Highlights
- Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom reimagines the cooking system by introducing smoothies made with collected ingredients, providing various gameplay benefits.
- Smoothies in the game grant Zelda helpful bonuses like refilling hearts, adding a new twist to traditional gameplay elements.
- While drawing on past Zelda titles for inspiration, Echoes of Wisdom puts a fresh spin on the cooking formula, offering a refreshing step forward.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the latest game in the Legend of Zelda series to shake things up considerably after Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom all but reinvented the franchise. Rather than trying something completely new, however, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom wears its franchise connections on its sleeve by taking elements from a multitude of other Zelda titles and repurposing them for a new take on Hyrule and traditional Zelda gameplay. One of those elements is the cooking system introduced in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and carried over to Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom — though Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom reimagines the system rather than simply reusing it.
In Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel, players can collect various ingredients throughout Hyrule and combine them to create unique dishes that each provide helpful benefits. As shown in the "Traversing Hyrule" trailer for Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the upcoming game's new "cooking" system is strikingly similar to Zelda: Breath of the Wild's, but with somewhat of a facelift to keep the whole system feeling fresh and well-placed within the context of this Zelda-led installment.
Related
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Needs to Go All in on Enemy Types
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom's Tri Rod provides a unique approach to combat, but it will need plenty of unique enemies to achieve its full potential.
How Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Reimagines the Cooking System From Zelda: BotW/TotK
Players Can Have Smoothies Made in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Using the Ingredients They Find
In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, players can find different types of ingredients throughout Hyrule, each of which contributes certain beneficial variables to a cooked dish. Those ingredients can then be combined in a cooking pot to create food that can either heal Link or provide other gameplay benefits. Dishes can be made according to explicit recipes players can find posted in the shops and stables scattered around Hyrule in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but it's also possible to cook blind using only the ingredients' descriptions as a guide.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom approaches this process in a similar manner, in that players can collect ingredients that feature specific benefits. For example, an Electro Apple grants resistance to electricity when used. However, rather than cooking with the ingredients they find in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, players can visit a Smoothie Shop and have a smoothie made for them using those ingredients and a specified number of rupees. Based on what was revealed in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom's "Traversing Hyrule" trailer, Smoothie Shops are likely managed by Business Scrubs, but players may find Smoothie Shops around Hyrule that are run by other NPCs as well.
Smoothies Provide Zelda With Various Gameplay Benefits, Much Like the Dishes From BotW/TotK
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom's prepared smoothies, like the cooked food in Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel, grant Zelda helpful bonuses when she drinks them. While the Mixed Milk Smoothie, which refills Zelda's hearts, was the only smoothie revealed in the trailer, it can be assumed that smoothies that use other ingredients will improve Zelda's physical and elemental resistances, and possibly even boost some of her abilities. Since ingredients like the Electro Apple and the Chilly Cactus, which grants resistance to fire, are in the game, the result of mixing them into a smoothie is obvious.
While The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is clearly innovative, it also heavily depends on the strengths and weaknesses of the franchise's past to add fuel to its gas tank. Simply judging by the footage revealed so far, there are plenty of elements from past Zelda titles both hidden and on full display in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and the cooking system from Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is just one of them. Even so, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom's new spin on the creative cooking formula established by its predecessors is a refreshing step forward.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a top-down adventure that shakes things up by pushing Princess Zelda into the protagonist role. Armed with the Tri Rod that allows her to create copies, Zelda will go on an epic journey to protect Hyrule and find the missing Link.
Adventure
Systems
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
- Platform(s)
- Switch
- Released
- September 26, 2024
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+
- Engine
- Havok
