Developer: Grezzo
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: NS1, NS2
Version Played: NS1, NS2
Price: $59.99
Finally, after 38 years, they made a Zelda game in which you actually play as Zelda. Sure, you played as her a little bit in Phantom Hourglass, and there were those 2 CD-i games, but Echoes of Wisdom is the first real, canon, non-spinoff Zelda game starring the character who the series is named after. And yes, this is definitely a real Zelda game and not cozy Zelda or some fashion-themed multiplayer-focused spinoff. Echoes of Wisdom has everything you expect in a Zelda game except playing as Link.
The main difference between Link and Zelda is the way they fight. Zelda is the “Priestess of Wisdom”, not a swordfighter. She has been a Ninja in the past, but not here. Her main weapon in this game is the Tri Rod, a magic wand a little Luma-looking being named Tri is letting her borrow. This rod lets Zelda create copies, or “Echoes”, of many objects and enemies in the game. You can summon rocks, those flying tiles from LttP, Armos, Octoroks, Ropes, and all sorts of things. There's 127 echoes in the game. To get an echo, you either learn it from a sparkling object in the environment or from enemies you kill. I think all enemies except bosses get Echoes.
You can summon Echoes to solve puzzles, fight for you, and basically do anything Link would do with items. You can summon a Bombfish to blow up walls, Ignizols to light torches, flying tiles to fly over chasms, and carrots to call your horse, for example. It's a fun system, especially when you're summoning classic Zelda enemies. This game is full of cute Zelda references. There's no resource cost to use Echoes, but there is a limit to how many Echoes you can have active at the same time based on their strength level and Tri’s level, which goes up after you beat dungeons and clear rifts.
There's big problems with Echoes, though. One of them being that the UI can't handle all this stuff. There's 127 Echoes, but you can only equip one at a time. It's not often you have to combine the abilities of multiple Echoes, but you do have to quickly switch between them often, and your only option is to hold L and scroll through the list. You get a few sorting options, like last used and most used, and a filter to only see ones you've favorited, but you're always stopping the action and scrolling through this list which only gets bigger as you play the game. I feel like maybe this game would work better with some MMORPG hot bars or maybe a bunch of icons on the touchscreen of a Wii U or 3DS. The Switch has a touchscreen, but I think everyone forgot.
But the biggest problem with Echoes is that they're horrible at fighting. I'm not expecting genius from Moblins and Lizalfos, but c'mon! When you summon Echoes, they just kind of stand there and look around before they aggro on enemies, which of course leaves them open to attacks and getting killed before they even do any damage. They also lose track of enemies when they move too far away and instead of following, they just go back to their stupid idle animation. I'm pretty sure the Echoes' AI is actually dumber than the real enemies’.
Thankfully, there's swordfighter mode. You can press up on the D pad and use Link’s sword, shield, bow and arrows, and bombs. They literally put Zelda’s head on Link's body for this mode. So it turns out that the best way for Zelda to fight is to just turn into Link. Why didn't they just give Zelda some weapons then? Swordfighter mode is very limited, though. It uses energy as its resource, and there's only a few ways to get that resource. You can't just cut some grass or smash some pots to get it, you either have to kill enemies in rifts, find one of the items you use to upgrade Link’s weapons, or drink a potion or smoothie. Even with a fully upgraded energy meter, Swordfighter mode only lasts for about 45 seconds. This made it so I was very selective about when I used it because I didn't want to grind for money or ingredients to keep refilling the meter. So of course, that means I spent way too much time using slow, dumb Echoes to fight everything. I wish they would have just given Zelda a bow or something.
The Tri Rod also has another use. It's basically the Ultrahand from Tears of the Kingdom. You can use it to move things out of the way, move objects you can't physically reach, hold enemies in place while your Echoes kill them, and pull bosses’ body parts, like you might do with the grappling hook in older Zelda games. It comes in handy. You can also use it to sort of ride along with summoned Echoes, but since their AI is dumb as rocks, it's really only useful to use a spider Echo to climb up walls.
Zelda can also jump without any special items, which is a first for top down Zeldas, and do a spin move, which can be used to cut grass and deflect some enemy attacks. This game also has lock-on targeting, like the 3D games. It's usually not necessary for fighting, but it comes in handy when you want to grab a specific thing with the Tri Rod or aim your arrows.
I think this game strikes a really good balance between the classic and open world style of Zelda games. Echoes of Wisdom does the LttP thing which has you doing 3 dungeons in the first half and then some more after a big story moment, but it also gives you the choice of which dungeon to go to. Since puzzles revolve around Echoes, which you can get in multiple places, and not items tied to specific dungeons, it doesn't really matter which one you do first. If you need a specific Echo for a puzzle, it's going to be available in that dungeon.
Another thing Echoes of Wisdom does really well is the pre-dungeon stories and questing. This was one of the worst things in Skyward Sword, so when I noticed how much it felt like I was doing mini dungeons to open the actual dungeon, my Spider sense started tingling. But the way this game ties all the individual town stories with the rifts, questing, and dungeons was really well done. It's like the game is taking the best parts of Zelda questing in LttP, OoT, and BotW and mixing them all together. I never had to collect doodads, like in a Rare N64 platformer. I actually enjoyed the questing.
It helps that the Hyrule of Echoes of Wisdom is so full of Zelda goodness. There's so much OoT, LttP, and BotW stuff in this game. Gerudos, Gorons, Zoras, Kakariko Village, classic Zelda enemies, familiar NPCs, even Hyrule is an expanded version of LttP’s map many years in the future. I loved running around this world and seeing places from LttP and stuff from BotW and OoT all existing in the same place. It's just fascinating.
Echoes of Wisdom uses the same art style and game engine as the Link's Awakening remake. I wish I could say it also has the same framerate, but it's actually much worse than Link's Awakening’s. LA’s framerate was fine outside of the overworld, but EoW’s framerate is much more inconsistent. It varies wildly and dips lower than LA ever does. EoW actually looks weird when it hits 60 FPS because it happens so rarely. The Switch 2 edition runs great at 4K and 60 FPS, but I mostly played it on NS1. I like the character designs and environments in Echoes of Wisdom and LA, but I think the shiny plastic toy look is getting old. If they remake LttP or the Oracle games, I hope they do something different with the shaders.
Echoes of Wisdom does a lot of things right. It has a great structure with a good balance between the classic and open world style, it's full of Zelda references, and it even introduces new interesting lore. It's a Zelda-ass Zelda game full of all the things Zelda fans love about Zelda. The problem is that, while its main mechanic is creative and has a lot of potential, it just doesn't work very well. It's a game perfectly suited for 3DS and Wii U, but it was made for Switch.
8/10 Because its main mechanic is clunky as hell.
Developer: Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: NS1, NS2
Version Played: NS2
Price: $69.99
Metroid Prime 4, a sequel 18 years in the making. Well, 8 years in development, but it's been 18 years since Metroid Prime 3 came out on the Wii. And I guess it's a sequel in name only because the story doesn't have a whole lot to do with the original trilogy. Sylux is the only real connection to the old Prime games. But it still plays like Metroid Prime. Well, maybe more like Metroid Prime meets another famous Nintendo series.
Metroid Prime 4 takes place somewhere between Other M and Fusion in a new place in universe. So no Metroid fusion, no Adams, no Chozo, and no baby. In the game’s intro, Sylux, along with a gang of Space Pirates and Metroids, attacks a Galactic Federation base where they're analyzing a mysterious artifact, one thing leads to another, and Samus ends up being teleported away to a planet called Viewros. Now she has to collect 5 magic gems to activate a teleporter to get back home. Unfortunately, her ship wasn't teleported with her.
Viewros was once inhabited by the Lamorn, a highly advanced civilization that learned how to harness psychic powers and make badass bikes. They're kind of like Chozo, but Axolotls instead of birds. Axolotls are those cute Mexican salamanders with tentacle-like gills coming out of their heads. The ruins of their civilization are everywhere on Viewros and you learn about what happened to them by scanning stuff throughout the game. Even though they're long gone, they left messages and technology for Samus, who they call “the chosen one”. They're psychic, so they knew she was coming.
During her adventures on Viewros, Samus encounters a bunch of Federation soldiers that got teleported along with her. It's not just that Miles guy, there's 5 in total. You talk to them, fight alongside them, and they even call you from time to time. I could hear people crying about their precious isolation the moment I saw Miles. But if you’ve been playing the games since Fusion, you probably saw this coming miles away. The check-in calls and Navi-like hints aren't anything new to Metroid games. The way these characters tag along sometimes definitely is, though. There's multiple parts where you fight alongside them in a sort of Firefight/Horde mode scenario, and one of these characters is basically a walking door opening item. It's more than a little Halo-ish and pretty weird for a Metroid game. I didn't mind it too much, though, because it does work with the story. I also feel like Samus needs to have other friends besides that Adam guy she named her ship’s AI after. Time to move on, girl.
Hopefully these relationships are leading to something, like a sequel! Because if they're not, this game’s story was a huge nothing burger. It isn't moving anything forward in the Metroid universe, and Samus's character hasn't been developed at all. It's just introducing a new race that would've probably worked better as Chozo and Galactic Federation characters that might never be seen again. Remember the “remember me?” guy?
Strangely enough, the Lemorn didn't make many upgrades for Samus that the Chozo haven't made already. Or did they make them before the Chozo? Metroid Prime 4 has a grappling hook, power bomb, double jump, spider ball, Ice Shot, spring ball, you get the picture. The Lemorn literally just put “Psychic” in the names of some of these and called it a day, like some kind of cheap knockoff. The only real new items here are a “Psychich Glove” that gives you telekinesis, the bike, and the Control Beam, a psychic shot that you fly around in 1st person like a drone. Sounds familiar.
VI-O-LA is actually pretty cool, but it's just a mount. It's basically Epona. I would say the Master Cycle, but it really is more like Epona with the charged speed boosts and everything. You use it to get around the desert and to break the green crystal clusters found all over. You can't use it inside most areas in the dungeons, so it's rarely used as a key item.
The desert connecting everything in the game is called the Sol Valley. It's where you’ll find all the dungeons, shrines, Galactic Federation wreckage, and the green crystals. There's also ramps to do sick jumps on your bike. There are puzzles and items in the shrines, like in Breath of the Wild’s, but there's only 5 of them. Packs of enemies appear and attack you every now and then, but it's mostly deserted. This really is just a space to connect everything, like Hyrule Field or Wind Waker’s ocean. It's not very exciting, and the lack of music doesn't help, but you don't have to spend a lot of time in it. I really like how it looks, though, because it reminds me of the desert behind Samus on the cover of Metroid II for Game Boy.
The green crystals are used to get various upgrades throughout the game. I heard some people ignored them and then had to grind for them at the end of the game, since a certain amount is required to get a specific upgrade, but that wasn't my experience. I don't even know why you’d do that. The first upgrade I got with them was pretty good, so I made sure to get every one I saw.
So what I’m trying to say here is that Metroid Prime 4 is by far the most Zelda-like Metroid game ever made. It's got the big area in the middle connecting everything, a bike, people to talk to, tag-along NPCs, a Skyward Sword beetle-like item, the story sounds more like Link’s Awakening the more I think about it, and the major areas are basically dungeons, because they're not connected to each other at all. They even share themes with Zelda dungeons. There's literally a volcano area that looks like Death Mountain from the outside. What else should I call them, temples? One of them is a motorcycle factory! These ain't no temples!
Even though it has a very Zelda-like structure (and story and items), the game still feels like Metroid Prime. It's still a game about scanning everything in sight, exploration, and solving puzzles with the items you find along the way. It's still that game where things don't work until you scan them and you revisit old areas with new items to reach new places and find more items. It's a Metroid Prime game through and through. It just has a big-ass desert in the middle of everything and Samus meets 5 new friends in it.
Metroid Prime 4 is still a Switch 1 game. There really isn't anything special going on with the graphics aside from the game running great. It's 60FPS in 4K and 120FPS in 1080p docked and 720p handheld on NS2. The only time I noticed any kind of frameyness was when trying to play in 4K with the Joycon in mouse mode. Maybe I was moving my hand too fast for the game to keep up. Mouse mode works just fine here, by the way. The thing that truly makes MP4 look great is the art direction. The game has this sort of Star Wars meets HR Giger thing going on and it really works for me. It makes sense that the art is inspired by Aliens and Star Wars because the first 3 games were definitely inspired by those movies as well.
It's been way too long since I played MP3, so I can't really say if this is better, but I can tell you that I like MP4 a lot more than Metroid Prime Remastered. It didn't get rid of scanning, which I’m still not a fan of, but it did get rid of all the other visors, the dark areas, and the constant locking you in rooms with bullet sponge enemies. MP4 is just a less annoying and more modern game that still retains the Metroid style of gameplay. And the bike is awesome! Can we get a Metroid-themed Excitebike or something?
8/10
…Because it's a good Metroid Prime game, but scanning still isn't fun.
Developer: Game Freak
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Switch
Price: $29.99
The Indigo Disk is the second and final bit of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC included in The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero expansion pack. That's all, folks. Aside from any upcoming in-game events, this is the last Scarlet and Violet content we're going to get. As far as we know, at least. Pokemon Day is right around the corner. Maybe Game Freak is cooking up a lime-themed Pokemon Verdant or something. The Indigo Disk adds new story content, a new area, a new Tera type, 138 returning Pokemon, and 8 new Pokemon. And BTW, The Indigo Disk is all endgame content. All Pokemon are over level 55 and there's no level scaling.
The Indigo Disk adds a lot of content to the game, but just as I expected, there are zero performance fixes here. In fact, I think the new area, the Terarium (Get it?), has even more spots with bad performance than Paldea did at launch. There is no escaping the terrible framerate. It was probably a bad idea to cram all these different biomes right next to each other and add the ability to fly on top of it. Areas with mud perform the worst, with long stutters that make it look like the game is going to crash. There are also real crashes. More than I’ve experienced since the first few weeks after launch. It's a shame because there's a lot to like about this expansion.
The story of The Indigo Disk starts off by taking you through the Terarium while battling the Elite Four of the Blueberry Academy. It turns out that Kieran, the kid who thinks he’s the main character of this game and tried to take your legendary Pokemon in Kitagami, is the champion here and they have an Elite Four of their own. Of course, now you must beat them all and beat Kieran again and show him that he can never beat you, no matter how hard he trains.
After all that, you go back to Area Zero with Carmine and Kieran and this little jerk tries to steal another legendary from you! Unbelievable! So, what's the treasure of Area Zero? It's a Pokemon. Were you expecting a Triforce maybe? Well, it's that turtle Pokemon all over the new anime series, Terapagos. After you take your rightful Pokemon, you can go back to Kitagami and talk to the Cavewoman or Reed Richards professor and they basically say that there's multiple timelines and dimensions in Pokemon. And that's it for the Area Zero storyline. Kind of disappointing if you ask me. I was hoping we’d get to travel in time or something, but all we get is a few more caves in Area Zero and a new Pokemon.
There is one more story back in Kitagami. Remember that weird doll at the store that everyone thought was a Pokemon? Well, it turned out to be a Pokemon and it’s making everyone eat its mochi and dance like chickens in “Mochi Mayhem”. This is really just an excuse to get all your friends from Kitagami and Paldea (and Kieran) together for one final episode, but it also fleshes out the Ogerpon story. I liked it. It’s fun, goofy, you get to see all your friends (and Kieran) interact, and you get a new mythical Pokemon in the end.
That might sound like a lot of story content, but you can go through all of that in under 10 hours. The real meat of the game is in the new Blueberry League Club Room, which you unlock soon after getting to the new school. This club room has a bunch of stuff you can do and unlock with the new currency, Blueberry Points.
You get Blueberry Points from doing quests in the Terarium. These quests are called Blueberry Quests, or BBQs. These quests just keep popping up on a list as you complete them, just like the Nook Mile quests in Animal Crossing New Horizons. You don't even have to talk to an NPC. There's quests which require you to sneak up on a Pokemon, battle a wild Terastalized Pokemon, catch a Pokemon, and a bunch of other stuff. There's also multiplayer only quests that have you making sandwiches together, taking group photos, and other stuff. Basically, you get points for using the game’s mechanics.
You can then use these Blueberry Points on stuff like new photo filters, themes and music for the club room, and new Pokeball throwing animations. You can also use them to run the item printer, which is a machine that takes your Pokemon materials and turns them into items, like held items, Tera shards, vendor trash, and bottle caps. You can also get rare Pokeballs, like Master Balls and Friend Balls, from this machine if you randomly hit the “Pokeball Lotto”.
One of the coolest things you can buy with BPs is new Pokemon for the 4 biomes in the Terarium, which just means starter Pokemon in the wild, as far as I can tell. That means they can also appear in outbreaks, so you can easily shiny hunt them. All the starters from previous generations are available, but not the ones from Scarlet and Violet.
Another thing you can do with BPs is bring NPCs (or “coaches”) to the club room. You can host 2 at a time, and you can bring in all the Gym leaders, teachers, Nemona, Penny, and others. You can battle them and get rare items, emotes, and clothing, you can trade Pokemon with them, and they'll even talk to some of the other NPCs you bring in. You’ll have to mix and match to see all the unique interactions. It's not exactly a Battle Tree, but it's pretty cool if you like NPC battles, or just want to hang out with Iono again.
There's also an NPC who will give you special items that make legendary Pokemon appear around Paldea for doing BBQs. Most can be unlocked by doing solo quests, but there's also a bunch that require you to do group quests in multiplayer. These group quests aren't simply quests done in multiplayer, though. You have to do a bunch of quests in multiplayer for the group quests to pop up, and you have to do 12 of these to get the items for all the other version’s exclusive legendaries and all the group quest exclusive legendaries. It's a huge grind. I spent a lot of time doing solo quests and grouped up 4 different times for hours and hours of BBQing. All of these legendaries are 1 time spawns and they are shiny locked, BTW.
The new Tera type is Stellar, the type Terapagos comes with. This is a very complicated type. As if people didn't have enough trouble understanding what Terastalization did already. The Stellar type gives moves of all types the 1.5X boost from Terastalizing, but only 1 time for 1 move of each type. So say you have a Pokemon with 1 water, 2 fire, and 1 psychic move, you can get the boost once for all of the moves except the second fire move. Unlike other Tera types, Stellar doesn't affect your Pokemon’s typing at all, so if your Charizard Terastalizes into Stellar, it's still going to be Fire/Flying both offensively and defensively. There's no actual Stellar typing for Pokemon. Even Terapagos is a Normal type. All rumors of Pokemon changing forms while Terastalized into Stellar are false. Terapagos changes forms when it goes into any battle, but it doesn't have anything to do with the Stellar type. Stellar has a few other effects when using Tera Blast and Terapagos' signature move, Tera starstorm, but you should just go watch a guide video on that if you're interested.
After finishing a certain challenge from one of the Elite Four, you can unlock Koraidon or Miraidon’s flying abilities. Whenever you want to fly; you jump, start gliding, and then press L3 on the left stick. It's kind of an awkward button combination in practice, and the movement controls are weird because they change depending on where the camera is, but you can fly now! You can fly in any outdoor area, including in Mesagoza, and even in Area Zero. There are no weird World of Warcraft-like restrictions to it.
That's a lot of stuff to keep you busy until the next game comes out. You're definitely getting your money's worth with this expansion pack. I’d say it's a pretty good send-off for Scarlet and Violet. It would have been perfect if it also fixed the framerate, though.
