The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

For the longest time, as an outsider to The Legend of Zelda franchise, I have believed that the protagonist you played was called Zelda. I mean, it makes sense, right? In The Legend of Zelda, you play as Zelda, yes? It came to a point where it became an inside joke among my friends, where Link would persistently be called Zelda whenever the topic came about.

I was firmly under this belief until Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came along. I believe Breath of the Wild was the gateway to the Zelda franchise for many, including myself. After being exposed to what redefined the meaning of truly being "free" in an open-world game, I explored the classics, like Twilight Princess, Minish Cap, Majora's Mask 3D, and Phantom Hourglass. As an avid gamer, Breath of the Wild helped me quell my curiosity about the Zelda franchise.

In none of these games I mentioned, however, did you actually ever play as Zelda. Link was always part of all the action, and it has been almost a tradition to control Link in a Zelda game. That all changes in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

After the first-ever female Nintendo director, Tomomi Sano, came about in charge of the Grezzo team, playing as Zelda in the new Zelda game is no longer a joke among friends—and this feels no less than revolutionary. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’s story starts with us following Link, who is on his way to save Zelda. He succeeds in defeating the threat, but he and the king of Hyrule get engulfed in a purple mass known as the rifts.

After this, imposters take their place in the castle and blame Zelda for everything. Imprisoned, Zelda piques Tri's interest and decides to join the princess in entering the rifts to ultimately set things right and rescue Link and her father. This is a great introduction to the story of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. It's short, gets the job done, and throws you right into the shoes of Zelda, who deals with things differently from Link in this title.

Thankfully, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom does not simply replace Link's model with Zelda and call it a day. Zelda's approach to combat and puzzles is much more indirect in this game. She doesn't use a sword, which makes sense since she hasn't trained with one like Link has. Instead, she can duplicate almost any object and use it for whatever she needs.

This has impressive possibilities, with you being able to store furniture, structures from the environment, and even enemies you have defeated in the past. It is all available for you to summon whenever you need it. Though the slider UI you access it with is the same subpar one you are familiar with in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

With this sort of passive approach, you feel more like a mage or a war general commandeering her minions to get what she wants, and it works really well. Zelda can also bind herself to anything in the environment. She can either move the object wherever she wants or simply let it take its course while she clings to it.

What I like most in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is how each puzzle can be solved differently because of the sheer number of options you have. This adds incredible replay value to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

You can approach a challenge and face it head-on with your toughest enemies, or you can try out something ridiculous; you're free to try out anything, really, which ends up being hilarious most of the time.

Onto the overall structure of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. You're presented with a 2D open world. The game lets you lose rather early on despite being top-down and simple initially. While there are goals to accomplish and rifts to seal, the game doesn't prevent you from exploring the map.

However, there are obstacles linked to Tri's triangle that limit how well you can employ the Echoes. First, the game restricts your use of the Echoes, making it hard to go beyond every hurdle you come across, but there's always a workaround for this.

Most of your time in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is spent exploring the world, trying to figure out how to navigate the environment while getting past obstacles and puzzles along the way. The thing this game gets right that the open-world Zelda games struggle with is how many things it offers within a certain space.

With Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom focusing on expansiveness and discovery, there are certain parts that feel empty, however scarce that feeling may be. With The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom being a 2D experience, you get a semi-open feel to the world you explore, but it feels as though you have fewer steps to take between each event that occurs in the game.

In other words, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom just feels livelier. There are caves with secrets and loot hidden throughout, enemy camps to find, a surprising number of settlements and NPCs, a lot of quests to find, and there are even optional dungeons or, at least, mini-dungeons.

If you feel like you're missing the classic sword fighting of the 2D titles, Zelda happens upon Link's sword at some point in the game, and she can harness Link's heroism and courage to swing it just like Link. Only small sections of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom force you to use this form as you progress. It is clear the game does not want you to rely on this mechanic, as it puts a limit on how often you can use it, with items scattered across the world to reset the limit.

The dungeons in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom are a lot like how they used to be in past 2D Zelda titles. They never shut you out based on a single viable solution to a problem and place a greater emphasis on navigational obstacles and puzzle-solving. Nonetheless, their layout is far more thoughtfully designed and has a more methodical rhythm than the dungeons in Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom.

You will come across dungeon bosses at a point in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. They're derived more from the older 2D Zelda games than the recent 3D ones. This results in boss fights that align with the original style, complete with phases, move sets, weak places, and tactics for defeating them. Fights end up feeling a lot more involved because of this. Although the passive play style can make things feel difficult, it's easy to get around with some strategy and quick thinking.

Visually, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom looks fantastic. The little character models look adorable, and the world feels as though they come to life in the modified engine of Link's Awakening Remake. I can especially appreciate how good the water looks here—even the in-game characters comment on it!

The soundtrack is just as good. Zelda takes on the role of being the silent protagonist, so you won't hear much of her, but in terms of music, it's the classic Zelda-like tunes we've come to know and love. It's always there to make the highs and lows of the game hit harder.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom makes an excellent return as the first original 2D Zelda game in over a decade. It's not without its issues, with the UI being just okay and the performance being a little off the mark, but as a game, it's a lot of fun. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has one of the best 2D open worlds in Zelda games to date. I absolutely loved taking threats on from the shoes of Princess Zelda, who has proved not just to be a damsel in distress.