Nintendo is hoping to continue working on both top-down 2D and dynamic 3D The Legend of Zelda games in the future.
During a recent interview, The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma stated that he had thought it might be close to impossible to make a new top-down 2D style entry with new elements. However, with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, he felt that the development team was able to satisfy a lot of players. As such, the game made him realize that there’s still a lot of possibility for these top-down Zelda titles.
Aonuma offered a glimpse at his vision for the next entries in the Zelda series. He said that while Nintendo will continue to work on dynamic 3D Zelda games, he hopes that it will also continue with these 2D top-down Zelda games.
The Zelda producer’s vision for the future of the series makes a lot of sense, as there is a market for both top-down 2D and large-scale 3D titles. The 2D games would also have a smaller budget and a shorter development cycle compared to their technically ambitious 3D counterparts.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is an action adventure game developed by Nintendo and Grezzo for the Switch. The game was released on September 26, 2024. It is the first mainline entry in the series to feature Princess Zelda as the primary playable character. As Zelda, players embarks on a quest to rescue Link and save the kingdom of Hyrule, aided by the Tri Rod—a magical artifact given to her by a fairy named Tri. The game’s visual style resembles that of the 2019 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, also developed by Grezzo. Players use Princess Zelda’s Tri Rod to create echoes, which are essentially replicas of objects and monsters. The number of echoes she can summon is limited and varies depending on each echo’s specific cost.
