One of the major complaints, though there weren’t many, was how both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom didn’t do much for or have much regard for Zelda lore. Tons of video game franchises have rich lore. Fallout, Diablo, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and so many others all have interesting and intricate backstories that aren’t all shown on-screen.
The Legend of Zelda has long been the same way, especially since these characters keep showing up in different ways with only the lore explaining how. Echoes of Wisdom not only puts the lore of Hyrule back into the minds of its players, but it has a major impact on the overarching narrative. Spoilers for Echoes of Wisdom ahead.
How Echoes of Wisdom Changes Zelda Lore
Zelda lore, like any good video game franchise’s mythology, is only loosely held together. There’s a timeline that’s mostly cobbled together and one game that almost exclusively exists to set the lore up. Other than that, a lot of it is either unclear or totally made up by fans. Nevertheless, after 38 years, there’s plenty of Zelda lore to draw from now.
Null
Interestingly enough, Echoes of Wisdom brings the lore back to the forefront of its story. The story revolves around Null, a new villain not before seen in the franchise. Null is, as the name suggests, nothing. It exists in the void, and it existed with the three golden goddesses (Din, Nayru, and Farore) before Hyrule came to be.
This adds to the existing backstory for the franchise. In so many iterations, including Skyward Sword, the three goddesses existed at the formation of Hyrule but on their own. Echoes implies that there was a fourth entity, which lends credence to a long-forgotten fan theory. The tetraforce theory from Ocarina of Time had been forgotten, but it stated that a fourth triangle seen on the Hylian crest in that game was a fourth entity. 26 years later, the theory might have been proven right.
Echoes Expands on the Backstory
The existing backstory was that the Triforce was created to spread hope to Hyrule and to allow for potentially limitless power. It served in Hyrule in the absence of the three goddesses who created it. Echoes states plainly in a cut scene that it was also created to keep Null and his power at bay. This provides an extra layer of depth to the creation and history of this artifact that has been seen in virtually every Zelda game since 1986.
The most interesting part of this is how the Triforce splits. In most games, the Zelda lore involves one-third of the Triforce going to Zelda, Link, and a version of Demise or Ganondorf. In this case, Ganondorf is not present, and the Triforce gives a piece to the Echo of Zelda (Null), Link, and Zelda. This implies that Null is a version of the evil that is Demise, and as a result, Ganondorf as well.
In Conclusion
There is always a balancing act with every new game in this franchise. Zelda lore, the existing timeline, and the characters all have to be handled with a lot of care by developers and directors. Fortunately, it is in Echoes of Wisdom. There’s a lot to like about the game, and the ability to honor the past and build for the future is one of them.
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