The Zelda franchise never fails to get people excited any time a new entry is announced. Especially given their history of being really immersive, fun and quality games. But despite having her name be synonymous with the series and it being on in the title of every game, we were yet to see a game where Zelda herself took the role of the core playable character. Until now that is. The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom puts us into the shoes of the Princess, showcasing what she’s capable of and how she’s different to Link, while also delivering a gameplay experience that lives up to what we expect of a Zelda title and implementing a core new mechanic that provides a great new way to solve puzzles and a level of flexibility that is on the level of Tears of The Kingdom’s Ultrahand abilities.
Where last year’s Tears of the Kingdom gave us a large scale open world to explore and get lost in, Echoes of Wisdom returns to the gameplay style that we used to get in the classic 2D Zelda titles. The art style and gameplay is similar to what we got in the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening which was also developed by the same team. The game uses 3D assets but is presented with a 2D point of view, just like many classic Zelda titles, leading to this now widely being referenced as a 2D Zelda game to easily differentiate it from its open world counterparts.
In Echoes of Wisdom, rifts have begun to open within Hyrule that are stealing people away from the Kingdom. Link has unfortunately found himself captured by the rift and it’s now up to Princess Zelda to save not only Link but the whole Kingdom of Hyrule before the portals spread and take over the lands. It’s refreshing to get to play a story where Zelda is now the rescuer rather than the one typically being rescued, and gives us a chance to see her perspective and abilities which are quite different from what Link has to offer. She’s thankfully not alone in her journey, as you’ll quickly partner up with your trusty fairy friend Tri and get to use the magical Tri Rod to summon echoes, which are replications of items and creatures you’ve come across in the game and get to combine these imitations is creative ways to be able to navigate to new areas, solve many puzzles along the way and take down some pretty tough bosses.
Just about every aspect of Echoes of Wisdom is designed around clever use of it’s Echo mechanic. I really enjoy when Zelda games decide to introduce brand new systems, as they never feel just like a cheap gimmick, but you can see how the game has been built from the ground up with the core new idea in mind. Coming across a new creature or item in the game will allow you to essentially store a copy of it with your Tri Rod, to then be summoned in future. Zelda has a limited number of Echoes that can be active at one time, and can be upgraded as your progress further through the adventure, which stops you just being able to spam summons and break the game, but also makes you come up with an efficient strategy any time you’re summoning the Echoes to overcome an obstacle or defeat a combat encounter. And the puzzles also increase in complexity the further you get through the game too, evenly balancing the difficulty with your ability to start using more and more Echoes which results in a challenging but rewarding experience the whole way through.
Unlike Link, Zelda isn’t quite as adept when it comes to hand to hand combat. So you’ll also be utilising your summoned Echoes for most of your combat encounters, as defeating an enemy prior will allow you to summon a copy of that creature for future battles. This does result in a combat system that feels slower than what you may be used to in a Zelda title, but highlights where Zelda is different to Link on a character level as well as showcases the strengths and weaknesses of each character, something that is rarely shown in the series as the main focus is typically on Link. That’s not to say that Zelda is completely incapable of engaging in melee combat though, she does have the ability to utilise Link’s sword when in sword fighter mode to be able to have short bursts of sword swinging combat, but it’s limited by a reducing energy gauge that prevents you from being able to stay in this mode for large periods of time.
I felt like the new Echoes mechanic was a great idea and implemented really well for the most part. It gets the problem solving part of your brain going and really encourages trial and error, as being open to trying different Echoes can lead to some really creative solutions to puzzles, even when you just accidentally solve them after seeing the reactions of how certain Echoes interact with one another when combined. Where the system could be a little better is with how the Echoes are managed and selected. The menu you navigate and use to unleash your Echoes grows rapidly, becomes congested and is a bit hard to navigate at times. This forced me to spend time utilising the game’s sorting options to be able to navigate to the Echoes that I preferred easier. It’s only a small complaint, but I think for a game that is so intuitive in its game mechanics, there has to be a better way to display and manage all of these potential choices.
Outside of the main quest, Echoes of Wisdom has plenty of side quests to keep you entertained and your brain ticking. best of all, they actually offer interesting rewards and new Echoes, giving me an incentive to actually want to see what side objectives there were to tackle, and helping them not feel just like a chore or padding thrown in just to extend gameplay time. One key area the game really excels in is it’s sense of charm and magic. The game is just such a joy to play. All the way from it’s adorable chibi-esque art direction, to it’s vibrant and varied biomes and especially in it’s sound design and soundtrack. It captures the heartwarming feeling I always get when jumping into a new Zelda title and although there are a lot of new changeups here, it still very much feels like Zelda and carries that amazing Nintendo charm.
I did unfortunately encounter a number of instances where the performance of the game really took a hit. This occurred both in docked and in handheld mode. I didn’t suffer any game crashes, but the occasional visible hit to the framerate has me more than ready to part with the cash it will require to get the successor to the Switch, whenever that happens to come out.
Zelda games in the recent generation especially have been known for their massive scale and immense playtime. But I was actually glad to discover that Echoes of Wisdom is not a new 100+ hour adventure, and I love it for that. With it being fairly limited on its story plot and having a heavy focus on Echoes, the game is over far before the systems or it’s world become stale and repetitive. I love when games know when to end and don’t overstay their welcome, especially in this day and age when it seems like everything is trying to be an 80hr RPG or trying to ensure that you’ll spend countless hours grinding in it’s world.
Final Thoughts
Overall, The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a great new entry in the Zelda franchise and shows that the team still have a lot of interesting ideas and the ability to make a game that is just pure joy to play. I love that Zelda is a series that offers up quality entries that offer very different experiences, while still playing off each other and feeling like legitimate entries into the franchise and not just cash-in spin offs. Echoes of wisdom is an evolution on the 2D Zelda framework and the next big step after the team’s Link’s Awakening remake, providing a level of puzzle solving freedom that matches what was offered in Tears of the Kingdom with it’s new Echoes mechanic. And I’m very much looking forward to whatever fresh new take the next Zelda game gives us in the future.
If you want to see more content like this and never miss one of our frequent gaming and anime giveaways come and Follow Ani-Game on Twitter.