The Legend Of Zelda: The Echo Space

After the quick sinking of my other thread, "Box Of Personalities", I've took some time to elaborate on a certain member's (Tally-Chan, cough cough) analysis of my idea. He said he wanted originality, gutsy ideas, and a rise in the standard of Future Zelda Game Idea threads like these. Always wanting to please, I took these ideas on board and crafted something entirely different. If you're not a fan of these kind of threads, feel free to go away before I get into things.



So I give to you my most recent Zelda-based brain burp, "The Echo Space". Okay, it's not going to win any awards for it's name, so deal with it.

The idea is for the DS, as many of my ideas are, however it is, through my eyes at least, the very opposite of Phantom Hourglass.

The game harks back to the likes of LOZ, LA, OOS and OOA in the sense of having similar controls and the same screen-by-screen scrolling system. This game doesn't make use of the DS's touch screen or Mic gimmicks, but instead presents much more unorthodox innovation. The game makes use of a system that shows two different worlds, ala light and dark world, each on a screen. It's a confusing idea to grasp, so here's some illustrations of the idea.



The basic idea here is that Link is on the bottom screen. Let's say Link is currently standing on screen F5 in the regular game world, then the top screen will show screen F4 (the screen above F5), but from the Echo Space (you know, cliched parallel realm and all that). However if you press a designated button (X? Y?) then the screen Link is standing on is shifted up to the top screen, instead showing the Echo Space on the bottom screen (and if Link was standing in screen F5, it would show screen F6 of Echo Space).

The Echo Space isn't just there for show, however, it can be interacted with, from one screen to another:


(No, it wouldn't really be black and white, that was just to quickly illustrate the difference between Regular Space and Echo Space)

The idea here is that things can cross between the gap between the two screens so as to materialise in the realm opposite to the one Link is currently inhabiting. Things can cross between the realms without consequence, but Link can only move through in special cases (e.g. hookshot, minecart, teleporter). The ability to have things transfer through the realms with ease despite Link having more difficulty doing so opens up room for ingenius puzzles. You can also "turn off" the other realm so that both screens show Regular Space (or Echo Space if you are currently there) so you can interact between two screens in the same space. There is also the ability to close the DS's clamshell and re-open it, sending any glowing red game objects from the top screen to the bottom screen (but not vice-versa). This adds s further element of possible puzzle gameplay to the swapping of screens, interaction between screens and hopping of realms. And don't go thinking it's limited to the overworld; dungeons and houses and everything else have an opposing space to call their own (I say opposing space because both spaces are laid out entirely differently). Is this starting to make more sense yet?

Exploration would be brought back to the norm ala LOZ for the NES. Although the game would be slightly more linear, and less... uninhabited, it would be all about exploring, socialising with locals, finding dungeons and completing them. In fact, here's a diagram for Game Progression -



As you can see, it would start linearly, and branch out as the game progresses. For each segment of the quest, you must solve some sort of social quest, involving talking to people, exploring towns, helping villagers, etc. to get some sort of key, or item, to gain access to a dungeon. You then have to scour the world for said dungeon, hid like they are in LOZ, and complete it. You must start with a particular dungeon, but then it gets somewhat more non-linear, letting you slightly change the order of the middle dungeins, before at the end branching to two dungeons, which each branch to two more dungeons, which all lead back to one final dungeon.

And although the focus here is to go back to the semi-linear exploration/progression that made older titles like LA so great, that doesn't mean the thrill of getting to know the inhabitants of the world is lost. In fact, expanding on an idea from an earlier thread I made, Echo Space would have a new "Wordbank" system that would allow interaction with NPCs on many different topics:



Basically, you can pick up information from characters (in the form of bolded, important words) and feed it back to other NPCs to get more information about things. This is necessary for many of the dozens of sidequests in the game, as well as being mandatory for some of the "social quests".

And that is all I have as far as Gameplay is concerned. I've got an idea for a story too, so look away if that's not your kind of thing.

I was thinking that the game would start out in an un-named land, although many refer to it as "New Hyrule". Legends are passed down about "Old Hyrule" but no-one has seen it in centuries. Although the residents of "New Hyrule" remain upbeat, the world is in decay. Trees and crops are becoming scarcer, water is ripe with monsters, grass is dull and pale, and many residents are worshipping false idols (most of which being Moai's, or "Easter Island Heads"). On the brink of dystopian breakdown, a group of marauders, the Cult Of Ganon (like in AOL, but without Dark Link), kidnap the princess, and try to escape. Link, a young crop grower and best friend of Princess Zelda, attempts to save Zelda by jumping onto the back of the Cult's chariot, and ends up getting dragged through a rift in space.

Now in the Echo Space, a talking moai embues him with knowledge of how the Echo Space works, the reason for the COG kidnapping Zelda and Link's role in all of this. It turns out that the Cult need the soul of a decendant of a Triforce bearer to return their leader and God, Ganon, back into his restrained, intelligent form. They also need to break down the barrier between the Echo Space and the normal world once and for all, because Ganon is permanently sealed in Echo Space, unable to leave whilst it exists independently of New Hyrule, and the Soul Sacrafice is only a valid ritual in Regular Space. The only way to break down the barrier is with Nine of the Shards Of Duality, rare stone shards that are filled with the energy of the two realms. Since the only way to find the expertly-stealthy COG is to get to their next destination before they do, Link decides to track down the Shards Of Duality to not only stop them from releasing Ganon, but also to save Zelda. Echo Space is a dark looking world, but with more foliage, water and natural resources than New Hyrule. At the end of each dungeon you do, you reach a Shard, buy the COG shows up, and releases a giant monster (boss of the dungeon) to dispose of you. When you beat their monster, they retreat in fear, heading for the next Shard. Sometimes you randomly find a lone member of the Cult in New Hyrule, who will chase you and attack you unless you retreat quickly. The same also happens in the Echo Space, only with a beastly, inhuman, unintelligent Ganon instead of a Cult member.

Nine dungeons later and you have nine of the Shards Of Duality, and are ready to take on the Cult Of Ganon. You arrive at their hangout, a sealed-off cave, which opens due to you having Nine Shards Of Duality, and you enter to retrieve Zelda. You fight the eight members of the Cult at different points in the dungeon, coming to the final one, Horsehead. After defeating him, he feigns a surrender, before striking back at Link and stealing the shards. The Cult escape, and destroy the barrier between the two realms, essentially creating an overlapping mix of the two worlds, and the one new world exists on both screens. Just before they sacrafice Zelda, the unintelligent, extremely large pig Ganon swipes with his fist, destroying the entire cult in one go. Link, having acquired Silver Arrows from the COGs dungeon, and the Triforce (supposedly) from his decendants, must take on the beast Ganon IN New Hyrule Town. You beat him once and for all, slice him in half, and watch both halves disintergrate into white glowing light that fizzles away.

It turns out that each Space was a seperate "half" of old Hyrule, seperated into two realms, with one containing Ganon to prevent him from attacking, and the other containing Hyrule's inhabitants. With all of the trees, water, grass and resources from one "side" of Hyrule reconnected with New Hyrule's inhabitants, Hyrule is back to normal and the resource crisis seen throughout the game is resolved. You now have a second quest option, with flipped overworld maps and new caves/dungeons.


Okay, the story is a little stale and predictable, but it gives the gameplay style context, at least.

So what do you think? Is it "gutsy" enough for you? Or is it perhaps a little TOO far out of the box? Would you buy this game?

I would buy ANY Zelda game.

But it sounds like an interesting game.

Wow, a very interesting read and idea. Where's its placement in the timeline, it looks like it would be before WW no doubt?

Originally Posted by Stεvε

Wow, a very interesting read and idea. Where's its placement in the timeline, it looks like it would be before WW no doubt?

Placement in the timeline?

Well, given the inclusion of the Cult Of Ganon, and big blue pig Ganon, I like to think that it takes place some hundreds of years after LOZ and AOL (wherever they fit in), with the backstory explained in the game taking place during those years.

Originally Posted by GamenerdAdvance

Placement in the timeline?

Well, given the inclusion of the Cult Of Ganon, and big blue pig Ganon, I like to think that it takes place some hundreds of years after LOZ and AOL (wherever they fit in), with the backstory explained in the game taking place during those years.

Ah yup that would make sense

Thats one hell of a game idea you got there. The Echo sounds abit like the the old LoZ games where Link enters the Light/Dark world and the Twilight but its still a great idea. I like the whole concept of it all.

You did a really good job. I could never think like that at all, even being a Zelda gamer and fan...

Originally Posted by Happy Mask

Thats one hell of a game idea you got there. The Echo sounds abit like the the old LoZ games where Link enters the Light/Dark world and the Twilight but its still a great idea. I like the whole concept of it all.

Yeah, the idea was to put a whole new spin on the "two sides of one coin" idea we've been seeing often in Zelda, as well as justifying having two screens on the DS by doing something truly original that simply couldn't be done with one screen.

In fact, the dual-worlds idea has been in play since the original LOZ; the overworld and the underworld are their own little opposites.

Great! Btw I like how the story talks about the New Hyrule and old Hyrule. So was the Old Hyrule in the Echo space portal all along?

Originally Posted by Happy Mask

Great! Btw I like how the story talks about the New Hyrule and old Hyrule. So was the Old Hyrule in the Echo space portal all along?

Well, basically, Old Hyrule was Hyrule before it was fragmented into two seperate (but still connected) planes whilst "New Hyrule" is but one of the two fragmented planes, the one that does not contain Ganondorf. However, the two planes simply cannot function seperatly, which is why the New Hyrule is in decay, with plants and wildlife scarce (just as they were pre-LTTP). Neither the Echo Space nor New Hyrule are old Hyrule on their own, but when fused together again they become the old, naturally-sustainable Hyrule again.

Hoho! IT´s an really interresting idea. It kinda reminds me of Final Fantasy V, were one world was splitted into two, in order to seal of the Void.
This Idea is his gold worth. Try to advertise it or make a fangame, if you have the support for it. I recommend it.

The way you designed it seems like you're making a fan game of this............

Originally Posted by The Goron Moron

The way you designed it seems like you're making a fan game of this............

Nope. I just like to make indepth ideas. Besides, I haven't a clue about programming for the DS.

- The whole dual screen part to this seems a little confusing.
- The wordbank idea is great and something Zelda needs
- What Echo Space really is happens to be something original to the dual world mechanic in games. Alot of the time its a light/dark world with cliche expectations but having all the lush wildlife in the dark world and the light being devoid of it is something new. Plus having them both two halves of one world is a good idea.
- Ganon seems to be thrown in for the sake of it, especially since he seems to be a mindless beast

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Overall, a great idea

- Ganon seems to be thrown in for the sake of it, especially since he seems to be a mindless beast

Yea I was thinking that too. Since games that introduce new systems have new bosses, usually [Majora's Mask, Phantom Hourglass], I think this idea could just as well work with a new villain.

As a matter of fact finding out who this new villain is could be used with the wordbox. Instead of the Moai telling link everything, he'll just divulge how the echo world mechanic work. I believe since New Hyrule started to worship them after the split, then their existence shouldn't predate it, and therefore they wouldn't know the history of Old Hyrule. As a matter of fact, Maois are a little unusual for a zelda game [imo], maybe replacing them with Stones of Truth? People would worship them because they believe that they can provide them the insight into making their vegetation flourish. Just an idea.

Anyway, like I was saying earlier, you could start off the game just knowing the villains name, and then while talking to certain people they'll give you a piece of the "Legend". While many memories of Old Hyrule are lost, the attack of "[insert villains name]" was the last thing before the split so some people, with keen minds, remember pieces of the event, but not the whole, and these pieces have come together to form a legend. Many Hylians don't believe that it has any truth [the people who remembered passed it down as a story they were told as children], and so it is nothing more but entertainment...to them! But to Link it is vital information into the past, and how to defeat "[villain]".

Just my input. The gameplay seems solid enough, I'd play it.

Originally Posted by Aleitheo

- The whole dual screen part to this seems a little confusing.
- The wordbank idea is great and something Zelda needs
- What Echo Space really is happens to be something original to the dual world mechanic in games. Alot of the time its a light/dark world with cliche expectations but having all the lush wildlife in the dark world and the light being devoid of it is something new. Plus having them both two halves of one world is a good idea.
- Ganon seems to be thrown in for the sake of it, especially since he seems to be a mindless beast

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Overall, a great idea

1. Yeah, it's more of an idea that you'd have to play for yourself to understand. Once you get your head around it though, it's simpler than you'd think.

2. Thanks. Nintendo desperately needs to add a new axis to NPC interaction. We have too many stiff, lifeless NPCs (especially in TPs Castle Town).

3. Thanks again. The original idea was to simply have a barren Hyrule, ala later games in the timelines (LOZ and AOL seem pretty sparcely populated, and for all the ocean in TWW, there isn't exactly that many people on the islands), but then I decided that the idea of breaking down the wall between the Spaces could be used not only to release Ganon, but also to "fix" the resource crisis. So I tossed some ideas around in my head, and here we are.

4. What happened there is that I wanted to introduce a new Link, but every new Link originates from Hyrule, and every game in Hyrule, bar the Vaati games, faces some sort of threat from Ganon/dorf. Plus I love the Cult Of Ganon - and how much of a disappointment would it be if they weren't trying to achieve their goal of reviving Ganon?