Princess Zelda wields a huge set of tools The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. With a wave of her wand, she can summon perfect copies of everything from a household pot to a living, moving monster to fight for her. These objects, called Echoes, assist her navigate the terrain and fight bad guys. And while it’s no Master Sword, the Tri Wand has something Link never had: the ability to wield a nice, plush bed. And now that I play, I am convinced that the bed is the main solution to all my problems Echoes of Wisdom.
Echoes of Wisdom features a more open and less restrictive top-down approach to design compared to previous Zelda games. A puzzle in a dungeon may have multiple solutions instead of one. Because the game is designed this way, players are encouraged to think for themselves and freely tinker with all kinds of potential solutions, rather than looking for a specific path. In an interview longtime Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma said that “exciting puzzle solving in your own unique way makes the game feel like Legend of Zelda”, so the team increased the degree of freedom to achieve this goal.
Overall, this allows players to flex their imaginative muscles and find unique ways to navigate the world, but in my case it just defaulted to going to sleep. It provides a little extra height, stretches about two blocks long, and only costs one miniature triangle – so beginners can make as many as three beds in the gap. I used it to climb cliffs, cross chasms, and solve puzzles in dungeons. Before I get discouraged, I ask myself: Can this be solved with a bed? And more often than not, this may be the case.
If you don’t want to utilize the bed, you don’t have to. Furniture can make many puzzles easier, but ultimately it’s about your own imaginative solutions. Crawling through a dungeon with a bed may be easier, but not as invigorating. In many cases, it may be more fun to utilize newly learned echoes, and that’s great! But if you hit a wall and don’t know what to do, maybe see if it’s time for Zelda to take a little nap.
