Echoes of Wisdom ~ Parallels to Oracle of Ages

A Link Between Worlds isn't the only Zelda game that has a lot in common with the most recent addition to the series. While playing through Echoes of Wisdom, one particular top-down title came to my mind a number of times: Oracle of Ages. It even made me believe that GREZZO was possibly looking into remaking the Oracles at some point during development. In the very least, these two games have been a big source of inspiration.

Most importantly, the Magic Rings were used a basis for the new accessory system, as already discussed. But there are more throwbacks, most of them particularly to Oracle of Ages, so let's take another look.

 

~ Story Bits ~

This may not be the most obvious part, but you can draw some parallels between the rifts and Veran. When Veran takes control of Nayru and changes the past, this erases entire beings from existence, just like how the rifts let larger parts of Hyrule disappear. In one case a boy even gets petrified to stone, which is what happens to people inside in the Still World.

The rifts also create these dark doppelgangers of people, including the King of Hyrule. And this is reminiscent of Veran possessing first Nayru and later Queen Ambi, where the latter provides a similar threat. The guards of the castle will be onto you under the command of the imposter.

A much more direct throwback to the story of both Oracle of Ages and Seasons games happens much later in Echoes of Wisdom:

The Ancient Ruins bear a great resemblance with the place where Link approaches the Triforce in the intro sequence of the Oracles. You have three-tile-wide pathway leading to the pedestal with the Triforce and a row of three torches on each side. And there is no chance that this is a mere coincidence.

~ The Zora ~

There used to be different types of Zora throughout the Zelda series. They started out as feral enemies in the original The Legend of Zelda and became a noble tribe in Ocarina of Time, where these couldn't have been any more different from each other. In Oracle of Ages they have tried to include both variants, where the hostile ones got called "River Zora" and the friendly ones became the "Sea Zora". (One of the latter also appears in a Linked Game of Oracle of Seasons.)

This distinction didn't really establish itself afterwards. The 3D Zelda games mainly evolved the Zora as we saw them in Ocarina of Time, but who predominantly live in rivers. And the 2D Zelda games kept using the Zora as enemies, with a few friendly ones in A Link Between Worlds. That is until now... Echoes of Wisdom finally brings back the idea of River and Sea Zora, where this time both are peaceful tribes, who live in coexistence.

They both worship Lord Jabu-Jabu as their guardian deity, which is yet another connection to the Game Boy Color classic. Oracle of Ages and Echoes of Wisdom are the only two top-down Zelda games featuring the favorite whale from Ocarina of Time.

 

~ The Return of Smog ~

In Echoes of Wisdom you will encounter various bosses from past Zelda games, like Gohma or the Lanmola, where this even marks the return of Volvagia. But there is one peculiar resurgence among them, probably to the surprise to many fans:

It's Smog from the Crown Dungeon in Oracle of Ages. You even get to fight him twice, once in the top-down perspective and later in a side-scrolling view, where this is one of few bosses to do this in the game. And this puts a lot of attention on this particular boss.

While this may seem quite strange at first, it does make a lot of sense considering that Smog was originally designed as a puzzle boss for the Cane of Somaria. And the Cane of Somaria is essentially the Tri Rod in its most basic form: you can summon a single block with it. We have come quite far since then, but the boss battle still works in the same fashion.