Review: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Is Innovative

It isn’t that we haven’t seen Zelda in an active role in The Legend of Zelda series or games before. She’s an accomplished fighter in the Hyrule Warriors titles. The iteration of her in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is a researcher and scholar who explores the world. She’s strong in and out of disguise in Ocarina of Time. She’s a fearless leader in The Wind Waker. But she’s never the primary star of the show. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom gives her that opportunity, and it’s an incredibly strong game with a delightful story, plenty of solutions to problems, and makes it feel like handling every situation is like solving a puzzle. 

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom starts by throwing us off a bit. We know that this is the “Zelda” game. However, it starts with Link going to rescue the captured princess. Things go awry. While the young man saves her, he ends up captured in her place. She returns home with new insight into the rifts. However, circumstances lead to her becoming a fugitive. Fortunately, she also has a new ally in the form of Tri, a being who gives her the ability to enter the Still World within rifts to fix them make echoes of certain items and enemies with the Tri Rod to fight foes and solve puzzles. It is now up to her to save Link and the kingdom.

While the opening of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is fairly linear, sending you through a tutorial and setup, it quickly opens up. So much so, that it feels like an open-world adventure along the lines of Breath of the Wild with a Link’s Awakening art direction. It is incredibly easy, early on, to acquire combinations of echoes that will help you explore essentially the whole map. There are certain monster echoes I acquired in the first three hours that I was still using frequently through the endgame. Additional major rifts open up as the campaign progresses and you complete the dungeons within past ones, with players able to choose the order in which opened ones are tackled. Likewise, you can choose which Swordfighter form upgrades you upgrade. (Someone could opt to skip them, for a greater challenge.) Sidequests continue to appear as the story advances, meaning you can find extra experiences and rewards as you proceed.

Given Zelda is known for “wisdom,” the bulk of the game revolves around the usage of echoes. This makes The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom feel more like a puzzle adventure or real-time strategy game at times, even though you can switch to Swordfighter form when you have the energy to for traditional action-RPG moments. There are often multiple solutions to problems posed by campaign quests or side missions. For example, I ended up turning to a trusty “old bed staircase” for many platforming problems. Reach new heights and occasionally take a nap in the sky to restore health!

As for fighting, it can become about picking the right echo for the current situation. You may be facing opponents who are in the air, and thus difficult to reach with Swordfighter form or otherwise. Summoning airborne enemy echoes takes care of that issue. There are some foes who are very fast and constantly move around. Picking equally swift or evasive echoes is necessary. Electricity can be more dangerous in rain, and water can prevent fire enemies from being of any use. As Tri levels up, you gain access to new echo abilities, can summon more, or may find some cost less than the originally did. So you need to work within the confines of your ability and the situation at any moment. 

Of course, this does bring me to a downside. In fact, it might just be the only issue I have with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. You can’t “favorite” echoes. There are sorting options, to be clear. You can choose to go through them with a click of a trigger by cost, most recently learned, most used, and most recently used. These are fine, but I absolutely had about 10-20 echoes I called upon most frequently for my needs. Some of them didn’t come up enough to appear in most used or were too situational for most recently used. So it would be frustrating to have to pull up the notebook or go through all of the things I’d copied to my collection to get what I needed. This ends up being more of a passing annoyance and relates to specific situations. If it happens in one of the rifts you enter, odds are it is then in “most recently used” and will come up often in there.

Speaking of which, the dungeons in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom are expertly handled. While I feel this does feel like more of an adventure filled with puzzles, they still feel true to traditional dungeon design for the series. There can be different solutions in some situations, which is fun, since you can rely upon your favorite echoes to succeed. Each one fits the theme for the region well and implements novel ideas. I also appreciated how the bosses feel like they play well with Zelda’s new abilities. So we’re using all of the tricks from Tri to tackle these bigger baddies. It feels really satisfying and different from more traditional The Legend of Zelda games, while also somehow feeling the same. 

I suppose this sort of applies to the whole nature of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. The sidequests are great fun, and there’s quite a bit of diversity. The solution isn’t going to always be “summon this echo you already found somewhere.” You might need to explore, go through some puzzles, or even find yourself searching for Tri’s friends to repair a smaller rift. They feel different, but fall in line with everything we expect from the series. It has the same fantastic graphical approach as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, building on that to make it feel even more like a diorama made of unique materials. But everything is recognizable and ties together with past entries in the series. 

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom features all of the amazing hallmarks of the series, yet feels completely innovative, unique, and fresh. I absolutely loved the idea of summoning echoes to solve all of my problems, and the range of options available gives someone playing the freedom to do tackle situations in different ways. It feels open as well, with people able to approach the campaign and explore at their leisure. It’s a really special entry, and I’m so pleased Zelda’s turn at being the star and hero worked out so perfectly.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will launch on the Nintendo Switch on September 26, 2024.