Echoes of Wisdom proves what Pokemon needs to do next

The Pokemon The series has struggled to find its footing in recent years, but the best place to look for inspiration might be The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Like a classic Zelda adventure that happens to star the princess as the protagonist, Echoes of wisdom isn’t very much like Nintendo’s creature-collecting series, although a focus on elemental weaknesses does bear a minor resemblance. His position in the US Seldom Franchise overall is a particularly interesting, however, and angling a Pokemon Playing in a similar direction could help the series deliver a strong experience.

It is inevitable to some degree that many adults will end up with declining opinions of new ones Pokemon games, because the charming adventures tend to hit the hardest during a player’s formative years. Even taking this bias into account, however, It is difficult to argue that Pokemon Has maintained the polish that most other Nintendo franchises are known for. The Nintendo Switch entries were ambitious in some respects, but they also came with serious limitations, and the jump to 3D was accompanied by optimization problems, bugs and trade-offs that divided the community.

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom builds on Link’s Awakening remake

Don’t know, don’t want to

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a very fresh one Seldom Play in several regards, with the protagonist change-up leading to gameplay that focuses more on cleverly using duplicated items than on hacking enemies with a sword. However, it is built on the backs of the other games, and no more so than the 2019 remake The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. The motor and basic art style of Echoes of wisdom are clearly transferred from Link’s AwakeningWhich is a great example of how to maintain a franchise in the downtime between the biggest releases.

A split release strategy with both 3D and top-down games was in place Seldoms standard approach since the turn of the centuryWhen the Capcom-developed Oracle Games filled the gap between The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask And The Wind Waker. For a long time, it made sense as a way to keep things moving on the handheld front, but the Switch collapsing Nintendo’s home console and handheld markets into one system brought up the barrier.

Zelda: Resonance of Wisdom is proof that bouncing between huge 3D titles and top-down games still makes sense on the SwitchAnd the scope of the game proves that top-down titles don’t have to feel like minor entries. While buying the Link’s Awakening Remake may feel hard to justify for those who have already played the original, Echoes of wisdom Is able to use the work to provide a fresh, expansive world. Considering how long the development cycles have been on the last 3D Zelda games, filling in the gaps with 2D games makes a lot of sense.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the perfect foundation

Top-down remakes are all the rage

Pokemon Couldn’t have a modern remake quite as flashy as Link’s Awakening To work with, however Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Could still serve as a good foundation for the series to take a similar approach. Like updated versions of the Nintendo DS titles Pokemon Diamond & Pearl, The Brilliant Remakes also maintain the top-down perspective of 2D sprite-based art in a 3D-rendered world. The style could benefit from some additional tweaks, but using it as a basis for future titles would be the perfect opportunity to facilitate its evolution.

Although there is a lot that could end up being squeezed between the main line Pokemon Games, remakes of Pokemon black and white are particularly likely candidates, and it would be nice to see the beloved games return. Truly fresh top-down games, however, can be even more exciting. Nintendo could very easily remodel A link to the past Instead of creating Echoes of wisdom Or even A link between worlds For the 3DS, however, venturing into new territory instead has definitely paid off.

Pokemon doesn’t need to leave top-down games behind

The future has room for variety

Pokemon Don’t always have to have top-down games just because it started that way, but if you look at the current situation, it feels like mixing in some new top-down titles would do the series a lot of good. Pokemon‘s unshakeable release schedule, which revolves heavily around the launch of other products like plushies and the Trading card gameDoesn’t seem to fit the latest 3D titles particularly well. Although they have a lot of redeeming qualities, it is obvious that certain compromises come into play, and The charms of 3D exploration aren’t always worth the trade-offs.

New top-down entries among the fully 3D titles may avoid some of these problems, naturally, but they may also give the 3D games more of a fighting chance. If the release schedule for 3D games has slowed down a bit with top-down games filling in the gaps, The pressures of rushing an incomplete product out the door could be reducedEspecially if Pokemon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl Developer ILCA was involved in the development. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was developed in a collaborative effort by Nintendo and Grezzo, and a similar model could work for Pokemon.

Embracing this concept would not be as simple in practice as it is to describe on paper, and there may be alternative solutions for the future of Pokemon That might work just as well. For these games to be as good as they can be, however, something needs to change, and revisiting what worked in the past might be a good starting point. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a fun turn for the Seldom series, but more than that, it’s proof that the top-down formula can still be the perfect model for entirely new games, Pokemon included.