REVIEW: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (2024)

Video Game Reviews

A mere year after Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo announced a new installment in the Zelda franchise, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, during a Nintendo Direct back in June. This time, however, Zelda herself takes center stage, but it’s done exceedingly well. It’s also very humorous that, with this chance for gamers to finally play as the princess, it has indeed become the meme of everyone who has not played the games believing that Link (the hero) is Zelda. 

Now, all humor aside, the game begins with Link entering ancient ruins to save Zelda from Ganon, the main antagonist of the series. The player fights Ganon as Link and defeats him; then, the latter is sucked into a rift, but not before firing an arrow to help free Zelda from her crystal cage. Once freed, Zelda must run to avoid the spreading rift. Back at the castle, the king is relieved to find his daughter well and whole, but soon, another rift appears on the throne, taking in General Wright, Minister Lefte (we see what you did there, Nintendo), and the king himself. Then, the rift spits out imposters of the three taken, and, as guards come running in, the “King” orders them to imprison Zelda, claiming she is the one who created the rifts. Confused yet still taking their orders, the guards lock Zelda in a cell. 

While there, the princess overhears the guards talking about her when a light flashes before her, and a little fairy named Tri appears. Tri gives Zelda a magical staff that creates “echoes” of objects and even monsters. With this new tool, she escapes with the help of a familiar face, Impa. Once she is free from her prison, Zelda, with a disguise, begins her journey to mend the rifts and find the “Green Tunic Swordsman” (Link). 

This game was co-produced by GREZZO, the same studio that did the previous remastered title, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, back in September of 2019. The chibi style is very charming and well-suited for this installment, only adding to the overall ambiance of the game. Every town or route you visit is vibrant and teeming with life, and the voice acting (though minimal) is fantastic, adding much spunk to the characters, from the Hylians to the Zora and Gorons; all of them stand out, and their personalities really shine through. I also loved the return of Dampé from Link’s Awakening, though his role is a tad different. Still a tinkerer, he builds you little automatons to help you along your journey. The side quests are also fun, especially when they give you stuff to do in between sections of the main quest. 

One new addition to the game is called the “Slumber Dojo,” which challenges you to defeat enemies while in a dream, but with certain limitations, such as no use of your current echoes or items/drinks to enhance abilities. By completing some of these challenges, you get needed rewards, particularly in helping complete a Dampé quest; or, if you’re a completionist like me, it’s nice to have acquired all the items in the game. 

The gameplay is very much in line with a standard Zelda game, although it does give you some liberties in that you can choose to enter a certain area before you’re ready. However, beware, for the monsters will be strong. Adding in the echoes to help Zelda along the way is a brilliant touch, for it makes you attempt to solve a dungeon or even a puzzle to reach certain items or chests in a clever way. Speaking of, allow me to talk for a moment about the dungeons in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. I was so ecstatic to see these types of dungeons again. Don’t get me wrong, the ones in Breath of Wild and Tears of the Kingdom were fun, but they lacked the old flare of the previous games’ dungeons. In Echoes, they really make you think and come up with out-of-the-box ways to solve the puzzles, which I greatly appreciate—well done again to GREZZO for their work on this. I also loved the little mini rifts to help heal a certain area to be able to access it, and, from there, also to level up Tri that much more. My favorite dungeon in the game is probably the Hebra one, which is more challenging in spots, second to Faron; again, I loved the music in that one, and it was also a fun solve. Typically, I love the water dungeons—especially the one in Link’s Awakening, which plays the best music, and I thought it was overall the most enjoyable to solve. 

One small complaint I have with the controls is that many times when I’d want to choose an echo, I’d accidentally go into “sword fighter” mode, which was a tad annoying but not enough to hinder my overall experience. 

Now, going back to the music, which I brushed on earlier, the music in this game is fantastic and adds to the atmosphere in the best way possible. I also appreciated that when you go into sword fighter mode, it plays Link’s theme. I will say, though, that my favorite score in the game is in Faron; typically, I love the Zora music (in this case, the sea Zora), but there was something very catchy and quirky about the Faron music that made it my favorite when I first visited, and also when I returned to get any items I missed or do side quests. If I had to pick a favorite boss fight, I’d actually pick the Eldin one (and for those who know me well, they’ll see why), but the most epic, of course, was the final battle. Once you finally find Link, he and Zelda work together beautifully to defeat their common enemy. And the finale of this latest installment of the Zelda franchise is so bittersweet, which, call me crazy, but I prefer these kinds of endings, so for me, it was a good, solid end to a fantastic game.