Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom – A New Way to Explore Hyrule

The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom has us playing as Zelda for the FIRST TIME (Spirit Tracks doesn’t count bro) and it is amazing fun.
With Nintendo’s quirks and despite the expected frame-rate issue running on Switch. It does not dampen the Princess’s first time saving the Kingdom without Link. 

This time around we are not exploring Hyrule as Link. With Zelda, you are approaching the world, the people, and the puzzles from a brand new perspective.
This new entry feels at home within the series even with it’s new twists and mechanics.

I will mostly try to keep my impressions and review free from spoilers.
I will do my best. 

The Legend Herself

Finally our girl is in pride of place and a playable character in her own franchise.
Princess Zelda, the embodiment of wisdom, the reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia herself – is showing off her puzzle solving skills and unique approach to the world. 

She’s also secretly RIPPED, girly pop be picking up a bokoblin and can carry it on her head.
No one messes with her kingdom.

In the opening section you control Link, just for a moment or two.
Then the controls switch to Zelda. There is a noticeable difference in how she controls and how she plays.
Zelda can’t jump as high but uses the world around her to navigate the enemies and landscape of Hyrule. She is the Princess, who knows how to use her kingdom to her advantage. Throughout the game, regardless of how many echoes you’ve accumulated, you’ll find yourself picking up rocks, pots and using the landscape to your advantage. Zelda’s playstyle is not about what you can create thanks to Tri, but how you use the world to the best of your abilities. A couple of (mainly) side quests tripped me up in this. You are reminded to use the world and that copies don’t solve everything.
Most things, but not everything.

The puzzles, battles, and exploration scale throughout the game in the brilliant way that Zeldas do. There are Zelda-style puzzles to trip you up and force you to rethink your classic solutions.
The play style of Princess Zelda is about being resourceful and how you can work with the Kingdom of Hyrule.
Exactly as a princess should. 

Violence is not always the answer

If Echoes of Wisdom had been the same but the player character was swapped-
Don’t get me wrong I would play that too, I want a Sheik game.
But if it had been mechanically the same but with Zelda’s head on Link’s body. I would’ve been disappointed.
Playing as Zelda gave the developers the perfect chance to play with the mechanics. How do you fight evil in Hyrule if you’re not a soldier with a sword? 

You do pick up the ‘Swordfighter Form’, how you use it is limited though. There are enemies you cannot defeat without it, so you learn to conserve it for special occasions. Rather Zelda acts as a general, in charge of the army, sending echoes into battle, on her behalf until it is necessary for her to step in. 

Battles are puzzles and full of strategy.

Echoes of the Kingdom

There are so many echoes, I love a thing to collect like this. Gonna give me a little notebook and things having numbers, nomnomnom I will eat that up.

I know Nintendo said 127 echoes in a trailer but you don’t really comprehend how many that is until you are walking around and constantly finding new echoes to pick up.

There are so many ways to solve each puzzle or to navigate a space. I’ve been watching some gameplay online, the puzzle solutions would have just never occurred to me. The variety of solutions is a favourite of mine. It makes replaying the game, playing it with others or watching it special.

Why with the UI

But here we find ourselves at one of my only gripes with the game. 

Why are we doing the side-scrolling UI again?
Selecting echoes like how we fused things to arrows in Tears of the Kingdom. Why are we doing this again? There are over 100 things you can collect. Why am I having to scroll and sort through 99 to find the one I want? Even at earlier points in the game; finding the 1 I want.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the summoning echoes combat system. Big fan of puzzle combat which is essentially what this game has.
But when you’re stopped to find one thing because you had an idea – it messes with the previously well-paced gameplay.

The Kingdom of Hyrule

It’s all a big puzzle. 

This game looks like Link’s Awakening and it is running in the remake’s engine. You’re forgiven for thinking the map would resemble the size of Koholint Island. You are wrong, but you are forgiven. 

After Tears of the Kingdom era of Zelda maps, Echoes of Wisdom’s the map DOES NOT DISAPPOINT! 

You aren’t going to lose 3 hours trying to cross a field. For a top-down game with a toy-like art style it feels big. With different terrains, areas, and people, Hyrule feels like it grows as you enter a new terrain.
I got lost in the Gerudo Desert. 
Yeah… 
Not to the point of having to fast-travel out of an area. I spent a good 5 minutes going “erm, where’s everything gone” and trying to retrace my steps. Which is a game of this style is about as long as I want to be lost and confused for. There is a balance that makes being lost, enjoyable.

The characters inhabiting the world are so full of life and energy it feels like a real civilisation. A cohesive kingdom similar to how Tears of the Kingdom felt. Hyrule in other games has felt divided to me. Echoes of Wisdom’s iteration of Hyrule feels functional and connected. It all works together and is interconnected. Other than you’re just introducing yourself as Zelda and no one puts two and two together.
You might even find some familiar faces. 

Rifts and the Still Realm

The rifts are an obstacle in the mainland of Hyrule and their own little dungeons and worlds. It will give you flashbacks to navigating parts of Mario Odyssey for the first time you explore a rift. 
Everything is a surface if you try hard enough, no matter the rotation. The urge to do parkour has never been more present. 
There are secrets in the nooks and crannies of the fractured environment of this realm. You don’t need to find them all to complete the dungeon in the rifts.
The Still Realm, reminds me of other realms we’ve seen across the franchise, the twilight realm or dark link. For me, it reminded me of Silent Realm from Skyward Sword. As a defender of Skyward Sword, I may be biased. It feels like more of a parallel dimension than the Depths from Tears of the Kingdom. 

I will leave that up to the Legend of Zelda theorists to decode. 
I am merely here to play and decide everything links back to Skyward Sword regardless of the evidence.
BUT SOME BIRDS LOOK LIKE LOFT WINGS AND THE SWORD GLOWS BLU—

Overall thoughts

This entry in the Legend of Zelda franchise is not going to be for everyone. But if you’re looking at gameplay and thinking ‘I don’t know’ but usually you’re a huge Zelda fan. I ask you to give it a go. 

Everything you’ve loved about the series for however long, it’s all there.
You’re just coming at it from a new perspective this time around. Give it a try – if it’s not your thing, sure but maybe don’t write it off from first appearances. 

The frame rate does drop and pick up and drop and pick up. The frame rate of games very rarely bothers me. I cannot see a difference between 60fps and 30fps if I’m deeply invested and enjoying a game. The drops to 10fps for just a moment do start to interrupt though. I think the hardware is just starting to show its age and did not interrupt the majority of my experience. I’ve found that it mostly interrupts when riding a horse. The world is moving too quickly, I had the same issue with Tears. Very different-looking games I know, but both have whole worlds to load in one go. It’s the blight of open-world games – go too quick and the frame rate drops.

The story, world, and character writing more than makeup for the hiccups here and there for me. NPCs have so much character and appear to have their own lives and habits going on in the world. There are smoothies to make and things to explore.
Echoes of Wisdom looks into the future of 2-D and top-down Legend of Zelda in time for the new Nintendo console.
It is a future of imagination and cool mechanics.