Hey all. I’m back with a review of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. The game was released at the end of last year and adds a new twist to the Zelda franchise.
Plot: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom starts off pretty similarly to other Zelda titles. Link is off on an adventure and is in the process of rescuing Zelda when things go wrong in the story both for Link and for the story’s expected direction. Because instead of saving Zelda or even failing to and having to try again, Link succeeds but gets trapped when he falls into a mysterious rift into the Still World. Rifts begin appearing in places around Hyrule, and other characters also get trapped in the Still World.
Gameplay: Echoes of Wisdom plays a lot like the older 2D Zelda games, like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening or perhaps the The Legend of Zelda: Oracle titles. But Echoes of Wisdom is still distinctly different because players aren’t taking on the role of Link this time around. Instead, they are playing as Zelda. She is trying to rescue Link and also the entire kingdom of Hyrule.
Zelda is much less capable of attacking things head on like players could with Link. Instead, you have to utilize the new Echoes weapon introduced in Echoes of Wisdom to finish most fights. Echoes are basically copies of objects or monsters found in the adventure that you can use to fight for you. You will be using them most of the time to win fights. That’s not always true because there is an option unlocked fairly early on that also lets you fight like Link, but it’s very much an extremely resource limited option. It shouldn’t ever be used unless absolutely necessary or maybe when fighting against major bosses.
You can, however, use the Echoes as much you want and with very few limitations barring the cost of summoning them. Some items or monsters take more than one triangle to summon and so are limited that way, but the summoning cost can be reduced. You can also gain more triangles through exploration and finishing main quests. Other than that, you can summon as frequently as you wish.
So, for example, if you want to summon a block of water and then telekinetically grab and hold an enemy in said block to drown them you can do that. Or maybe you want to trivialize a stealth section by using clouds to pass by guards by running over their heads. That’s also an option and one I highly recommend doing in some of those stealth sections. While this is still very much a typical Zelda game, it also isn’t and feels fresh and exciting in ways that make me very hopeful for future entries in the series. Honestly, the sheer variety of options in any given fight makes Echoes of Wisdom feel more like The Legend of Zelda’s Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom than any other 2D Zelda title.
My one complaint is that Echoes of Wisdom is over far too quickly, but Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were real treasures given how long they took to play and complete. Sometimes we forget that not every Zelda game ever made was like that.
Art: The art is very much along the lines of the recent remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, which isn’t surprising given that Grezzo also developed this entry. It works surprisingly well.
Music: It features a classic Zelda soundtrack mixed with enough new songs and sound effects to enhance the gameplay and makes it even more exciting.
Overall: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a very good entry in the Zelda series, even if players will probably finish the story much more quickly than expected.
For those who like: Zelda titles, action, and adventure.
Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.