Echoes Of Wisdom Proves What Pokémon Needs To Do Next

THE Pokémon the series has struggled to find its footing in recent years, but the best place to look for inspiration might actually be The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Like a classic Zelda adventure that stars the Princess as the protagonist, Echoes of Wisdom isn’t much like Nintendo’s creature-collecting series, although the focus on elemental weaknesses bears a slight resemblance. Your position within the Zelda the franchise in general is particularly interesting, however, and creating a Pokémon a game in a similar direction could help the series deliver a strong experience.

It is inevitable, to some extent, that many adults end up with negative opinions about new Pokémon games, as enchanting adventures tend to be more difficult during the player’s formative years. Even taking this prejudice into account, however, It’s hard to argue that Pokémon maintained the polish most other Nintendo franchises are known for. The Nintendo Switch entries are ambitious in some ways, but they also have serious limitations, and the jump to 3D has been accompanied by optimization issues, bugs, and trade-offs that have divided the community.

Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom is based on the Link’s Awakening remake

Waste not, want not

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom it’s very fresh Zelda game in some respects, with the change of protagonist leading to gameplay that focuses more on clever use of duplicate items rather than slashing enemies with a sword. However, it is built upon other games, and none more so than the 2019 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. The engine and basic art style of Echoes of Wisdom were clearly transported from Link’s Awakeningbeing a great example of how to keep a franchise running in the downtime between its biggest releases.

A split release strategy with 3D and top-down games was Zeldastandard approach since the turn of the centurywhen the one developed by Capcom Oracle games bridged 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, bringing together Nintendo’s home console and handheld markets into a single system, broke down that barrier.

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is proof that switching between big 3D titles and top-down games still makes sense on Switchand the scope of the game proves that top-down titles don’t have to feel like side entries. When purchasing the Link’s Awakening the remake may seem difficult to justify to those who have already played the original, Echoes of Wisdom is able to leverage this work to offer a new and expansive world. Considering how long development cycles have been for recent 3D Zelda games, filling in the gaps with 2D games makes a lot of sense.

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the perfect base

Top-down remakes are in fashion

Pokémon may not have a modern remake as glamorous as Link’s Awakening to work, but Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl it could still serve as a good foundation for the series to take a similar approach. As updated versions of Nintendo DS titles Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, the Bright the 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 that evolution.

Although there is a lot that can end up being squeezed between the main line Pokémon games, remakes of Pokemon black and white are especially likely candidates, and it would be nice to see the return of the beloved games. Truly new top-down games, however, can be even more exciting. Nintendo could have easily remade it A link to the past instead of creating Echoes of Wisdom or even A connection between worlds for the 3DS, but venturing into new territory was definitely worth it.

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

The future has room for variety

Pokémon It doesn’t always need to have top-down games just because it started out that way, but looking at the current situation, it seems like mixing in some new top-down titles would do the series a lot of good. PokémonThe company’s unwavering release schedule, which revolves heavily around the launch of other products like plush and Collectible Card Gamedoesn’t seem to suit recent 3D titles especially well. While they have many redeeming qualities, it is obvious that certain compromises are coming into play, and The charms of 3D exploration aren’t always worth the tradeoffs.

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

Embracing this concept would not be as simple in practice as describing it on paper, and there may be alternative solutions for the future of Pokémon this could work so well. However, for games to be as good as they could be, something needs to change, and re-examining what has worked in the past can be a good starting point. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom It’s a fun twist to the Zelda series, but more than that, it’s proof that the top-down formula can still be the perfect template for completely new games, Pokémon included.