Oops, the new Zelda game is "8 times the size" of Link's Awakening because Nintendo and Echoes of Wisdom devs just couldn't help themselves

gamesradar.com:

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is several times larger than the last top-down game in the series.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the first ever mainline game with the titular princess in the driver's seat, the first game in the series to have a woman in the director's chair, and the first top-down game in the series to be so damn big. 

Grezzo's studio director Satoshi Terada said as much in Nintendo's latest Ask the Developer blog, explaining that the studio is full of lifelong Zelda fans who grew up playing the original classics before then joining the team for Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora's Mask 3D, and the Link's Awakening remake. 

"Everyone has great respect for the series," Terada said. "Many of the staff love it and have played the games many times over. So even now, when making a new top-down game in the series, we're always thinking about how we can bring that Legend of Zelda-like feeling to the game." In pursuit of that feeling, Grezzo developers began to add "so many things we wanted" that the map ballooned and "ended up eight times the size of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening."

The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma said it was originally "four times the size, but then, before we knew it..." Despite the exponentially larger Hyrule and another twisted underbelly hiding on the flipside, Echoes of Wisdom aimed to still capture the easily enjoyable exploration of other top-down entries and "isn't intimidating to explore." Aonuma explains it's "a slightly different feeling compared to the vast worlds of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom."

Thankfully, it's not an either-or situation. Aonuma recently confirmed that 2D Zelda games will continue to coexist with the 3D ones, a la Breath of the Wild - though, Nintendo developers might not always seamlessly connect them via the series' confusing canon because, as even they admit, "it's not easy to touch on the lore."

Read our Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom