Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom helped Nintendo realize the potential for top-down Zeldas, “hoping” to make more

Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have helped the Zelda franchise to reach its biggest audience yet, bringing in more fans than ever before. While that’s absolutely fantastic for the franchise, some had feared that this new direction would mean the end for more classic-style Zelda adventures.

Fans had ever right to fear the end of 2D-style Zeldas, as Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma said years ago that it “might be close to impossible” for Nintendo to come up with new, traditional entries in the franchise. That was considered to be the nail in the coffin for 2D Zelda outings, but now we know there was no reason to worry.

Nintendo recently released Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which offers brand-new mechanics through a traditional top-down approach. It’s a wonderful mix of old and new, and it seems to have opened Nintendo’s eyes to the untapped potential for 2D Zeldas.

In an interview with the BBC, Eiji Aonuma spoke about Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom as a title that convinced him there’s more to be done with top-down Zelda games, and if he has his way, more will be released in the future.

“I think through this game we were able to satisfy a lot of players. And so this game made me realize that there’s still a lot of possibility for these top-down Zelda games as well. And so we will also have those dynamic 3D Zeldas as well, but in addition to that, we’re also hoping that we can continue with these 2D top-down Zeldas.” – Eiji Aonuma, producer