The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Review)

After the remake of Link's Awakening for the Nintendo Switch, GREZZO went on to make their first own singleplayer-focused Zelda adventure, fated to become a true milestone for the Legend of Zelda series. Not counting the Philips CD-i curiosities or any of the spin-offs, this marks the first time where you play as Princess Zelda herself, which comes with a number of innovations. So, let's assess what The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom brings on the table for the franchise... by spawning another table on top with the Tri Rod.

 

~ Story ~

Zelda games aren't exactly known for their stories and if you follow the developer interviews, then you will learn that Echoes of Wisdom was – as so often – developed around its central gameplay mechanic, the ability to copy objects and enemies, the so called "echoes". To put an emphasis on this mechanic, they needed a character who doesn't use a sword by default, which led to Zelda becoming the playable protagonist for the first time. But then they needed an explanation why the princess of Hyrule is heading into danger all by herself, which then led to the idea of the rifts absorbing parts of land and its inhabitants... including Link!

It's as contrived as always, and with that in mind you wouldn't guess that the story goes surprisingly deep into the lore of the series, especially that of Ocarina of Time. Without giving away any spoilers, the game doesn't shy from doing some bold things. And that's refreshing. However, as much it tries to expand upon some of the origins, it's still all contrived from the idea of the echoes, which ultimately means that none of it will matter for the future of the series... Probably. Which is a shame, but it's still an exciting and very satisfying tale if you're a longtime Zelda fan.

Echoes of Wisdom also tells some fun and heartwarming stories on the smaller scale, where the events around the dungeons are quite entertaining as well. It may never feel as grand as the tales of the Champions in Breath of the Wild, but at least everything comes to a nice conclusion.

This is also the first time since Skyward Sword that there's a companion character, who has its roots in the plot, with Tri. Unlike many of its predecessors, however, Tri may not be as annoying. It never holds your hand all that much, while it is the driving force behind Zelda's new abilities and offers a number of funny and charming moments. That being said, Tri does a lot of the talking, because Zelda is about as chatty as Link in this game. And you may not like the character for that reason alone.

Keep in mind that the overall tone of the game is quite light-hearted, despite the stakes of Hyrule being swallowed by dark rifts. It matches the game's art style very well, but if you're looking for something more mature, you will be disappointed.

~ Visuals ~

The game uses the same engine and look as the Link's Awakening remake and therefore has the same adorable toy-like aesthetic. It may not be to everyone's taste, but it has its own unique charm and sets this era of top-down Zelda games apart from the Wind Waker-inspired style that came before them. It's especially nice to see certain tribes, like the Gorons and the Gerudo, for the first time in these visuals.

However, this also comes with the same technical difficulties, where the game uses Vsync in combination with only double buffering... like the Link's Awakening remake. As a result, the frame rate can quickly drop from 60FPS to 30 whenever there is too much load, and these drops can be quite noticeable, even distracting for some. This mainly happens when wandering around the overworld, so inside dungeons and caves you will usually get the smooth 60FPS the game is aiming for.

By default it uses a tilted camera perspective, as in the Link's Awakening remake, but you can also switch into a truly top-down view, which feels similar to A Link Between Worlds, but without the weirdly slanted objects and entities. However, you have to hold down the right stick for that, so you can't comfortably toggle between the two views. It's not required for anything and you can beat the whole game without noticing that it's even a thing, so it's more or less just there to give you a better overview in some situations. You can also use the right stick to move the camera and get a better view on your surroundings.

 

~ Music & Sound ~

After Ryo Nagamatsu has left Nintendo, a whole crew of composers have taken over in his stead. Among them are Masato Ohashi and Manaka Kataoka, who have worked on Tears of the Kingdom prior to this, while others came in from the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

They all try to honor the works of Nagamatsu and Koji Kondo, where they have created some good new tunes – the main melody is beautiful and some of the village tunes are quite catchy, especially Gerudo Town and the River Zora Village. There are also some fantastic dungeon tracks that are absolutely on fire. However, part of the soundtrack isn't all that memorable, where it doesn't really stick with you in the end.

You have to give it to them that they were trying to be more original, though. And they would have had a great excuse not to be, since Echoes of Wisdom is a very nostalgic title overall, but they only reinterpreted a handful of classic themes, where it makes the most sense to have them, like Zelda's Lullaby and the Hyrule Castle music. They also mixed in some classics into new tunes, like in Kakariko Village, similar to how Twilight Princess did it. But for the most part it's all fresh and the classic tunes have therefore a much greater impact when you hear them.

They did copy quite a bit from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom when it comes to other sounds, like the little noises people do when you talk to them. And that's okay, it makes it all feel more connected. And the game does have its own memorable sounds where it matters, like when you're using the new abilities.

~ Gameplay ~

The core aspect of Echoes of Wisdom are the eponymous echoes – objects and enemies at your disposal, ready to be summoned via the Tri Rod at any time once you've learned them. At its most basic level, where you summon boxes or rocks, it works like the Cane of Somaria from A Link to the Past and Oracle of Ages. But it does a lot more than that, where Echoes are effectively the items of this Zelda game.

If you need to blow something up, you can summon a Bombfish. Or, if you need to blow something away, you can send a Tornando. If you need to dig, there's the Holmill for that. If you want to glide somewhere, you can use a Keese. Or a crow. Or a Mothula. You often have different options, where there is also a variety of enemies with the typical elemental effects of fire, ice and electricity.

Some echoes are more powerful or effective than others, which is balanced by their costs. Tri starts out with three triangles and the weakest or simplest echoes only cost one. Stronger monsters will cost more, up to six, but you will be able to upgrade Tri's capacity accordingly and reduce the cost of all monsters by mending rifts, as you progress through the game. While this limits the number of things you can summon at once, there is also no limit to how often you can summon echoes. Should they be defeated or cornered, you can just quickly summon them again, which is often a very effective method in combat.

Anyway, this system turned all normal foes into items, which makes discovering new enemies always rewarding by itself. In past Zelda game you may want to take pictures of all monsters, or maybe they are dropping unique materials. But in Echoes of Wisdom you're constantly getting new stuff to play with. There are 127 echoes in total and it takes a good while to collect them all, but it's motivating to collect them all, because each of them offers you a unique utility... at least for the most part. There are some echoes of objects that are entirely redundant, while certain enemy echoes become redundant once their stronger versions have their cost reduced.

And with such a huge number of items comes an equally big problem: selecting the right echo simply takes too long and is always interrupting the game. The quick selection works similar to the material select in Tears of the Kingdom, though it's arguably not as bad, since there are only half as many echoes and the sorting options are a bit more useful. You can sort your echoes by type, most used, last used and last learned, which is often quite sufficient to quickly find what you might need. But you will have to scroll through the long horizontal menu eventually, where filters for different categories and favorites would have been very helpful. (Update: favorites got added in version 1.1.0)

This isn't a problem with the few Automatons, which are mechanical versions of some of the monsters unlocked later in the game. They serve as a stronger alternative to echoes, but lack their convenience. You have to wind them up to get them going and once they have received too much damage, you won't be able to use them again until you bring them back to Dampé, who has taken the role of an engineer in this title. And his repairs will cost you, so you have to be always mindful about your automated buddies, unlike with the echoes.

You also won't be able to craft the automatons until after the game's midpoint, which is where you also will be able to summon some of the strongest echoes already. And because of that there is no real need to ever rely on Dampé's creation, rendering them pretty much useless.

Far from useless is Zelda's other main ability: Bind. It allows you to connect to anything in the environment that moves or can be moved, including your echoes and automatons. Then you can either make them copy your own movements or copy theirs. Bind is what gives Princess Zelda a lot of agency in the game and it's overall very versatile, but it's also easy to forget that this exists in any given situation, because the echoes are always the star of the show.

However, in combination with each other this can completely break the game, so that there are rarely any boundaries. The tallest mountains can be overcome with a Crawtula and Reverse-Bond, for example, which also lets you skip the majority of one of the dungeons. If done right, you can even fly up straight in the air, where the sky is the limit.

Bind and the Tri Rod may not be as complex and creative as Fuse and the Ultrahand from Tears of the Kingdom, but they can be as potent and have the exact same issue: once you find something that works really well, there is no real need for experimentation. You can just stick to the same echoes for the same types of problems and this will get the job done in most cases.

Finally, if you prefer to do things the old-fashioned way, there is also the Swordfigher Form, which temporarily turns Zelda into Link. In this form she can use sword, bow and bombs, all of which have to be unlocked first and can be upgraded multiple times for more damage and additional utility. It's a constant reminder of how much faster and easier it was to fight as Link, but it is limited via an energy bar, so it has to be used sparingly. The only ways to refill it are defeating the dark rift monsters, drinking certain potions and smoothies, or collecting floating energy within the Still Worlds.

~ World & Progression ~

The Hyrule in Echoes of Wisdom is loosely based on the one known from A Link to the Past, with Hyrule Castle at the center. There is a similar landscape and a number of recognizable landmarks, but it has evolved quite a lot. For example, there is now a proper castle town within the castle walls, or Kakariko Village has moved further to the northeast and now looks completely different.

Most importantly, the world is expanded, where you can find new areas in all cardinal directions. This was mainly done to add a home for the various tribes, which weren't featured in A Link to the Past or A Link Between Worlds, like the Gerudo, where the much bigger Gerudo Desert can now be found in the southwest. This expansion of the classic Hyrule feels all very natural and perfectly crafted, offering something fresh and new.

The beginning of the game is quite linear to function as a tutorial, but the world completely opens up after the first dungeon. As already mentioned, with a clever use of the Tri Rod and Bind you can go almost everywhere, only stopped by the borders of the map. So, the game achieves its progression via the rifts, which don't appear all at once.

After the beginning there will be major rifts in the Gerudo Desert and Jabul Waters, where it's for the player to decide which of the two to do first. You can also go to the Gorons or the Deku already and see what they are up to, but you won't be able to progress in the story there, because there are no rifts there yet. It's a smart system, offering a meaningful progression within a completely open Zelda game.

Not so great is the Still World itself, which is what awaits inside the rifts. Other than the big rifts, which lead you into the next dungeon, you can also find a variety of smaller rifts, where mending them will add partially to Tri's level and will also often bring something back to the overworld. These sections are atmospheric, but can get quite repetitive in their gameplay, because it's often just platforming over the broken pieces of land and fighting the shadow enemies.

You can find "Travel Waypoints" all over Hyrule and also inside the large rifts and dungeons, which only need to be activated and then can be used for warping. It's simple and effective, while the waypoints are also plentiful, where it's never been easier to get around the map in a top-down title.

~ Dungeons ~

For a lot of Zelda fans the dungeons are the star of each Zelda game, where both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were certainly disappointing with their approach. Echoes of Wisdom offers slightly more traditional dungeons, seven in total – or eight if you count the final one.

They are all distinct in themes and mechanics, as you would expect from a Zelda game, though it's only the basic stuff, where you are getting a desert, water, fire, ice and jungle dungeon. It's nothing that you have never seen before in the series (with one exception), but at least there are some fresh gameplay ideas, where the standout is certainly Lanayru Temple with its extreme air conditioning.

Don't get too excited, however, because the dungeons are fairly simple and straight-forward in their structure. Some of them are more open, where the best example is the Faron Temple, which similar to the Skull Woods from A Link to the Past has a number of different entrances that want to be found. But otherwise the dungeons tend to be short und linear, lacking any sort of navigational challenge.

Another reason why the dungeons may feel too simple is the lack of any traditional progression. Well, you might learn some new echoes and Link's weapons are all also found in the dungeons, but you will rarely face obstacles that require these before. You won't get that satisfaction of a new ability or item, which lets finally overcome certain hurdles... Only a couple of the echoes really do that in the game.

The ability to spawn anything anywhere also made it hard for the team to come up with meaningful puzzles. There are some clever ideas and mechanics here and there, but often you can find trivial solution with the right echoes. Again, this is very much a problem that Tears of the Kingdom had as well. But this is probably the biggest letdown, since this game is meant to represent Princess Zelda and with her the Triforce of Wisdom. This game really should have tested your puzzle solving skills, but it rarely ever does.

~ Enemies & Bosses ~

Echoes of Wisdom re-uses some of the enemy designs from Link's Awakening, which was already based on A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes. The Octorok, for example, looks pretty much identical in all four of these games, while other designs have changed quite a bit.

Since every enemy will become something that you can utilize, enemy variety is more important than ever, which also led to some changes. Due to the limitations of the Game Boy, the Moblins, Boarblins and Darknuts all used the same weaponry in Link's Awakening, where now they are much more distinctive. Moblins still fight with swords and spears, while the Boarblins got clubs and boomerangs, and the Darknuts fight with axes. Lizalfos make their debut in a top-down title and bring tridents into the battle, which they can even use underwater.

All these weaponized monsters come also in different tiers and they have made these tiers visually a lot more unique than they used to be in past Zelda games, which is great. And it's not just visual differences: the weapons become stronger, some of the higher tiers are equipped with shields and the third tiers are much larger and sturdier.

However, those third tiers are so good that they trivialize the combat once you've obtained them as echoes. While they cost so much that you can't summon two of them at once, one of them is often enough to fight an entire horde of normal monsters, so you just keep spamming them...

Anyway, Echoes of Wisdom also brought back some enemies for the first time ever, like the Goo Specters from the Color Dungeon introduced in Link's Awakening DX. Most notable are the return of the Aruroda, a scorpion-like enemy, and the Moa, flying eyes that shoot lasers, which so far were only present in Zelda II - The Adventure of Link. And the Bombfish from Twilight Princess is found to be as useful as it was originally, acting as Water Bombs.

There is also a number of new foes, like the Caromadillos, which are armadillos that can roll around like a flipper ball. Or there are the Ribbitunes and Drippitunes, which are singing frogs to attract attention or to make it rain. The Tornandoes on the other hand are frogs riding around in a cyclone. And if you need something strong for the seas, then the Chompfin shark monster will be happy to take a bite.

However, it might feel like you've seen all these monsters before, because they are very derivative. Singing frogs or frogs riding in cyclones were a thing in Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker respectively, where these ideas were turned into basic enemies for this game. Or the Caromadillos feel somewhat similar to the Deadrocks from A Link to the Past, except that they won't turn into stone when hit. Meanwhile, the Snomauls and Platbooms are also based on the Pokeys and Thwomps from the Super Mario franchise, which were used in Link's Awakening. So, all the new enemies will have some familiarity to them, which isn't a bad thing within the context of the echo system, since it brings a lot of novelty already.

Unlike the normal enemies, bosses can't be turned into echoes, however, which is true for the various mini-bosses as well. And all of these battles are a highlight, offering a good mix of fresh ideas and fan-pleasing nostalgia. It speaks for itself when a Zelda game begins with a battle against Ganon, because that's already setting the bar quite high. Some of the fights overstay their welcome, though, and others may be a bit finicky due to this game's mechanics, but for the most part it's all quite excellent.

A fantastic treat are the various hidden mini-bosses that can be found all over Hyrule as part of certain side quests. Optional bosses are a rarity in the series to begin with, which makes it all the more special that quite a lot of effort went into making these encounters. It's a shame that the same can't be said about every mini-boss, where the biggest disappointment is probably Link himself, or his dark doppelganger. You have to fight him for his weaponry, which starts out great with the sword and bow, but the final battle for the bombs is just utterly pathetic and anticlimactic...

~ Difficulty ~

One of the main points of criticism about Echoes of Wisdom is its low difficulty. It may not be the easiest game in the series, but it's looking in that direction, which is mainly the fault of the echo system. As already mentioned, many of the puzzle can be trivialized with the right summons. The same goes for combat, since you don't have to fight actively and just have to spawn the right enemies.

There is a Hero Mode option, which can be turned on and off at any time, even while playing. In Hero Mode you won't find any hearts, while fairies only appear in certain spots. You take double damage and the health of your opponents also gets doubled, where the latter is a new thing and can make things a bit sluggish. But otherwise it doesn't make much of a difference, because you're mostly fighting very passively anyway and the game gives you a number of healing options early on.

As for those, the Fairy Bottles return from the Link's Awakening remake, where now they will also heal you automatically, as you would expect. They only give you three hearts, however, where you can quickly lose all of them in succession if you're not careful. So, they are more of a small safety net... You can also heal yourself at any point by summoning a bed and sleeping in it. These bed can be destroyed, of course, but you may still be able to do some power napping in the middle of a battle.

The real offender are the potions and smoothies, where you can store up to twenty of them and heal yourself with each one of them while the game is paused. The smoothies can also restore your energy for the Swordfighter form and give you a variety of status effects to make the game even easier, like damage reduction or immunity to elements. And you can sell them for a profit. It's like the food in Breath and Tears, just not as plentiful, but still plentiful enough to eradicate any challenge, even in Hero Mode.

A possible solution would have been to give the player traditional bottles to collect, where you can put in fairies, potions, and smoothies. That would have made the bottles more useful and rewarding, while limiting your healing options.

~ Side Quests & Collectibles ~

The worst part about the smoothies, however, is that their ingredients pollute the reward landscape. The majority of treasure chests in this game will give you something to make smoothies with and that's hardly motivating...

Much more motivating is finding Might Crystals, which allow you to enhance the Swordfighter Form in various ways, like upgrading its different weapons. They are essentially this game's Secret Seashells, but they distributed in a similar fashion to the Gratitude Crystals from Skyward Sword, meaning that you can find single ones in the environment, but you'll also obtain bundles from other tasks, like mending rifts, winning mini-games, or clearing side quests. The ones in the environment can be cleverly hidden in plain sight, but they can also be painstakingly obvious at times.

You can display the ones you've found on your map, which is useful and also works for the 40 Pieces of Hearts in this game. With those you shouldn't expect anything out of the ordinary – they are as traditional as it gets. And that's okay, considering that the last three Zelda titles didn't have them... But when you spot a Piece of Heart sitting on top of a pillar or on the side of a cliff, then there is usually no real mystery of how you get it, thanks to the echo mechanic. The rest of them are rewards for side quests or mini-games, so the usual stuff.

The real star among the collectibles are the accessories anyway, which are the spiritual successor to the Magic Rings from Oracle of Ages & Seasons, but improve upon them in every aspect. They offer a greater visual variety and you can equip more than one at a time, up to five in the end. The latter ensures that nothing is ever obsolete, even when some accessories are upgrades of others, since their effects will still stack. And it also allows you to combine different effects and make better use of all of them, instead of relying on the very best ones only.

With 28 in total there aren't as many overall. In fact, that's not even half as many as there were rings (64), but they don't come with any downsides and there aren't any accessories that only act as trophies. And most of the Magic Ring effects that would make sense for this game are present, e.g. the Gerudo Sandals let you walk unhindered on quicksand, just like the Quicksand Ring. It's very satisfying to collect all the accessories and to give them a try.

Sadly, the clothing items aren't as satisfying, far from it. Unlike the accessories, they do actually change the appearance of Zelda, which offers some nice visual variety throughout the game. That's neat, but they are only so few, eleven in total – and that's already counting the three recolors that you can get via amiibo. And that is super disappointing, especially when compared to the fantastic collections of different outfits that Link had in his last three adventures, where the outfits in Tri Force Heroes are pretty similar.

Unlike those, the clothing options for Zelda are mainly there for the looks... Which would be totally fine if there weren't for the few exceptions. And this makes things only worse, because their perks give you a valid reason to pick them over the ones without any, so in the end it's not just about your favorite style.

If you're looking for something straightforward, then you might like the Stamp Rally, hosted by the Stamp Guy, who easily could have been Tingle. There are 25 stamp stations scattered all over the world and you have to fill a total of five stamp cards for different prizes. It's neat and simple, but it's not perfect, because it completely lacks the charm of the Stamp Book from Spirit Tracks. There you had unique stamps for each train station, while here you get the same five motives of the Stamp Guy five times each...

Sadly, the game doesn't feature a Hero's Path mode, so it can be difficult to keep track of where you've been. And this is rather important, because Echoes of Wisdom doesn't have your conventional boundaries of a classic Zelda title. You can just cross over trees and walls, where it's easy to miss a secret here and there.

At least, you keep track of any side quests in the Adventure Log, which is another feature that has carried over from the big Zelda games. The side quests in Echoes of Wisdom, however, also tend to be fairly simplistic, for the most part. Often you just have to spawn the right echo, because a person wants to see a specific monster. Or you simply have to talk to the right people in the right order for some back and forth, which includes some heart-warming stories, but with very little input from your end. Some of the bigger side quests have you discover a new rift, but once you've done a couple of those, they tend to feel repetitive.

~ Mini-Games ~

When Grezzo made the Link's Awakening remake, they really had brought the mini-games to another level, giving them lots of depth and replay value. And therefore you might go into the mini-games in Echoes of Wisdom with certain expectations... which probably won't be fulfilled, but it's overall quite good and one of the more fun selections in the series nevertheless.

The Slumber Dojo tests your fighting skills, in the same vein as Simon's Simulations in The Minish Cap, but a lot more substantial. The difficult part here is beating the different time limits, which can be a bit tricky in Hero Mode with some of the later challenges, like the final "Blank-Slate Battle". In those you basically start from scratch and have to re-learn a number of echoes to win.

There are 15 different battle challenges in total, making this the most extensive mini-game in Echoes of Wisdom. And similar to the Chamber Dungeon in the Link's Awakening remake, you will unlock new challenges after each completed dungeon, giving you a reason to regularly return to this place. You can also rebattle the bosses here, which is always nice to have, though it's lacking the different mini-bosses.

In the Flag Race you're racing with your horse around the Hyrule Ranch, similar to Ocarina of Time, but a little more interesting with different courses and obstacles. Mango Rush asks you to quickly spin around to collect spawning mangoes, while dodging thorns and Bomb Flowers, where the best part about it is the music.

While exploring Hyrule you will also find the Acorn Gathering in five different locations. Here is the goal to collect a number of acorns as quickly as possible, for which you have to plot an efficient course, avoid enemies, and use your echoes. The Gorons will also test your traversal skills around Death Mountain, but these races are hardly worth the mention. 

The most important point is that all the mini-games focus on the main mechanics. You don't have to suddenly play a rigged game of baseball, guide marbles, or dance to a rhythm, which has nothing to do with the rest of the game. And that's what makes them truly fun for the most part.

~ Nostalgia ~

You play as Princess Zelda, you summon different objects and monsters, while fighting with a sword is only possible as a temporary power-up. These are fairly new concepts for the series, where Echoes of Wisdom would feel bold and daring... if it weren't for its heavy reliance on nostalgia to surround these new concepts.

You get the Hyrule from A Link to the Past in the new Link's Awakening style, expanded with many things you've already seen before in the series. And a lot of it is a real treat. We haven't seen the Deku since The Minish Cap and Lord Jabu-Jabu since Oracle of Ages, where in some ways this feels similar to the Capcom Zelda games, in how they had borrowed a lot from the other Zelda games.

And that's understandable, because Echoes of Wisdom also wasn't made by Nintendo themselves, but by GREZZO, who are known to be a group of Zelda fans now working on Zelda. It's in many ways a love letter to the classics, mainly to everything that came before The Wind Waker, and that's very much noticeable.

If you love these classics, then this will be a charming experience. But it also makes you wish that they had dared a little more, e.g. come up with a tribe of their own, like Capcom did back in the day with the Tokay and the Subrosians. They were playing it really safe to make you feel at home as much as possible in this Zelda game that dares to be fundamentally different. Maybe a little too safe.

 

~ Conclusion ~

Echoes of Wisdom is a beautiful and charming new entry into the Zelda series, which proofs that GREZZO is able to carry on the torch for the classic top-down titles. It also proofs that Princess Zelda can take the role as the playable protagonist for once, where the game sets itself apart with the new echo mechanic, which adds a completely different spin to combat. Most importantly, Echoes of Wisdom offers a common ground between the new open world format and a traditionally structured Zelda game.

For a game that has "wisdom" in its title, however, the dungeons and puzzles could have been more complex and challenging. It's also quite heavy on the nostalgia pandering, which is fine for Zelda's first own adventure, but often makes her and her echoes the sole novelty.