Game: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Genre: Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch
Developers | Publishers: Nintendo
Age Rating: US E10+ | EU 7+
Price: US $59.99 | UK £49.98 | EU € 59,99
Release Date: September 26th, 2024
A review code was provided, with many thanks to Nintendo Europe.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a fresh take on the Zelda series. For the first time in the game’s 38-year history, Princess Zelda is front and centre as the hero of the story. With a combination of clever new mechanics, an engaging story, and a beautifully crafted world, this latest instalment in the Zelda franchise delivers an experience that feels both familiar and entirely new.
The Story and Setting of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
In Echoes of Wisdom, Hyrule is in peril once again. Strange rifts are appearing across the kingdom, stealing away its citizens, and even the legendary swordsman Link is among the missing. It falls to Princess Zelda to step into the role of Hyrule’s protector. Zelda’s quest is not just to restore her kingdom but to solve the mystery of the rifts and find the missing people.
The story takes you to all corners of Hyrule, from the scorching Gerudo Desert to the serene Faron Wetlands. Zelda’s journey is packed with colourful characters and side quests that enrich the world and offer meaningful rewards, blending the series’ hallmark open-world exploration with a more personal, narrative-driven experience.
Innovative Gameplay Mechanics
What really sets Echoes of Wisdom apart from other Zelda titles is its unique gameplay mechanics centred around Zelda’s new powers. The Tri Rod, a magical artefact that Zelda receives from Tri early in her journey, is a standout. It allows you to create ‘echoes’ of objects found in the environment, a power that becomes crucial in solving puzzles and navigating the world.
These echoes can be used in various ways, such as crafting bridges from old beds, throwing rocks at enemies, creating water blocks to reach new watery heights, and using spiders to reach higher places. This system invites creativity, offering multiple solutions to puzzles and obstacles.
Zelda’s companion, Tri, also has Bind and Reverse Bond abilities, which further enhance Zelda’s toolset. These abilities allow you to manipulate the environment or even use enemies and moving platforms to navigate the world.
For instance, Zelda can use Tri to bind herself to an object, making it mirror her movements, or reverse the bind so she mirrors the object’s movements. So, if she binds to a crawltula (spider) and mirrors its movement, Zelda will follow the crawltula wherever it goes, which is handy for climbing up and over areas. It is a simpler version of Ultrahand from the previous game, Tears of the Kingdom, but it adds a creative tool for solving puzzles.
I really only have one complaint with the game, and it’s the constant need to scroll through the Echoes tab. With 127 different objects and creatures to summon, this can slow down the action as you pause to find just the right monster to fight effectively with or an item to solve a puzzle.
However, as you progress and the game starts recognising your most-used Echoes, this becomes less of a problem, and the menu does help since you can sort the echoes into categories. That said, having the option to hide certain Echoes from quick select or mark favourites could have made things much smoother.
The Gameplay Encourages Experimentation
The combination of all these powers encourages experimentation. There is no right or wrong way to solve a puzzle or battle enemies; the game rewards players who think outside the box. It feels reminiscent of the puzzle-solving found in Breath of the Wild but with a deeper focus on environmental manipulation and puzzle creativity.
The classic Zelda elements are all present in Echoes of Wisdom, such as crafting recipes and wearing gear that provides effect modifiers like heat or cold resistance. Along with hearts and rupees, Zelda collects various ingredients on her journey, which you can bring to specific merchants to create smoothies, each with unique effects based on the ingredients used.
Fresh Spin on Combat
Combat also gets a fresh spin with the introduction of Zelda’s Swordfighter form, which allows her to transform and engage enemies head-on for a limited time. She can use a sword, bow, arrows and bombs. This temporary form offers a change of pace, particularly during boss battles and combat sequences, as you keep an eye on the meter in the corner of the screen.
When I first started the game, I thought I might miss playing as Link and fighting with his sword. Throughout the first few hours of playing, while Zelda’s sword fighting gauge was low, I missed swinging the sword and taking enemies out that way. However, as I played more, I got deeper into the gameplay, and using the echoes to solve puzzles and, during combat, taking out a camp of Spear Moblin was such fun. Without using a sword, I began to realise just how much fun and enjoyment I got out of using the Echoes during combat, and in the end, I didn’t miss Link. (Sorry, Link!)
Collecting and using iconic Zelda enemies like Moblins, Torch Slug, and Wolf in combat is incredibly fun. Walking through Hyrule Field with a Wolf bodyguard and watching it wipe out monsters and other enemies never gets old.
The Echoes also change more than just combat. Unlike past 2D Zelda games, you can summon objects to skip parts of the map. Soon enough, I was building bridges from beds, blocking wind fans with boulders, and stacking trampoline pads to launch myself onto cliff ledges. Echoes of Wisdom is more about using your (Zelda’s) wisdom and not your (Link’s) courage.
The Still World and Dungeons
One of the game’s most intriguing additions is the Still World, an eerie and distorted realm hidden within the rifts. This world is filled with dungeons and bosses, harkening back to the classic dungeon-crawling roots of the Zelda series.
The dungeons in Echoes of Wisdom are some of the most imaginative of the recent games in the series, combining Zelda’s new abilities with the more traditional dungeon puzzles, making for a highly satisfying experience, and it’s great to see them back. The Still World, in particular, are a test of your skills and wit, with a few of the puzzles being quite challenging. However, the game strikes a good balance, providing moments of confusion followed by a satisfying ‘eureka’ moment once you figure out what to do.
Visuals and Sound
The world of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is gorgeous, with detailed environments that feel alive and distinct. I like the Chibi art style, which is vibrant and cute and works well in the whimsical, fantasy-rich atmosphere of Zelda’s story.
As is usual in a Zelda game, the soundtrack complements the adventure beautifully, with sweeping orchestral pieces for the grander moments and softer, more atmospheric tracks for exploration and puzzle-solving. The sound design also shines, particularly during combat and in the eerie silence of the Still World. It is another fantastic Zelda soundtrack to add to my collection.
I played the game in docked and handheld modes on my Switch OLED. Other sites have reported framerate issues similar to Link’s Awakening, and yes, there are a few. However, the framerate drops did not, for one minute, take away my enjoyment of the gameplay and the storyline; in fact, I hardly noticed them because I was so engrossed in progressing the storyline.
Conclusion
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a fantastic entry in the Zelda series, offering a refreshing shift in focus by putting Princess Zelda in the lead role. The game’s creative new mechanics, engaging puzzles, and the ever-expansive world of Hyrule make it a must-play for both longtime fans and newcomers alike. While it retains the magic and spirit of previous Zelda titles, Echoes of Wisdom stands out as a unique and innovative chapter in the franchise.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up 
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