For many fans, the Zelda game in which Actually The opportunity to play as Zelda is reason enough to look forward to the latest installment, but The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom really shines in showing off what we can expect from the series in a post-Tears of the Kingdom world.
Puzzle-solving has always been at the heart of Nintendo’s iconic franchise since its early days in 1986, but as the series has evolved, so have the puzzles Link has to solve. We first saw this significant change in Breath of the Wild, with tests and shrines dotting the map for pit-stop-speed challenges. Its sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, expanded on this with recent building mechanics like the Ultrahand and Fuse, transforming Hyrule into a sandbox with a world intuitively designed vertically and obstacles requiring all sorts of artistic devices. This synergy between a versatile range of skills and a cohesive open world design carries over into the future of conventional top-down Zelda in Echoes of Wisdom.
The action takes place in the familiar land of Hyrule, where our expected hero, Link, has gone missing, and Zelda must traverse the world, defeating monsters and conquering hard dungeons using the “echoes” she learns throughout her adventures. This recent summoning power is granted by Tri, a helpful companion on our journey, and by a staff our heroine has been given, called the Tri Rod. Echoes range from inanimate objects you can find by snooping around the homes of villagers, such as beds, pots and tables, to the many terrifying enemies you encounter along your journey, such as Keese and Moblins. Each echo has a cost, which, depending on Tri’s power level, means you are narrow to the number of echoes you can have busy at one time. Beds can be used to regain health, pots can be used to hide for stealth missions, and rocks can be thrown at enemies when needed. Enemies you defeat for the first time can be trained as Echoes, and when summoned, they’re faithful to you, but they retain their animalistic instincts and desires, so they may not always act on your wishes. For example, devouring the meat you laid down to distract a marauding Moblin – you can eat your fill after defeating a giant, spear-throwing pig, thank you. Each recent Echo we acquired during the game left us wondering what recent surprises we’d get in the sequel, especially considering the huge variety already at our disposal.
The quirks and behaviors unique to each Echo keep them captivating and bring the world to life as you discover recent methods and combinations to achieve your goals. Much like in Tears of the Kingdom you can climb a mountain by building a giant tree structure or a rocket launcher, Echoes of Wisdom lets you create stairs out of various pieces of furniture, trampolines on trampolines, or a helpful Strandtula that will shoot you a web rope. Combat is less about overwhelming your enemy with brute force and instead about figuring out the best natural predator of the target in front of you. Snaky ropes can slide between air attacks, while the keen spikes of a sea urchin can pierce Darknut’s armor. Or just utilize brute force and pelt them with rocks. The possibilities seem endless, and with Echoes constantly renewing their uses, you can experiment with all sorts of bizarre configurations. I’m sure we’ll see a recent wave of nefarious social media shenanigans, like when Zelda sets her kingdom on fire and escapes to safety on Keese’s wings.
While Echoes are the bread and butter of the game, much like Ultrahand and Fusing were in Tears of the Kingdom , Zelda has a few extra abilities in her already expanded arsenal. Bind grants control over objects you can’t echo, such as giant boulders, moving platforms, or unique puzzle features. When an object is bound to Zelda, it moves with her, meaning clever positioning when the ability is activated is crucial to success. So far, we’ve seen it used to remove obstacles, place objects on switches, and create barriers against unwanted attacks. Given that these objects don’t expire like Echoes, combining powers can support you build higher than before and achieve more artistic setups. You can also bind Echoes, which is helpful for moving things you don’t want to touch, like burning bushes. Reverse Bond is, as the name suggests, the opposite of Bind, as it allows objects to move Zelda. Things that have their own momentum, such as a moving platform or even a crawling creature, can be connected by a reverse bond and travel with Zelda.
For those already missing our legendary swordsman, don’t worry, as Zelda can also harness Link’s blade power when she needs it, transforming into her swordsman form. After fighting the impostor to get Link’s sword back, Zelda can enter a glowing blue state and utilize her recent powers for a narrow time, wreaking havoc on enemies with slashes and spinning attacks. This isn’t a basic ability like echoes or binding, and from what we’ve seen, it’s not necessary for solving puzzles or defeating bosses, but it’s a nice addition when you need a power boost against a savage horde or just want a dramatic climax to a battle. The energy needed to enter her swordsman form can be found in the still world or by defeating enemies from the rift, but recharging the meter is still a ponderous task, so you’ll want to utilize it wisely. Much like Tears of the Kingdom let you utilize powerful weapons and devices to creatively bypass challenges if you took the time to locate them, Echoes of Wisdom has a few extras and upgrades that let you wreak havoc if you so choose. The drinkable cocktails and deployable automata shown in the trailers will grant Zelda healing and buffs, or can be unleashed in battle for dramatic effects. The automata, robotic replicas of enemies with a few extra upgrades, can be destroyed in combat and then need to be repaired, as do the weapon durability and battery life of the builds in Tears of the Kingdom, which require a bit of resource management.
With all of these abilities, a extensive catalog of echoes, and an army of creatures at her disposal, adventuring and overcoming threats in the world of Hyrule feels fresh and thrilling. Traditional locations you might expect, like the Gerudo Desert and Eldin Volcano, return, but they’ve been reimagined with Zelda’s recent powers in mind. There’s more verticality, terrain hazards, and weather than in previous top-down titles, instead resembling recent games. The outside world feels more like Tears of the Kingdom’s hybrid between a giant puzzler and a sandbox, allowing players to get artistic and experimental. Dungeons retain this more focused puzzle-solving focus, alongside the recent Still World—a dimension that bends the laws of physics with floating islands and areas shifted to the side. These sections allow for artistic platforming that both challenges players and teaches them recent tricks to take back to Hyrule.
Given the leaps in creativity and mechanics the series has made in recent titles, it’s thrilling to see a return to Zelda’s top-down style that embraces this, as well as having a playable princess. Echoes of Wisdom takes the elements of Tears of the Kingdom and expands them into something fresh that stands on its own two feet. If Tears of the Kingdom was a physics test that exploited forces and the laws of gravity and aerodynamics, Echoes of Wisdom is a chemistry experiment that forces players to play around with different combinations in a more contained environment. It combines the classic puzzle-solving that longtime fans of the series love with the out-of-the-box thinking and unexpected chaos of recent games. The result is uniquely Zelda, and makes us want to explore all the echoes and challenges the game has to offer. Whether you decide to go for the pillow fortress you dreamed of as a child, the brilliant domino effect of destruction, or the humble fish attack, there’s an adventure waiting for you.
