Daily Debate: Does Echoes of Wisdom Need a Hero’s Path Mode?

Breath of the Wild‘s first DLC expansion, The Master Trials, introduced us to the “Hero’s Path Mode,” wherein Link’s movements during an entire given playthrough would be tracked and displayed on the in-game map. Beyond the novelty of seeing where your journey has taken you, the Hero’s Path Mode did also serve a functional purpose, in that players could clearly see the parts of the map they have visited and those they had missed. This utility assisted in, to name a few examples, side quest completion, collectible hunting, and basic exploration.

For a map as big as the one seen in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Hero’s Path Mode seemed a perfect fit. With all that real estate, it was easy to lose track of where you have been and where you haven’t; Hero’s Path provided a way to keep track of those things. However, with that said, how useful would the feature be in a smaller game world, like the one, say, in Echoes of Wisdom?

I would argue that, having just finished the game and completed most of the worthwhile side content, Echoes of Wisdom would have benefitted greatly from the inclusion of a Hero’s Path Mode. The latest Zelda adventure is no bigger than other 2D entries — in fact it seems smaller than both A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds — so I can humor the argument that Hero’s Path was not necessary, given its absence in those 2D entries. However, I would rebut by pointing toward the game’s marquis “echo” mechanic as reason for Hero’s Path’s inclusion.

Because echoes, especially the well-worn ones like the trampoline and the water block, allowed for much more traversal options than one would see in other 2D Zelda games, it is far easier to lose track of where you’ve been and where you haven’t in Echoes of Wisdom. Throughout my playthrough, I was constantly vaulting over treelines, crossing large gaps, and scaling high walls; it’s quite easy to miss something when you’re always taking shortcuts. And so, when it came time to start mopping up the last of the collectibles and finishing any lingering side quests, I found that I had in fact missed entire areas during my early expeditions across the map. Even when I was confident that I had explored every corner of a region, I’d find something I missed. I even overlooked Dampé until late in the game because I simply sidestepped around his location using my echoes!

If Echoes of Wisdom had included a Hero’s Path Mode, even as a late-game unlockable, I believe that I would have avoided these silly oversights completely. In fact, given how useful — and frankly fun — the feature was in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, I honestly think Hero’s Path should be in every Zelda game moving forward. At the very, very least, any game as open and freeform as Echoes should have it.

Where do you stand? Do you think Echoes of Wisdom would have benefited from a Hero’s Path Mode? Join the debate in the comments below!

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Sorted Under: Breath of the Wild, Daily Debate, Echoes of Wisdom, Games, Original Content, Tears of the Kingdom
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