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.
