It’s surreal to sit back and realise I have now played a Zelda game where the Princess is the protagonist. Not in a cutesy platforming spinoff or as a mere playable character in a non-canon gem like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, but in a mainline entry that will go down in gaming history.
More importantly,Echoes of Wisdomhas me looking forward to the future, and wondering how The Legend of Zelda will grow in response to this experimental take on the traditional 2D formula that delves deeper into the Hylian monarchy and its machinations than any other game before it. The possibilities are endless, and after I placed my final bed to sleep in amidst an army of flesh-eating spiders I’d brought forth from the ether, I felt satisfied with most of the things this adventure sets out to accomplish.
You’ll no doubt have seen all the memes by now, and how, when Link is kidnapped, the first thing Zelda does is start building tables to smack enemies over the head to save her beloved babygirl. It’s like that scene in The Simpsons where Bart whacks Homer with a chair while he sits in the bath, except here the Princess is unleashing a special sort of wholesome chaos on her kingdom.
Her first solo outing focuses on rescuing the child of the forest as giant rifts spread across Hyrule, kidnapping its inhabitants and filling the land with bloodthirsty monsters. It’s a typical Zelda outing that doesn’t break new ground in terms of narrative, which is a crying shame when the worldbuilding otherwise does a wonderful job of giving our heroine a voice.
Echoes of Wisdom brings forth plenty of familiar faces too, including a returning Impa who acts as a surrogate mother figure of sorts to Zelda throughout the game.
Echoes of Wisdom combines the freeform exploration ofBreath of the Wildwith the DIY nature ofTears of the Kingdombefore splicing in the world design of A Link Between Worlds, while adding a sense of verticality to its depiction of Hyrule, which is normally so strict in how it allows the player to make it their own.
You can go anywhere and tackle anything from the outset now, so long as you’re willing to play along with the unfolding narrative. Summoning piles of trampolines and beds to sprint across piles of trees to travel from Hyrule Field to Gerudo Desert in just a couple of seconds is liberating, turning Hyrule into a sprawling diorama of little pieces the game will beg you to play around with.
After being imprisoned by dark forces that have impersonated her father, Zelda meets Tri, an ancient being who has returned to Hyrule to restore its fragmented state. She can also make use of powers to summon echoes, representations of objects and living things that can come into this world and be banished from it with a snap of her non-corporeal fingers.
You become a team that rivals Link and Midna in closeness and chemistry as you travel the world helping a motley crew of people ranging from Zora to Gerudo to Goron. Even the Deku Scrubs make an appearance in one of many homages to Ocarina of Time.
After the inconsistent performance ofLink’s AwakeningI feared Echoes of Wisdom would struggle massively, but to my surprise, it maintains a consistent frame rate despite having so much thrown at it.
This is classic Zelda, but now you stand in the shoes of the perpetually kidnapped Princess. It doesn’t push the boat out in terms of gameplay, visuals, or narrative, instead choosing to frame our heroine’s first true adventure through the contextually familiar. This risks feeling dry and predictable at times, but I was having so much fun stretching its mechanics to their limits that I hardly noticed.
Instead of puzzles and combat encounters having one definitive solution, you’re able to triumph by doing just about anything. Some dungeons might require Zelda to make use of certain elemental properties or a catalogue of echoes, but the freedom is clear when compared to the majority of other games in the series.
You’ll begin by only being able to summon three echoes at any given time, represented by a series of triangles trailing from Tri’s tiny little body. Each echo has a set value required to summon them too, so there is never an opportunity to fill the world with thousands of your creations. Besides, I doubt the framerate could cope. If you go over your allotted energy, it will simply despawn things to make up the difference. This can ruin the fun at times, but is also a means of forcing the player to be strategic in how they build platforms to traverse or what monsters they summon to do their bidding against enemies.
you’re able to use a telekinesis of sorts to pick up most objects and monsters, or move in tandem with creatures and parts of the environment to reach new heights. I didn’t have much reason to make heavy use of these abilities, and I wish there had been more opportunities to do so.
Zelda can dodge attacks from a distance, or reach in to throw her creations into the fray and use winged creatures to escape the fray or navigate longer distances. She can also call on Link to help through her Swordfighter Form, an ultimate ability of sorts that sees the music changed as you adopt a blue, almost ethereal presence where you can use a sword, shield, bow, and bombs to fight back against your enemies. This became my default when trapped by too many enemies, or a means to batter bosses' weak points at the end of temples.
Temples themselves are typical Zelda fare, with multiple floors, a big key to collect in order to gain access to the boss room, and themed puzzles and enemies that match the location. All of them are elevated by Zelda’s echoes, however, and how she is no longer bound by having to use a specific item to solve a specific puzzle to find a specific key to unlock a specific and immovable locked door.
The destination remains the same, but how you go about finishing a temple is up to you. I would often overcomplicate the solution by trying to be clever, even when an easier method was staring me right in the face. At other times, a temple that I expected to pose a much bigger challenge was a breeze because I nailed a difficult room by complete accident.
You’ll also find Stamp Man in the open world, who will ask Zelda to collect a bunch of stamps located across Hyrule to prove how much she loves stamps. Yeah, it’s a little bit odd.
Echoes of Wisdom doesn’t push the creativity of its titular mechanic far enough at times, but the ability to conquer puzzles and combat encounters however you see fit means that no two players are going to play this game in the same way, and that’s exciting. 2D Zelda was never going to stretch the boundaries as much as Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, so you see it settle for a satisfying middle ground where linearity and experimentation work together.
Temples are also broken up by rifts, remnants of the Still World, a place where reality breaks apart and mortals become entrapped. As a descendant of the goddesses, Zelda can venture inside to navigate warped environments, battle shadowed enemies, and solve puzzles. None of these sections outstay their welcome, and it’s a twisted challenge to constantly change up your perspective to figure out what is up, what is down, and how Zelda’s echoes can help to right the laws of physics. I found myself sticking to a small selection of echoes, and imagine many others will do the same. But the joy comes from exploring new territory.
I developed a relaxing cadence of gradually tackling temples as I explored the open world to take on new quests, unlock outfits, and make smoothies, the latter of which replaces cooking from Breath and Tears.
Zelda can dress up in a bunch of outfits too, including a cat costume that allows her to speak to any feline she finds throughout Hyrule. It’s a shame you can’t customise outfits on a more granular level though, as I would have loved to really go to town on the fashion side of things.
The world reacts and changes with the unfolding narrative, offering new tidbits of dialogue or quests where returning characters ask Zelda for favours both big and small. It is far from confined, settling for a comfortably vast take on Hyrule where I wanted to do everything and not leave a single stone unturned.
Echoes of Wisdom is a wonderful little game that puts experimentation at the centre, yet it also tries to be a traditional Zelda adventure with all the trimmings we’ve come to expect. It strikes an occasionally awkward balancing act between the two, coming out at the other end as a bold, accomplished outing that shines a spotlight on a Princess who has been waiting decades for her due.
Yet despite how much joy I mined conquering its temples and delving into its many rifts, at times it doesn’t push its ambition far enough. That never stops Echoes from being a warm hug of a video game that enraptured me from start to finish, but it does leave me infinitely more curious about what the future holds. Now Zelda has helmed her first epic outing, it’s only a matter of time until she goes onto bigger and better things.
Reviewed On Nintendo Switch
WHERE TO PLAY
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom sees you play as the titular princess, searching for Link and saving Hyrule in the process. She uses the Tri Rod to created echoes, duplicates of everything from tables to enemies, to help her on her journey.
