Cutting One Classic Zelda Species Made Echoes Of Wisdom Better

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often functions as a grab bag of elements from previous games, but one instance of abandoning the past actually leads to some of the best content in the game. It's standard procedure for ideas to carry on from one game to the next, and in a loose timeline that paints an overarching picture of Hyrule's history, the focus on recurring cultures and locations ends up making a lot of sense.

For the most part, the regions found in feature cultures that play a memorable part of the legacy, and the aquatic Jabul Waters area even spotlights the River and Sea Zora both living together in relative harmony. Stories found in several regions can be taken as lessons on leadership, an appropriate angle for a game focusing on Princess Zelda rather than Link. Notably absent, however, are the Rito, the avian species from that recently reappared in and

The most obvious reason for cutting the Rito has to do with Zelda chronology. Historically, positioned the Rito as an evolution of the Zora.tossing both into the same environment was a major timeline break, and it created one of the biggest points of confusion about where the game fit into the timeline. Nintendo ultimately revealed that and are disconnected from the primary chronology, which helped to explain the discrepancy.

The official Zelda timeline has always been a bit of a mess, so splitting BOTW and TOTK away from it means there’s a new universe to fill.

While including the Rito in might seem odd, it does include Hebra Mountain, a summit from the region that served as the home of the Rito. Without them around, the location is unusually lonely, and the game doesn't fill it out with any other populated species. Instead, the only significant character to be found is Condé, a Yeti native to Hebra Mountain who first appears face down in the snow.

Without associates to support him, Condé has a lot of heavy lifting to do, and it would be easy for Hebra Mountain to feel like the most trivial part of the game's story. Instead, leans into