After an hour, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom seems to offer everything that made the last two Zelda games great, reimagining decades of tried-and-true game mechanics through a modern lens. It requires player creativity Breath of the Wild AND Tears of the Kingdom and combines it with the classic top-down adventure of Legend of Zelda, with a huge world and plenty of old-school dungeons to explore.
Polygon preview Echoes of wisdom at a Nintendo event in New York City in August. Given the compact time we’ve had with the game, it’s certainly one of our most anticipated games this fall.
Our practical time with Echoes of wisdom begins at the beginning of the game, with Princess Zelda arrested and imprisoned(!) on suspicion that she is responsible for a catastrophic event plaguing Hyrule. Strange cracks are opening throughout the kingdom, and the king and his habitual defender Link are missing. As are many of Hyrule’s citizens.
In her cell we learn that Zelda’s primary means of interaction with Echoes of wisdomThe game’s world is set with her Tri Rod, a magic wand that she receives from a spirit named Tri. With the Tri Rod, Zelda can create copies of objects, such as tables, beds, and boulders, or monsters, and then summon recreations called Echoes. Inanimate objects, such as jars and rocks, can be copied by simply using the Tri Rod near them. But in order to copy an enemy monster, players must first defeat one. Once you do, all of those Echoes go into an ever-expanding notebook.
The objects Zelda copies can have multiple uses. Tables, boxes, and ornamental bushes are useful for building stairs or fleeting bridges to cross obstacles. A wooden crate doubles as a floating device, and bushes can be set on fire and then dragged to other objects to set them on fire. A bed can serve as a makeshift bridge and a place for Zelda to sleep to regain some health. Even an echo monster can serve multiple purposes; a spider called Strandula can create a rope of silk for Zelda to climb. This silk is also flammable, which can lead to inventive (and destructive) solutions to puzzles.
The things Zelda can summon as Echoes are governed by the power of her Tri Rod. At the start of the game, it has three charges. Summoning a plain object like a rock or Keese — the series’ version of a bat — only uses one charge. Something more powerful, like a Moblin wielding a spear, uses two charges. A robust Darknut Knight uses three. Zelda’s Tri Rod will become more powerful over time, but it wasn’t clear how it gains more charges based on our hands-on time.
Zelda only has a few offensive options early on in the game. Early on, I fought a lot of monsters by creating rocks and throwing them at my enemies. Then I copied Zol (slime) and Rope (snake) and sent their Echoes onto the battlefield to fight for me. At one point, I learned how to create an Echo from a spiked urchin, then grabbed it and stabbed Darknut in the back while it was engaged in a fight with another monster I had summoned. My monster combat power quickly grew, giving me a diverse set of objects and creatures at my disposal.
In addition to the Tri Rod’s copy and paste abilities, Zelda’s magic wand can also connect her to objects. When Zelda connects to something, it moves with it. Connecting is useful for creating makeshift shields or pushing objects and monsters. Conversely, Zelda can also utilize a power called Reverse Connect, which makes Zelda move in unison with an object, such as a floating platform or a spider climbing a wall.
Bond can also be used in battle. One of the Echoes of wisdomEarly boss fights involve what appears to be a possessed Link—or a magical reconstruction of Link. (Echo, perhaps?) Zelda must utilize Bond to bind herself to Link’s Hylian Shield and rip it out of his hands, leaving him vulnerable to attacks. However, once Link’s shield is gone, Zelda can summon all sorts of monsters to defeat him.
Once Zelda defeats this murky Link, she gains a powerful modern ability: the Swordsman form, which effectively transforms her down Link briefly. In Swordfighter form, Zelda can slash her sword to smash obstacles or perform a spinning slash to fight a group of enemies. Swordfighter form allows Zelda to jump higher, which will no doubt come in handy in platforming challenges. Zelda’s Swordfighter form option is governed by a resource known simply as energy, which doesn’t seem to be very plentiful, based on what we’ve played.
Zelda can augment her abilities with consumable smoothies—a mechanic we didn’t get to try out in-game, but which was teased in trailers—as well as pins and accessories she can wear. One such accessory was a heart-shaped pin; when she wears it, more hearts will appear when she smashes objects or cuts through statuesque weeds.
All of Zelda’s abilities, accessories, and notebook full of items and creatures she can copy all come together to create a huge amount of gameplay possibilities. Hyrule (and its alternate reality Still World) is full of little puzzles to solve and bits of treasure that require inventive solutions to obtain. There are also underground dungeons to explore: the ones we saw during our hands-on time were classic Legend of Zelda puzzle boxes, full of locked rooms, hidden keys, and environmental challenges, some of which can be solved in multiple ways.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom It may not have the massive scope of recent 3D Zelda games, but it seems to have similarly inventive gameplay and player flexibility. It plays like a classic Legend of Zelda game, combining old-school puzzle-solving and dungeon-exploring with inventiveness for a magical blend of styles. Zelda’s first solo adventure already feels like a winner.
Nintendo will release The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on Switch on September 26th.
