Nintendo just dropped for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. That’s the top-down Switch entry instead of Link. The six-minute video focuses on “traversing Hyrule,” so there’s plenty of cool stuff here about the kingdom and, more importantly, the overworld map.
This looks like a brand-new map. Many people had assumed this game would lift the map from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Some of the landmarks, however, are in the same place. The castle is at the center, for instance, and the mountains are up top.
Otherwise, this game includes all of the various cultures and towns from 3D Zelda games. You can meet Gorons, Zora and even enter the all-female Gerudo Town. This is also the first top-down Zelda game to feature traversal by horse. There are a few horses in the trailer, though none look exactly like the world-famous Epona. It’s possible that Princess Zelda’s white stallion from Breath of the Wild is hanging around though. In any event, they are all pretty darn cute.
The trailer also shows off some deliciously kooky stuff, and we all love it when Nintendo gets weird. There are smoothie shops scattered throughout Hyrule, candy-obsessed Deku Scrubs and more.
Finally, there’s a newly-featured ability for Zelda called Bind. It forces objects and creatures in the game world to follow you around, likely for puzzle-solving purposes.
All of this is good news. This doesn’t look like a throwaway “end of a console’s lifespan” game. It looks adorable and inventive. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom comes out on September 26.
