What would you get by crossing the best parts of Pokemon with a classic adventure through Hyrule?
The answer is The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
It sounds ridiculous but in practice it’s fantastic. After rolling credits this week, I immediately jumped back in to complete every side quest I had missed along the way. I did not want this game to end.
Playing as Zelda is a breath of fresh air for this long running franchise and while Nintendo could have coasted on that novelty alone, they have instead crafted one of the best games of the year, giving fans of the ‘top-down’ games more freedom than ever.
New Hyrule, Classic Structure
Echoes of Wisdom starts where most Zelda games end; with Link fighting Ganon.
The boss fight is no walk in the park – which might be a rude shock for new players – but with a full arsenal of bombs, arrows and (of course) a sword, you’ll have everything you need to destroy the beast. Unfortunately Link’s success is short-lived. Defeating Ganon opens an ominous purple rift beneath Link’s feet, who uses his final moments to rescue Princess Zelda with an arrow before being sucked into the Still World (more on that later).
From here on out, you play as the Princess.
Zelda narrowly escapes the expanding rift and returns to Hyrule Castle to speak with her father, the King, when another rift suddenly appears, gobbling up the King, his chief minister and his top soldier. Evil ‘echoes’ of all three emerge, blame the rifts on the Princess and throw Zelda in jail. It’s here where the Princess meets Tri, a yellow spirit who gifts Zelda the Tri Rod; a magical staff which grants her the power to create copies of objects and enemies, known as ‘echoes,’ out of thin air.
Echoes of Wisdom throws new echoes at players from start to finish.
By the end of the game, I had collected a grand total of 121.
Some are objects, like the table, box and bed, which help Zelda traverse the world but most are enemies that the Princess can summon to fight for her.
Like in Pokemon, things start slowly but with time you’ll come across tougher, ‘evolved’ versions of classic enemies and unique, powerful foes which can only be found in certain locations. Finding, defeating and learning to summon these monsters to fight on your behalf never gets old and continues right through to the end of the game, with one of a kind enemies hiding in caves scattered across the world.
The first of these I came across was the Peahat; a spiked, flying plant which spins at enemies like a tornado of death. Summoning one costs three units (the game never explains what these triangles which float behind Tri are actually called) so Zelda can’t summon more than one at a time but, if you get the timing right, it can destroy almost every other enemy in the game!
Echoes are your main weapon in the fight to save Hyrule; meaning the Princess is relegated to fighting from afar.
In many ways, Echoes of Wisdom plays more like a real-time strategy game which could upset fans longing for a more traditional experience. I, however, loved dreaming up different combinations to expose enemy weaknesses and solve puzzles creatively.
88 of the 121 echoes I collected were enemies and the remaining 33 were ‘objects’ that could be used to traverse the world and challenges. Like enemies, some of these items can only be discovered in one or two locations. If you’re just about to start your adventure, make sure you echo the trampoline next to the well in the first town; it’s invaluable!
Nintendo has said it was worried the mechanic would give players too much freedom and ‘break’ the game but – like in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom – breaking the game is part of the fun. Thankfully, it takes a while to gain access to the really powerful enemies and overpowered objects like the water block.
By the end of the game you’ll be stacking six water blocks on top of each other to climb trees and into areas of the map you’d never be able to reach as Link. It quickly became my “most used” item, ahead of the old bed, Ignizol (fire element) and the cloud.
Holding down ‘right’ on the d-pad brings up your menu of echoes which can be sorted by last used, most used, last learned, cost and type. It was rare but I did get stuck scrolling through this menu a few times trying to find a specific echo (I’m looking at you Holmill).
Scrolling through the entire list takes 10+ seconds at full speed, which can be annoying if you miss what you’re looking for. A favourites tab could have easily solved this problem but alas, Nintendo doesn’t give players that option.
At the end of the first dungeon, Zelda defeats an evil echo of Link, claims the sword he leaves behind and unlocks the ‘sword-fighter’ ability.
Pressing up on the d-pad activates the mode, transforming the Princess into an image of Link shrouded in blue flame. In this mode, she’s able to slash at foes, block with her shield and eventually fire arrows and bombs.
There are barriers that only Link’s sword can cut through but they are incredibly rare. With the exception of a few difficult bosses and enemies, I barely used sword-fighter mode in my playthrough and preferred to use echoes to get the job done.
Part of me wonders whether Nintendo didn’t have the confidence to release a Zelda game without the classic sword, bow and bomb combat, even if it’s relegated to a metre which has to be built up and runs out over time.
Zelda also has the ability to ‘tether’ herself to objects and enemies. While its abilities in puzzle solving are generally limited to moving objects around, I loved using it to drop enemies into pits or give myself greater control over the movements of my echoes – particularly the Peahat – to help them dodge attacks and strike back when the enemy was open.
Dungeons are here – and the stories behind them are awesome
Echoes of Wisdom is no open world adventure. The opening of the game is incredibly linear and once things open up, Zelda only has the option of investigating one of two rifts; one affecting the Gerudo tribe and one affecting the Zora tribes.
Both of these rifts have swallowed up people from the respective tribes. The Gerudo soldiers have been driven to exhaustion thanks to bad advice, believing that defeating the enemies that emerge from the rift will shrink its footprint. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Zora’s sea and river tribes are stuck in a childish argument that Zelda must help them overcome.
Like Breath of the Wild, the puzzles start from the moment you decide where you want to go, and there are smaller rifts to find and fix along the way too.
Rifts serve as entrances to the Still World and everything a rift touches, from fragments of land to water and even people, are stuck within them, frozen in time. Once inside, Zelda must gather fragments of energy (essentially Tri’s friends) so that her spirit companion can become powerful enough to mend the rift and return everything and everyone to normal.
The line between a rift and a dungeon is blurred at times but there’s no mistaking the main courses when you’re served one. The classic fire, water (ice) and forest temples all make their return with a handful of unique echoes to collect in each. The boss fights in particular are excellent (despite being a little derivative) and none of the dungeons was as horrendously difficult as Ocarina of Time’s infamous water temple. I was particularly fond of the forest temple in the Faron Wetlands (bottom right of the main map) which was packed with electrically powered enemies and spiderwebs that could be burned away with fire.
I’ve barely scraped the surface of what there is to see and do in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom but, if it wasn’t already painfully obvious, I had a lot of fun with this game.
Nintendo has thrown some massive ideas at the wall and – while not all of them stick – the echo ability is a phenomenal twist on the storied franchise. If Pokemon has proven anything, it’s that the joy of finding and capturing every creature in a world is a formula that works. Somehow, I enjoyed it even more in the Legend of Zelda.
I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Echoes of Wisdom to any player of any age.
Fans have been spoiled on the Nintendo Switch and, if the rumours of a successor are true, then Echoes of Wisdom is a worthy swan song for a system defined by games which ‘break the conventions’ of the Legend of Zelda.
Nintendo provided 9news.com.au with early access to The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom for the purpose of this review.
