Echoes of Wisdom Impressions from a Jaded Zelda Fan

A few months ago I made a video discussing my affinity for the older Zelda titles. The ones that didn’t pursue the open world design starting with Breath of the Wild. While I think Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are excellent video games; they didn’t do much to earn the Zelda identity. It’s clear to me that Nintendo took a look at the open world games which were absolutely dominating the 2010’s, and decided they wanted a piece of the pie. To me, Zelda was always about unique dungeons, permanent weapons and upgrades, a metroidvania-esque overworld, companion character, and yes- the green clothes!

I guess I’m a bit of a purist.

I understand that long running series need a little wiggle room for creativity. I think it’s important to try new ways of iterating a proven formula. But don’t deviate. If you do, you run the risk of deviating too far and leaving the people who loved you from the beginning behind. Like me. A good example of creatively iterating is 2013’s A Link Between Worlds, a game I absolutely adore. The game pursues a much less linear design, allowing the player to pick dungeons in almost any order they want. And your important items can be rented (and then bought) at a shop. I never found either of these two aspects as a betrayal to The Legend of Zelda identity. The game has a charm very similar to its 3D relatives, just with a different camera angle.

2013's A Link Between Worlds was the last time a non-remake Zelda game really blew me away.

So yeah, I’ve been a very sad Zelda fan over the past few years. The 2019 Link’s Awakening remake made me feel extremely seen by Nintendo. I had a fondness for the original for almost a decade prior, and remake is the definitive version in my eyes. I was really hoping they wouldn’t abandon the toy-like art style. It’s just too adorable and I could easily imagine other games from that era copying it.

While I thought there was a slight chance the Capcom Oracle games could get a remake in this art style, I was wrong. On June 18th of this year we were shown our first trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. At first I was mixed. I was happy to finally play as Princess Zelda herself, but it seemed to be going for a much different approach to puzzle solving and combat. After roughly 10 hours with the game, my fears are long gone.

Echoes of Wisdom is the first original Zelda game in 11 years to make me feel happy as a fan.

The intro of this game is reminiscent of Tears of the Kingdom. You start of with a full set of hearts and gear. There’s a dedicated jump button not given to us by the Roc’s Feather or Cape. There’s even a lock-on just like the 3D games. Very quickly we witness our standard hero Link being taken away to another world. There’s this cute moment where the game screen lingers on a kidnapped Zelda still in her prism-like prison. If you didn’t know anything about this game, you might wonder if the game wasn’t loading to the next scene properly. But wiggle your joystick around and Zelda herself breaks free!

We then meet our cute companion character Tri, who of course explains what’s happening around us and provides us with the games iconic ability- echoes. Echoes allow us to copy items we see in the world such as pots, beds, statues and even monsters. This means the game takes on an almost Scribblenauts-esque approach. Is there a gap too big to jump across? Maybe make a bridge with two beds! Or maybe use some trampolines and a crate for a higher jump.

The entire language of Zelda puzzle solving has changed. And I’m here for it! There’s been more than a handful of times where the game makes me pause and figure out different combinations of echoes to solve a puzzle. Tri also has the ability to grab things from a distance, which allows for an Ultrahand-like ability from Tears of the Kingdom. I can actually see a lot of BOTW/TOTK in this game. There’s a non-linearity to the dungeons. There’s an air gauge underwater that’s reminiscent of the stamina wheel. There’s a smoothie making mechanics much like the cooking. The echoes menu looks like the weapons menu in BOTW/TOTK. You can change clothes and accessories for different effects. Being 2D inherently makes the game feel more gamey, and I think that’s why these similarities don’t bother me. It also doesn’t get in the way of my beloved Zelda gameplay loop of beating dungeons and going back to the overworld for new exploration possibilities.

I like that there’s almost a real time Pokémon element to the combat. If you see a Moblin in the fields, you can summon any monster you want to fight them. It’s kind of cute, but certainly nothing exhilarating. Part of me really misses just being able to chop up enemies myself. Zelda has her staff which allows for making echoes. She also has a spin for quick movement. I wish her spin did even some minuscule damage, just to make me feel like I was the one doing some damage for once. But I understand that the echoes take the spotlight here. Within your first dungeon you unlock a transformation that allows you to essentially become Link for a few seconds. This means you actually can inflict damage on your enemies. It satisfies my combat itch for a little bit, but I feel like it contradicts the whole point of the game. One of Princess Zelda’s best powers in the game is…to be Link? I wish there was a bit more of a unique twist on that.

There’s definitely some satisfying things here as a longtime Zelda fan. I love seeing both the River and Sea Zora in the same game. You get a little taste of their inner politics which is interesting. Seeing both styles of Zora in this toy-like art style is super adorable. Same with the cute little toy Goron you come across. There’s a lot of cuteness in this game like Tri and Zelda with the blue hood on. And I love it for that.

My main and only serious complaint with the game is the echoes menu. It’s just one long horizontal line of every single echo you get. I really wish there were maybe three different horizontal lines with different categories like MONSTERS, UTILITY, MISC. Monsters would be for combat. Utility would be for things like the spider echo which is essentially a ladder, or the bomb fish which are your bombs. Miscellaneous would be things like beds or plants. A grid menu would be much better! Or maybe even the ability to hotkey eight echoes to a wheel allowing for quick selection.

I’m genuinely shocked by how bad the echoes menu is.

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I’m loving my time with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. It feels nice to be happy with a new Zelda game.