Monday, October 14, 2024

Echoes of Wisdom ~ Magic Rings to Accessories

Gerudo Sandals - Quicksand-Proof - Traditional desert sandals. They prevent the wearer from sinking in quicksand.

In Echoes of Wisdom there is a total of 28 different accessories for you to find and equip, which give you a variety of smaller buffs. And while this might be similar to the outfits and armor items from previous titles, it's primarily a translation of the Magic Rings from Oracle of Ages & Seasons.

It's more than that, because it improves on the system in every possible aspect. You can carry all accessories with you, instead of being limited to five. And you can now equip up to five of them at once, instead of just one. Each accessory also has an effect, no downsides, and a designated spot to obtain it. Grezzo essentially took the Magic Rings and removed many points of criticism that you may have had about them... And made them look more unique on top, because it's not just rings this time, but also anklets, pins, brooches, footwear, belts, and more.

You can still see how the Magic Rings were the foundation here, however, mainly because a good number of the perks are basically identical... And some of them are uncommon in the series, like the protection from quicksands, where the only other game to feature similar ones was Tri Force Heroes with its outfits. Here is a list of what rings were turned into accessories:

  • Swimmer's Ring → Zora's Flippers (Swim Speed Up)
  • Zora Ring → Zora Scale (Dive Time Up)
  • Quicksand Ring → Gerudo Sandals (Quicksand-Proof)
  • Snowshoe Ring → Ice Spikes (Slip Reduction)
  • Steadfast Ring → Stone Anklet (Knockback Reduced)
  • Discovery Ring → Might Bell (Might Crystal Detection)
  • Blue Joy Ring → Heart Pin/Barrette (Heart Appearance Up)
  • Red Joy Ring → Silver/Gold Brooch (Rupee Appearance Up)
  • Blue Ring → Ancient/Curious Charm (Damage Reduction)

That may not be a whole lot, but when you look at the list of Magic Rings, then you will realize that there isn't much left that would have made sense in this game. There is no need for something like the Bombproof Ring, for example, because you're already not taking damage from your own bombs or the bombs of your echoes. Or there is no gain from letting you transform into monsters when you can summon all of them. And many of the rings don't have any effect to begin with, since they purely act as trophies.

However, there are some rings left where they could have turned their effects into an accessory. The following ones probably make the most sense:

  • Red Ring / Rang Ring L-1/L-2 / Blast Ring (Damage up)
  • Light Ring L-1/L-2 (Shoot beams at -2/-3 hearts)
  • Green Holy Ring (No damage from electricity)
  • Roc's Ring (Cracked floors don't crumble)

There could have been an accessory that increases the damage of your echoes in general, which would be the equivalent to the Red Ring, Blast Ring, and so on. Another accessory could have made it so that you always can fire sword beams in your Swordfighter form, not just at full hearts, which would be similar to the Light Rings.

As for protection from elemental effects, you do have the smoothies for that, but they also could have offered accessories or clothing to achieve the same. But at least smoothies aren't entirely obsolete this way.

Finally, the Roc's Ring might not seem as useful on first glance, because there are only very few cracked floors in the game. However, they could have extended this to clouds, so that they don't dissolve when you stand on them, which would make this very useful. And the more useful accessories there are, the better, because it makes the choice of what to equip all the more interesting.

With that in mind, the Pegasus Boots also should have been an accessory that make you walk faster – maybe not as crazily fast as the Cheetah Costume from Tri Force Heroes, but a small buff. And it makes sense to have, since there is something to increase your swimming and climbing speeds, but not your walking speed for some reason.

2 comments:

  1. It also fixes my biggest issue with the Oracle games. The fact that so many of those rings were locked behind random drops such as Maple and Gasha seeds. It makes for 100% completing those two games an even bigger nightmare than Minish Cap's own pace-breaking Carlov figurines (though not as bad as the boat and train parts from the DS games).

    Other than my Energy Belt screwup, finding these accessories was one of the best parts of Echoes of Wisdom. Worthy rewards for careful exploration and continuously improving myself in the minigames.

    I still plan on replaying Echoes of Wisdom, though not right away. I'm planning on replaying Tears of the Kingdom first, though not for 100% this time. I'm planning a non-Divine Beast playthrough in order to fight the Depths boss rush before Ganon. But I'm not diving straight to the end. I have no desire to get one-shotted during that gauntlet (I can dodge Colgera and Marbled Gohma's moves, but not the Queen Gibdo's). I'm farming a few hearts, food, weapons and gear with at least some defense stats before doing so.

    When I do go back to Echoes (probably early next year) I'm doing Hero Mode. It shouldn't be that different aside from the double damage. I barely found recovery hearts during Normal Mode, using and abusing the bed mechanic for healing. But the double damage situation ought to be a good incentive to invest in Smoothies that I left untouched during the normal playthrough.

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    1. Yeah, that's what I meant with "designated spot to obtain it". I guess it's worded poorly, but what I meant here is that for each accessory there is one specific place where you will get it, and that's a big improvement. No random drops, no gacha, or anything alike.

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