brightknightie | Over halfway through TLOZ:EOW

I'm still enjoying my way through The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom! I know that some folks don't relish that its combat is mostly ranged, with mage Zelda instead of fighter Link, but I'm finding it entirely natural. They fixed the menu inconvenience with the Switch 2 upgrade; you can favorite/star echoes now, and there are more sorting pre-sets. And I've found several side scenarios that I was not at all spoiled on.

Mild spoilers for a 17-30-hour game that's been out for 9 months...

Having started with Gerudo Desert and explored it thoroughly while saving its people from the rifts and monsters, I then went to Jabul Waters and did the same. I'm afraid that I found the Zora region a little less interesting, challenging, and satisfying than the Gerudo region, which left me wondering whether I should have done them in the opposite order. The story, side quests, and follow-ups with the Zora just weren't as engaging for me, personally, as those with the Gerudo, which had more personality and pathos. For example, at this point in my gameplay, everyone in the Zora region, including in the Hylian village, is completely content as well as wrapped up, with the possible exception of the one Sea Zora who is secretly either crushing on or fangirling her chief, Kushara. Over in the Gerudo region, though, there's still one woman actively suffering from having been in a rift, and many characters expressing new hopes, dreams, fears, and projects after I fulfilled their side quests... and of course I'm still working on the Mango Rush mini-game (I know it rewards a new outfit with a stats effect). Do I smell different writers for each region? That's pretty customary, right?

After both of those, and as much side-exploration as I could manage to sweep up all the NPC situations and open up the map , of course I cleared Hyrule Castle and moved the story forward. I then did as much more free-exploring and side-questing as I could without triggering the next main story phases, and finally climbed Eldin Volcano, where I am now.

Both Zora chiefs had heard Zelda's name before, though they couldn't place it. (No Gerudo had. Maybe they know her dad's name. But. Still. Telling about insularity all around.) No other Zora had. Although at least one Zora had been saved by Link from a rift, and he had defeated monsters at a Zora village. Darston knows Zelda's name and who she is; of course he's the book-smart character.
Do Lueburry and Dampe know each other? Should they? Book-taught vs self-taught inventor... Both are working on weapons to fight the monsters, neither on devices to close the rifts, nor on implements for peace or art or industry...
So many folks outside Castle Town recognize Link's cloak, showing that he is known far and wide, if not by name, while so few non-Hylians have ever heard of Zelda, much less recognize her. And the folks in the castle do not know anything about Link, never heard of him before the game starts. There's definitely something about communications/insularity here.
Any story in the River Zora kid afraid to swim at all, and the River Zora adult who doesn't like to swim in salt water?
What about the woman who admires the Great Fairy and can't reach her island shrine because she cannot swim? Maybe she's an academic, like the archaeologist at the Eastern Temple? Maybe they know each other? They don't know Zelda by sight, so if they're at a university, it's not one Zelda frequents.
Seeing people you know frozen in the Still World must be creepy and scary, especially the first few times. Being frozen in the Still World doesn't seem to be remembered by the victims, though... at least, not the victims who fully recover... except Link.
Tri said, about Ganon: "No, this isn't the same monster Link defeated. This monster is an echo." Does this imply that the first one was not an echo? It could. But it could also mean they're just separate echoes. What is the deal with echo Ganon?
The shopkeeper from Suthorn Village "scouting the competition" who got caught up in the rift outbreak near Hyrule Castle... does this dampen her enthusiasm for expansion?
The one old lady who tells Zelda that she served as a soldier before/until she became a mother. Also, the one enthusiastic Hylian who pretends to be a soldier.
As always, the monster camps, with structures and boxes and supplies, show that the monsters aren't animals; the convention is that they're demons (Japanese-style) and therefore fine to kill, but... in Twilight Princess, the King Bublin shows that he has free will and can choose good, and so does the Skyloft demon in Skyward Sword...
Almost all the NPCs are terrified of Zelda's monster echoes if she casts one near them, and won't talk until she dissolves it.
There are people still affected by their time in rifts, like the little brother in Kakariko and the Gerudo woman; do they get better after the end of the game, like Link? If so, why exactly, and what's it like? I wonder if I can go back and check on them after completing the game, but that's not usually how it works. Maybe they will be in the end credits?
Ideas that I ran into elsewhere (not my own): The king, Impa, and Lueburry as keepers of old lore lost to most people? Is Tri particularly connected to Wisdom more than the other two parts of the Triforce, and, if so, does that imply two others like Tri with the other emphases, among the mass of Tri's friends? AU: What if Zelda!Shiek instead of Disguise and/or Swordfighter Form?