Replaying Echoes of Wisdom

After replaying Ocarina of Time back in June, I was in the mood for some top-down Zelda goodness, where Echoes of Wisdom was on top of my list. It and Tears of the Kingdom are the two most recent Zelda games, where I had played and completed both of them only once so far. Well, this won't change anytime soon for Tears of the Kingdom, because I'm fed up on that game, but with Echoes of Wisdom it's hard to say no when it's so short and sweet, just like a good classic Zelda.

But there is more to it, because I was also able to experience the game in new ways. This time I played it from start to finish in Hero Mode, which I had ignored entirely during my initial run. And thanks to the free update for the Nintendo Switch 2, I was now able to play Echoes of Wisdom in 4K and fluid 60FPS. In addition, I've went through the game's dungeons in a completely different order. Hit "read more" to learn more about all of this.

~ A Charming Beauty ~ 

Both Echoes of Wisdom and the Link's Awakening remake now really shine on the Switch 2, almost as if they were always meant for this hardware. The double buffering isn't an issue here any longer, making the game smooth and shiny, as if everything was rubbed in Radiant Butter.

The toy-like diorama aesthetic may not be to everyone's taste, but I adore it. The art style looks gorgeous, where I personally don't think that we don't need anything new here for a while. Give me a remake of the Oracles and/or a sequel to Echoes of Wisdom, and I will be happy. 

And you shouldn't underestimate how much care for detail went into these games, where it's just absolutely lovely, especially around the towns and inside buildings. I also thought that the higher resolutions made it easier to spot the hidden Might Crystals underwater, but this could be a mislead observation, since I already knew where to look.

 

~ Hero Mode ~

In Echoes of Wisdom you can toggle Hero Mode on and off at any point via the options. So, it works similar to The Wind Waker HD, only that you don't even have to exit the game any longer. And that's not a bad thing. If the game gets too easy for you, then you can activate Hero Mode. And if Hero Mode gets too difficult, then you can turn it off again. It's very considerate.

But it also takes away that feeling of accomplishment from a completed Hero Mode file, where you're forced to stay on the same difficulty. Now, I activated Hero Mode before doing any move and I never changed it back. But there is no real proof that I did, so you just have to take my word for it.

As for the difficulty itself, it felt a lot more balanced compared to past iterations. For the most part it works like in Link's Awakening before: you take double damage and you won't find any hearts, while fairies only appear in a few designated spots:

• by the pond near Lueburry's house
• in the Great Fairy Shrine at Lake Hylia
• at the source of Jabul Waters 

Usually, these changes make the early game quite challenging, while they become more and more negligible the further you progress. But this wasn't the case here, quite the opposite even.

The early game wasn't all that more difficult. You start with 20 hearts in the intro sequence, giving you some leeway. And with Zelda you first have to through a stealth section at Hyrule Castle, where you are at no risk of taking damage. Once you arrive at Suthorn Village, you can buy Red Potions right away. And afterwards you can quickly obtain a Fairy Bottle and enough Pieces of Heart for an extra Heart Container.

Plus, you always have the option to heal yourself at any time using a bed, which you can use to recover after any battle, sometimes even during a battle. In the game's second half I kept wearing the Silk Pajamas most of the time, because they would speed up the process.

Once you're past the first dungeon, the Suthorn Ruins, you will also get access to Smoothies, which become a lot more relevant in Hero Mode. I've barely used them during my first playthrough, even calling them unnecessary, which made the smoothie ingredients feel like a meaningless reward. But in Hero Mode I started mixing all possible combination as soon as I could, which made me even appreciate finding new ingredients.

And this wasn't for naught, because the game keeps introducing stronger enemies and enemy tiers, which can cause a lot of damage in Hero Mode. Even with the Curious Charm equipped, you can lose six hearts or so, making it sometimes seem like the damage in Hero Mode was actually quadrupled, like in A Link Between Worlds. And that's when I drink smoothies in panic.

The Tough Mangoes are naturally the best ingredient here, because you can obtain damage reduction from them for a while, which even stacks with the charms. It's so good that I still think that the smoothies should have been limited to empty bottles. The Fairy Bottles were almost useless to me this time, because I only needed their safety net once, which happened early on.

Things would have been more challenging if you had to store your smoothies and potions in these bottles as well, but with more of them to find. Maybe one of them could have been an additional reward for discovering smoothie recipes. And the Slumber Dojo doesn't have a bottle either.

This Hero Mode also introduces another novelty: normal enemies only take half the damage. So, a Moblin in the wild can take twice as many hits as your Moblin echo, making it prevail in a fight between the two. Of course, you can just summon another Moblin, but it generally makes the battles in the game last longer. It becomes a bit of a slog even, where I sometimes used the Swordfighter Mode, just because I lost patience with my useless servants.

Swordfighter Mode causes double damage on stilled / dark enemies, which gets nullified under these circumstances, but at least it's still much faster than using echoes. And the change does not apply to bosses, which makes some of them now feel super short in comparison. But with others, like Vocavor or Volvagia, it's probably for the best, because they would go on forever otherwise, potentially making the boss rush in the Slumber Dojo a real problem.

Speaking of, the final Blank-Slate Battle gave me some more trouble this time, but not as much as I thought it would. It was already challenging in the normal difficulty, where now the requirement of 1:30 for the fastest time seemed ridiculous at first. But I was eventually able to make it with a quarter second to spare...

You want Tri to be at least on Level 9, so it has six triangles, while the Fire Octo only costs two, allowing you to spawn three of them at once. And that's what you want to rely on for everything. Kill the Keese, use them to kill the Fire Octo, and then just spam the Fire Octo. Don't even bother with any other echoes...

 

~ A Different Path ~

Whenever I replay a Zelda game, I usually try to mix up things when it's possible. I like to play dungeons out of order or in a different order, get certain items early, or test the game's boundaries, as long as it doesn't involve any glitching. And there are little to no boundaries in Echoes of Wisdom, at least once you got past the Suthorn Ruins.

In my original playthrough I had first explored the center of Hyrule, before I went to the Zora. So, this time I went to the Gerudo first, but not before uncovering the entire west half of the map, collecting many different echoes on the way. When I played the Eastern Temple to obtain the Ancient Charm, which makes sense to do early in Hero Mode, I already had the Fire Octo available for better damage against the Sparks. And I went into the desert fighting with Lv. 2 Lizalfos.

Now, this is something I absolutely love about this game. For me, one of the joys of replaying any Zelda or similar Action Adventures is to return to places, knowing that I can find something useful there, whether that's a new item, or some collectible. "When I go to Lake Hylia, I can find this and that."

The early game of A Link to the Past is a good example, where you can get the Ice Rod at Lake Hylia, which you can do right after escaping Hyrule Castle. And once you have the Power Glove, you can go get things like the Magic Shield, Magical Boomerang, Zora Flippers, more bottles, and so on. It is just wholesome, and Echoes of Wisdom is completely overdosing on this, because thanks to the echoes there are new toys to find in every area of the map. And not just one or two, but dozens. It's the early game of A Link to the Past on steroids.

Some of it is a bit more risky in Hero Mode, like visiting the Faron Wetlands. But I was even able to collect some of the stronger enemies early, like the Lv. 3 Sword Moblin and Darknut, or the Electric Wizzrobe. The Wizzrobes can actually be quite easily defeated with a Beamos. And I snatched the big Sword Moblin in the Eternal Forest by hiding behind some trees and sending Guays after it. Though, all of these cost five triangles, so I wasn't able to use them yet.

After completing the game's mid point, it then adds new things to do at each area, usually some rifts, as well as new main and side quests, where now you can collect different outfits. And I really enjoyed this, where you have these two major points in the game with lots to do at once. This is a good approach to the open world formula in a Zelda game, because it gives you a reason to revisit certain places later in the story.

I also refrained from using amiibo until the end, because I wanted to earn all the different outfits and not just get their recolors for free. But as already said, I mainly wore the Silk Pajamas, because they speed up healing with beds. And here it actually would have been nice to have a pink recolor, just to have some more variety.

As for the order of the temples, last time I went with Lanayru → Faron → Eldin, but this time I opted for the traditional order from Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword: Faron → Eldin → Lanayru. First to the forest, then to the volcano, and finally to... the other area.

The Faron Wetlands are arguably the most difficult part, but this is where you can upgrade the Ancient to the Curious Charm, so it's worthwhile to do this first. As a side note, I also managed to snag the Piece of Heart in the Deku Scrub Lockup before getting the Tri Rod back. It was a bit tricky, but looking at the picture, there might be an easier solution by placing one of the shrubs on the bed. You may not even need the table... Well, I will give it another try next time.

I saved Mount Lanayru for last and I also didn't go to the Hebra Mountains early, because this allowed me to experience a special sequence with Condé for the first time myself:

You can find him in the middle of the woods and he will escort you to his house, where his lantern protects you from the cold and even quickly kills all the snow monsters. It's basically like the Flame Lantern from The Minish Cap.

And he will jump with you on his back over the broken bridge, which was cute. I had completely missed this part in my first playthrough, because I went to the Hebra Mountains early and then just could teleport to Condé's house right away, where he was already waiting for me there. That part was still the same, but everything before was new to me.

By the way, the one dual switch puzzle in Lanayru Temple was now completely trivial thanks to the Armos. Overall, the dungeon was less impressive than the first time, but I still like the idea of freezing the water or melting the ice with these different crystals.

 

~ Echoes of Echoes ~ 

As already said, it's just fun to re-explore this iteration of Hyrule, because there is something new to find in every corner with the echoes. There are way too many to try them all, but this also makes replaying the game fun, because you're reminded of everything that's available, which may give you some new ideas.

And I really tried not to rely on the same echoes as much. For example, I originally used water blocks for all the obstacles and puzzles, where now it was a good thing that I ignored the Zora part for a while. And after the Jabul Waters I decided to not use the water blocks anymore, unless I really had to, simply because it would give me a different perspective on how to solve problems.

Early on I relied lots on staircases made out of trampolines, which allows you to overcome most height differences in the game. The Crawltulas saw a lot more love this time as well, which are frankly overpowered and almost game-breaking. I even did the whole Jabul Ruins skip, though I still cleared the missing 75% of the dungeon afterwards, so it was more for the fun of it.

My new favorite go-to echo in the end became the Platboom, which in combination with the Frog Ring is simply too good. It gives you the same height gain as stacking all your water blocks, while it's a lot more convenient to use, except when you're in narrow spaces, because it takes a 2x2 area. Now, here are my most used echoes:

Unbelievable... The water blocks still ended up in second place, despite my conscious efforts of not using them later on. But when you use them, you will summon a lot of them one after another, which adds up. It's also the main reason why the trampoline ended up on top, because I used them so often in the early game. Meanwhile, a single Platboom can do the same job as six water blocks.

The favorite feature that got added alongside the Switch 2 update was also quite nice to have, because it lets you filter out any echoes that you're not finding useful in any case and thus keeping the list shorter. But only browsing the favorites makes it even likelier to forget about out certain echoes, so it's a double-edged sword.

 

~ A New Favorite ~

Replay value is something I hold in high esteem when it comes to rating and ranking the Zelda games, and games in general. The Link's Awakening remake is my favorite Zelda game partially for this reason. And Echoes of Wisdom is getting quite close, because it's also a joy from start to finish, where recollecting all the echoes is a big part of what makes this game so fun for me. And it helps that I really like the visuals of both games.

But it's equally important that there aren't any downers – parts of the game that I dislike or even dread to play again. Usually these are some frustrating mini-games, since I always play for 100%, but I actually like most of them. Only the Slumber Dojo gets a bit demanding and lengthy at the end, but it's nothing that hinders my enjoyment. And it does not overstay its welcome, unlike the Chamber Dungeon in Link's Awakening.

My only major complaint is that most of the dungeons have a simplistic, linear design, where replaying them was quite boring. The only two interesting dungeons, where you can take different paths, are the Gerudo Sanctum and the Faron Temple. And this is the one thing that stops it from being as good as Link's Awakening for me personally. But if GREZZO can learn to craft more complex dungeon, then we will have a bright future ahead of us.