Princess Zelda's first own adventure is a bold and successful experiment. Despite annoying stutters, fans of the series can look forward to an excellent "Zelda" adventure with a pinch of "Pokémon".
"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom" is going down in the Nintendo history books. For the first time in the history of the game series, I am not controlling the swordsman Link, but the eponymous princess herself.
Instead of a sword, Zelda goes into battle with a magic staff. She can use it to copy objects and monsters and conjure them up as "echoes". This daring gameplay experiment turns many things on their head. Nevertheless, "Echoes of Wisdom" feels like a classic 2D "Zelda".
One fly in the ointment: the occasionally poor technical realisation spoils the gaming experience with annoying stutters. I often wish I could play the game on more powerful hardware.
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Mysterious cracks have appeared in the kingdom of Hyrule, leading to the "void" - a strange parallel dimension in which time stands still. Many disgusting monsters emerge from these cracks. Link, who is usually always on hand to protect the kingdom, has disappeared into one of these cracks. Great. Princess Zelda will have to save the world and close the cracks.
On her journey through Hyrule, Zelda is accompanied by "Tri" - a sugar-sweet fairy who gives the princess a magical staff. This really shakes up the tried and tested "Zelda" gameplay.
If I see a sparkling object in the world, I can copy it with the magic wand. Once copied, the item is available to me as an "echo" at any time. Defeated monsters can also be copied and conjured up again to fight for me if necessary.
How and where I use echoes is completely up to me. Want an example? I want to get to a treasure chest on a ledge. To get there, I conjure up previously copied beds, stack them and use them as stairs. I could also stack water cubes and swim up them. Or I could clone a spider hanging from the ceiling and use its spinning thread as a climbing rope.
The only limitation I have is the magic available to me. Every cloned item and every monster costs magic points. Once these have been used up, the oldest echo is deleted. Over time, I can expand the magic points available to me with upgrades and thus create more and more blatant echoes.
The speed at which I unlock new items and monsters is damn fast. No sooner have I got used to an echo than I find the next item or the next enemy to add to my repertoire. Every few hours, I even discover something that completely turns my style of play on its head - sometimes in the way I approach battles and sometimes in the way I move around the world or solve puzzles.
The more Echos I unlock, the more awkward the controls become. This is mainly due to the cumbersome menu, which is reminiscent of the "Synthesis" ability from "Tears of the Kingdom". The unlocked ECHOs are presented to me in a horizontal line. I can sort them according to various criteria - for example, by the most recently learnt or the most frequently used echoes. The constant scrolling back and forth gets on my nerves after a while. Compared to "Tears of the Kingdom", I would have liked to have seen some progress in the menu navigation.
At times, collecting various monster echoes reminds me of "Pokémon". As I roam around the world, I keep seeing exciting new creatures. I really want to "catch" them so that I can send them into battle or use them for other purposes.
Sometimes I deliberately seek out remote places and caves to find exciting monsters. An electrically charged bat? That'll be useful for stunning enemies. A giant plant creature that whirls around and flings enemies away with spikes? That will help me fight large hordes of enemies.
The different monsters even have different levels and their own "types" (fire, water, grass, ice, etc.), which are important in battle. Yes, even a "Pokédex"-like encyclopaedia containing interesting facts about the monsters (and items) has made it into the game. My "Pokémon" heart is jumping for joy.
As if collecting monsters wasn't enough reason to be happy, I meet a mad scientist during the course of the game. He creates new Frankenstein monsters for me. I can use the wind-up robot beasts in battle without magic and in addition to the ECHO monsters. This is particularly useful in larger and more difficult boss battles.
With the magic wand, Zelda can not only Copy Paste monsters and enemies, but also release telekinetic powers. With the "unison" ability, the princess transfers her movements to other objects or monsters. This means she can even push huge boulders back and forth. Or I can use it to send enemies into chasms and lava to kill them. It's fun and a bit reminiscent of Link's Magnesis ability from "Breath of the Wild".
Alternatively, movements of objects or monsters can be transferred to Zelda with the reversed "unison". An example: To climb a steep mountain, I conjure up a spider as an echo and attach myself to it with "Unison". The beast crawls up the mountain and I float along with it. This saves me the hassle of climbing. Very funny.
"The Legend of Zelda" purists can breathe a sigh of relief - at least a little. Even the princess can't do without swordplay. After the first dungeon, she finds a magic sword. I can use this to activate a "swordsman mode", with which Zelda controls herself like Link and swings the sword. This means I can actively take part in the battle. Unfortunately, only for a few seconds. After that, I have to recharge the sword with magic resources.
I can gradually upgrade the duration of the mode. But I'm still not really happy with it, even after countless upgrades. I can only find the resources for recharging in the interdimensional rifts. When exploring Hyrule, my magic bar for the swordsman mode is therefore usually empty.
So I often find myself in a situation where I would like to draw my sword myself, but can't do so. This is particularly frustrating when my conjured monster ECHOs are being silly and missing enemies or getting stuck. Damn, now why don't you just kill that Moblin instead of missing or standing around looking stupid!
The world of "Echoes of Wisdom" is large, but not overwhelmingly huge. It took me around 25 hours to complete my adventure. In the process, I completed quite a few side quests and found most of the collectable items.
Similar to "Breath of the Wild" and "Tears of the Kingdom", I am free to choose the order in which I explore the regions and tackle dungeons. This freedom feels very refreshing in a 2D "Zelda". Speaking of dungeons: the generic and sometimes disappointing dungeons from the "Breath of the Wild" era are definitely a thing of the past.
As in previous games in the series, the dungeons are divided thematically. Among other things, I fight and puzzle my way through a scorching hot lava dungeon, a frozen ice dungeon and a water dungeon in the Zoras' territory. The puzzles are reminiscent of classic "Zelda" games. The solution path, on the other hand, is more reminiscent of the new, open game mechanics of the last two Switch spin-offs.
I constantly have to search my repertoire of echoes for the right item (or monster) that could help me solve a puzzle. The "unison" mechanic is also often used when solving puzzles. There is no "right" solution. I often concoct something from my echoes that just barely works, but definitely wouldn't have been the easiest option. I'm reminded of my poor creations and unconventional solutions that I used in "Tears of the Kingdom". Marvellous.
The dungeons in "Echoes of Wisdom" are located in the rifts of the mysterious "Nothing" dimension. Before I can tackle a dungeon, I have to enter one of these rifts and fight my way through a short game section in the parallel dimension. I also find some rifts with access to the "nothingness" independently of the dungeons. In these levels, time stands still and the world is literally upside down. I sometimes find the quirky mini-dungeons even more exciting and successful than the big dungeons.
Aside from the dungeons and the "void", there are numerous smaller caves, treasures and secrets to discover in the overworld of Hyrule. There are also various mini-games and challenges waiting for me. I can take part in a horse race, complete combat exercises with a limited selection of echoes or harvest fruit as quickly as possible. Great!
I'm a little disappointed with the loot that I find in caves or receive as a reward for mini-games. Most of the time, I only get a few rubies or some piddly ingredients for smoothies that I can use to heal myself or regenerate my magic. This is useful, but unspectacular.
"Echoes of Wisdom" is a sugar-sweet and beautiful game. Provided you can get to grips with the special graphic style, which is reminiscent of the Switch remake of "Link's Awakening" (2019)
The settlements are a highlight for me. The villages are bursting with loving details and the cuddly characters are humorously animated and entertaining with funny written dialogues. The visual splendour is rounded off with an excellent soundtrack, characterised by nostalgic melodies and fresh compositions with a catchy tune character.
It's a shame that the technical realisation can't keep up with the harmonious overall picture. Like "Link's Awakening" before it, "Echoes of Wisdom" is often jerky. Particularly in the expansive overworld, I was repeatedly torn away from the action by brief but clearly noticeable frame rate drops - whether in handheld mode or in the dock. At least the uneven frame rate doesn't have a negative effect on the gameplay - I never died due to a stutter or missed a difficult jump onto a platform.
"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom" is available for Nintendo Switch. The game was provided to me by Nintendo for testing purposes.
"The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom" turns the tried and tested "Zelda" formula with the magic wand and the "Echo" clones on its head. The daring gameplay experiment works for the most part. It's fun to find new monsters and items and experiment with them - both in combat and when solving puzzles. Every now and then I wish I could take a more active part in the combat. The limited "swordsman mode" only partially satisfies my desire.
The successful gameplay is spoilt by the cumbersome menu navigation and annoying stutters. I would love to conjure up a "Switch 2" with Zelda's magic wand so that I could play "Echoes of Wisdom" on more powerful hardware without any technical problems. Despite the shortcomings listed, fans of the series can look forward to an excellent spin-off that does a lot of things differently and yet still feels familiar.
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My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.
