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Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Cements One Character's Role in the Top-Down Games

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5 hours ago

December 19, 2024

zelda echoes of wisdom solidifies one character s importance to the top down games 1

The Legend of Zelda series has dozens of familiar characters who seem to transcend time, popping up in several games regardless of their distance in the overall timeline, and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is no exception. However, one recurring NPC has stepped up his game in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, seemingly cementing his importance in the top-down Zelda games going forward.

Echoes of Wisdom broke new ground for the Legend of Zelda series, ensuring it a place in the hearts of many Nintendo fans. Not only is it the first mainline game of the series to feature Zelda as the main playable character, but it’s also the first original top-down Zelda game in nearly a decade. Favorable reviews and impressive sales numbers have proven that the franchise has what it takes to survive after the groundbreaking originality of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom dwarfed the titles that came before them. The game even ranks among the best Switch games released in 2024. With large milestones like these, though, it can be easy to overlook small victories for the series, such as one character’s increasing importance in the Zelda universe. With a prominent role in Echoes of Wisdom, as well as a stand-out appearance in the Link’s Awakening remaster, Dampe seems to have become an important inclusion in new top-down Zelda adventures.

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Paves the Way For Another Unlikely Adventure

Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has taken the franchise in a whole new direction, and now that it has, there is only one more route the series needs to take.

Who is Dampe in The Legend of Zelda?

Until recent years, Dampe has been easy to miss among the many residents of Hyrule, so fans would be forgiven for not remembering him among the series’ more prominent characters. In fact, even with his growing importance, Dampe has never had a large role in the narratives of the Legend of Zelda games. Longtime fans simply remember him as the gravekeeper in Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask, but the character has had something of a resurgence in recent years. While Dampe retains his gravekeeper role in most of his appearances, he’s begun to branch out. Dampe’s resume now features several jobs, including gravekeeper, dungeon designer, and inventor, giving him more robust ways to aid Link and Zelda in their quests. It’s also notable that, excluding his first two appearances, Dampe has been relegated only to top-down games, making him a staple of the Zelda games that use that particular style.

Dampe’s Growing Role in the Zelda Games

For a long time, Dampe was mostly a character who helped players find optional items or assisted them in the game’s tutorial. It wouldn’t be until the remaster of Link’s Awakening that Dampe would be allowed to step out of his gravekeeper role and take on more important tasks. In Echoes of Wisdom, he has become an inventor who players meet while traversing Hyrule. After assisting him, Dampe will help players unlock automatons, which he creates after a short side quest. His small robots are a unique inclusion in the Zelda series, which typically steers away from advanced technology. Once unlocked, they grant the player new abilities that often mix the traversal and attack power of echoes that they’ve already unlocked.

Dampe also played a somewhat prominent role in the Link’s Awakening remaster as the NPC in charge of the game’s new dungeon creator mode. This mode is one of several differences between the two versions of Link’s Awakening, placing Dampe in charge of a standout mechanic for that version of the game. The fact that the developers have enough faith in this character to tie major new mechanics to him indicates a belief in his ability to connect with the player, which will be important when creating new games in the future.

Between Dampe’s powerful automatons and dungeon-crafting prowess lies a lovable character who is easy to connect with. With his sizable role in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Dampe has joined the ranks of recurring characters who players should be on the lookout for, and they might just spot him in important places in the next games.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Tag Page Cover Art

Save Hyrule—this time with the wisdom of Princess Zelda!

The people of Hyrule are being stolen away by strange rifts—and with a certain swordsman among the missing, it’s up to Princess Zelda to save her kingdom in the latest adventure in The Legend of Zelda™ series!  

Team up with the ethereal creature Tri and use the Tri Rod to create “echoes,” which are imitations of things you find in the environment—then recreate those echoes whenever you like to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. Use echoes like water blocks to reach new heights, make bridges out of old beds, throw rocks at foes, or find your own combination of echoes to do things your way. You can even make echoes of monsters to fight at your side in combat!

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