Key Takeaways
- Echoes of Wisdom shares map elements with A Link to the Past.
- Fans have noticed familiar landmarks from A Link to the Past in Echoes of Wisdom.
- Grezzo’s attention to detail in mapping implies potential hidden lore and Easter Eggs for players to discover.
Fans have been overlaying The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom‘s map with A Link to the Past‘s own map, making some surprising discoveries about how the two games manage to “link up” for meaningful lore connections. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the latest installment in Nintendo’s long-running franchise, bucking the trend by making Princess Zelda the main playable character as opposed to Link.
Echoes of Wisdom plays like many previous top-down Zelda games, such as A Link to the Past, Minish Cap, and Link’s Awakening. A Link to the Past in particular was the first game to establish this gameplay style for the franchise, which would be carried over into future games, including Echoes of Wisdom. As fans have been playing the game, many have discovered that not only do the two games share the same gameplay style, but they also have essentially the same map, with Echoes of Wisdom building upon what was shown in A Link to the Past.
Some posts on Twitter from fans and IGN have been comparing the two maps. Observations were made that noted a number of major landmarks from A Link to the Past‘s map can be found in Echoes of Wisdom, though they have been ravaged by the passage of time or have been changed to something else. On top of that, Echoes of Wisdom has a number of areas that exist outside A Link to the Past‘s playable area, giving some implications about how civilizations like the Gerudo and Goron were just outside the boundary but have always existed within the world.
Echoes of Wisdom and A Link to the Past Have Parallel Maps
IGN’s Tom Marks agreed with the fans’ assessment of the parallel maps, noting that the landmarks around Echoes of Wisdom‘s Hyrule Castle should be familiar to longtime Zelda fans. Some spots include the graveyard, church, and even Link’s house from A Link to the Past, even if Echoes of Wisdom‘s Link lives in Suthorn Village. Another familiar area that has been changed from A Link to the Past to Echoes of Wisdom is Kakariko Village, where there are now ruins, implying the village was moved at some point in between games.
Echoes of Wisdom isn’t the only game to use a variant of A Link to the Past‘s overworld map, considering how A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS did the same, albeit that was due to it being a sequel to A Link to the Past. While some lore-minded Zelda fans are theorizing where Echoes of Wisdom fits in the timeline, others were excited to discover all the Easter Eggs and references that Grezzo included.