Image: Grezzo, Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Ana Diaz (she/her) is a culture writer at Polygon, covering internet culture, fandom, and video games. Her work has previously appeared at NPR, Wired, and The Verge.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom sports an enormous toolkit. Using the Tri Rod, players can summon copies of more than 100 world items and beasts called “echoes.” With the flick of a wand, Zelda can spawn anything from a bed to an Octorok. Just like in Tears of the Kingdom, this system allows players to get creative with how they solve puzzles and navigate the world. And since Echoes of Wisdom’s release last week, players are already finding crafty combinations of echoes to obliterate opponents and seemingly break the rules of the game itself.
In Echoes of Wisdom, players assume the role of Princess Zelda. With the help of a fairy named Tri, she’s able to produce copies of items and also use an ability called Bind, which allows Zelda to move objects at a distance. The Bind power allows her to reach out with a magical aura, and if an object moves on a set path, Bind allows the item to pull Zelda along with it. The Bind skill, in combination with the dozens of items, has given players a giant canvas with which to tinker and break the game.
One person found a way to fly by baiting a crow with a hunk of meat. Another person found that you can easily climb up a steep cliff by summoning a spider called a Strandtula, and use Bind on it as it walks up the wall. Another player uses a creature called Tornado in combination with a bed to send Zelda flying all the way up a mountain with ease. Yet another uses a trusty table, a Gustmaster, and a Ghirro to fly around. You can scroll on to see what everyone has done for yourself, but it’s really phenomenal to see just how much has been discovered in a such a short period of time.
The Echoes of Wisdom developers have said that their mantra for the game was to allow players to be “mischievous.” This might sound vague, but according to long-time producer Eiji Aonuma, the team came up with the phrase because they wanted to add something to the game that was “really out there.” Director Tomomi Sano said the team wanted players to “find uses for echoes that are so ingenious it almost feels like cheating,” and that it’s part of what makes the game fun.
Of course, what’s fun to one player might not be fun for another. Someone might not want to summon a combined meat and crow flying device to explore the environment, and that’s OK. So if you’re the kind of person who would rather force your way through using bed, that’s always an option too.