As it turns out, one of Breath of the Wild's most famous shrines was a crucial reference when designing The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Sometimes breaking a puzzle can be more fun than completing it the intended way, and Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma agrees.
In Nintendo Ask the Developer Vol. 13, Aonuma explains how the Myahm Agana Shrine – the one with the giant ball most people bypassed by flipping the board over before the ball would drop into the intended maze – was key to their design philosophy on having fun.
"It's like finding a secret trick in the game, just like the old days... If this kind of solution isn't allowed, then it's not fun," he says. "We talked about how the player can kind of 'cheat' in many places. I'm always really happy when I manage to solve something in an unexpected way, doing something where I'm not sure if it's even OK to do it like that. I guess it ties in with the idea of 'being mischievous.'"
"Being mischievous" was so important to Echoes of Wisdom that the mentality received its own in-house style guide with three design rules on player freedom. Echoes director Tomomi Sano also agrees that creating a playground for players to experiment with is part of the charm, saying "it almost feels like cheating should be part of what makes this game fun." Echoes of Wisdom has seemingly taken this philosophy to heart in the way players can mix and match the titular Echoes, which Zelda can copy and paste throughout the world.
Zelda has repeatedly shown that creating a world where the systems remain consistent but can be manipulated and exploited will open the doors for players to find entirely new ways to engage with the game, like a speedrunner completing Breath of the Wild 50 times in a single day, or a player who completed every shrine without using Runes.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom releases September 26 for the Nintendo Switch.
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