zelda is speaking to puts the smoothie in one of Zelda’s empty bottles, which could mean there is a strict limit on how many smoothies you can hold at once depending on how many bottles you have. It’s possible Echoes of Wisdom has ditched the empty bottle mechanic and we’ll be able to carry unlimited smoothies, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
A Horse Is a Horse, Of Course, Of Course
Dashing around like a maniac with the Pegasus Boots is no longer the fastest way to get around Hyrule, as Echoes of Wisdom is adding horses into the mix. Once Zelda learns the carrot Echo, she can summon her horse from anywhere in the overworld. We see Zelda riding a brown horse and a white horse, so it seems there are multiple types of horses to choose from. Horses also serve a combat purpose, as we see Zelda mowing through weaker enemies while on horseback. Echoes of Wisdom’s combat is excitingly unconventional, so it’s nice to see multiple options like this for taking out baddies.
It Takes a Village… And Another Village
There are so many villages in Echoes of Wisdom! In this trailer alone, we caught glimpses of two separate Zora villages (for each the Sea and River Zora), the staple Kakariko Village at the base of Death Mountain, Goron City, Gerudo Town, Castle Town within the walls of Hyrule Castle, and the brand new Suthorn Village. If that wasn’t enough for one trailer, Echoes of Wisdom’s Japanese website has a new screenshot for a coastal village filled with houseboats. This is a significant number of settlements compared to what top down Zelda games usually contain, and several shots of the world appear to show off a much larger map than games like A Link to the Past – or at least a more densely populated one.
Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom’s UI Returns
Not only does Echoes of Wisdom take inspiration from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom’s open air approach, it also shares UI elements with the pair of open world masterpieces. The Main Quest / Side Quest menu, choices when speaking to a shopkeeper, smoothie crafting, and world map waypoints all look virtually identical to the last two mainline Zeldas, further showcasing how Echoes of Wisdom truly integrates the series’ modern ideology into a classic, top down package.
Preparing for Extreme Heat
During the spotlight on Gerudo Desert, a close-up shot of Zelda reveals that she is feeling the effects of the region’s brutally hot temperatures. Her face is red and she’s fanning herself to keep cool, which is reminiscent of how Link responds to scorching temperatures in both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. We’ve already covered that Zelda can equip different accessories and outfits and drink smoothies with different status effects, which begs the question: Will we have to manage Zelda’s temperature in Echoes of Wisdom like in the two recent open world Zeldas, or is this just visual flair? Echoes of Wisdom already borrows so much from the franchise’s convention-breaking direction, so it wouldn’t be all that surprising if this mechanic was included.
Teasing the Dark World
The Echoes of Wisdom reveal trailer showed Zelda running through what was most likely this game’s version of the Dark World, and Zelda hopping into a portal at the very end of the trailer confirms it. We also see shadow enemies entering Hyrule through these rifts, which will likely prove to be some of the game’s tougher combat scenarios. The Zelda series has a history of Dark Worlds, and it will be fun to see what unique spin Echoes of Wisdom puts on the concept. Our glimpse of the Dark World in the announcement trailer showed Zelda quickly maneuvering through obstacles as the rift chased her, so maybe these sections will require quick thinking like Skyward Sword’s Silent Realms.
Characters React to Zelda’s Echoes
Have you ever aimed your bow and arrow at a Hylian in Tears of the Kingdom? Well, they don’t really like it, as they cower in fear at Link’s unpredictable behavior. Those NPC reactions appear to be intact in Echoes of Wisdom too, as a Gerudo guard reacts in shock when Zelda summons a bed out of thin air right next to her. To be fair, I’d be pretty surprised if that happened right next to me, too.
Those are the major takeaways from the new The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom trailer, which launches September 26 alongside a special edition Nintendo Switch Lite. Fans are already theorizing about where Echoes of Wisdom takes place on the messy Zelda timeline and how Link fits into it all, while others are just excited to get violent with all the Echoes Zelda will have at her disposal. What did you think of the trailer? Let us know in the comments.
Logan Plant is IGN’s Database Manager, Playlist Editor, and Super Ninfriendo on Nintendo Voice Chat. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
