The Legend of Zelda franchise has taken such a dramatic turn that it has almost created two distinct versions of itself: the 2D games and the 3D ones, which have eventually evolved into open-world experiences like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom bridges the gap between those two Zelda identities just as well as some Old Beds would. You have the classic 2D Zelda features, like the dungeons, tricky puzzles, and more linear progression, while keeping all the creativity, freedom, and opportunities we have come to love in the newer Zelda experiences.
First Thing’s First: Echoes
The core gameplay element of Echoes of Wisdom is the Echoes. The easiest way to describe them is like a more stripped-down version of Tears of the Kingdom’s Autobuild and Ultrahand abilities. Instead of creating and manipulating objects, Zelda’s Echoes allow her to summon items or monsters out of thin air using the powers of her new friend, Tri.
Zelda’s Echoes have two main uses: combat and traversal. Some Echoes, like the Strandtula, for example, cross over and are great for both combat and world exploration, but most fit into one category or the other.
Endless Answers
These Echoes totally transform the way that you play Echoes of Wisdom, especially when compared to the other 2D or 2.5D Zelda experiences that are usually very linear. There are hundreds of Echoes you can summon, which effectively means there are dozens of ways to solve a single puzzle.
This makes the puzzles a little easier than your usual Zelda dungeon puzzles, which only have a single solution. Now that there are so many possible answers to a problem, the only thing really holding you back from solving a puzzle is your own creativity.
And while the flexibility and creativity of Echoes of Wisdom can make some of the puzzles easier, they’re not all simple. I’m looking at you, Faron Temple. There are still plenty of times you will find yourself scratching your head, thinking about what combination of Echoes is going to get you safely from one side of a boiling lava pit to the other.
Your Own Adventure
The Echoes in Echoes of Wisdom don’t just provide a creative way to solve a problem. They also provide freedom. You are free to get around an obstacle any way you want. Multiple times, I found myself stumped, thinking that I was looking at a puzzle that probably had a very obvious answer. Could I figure it out? No. But did it matter? No. I just found my own way around it.
Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild have this feeling of immense freedom due to the massive open world and the fact that you could go anywhere you wanted as soon as you step off the Great Plateau or Great Sky Island. Echoes of Wisdom has a similar feeling of freedom. You’re free to play the game the way you want to. You can solve any obstacle or any puzzle on your own terms.
This feeling is even further solidified by the massive map in Echoes of Wisdom. It’s not as big as BoTW or ToTK by any means, you won’t be delving into the Depths here. But it is eight times larger than the Link’s Awakening map, which is the next closest Zelda experience we have on the Switch to Echoes of Wisdom.
It also never feels empty, which was a symptom of the large map in BoTW and ToTK. The world is packed full of caves and secrets to find that only encourage you to pull out even more Echoes to explore with.
I Know It’s the Switch, But Still.
While Echoes of Wisdom is an excellent experience gameplay-wise, it’s not the best performance-wise. Some areas of the game have their fair share of FPS drops, particularly in the open sections of the world. This was surprising to see. Usually, Nintendo games operate almost flawlessly. Some larger titles like ToTK have FPS issues as well, but that is such a massive title that it sort of gets a free pass.
Nintendo knows the Switch like the back of its hand and usually squeezes incredible performance out of its potato. Echoes of Wisdom isn’t nearly as large or demanding as ToTK, so it does seem odd that it seems to struggle so much. But in the grand scheme of things, the FPS drops are acceptable, especially when you’re looking through the rose-tinted glasses every Switch owner has to put on to deal with FPS problems before playing the console.
Echoes of Wisdom will likely run flawlessly on the Switch 2, so fingers crossed we get that soon and can play the game in its full glory.
Let Zelda Fight Her Own Battles
Performance aside, there is one other major problem I had with Echoes of Wisdom, and that is the combat. Zelda has always been the damsel in distress in Zelda games, despite the fact that she is totally awesome and powerful in her own right.
Zelda is always captured, and it’s always up to Link to save her. In Echoes of Wisdom, those roles are switched, and Zelda now finds herself the heroine. It’s up to her to save Link. But, although Zelda is the one doing the saving, she still doesn’t really have any agency whatsoever.
Zelda doesn’t fight on her own. She summons monsters and hides behind them while they fight for her. There is a Swordfighter Form where Zelda can fight for herself, but you have to turn into Link to use it. Zelda doesn’t have her own combat identity in this game, and that bothers me.
Zelda is badass, so why isn’t that celebrated in Echoes of Wisdom? There are many routes they could have taken to give her her own combat identity in this game. They could have given her the Bow of Light that we’ve seen in countless other Zelda adventures. Zelda holds immense power when it comes to the Triforce of Wisdom, which allows her to use that bow. But that’s not even where her badassery ends.
If you haven’t played Ocarina of Time, look away now. Skip to the next paragraph, or, even better, maybe stand in front of a mirror or something and really stop and ask yourself why you haven’t played it yet. Even if they didn’t want to give Zelda the Bow of Light in Echoes, and they were really set on the Swordfighter Form route, why didn’t they at least let her transform into Sheik? Zelda has her very own alter-ego that knows combat well. Why make her transform into Link?
Zelda finally got her own game. But somehow, she still feels like the damsel in distress. I get that they wanted to lean into the Echoes mechanic, and if she had a sword, you would be more inclined to just take matters into your own hands instead of using the plethora of Echoes provided. But it would have been nice to let Zelda save herself for once and not have to rely on Link and his Swordfighter Form to get her out of a pickle.
But aside from that and the occasional frame rate drop, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Echoes of Wisdom, and I would recommend it to anyone. I love the taste of BoTW and ToTK freedom that Nintendo has brought to the 2D Zelda experience, and I love that we finally got to play as Zelda. My fingers are crossed for more Zelda-focused Zelda games, but for god’s sake, give the girl a weapon. She can handle it, I promise.
