In The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom you briefly play as Link, before you slip into the role of Princess Zelda for the first time in the mainline series. Unlike Link, who still relies on his trusty sword, shield, bow and bombs, Zelda primarily fights by summoning echoes of monsters, while she can also freely steer entities around by binding them to her own movements.
Now, this is a great basis for another cooperative multiplayer Zelda game, following Four Swords, Four Swords Adventures and Tri Force Heroes, but this time tailored to two players. It would be perfect for pairs who are into Zelda, where Hazelight Studios has popularized this genre of games, with A Way Out, It Takes Two and Split Fiction.
This idea is as old as Echoes of Wisdom itself, but let's finally get into more detail here. Spoiler warning for the game's ending! Don't hit "read more", unless you have beaten Echoes of Wisdom or don't care.
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It's mainly the game's final dungeon, Null's Body, which shows how such a cooperative game could work and how a singleplayer mode may even look like. Here you hand Link's weapons back to him, so you're left with Tri's abilities. Link is played by the computer, where he automatically attacks monsters and overcomes obstacles. The player has to aid him by summoning things, but you can even move Link himself around via Bind.
It works surprisingly well, but such a computer ally would only be needed for those who can't or don't want to play with others. Maybe it even lets you switch back and forth between Link and Zelda, just like how you could switch between the different colored Links in past multiplayer titles. However, in that case it's questionable whether the computer should also play as Zelda or not, because this could spoil the solution to puzzles. But maybe the autopilot only works for Link.
In any case, the real charm will be playing this with a second person, where one plays as Link and the other as Zelda. This may cause some quarrel as to who plays what character, because Zelda's more passive gameplay is not to everyone's taste, but maybe you're in agreement based on your individual skills, or maybe you take turns. It probably wouldn't be possible to play as the same character at the same time, though, because the game would be designed around having both characters.
The game may also be designed to be played on one screen, which would be a novelty for the multiplayer Zeldas. With the ones before, each player always had their own screen, so they could deviate a bit and do their own thing. Only Four Swords Adventures offered a shared main screens on the TV, but each player still had a Game Boy Advance screen.
Now, since we're restricting this to two players, there could be a more elegant solution, where it dynamically changes between a split screen and a shared screen based on whether you are currently in the same room or not. Of course, when playing online or in wireless multiplayer you always would have a screen for yourself, but you also want to be able to play this together on a TV.
As a result, the game will most likely follow a tight, linear level structure, like Tri Force Heroes before it. But that's okay and the best way to handle such a cooperative experience anyway. You don't want Link and Zelda run around completely different parts of Hyrule... or the Drablands.
Speaking of, one thing that definitely should return from Tri Force Heroes are the different outfits with abilities. Those may even be unique for Link and Zelda, where this time Zelda should get the cheerleader costume. Collecting these outfits was the best part about the last multiplayer Zelda game and they should definitely continue this trend, where you pick an outfit before each level for different perks.
Other aspects might also be based on the level itself, just like in the past. Save for his sword and shield, Link may only carry one item at once, which gets assigned to the X button. This won't be limited to the bow and bombs this time, but can be swapped via item sockets, where each stage offers different items...
And the same may also be true for Zelda's echoes, which need to be restricted somehow. Maybe she can only learn and use what's present in each individual level, which would keep her list of echoes shorter. But that list poses a problem in itself, because in a multiplayer game where you share one screen, you can't just have some overlay menu that pauses the game, so that Zelda can browse her inventory.
A solution would be to also limit Zelda's echoes to a single slot, which always get replaced, just like Link's items. Or maybe she can keep two or three echoes, where you can quickly switch between them. This sounds odd at first, but this would actually be quite good for making the game more balanced. Echoes of Wisdom is an easy game, because you can just always summon your strongest monsters and rely on the same objects for convenient solutions. But by limiting the number of things you can copy, it would allow for a much more intricate and purposeful puzzle design.
This might even allow for interesting synergies with Link's items. For example, Link could attach his Hookshot to wooden crates summoned by Zelda. Or he could attract metallic objects via the Magnetic Glove. New echoes could include the Mole, where Link uses the hammer to catapult himself in the air.
As for monsters, you should be able to copy them right away, without the need of defeating them first, just to prevent any situations where you're stuck with something useless in battle. This way you can at least use the existing monsters against them.
Story-wise, there is also no reason to bring back Tri for this, so Zelda may have a different staff that gives her similar abilities, but not the exact same abilities. This alone could already explain the differences. But it makes sense for this game to be a sequel with the same Zelda and Link, where maybe they go on an adventure together to a distant land.
The only other character from Echoes of Wisdom who needs to be there is the Stamp Guy. Add a stamp stand to find in every single level, this time with unique stamps for each one. Link and Zelda could also run into Condé and his brother, who are finally going on an adventure together. Would be awesome.
Such a game may even still be released for the Nintendo Switch, with upgraded graphics on the Nintendo Switch 2, just so that there is a larger audience. It will certainly need it. And performance-wise it shouldn't be as demanding, since we're mostly working with smaller levels.
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