Nintendo’s Latest Zelda Title Features a Massive Game World

Nintendo’s marketing campaign for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is in full swing ahead of the game’s launch this week on 26th September 2024.

One big question mark in the minds of fans ahead of release is just how big the game world will actually be. Well, thanks to a new segment of Nintendo’s ‘Ask the Developer’ feature, we now know that Echoes of Wisdom’s version of Hyrule is roughly eight times the size of Link’s Awakening’s Koholint Island location.

Grezzo director Satoshi Terada revealed this revelation, but long-time producer Eiji Aonuma was quick to mention that players shouldn’t feel overwhelmed by the drastic increase in size:

Terada: “We’ve been involved since The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, so everyone has great respect for the series. Many of the staff love it and have played the games many times over. So even now, when making a new top-down game in the series, we’re always thinking about how we can bring that “Legend of Zelda-like” feeling to the game. However, we packed in so many things we wanted to do to create this “Legend of Zelda-like” feeling, and the map ended up eight times the size of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.”

Aonuma: “At first it was four times the size, but then, before we knew it… (Laughs) However, although the map has become much larger, the feeling of a top-down The Legend of Zelda game, where you can easily enjoy gameplay in a compact world, is still there, so it isn’t intimidating to explore. So you’ll be able to play with a slightly different feeling compared to the vast worlds of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”

All in all, it sounds like fans will at least have an interesting new world to explore. As noted in our review, however, Echoes of Wisdom has proven itself to be a stellar game in its own right, and we called it “one of the best top-down adventures in the series”.