Echoes of Wisdom solidifies a character's role in games from top to bottom

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




Echoes of wisdom broke new ground for The Legend of Zelda series, securing it a place in the hearts of many Nintendo fans. Not only is it the first main game in the series to feature Zelda as the main playable character, it's also the first top-to-bottom original. Zelda game in almost a decade. Favorable reviews and impressive sales figures proved 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 is right up there with the best Switch games released in 2024. However, with big milestones like these, it can be easy to overlook the small victories of the series, like the growing importance of a character in Zelda universe. With a prominent role in Echoes of wisdomas well as a notable appearance in Link's Awakening remaster, Dampe seems to have become an important inclusion in the new top-down Zelda adventures.


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Who is Dampe in The Legend of Zelda?

Until recent years, Dampe was easy to miss among Hyrule's many residents, so fans would be forgiven for not remembering him among the series' most prominent characters. In fact, even with his growing importance, Dampe never had a major role in the narratives The Legend of Zelda games. Longtime fans simply remember him as the guardian of the tomb Ocarina of time or Majora's Maskbut the character has had something of a revival in recent years. While Dampe retains his role as a guard in most of his appearances, he has begun to branch out. Dampe's resume now features multiple jobs, including guard, dungeon designer, and inventor, giving him more solid ways to help Link and Zelda on their quests. It's also worth noting that, excluding his first two appearances, Dampe has only been relegated to top-down games, making him a staple of 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 aided them in the game's tutorial. It wouldn't be until its remastered Link's Awakening that Dampe would be allowed to relinquish his role as guardian and take on more important duties. In Echoes of wisdomhe has become an inventor that players encounter while traversing Hyrule. After helping him, Dampe will help players unlock automatons, which he creates after a short side quest. His little robots are a unique inclusion in the Zelda series, which usually departs from advanced technology. Once unlocked, these give the player new abilities that often combine the traversal and attack power of echoes they've already unlocked.

Dampe also played a somewhat prominent role in Link's Awakening remaster as the NPC responsible for the new dungeon creation mode in the game. This mode is one of several differences between the two versions of Link's Awakeningputting 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-making prowess is a lovable character that's easy to connect with. With his considerable role in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of WisdomDampe has joined the ranks of recurring characters that players should be on the lookout for and may spot him in important places in upcoming games.

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