In a previous article I wrote Ecco 2's Secret Password and Ecco 3 Theories I discussed how the second Ecco the Dolphin game may of left us possible clues on what the third game may be about.
At the end of Ecco 2 The Tides of Time, the Asterite instructs Ecco to return to Atlantis to destroy the Time Machine. As Ecco worked his way through the City of Forever a giant Vortex larvae stood as an obstacle. Believing that an ordinary Vortex larvae is much smaller, I think our City of Forever nemesis is actually the Vortex Queen.
If this is true and the giant larvae in the City of Forever is the Queen then that means she used the time machine right after Ecco, "disappeared into the tides of time". Since Ecco has only used the time machine twice throughout his adventures and because special songs are needed to activate the time machine I believe Ecco may of used it to travel to one of two places; the prehistoric era or home bay just before the storm.
To decide where Ecco might of wound up we need to consider some facts as to reasons why he may of traveled one place over the other. The Asterite initially wanted Ecco to destroy the time machine because when it sent him into the past originally that caused the stream of time to split into two. Since there is only one point in time unexplained about we can assume the point he's talking about was when he first sent him into the past to retrieve the missing globe.
If you remember playing Ecco the Dolphin then you remember the Asterite was initially missing a globe, which it needed Ecco to retrieve in order to grant him special power. Little did Ecco know the Asterite lost the globe in the past because Ecco took it from him.
Ecco probably figured out that destroying the time machine would not fix this paradox, so in order to repair the stream of time he would have to go back one more time. The Vortex Queen who followed Ecco to the time machine sampled his DNA and used the same activation song he did to arrive in the prehistoric era.
What we gather is the prehistoric era is a critical point in the time line where major alterations happened. If the Atlanteans never created the time machine these alterations may have never occurred. In an interview with Ed Annunziata we learn Ecco used the time machine to join the Atlanteans in the past. When Atlantis was destroyed by the Vortex the Atlanteans used the time machine to escape into the past.
Since the prehistoric era was a critical point for both Ecco and the Vortex Queen its no doubt the Atlanteans traveled to this point as well. The Atlanteans created the tools Ecco needed to travel to Vortex and defeat the Queen. They also knew that in the future a Dolphin would travel to Vortex and accomplish this with their puzzles. So it is safe to say that the Atlanteans were counting on Ecco and the Vortex Queen to fall right into their hands in the past - the prehistoric era.
Since the Vortex Queen followed Ecco back we can assume perhaps she was plotting on killing Ecco or slipping past him undetected to alter Earth's history. Her arrival in the prehistoric era probably lead to her attempted to create children and a new hive but the creatures of this time created obstacles and the Vortex had to integrate with Earth's life.
Since the Vortex are apart of Earth's past, according to the game, we can't assume the Queen did not try and attempt to wipe out Dolphin's ancestors who were pretty important to the games story. Knowing the Atlanteans escaped into the past to aid Ecco maybe the Queen traveled back to kill the survivors. Either way we can't deny Ecco's adventure may have been orchestrated by the Atlanteans.
Since Ed Annunziata didn't like to have a human element in the game we can assume the Vortex Queen does kill the Atlantean survivors and a final puzzle lies waiting for Ecco to solve. The final puzzle probably involves Dolphins ancestors and stopping the Queen from destroying them on Origin Beach. Once the Queen is defeated this might be the turning point where the Vortex in the past learn to integrate with Earth life, since their means of reproducing has been destroyed.
This leaves what happens to Ecco at the end of the hypothetical third game and from our clues from the second game its tough to answer. I assume Ecco will tackle the paradox after defeating the queen trying to restore the time line. To do this he will need the Atlanteans help since the Asterite of the past may not really care about helping him. There also may be a special relationship between the Asterite and Atlanteans we don't know about, since the Atlanteans may of setup this giant puzzle, the Asterite may have been a pawn in all this.
