The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – Some more details about Rifts, the Still World, Swordfighter form, Dungeons, automatons

6 September 2024 Lite_Agent Grezzo, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Last week, Nintendo shared a brand new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (revealing the mysterious Still World and Princess Zelda’s Swordfighter form), and there was also some fresh gameplay footage to check out.

And today, we got some additional details about the game, starting with the Rifts. Not only did Link end up swallowed by one immediately after defeating Ganon, the Rifts later claimed the King of Hyrule (Zelda’s father), General Ugi, and even Minister Sadari.

But those Rifts (found throughout Hyrule) aren’t just some inter-dimensional mouths that swallow everything on their path: they’re effectively portals to a strange world known as the Still World. And with the help of Tri the fairy, Princess Zelda can enter the Rifts to go and explore that world.

What will you find in the Still World? Well, pretty much everything that was swallowed up by the rifts: trees, the ground itself, people, objects… anything. All those things just float haphazardly in the void. Each “pocket” of the Still World is unique.

In the Rifts, Princess Zelda will come across a mysterious sword that allows her to turn into a swordsman: that’s the Swordfighter form. In this powerful form, Zelda can swing her sword to destroy obstacles in her path, and even attack monsters directly. And now that she has a sword, she can also fight alongside the Echoes of monsters she can conjure up!

Exploring the Still World is certainly no easy task, what with the uneven and highly irregular terrain. For example, in some places, there’s some huge gaps blocking your path. But fret not: you can still find a way across by using Echoes!

Deep into the Still World lie vast dungeons. As you explore them, solving puzzles along the way, you will eventually come across powerful bosses. Those boss battles are no walk in the park, but as long as you use everything you’ve learned so far (along with a healthy dose of imagination), you should be fine!

Finally, automatons are handy tools Princess Zelda can use in her adventure. In order for them to work, you first need to wind up their spring. Here’s a couple of examples of automatons:

Rocktites: they take off in a blast, dealing damage to the surrounding area (and any monsters nearby)
Fiesta Octa: shoots fireworks.

But while those automatons are handy, they’re also fragile: if they take too damage, they will break.