Review Comic for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, with simple pink and black illustrations.

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Review: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Developer: Ninendo, Grezzo

Reviewed by Dan McAlister

Three Stars out of Five

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When Nintendo remastered Link’s Awakening in 2019, it did so with an intriguing new aesthetic.

Image: A large spotted egg sits on a mountaintop, surrounded by a ring of clouds.

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Where once were chunky nineties pixels, we now had doll-like figures that seemed to be made of clay or soft plastic.

Image: A small toy figure of link holding his sword up.

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It was undeniably appealing! But while the new visuals were cute, it’s arguable that the original game’s sprites, sparing in detail and open to interpretation, were more suited to that title’s surreal setting.

Image: The toy Link swings his sword, while a pixelated Link stands behind him.

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In any case, now it’s 2024 and the same visual style has been applied to a new Zelda title.

Image: Two toys, one a small, spider-like monster with one eye (a tektite) and the other a pig-like monster wearing a vest (a moblin). A faint shadow appears between them.

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The results this time are far more unified.

Image: A hand places a Princess Zelda toy in between them. She brandishes her a twisted wand (the Tri-Rod) and stares out of the page.

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Echoes of Wisdom is the latest title in the Zelda series, and the first in which you can play as the titular princess. It’s long overdue!

Image: Zelda rides a horse while a small, round sprite with a trail of hovering triangles (Tri) floats alongside her.

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As Zelda, you fight and puzzle-solve your way through Hyrule as Link has done so many times, but with a very different skill-set.

Zelda holds the Tri-Rod in front of her as she and Tri face down the silhouettes of monsters.

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Instead of swords and gadgets, you have the Tri-Rod, which can summon copies of various things you encounter throughout your adventure. Examples include food (for distractions), monsters (for combat), furniture (for climbing, or napping), and other stuff.

Image: Zelda holds her Tri-Rod aloft as Tri floats beside her, its triangle-tail now missing. Zelda has summoned a piece of meat to distract a nearby moblin, and a snake to attack the moblin. In the foreground is a summoned bed and a summoned teddy-bear. All of the echoes have large triangles floating above them.

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It’s a flexible system, evocative of Scribblenauts’s open-ended problem solving, but with a more focused, refined pool of options to draw from. However, given that the pool is more focused, that every echo is hand-crafted, I would have liked for them to behave more consistently than they do.

Image: An array of four echoes: a fish with a bomb in its mouth, an odd bird with a large beak, a firework launcher, and a ghost holding a lantern.

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For example, path-finding seems to be an issue. Combat would frequently stall when one of my echoes couldn’t find its way around a corner.

Image: A moblin echo, stuck behind a large rock, growls and brandishes its sword at an enemy moblin.

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And I once had a crow echo dive three times at an unmoving rupee before actually picking it up.

Image: A crow, looking skeptical, flies above a rupee. Zelda is in the background looking exasperated, and Tri hovers nearby.

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This is my main complaint with the echo system, but otherwise? I honestly loved it. They’re diverse, they mostly work well, and using them felt like digging around in a box of toys and pulling out your favorites. Or weird ones. Or ones you just haven’t seen in a while!

Image: A pair of hands holds up two toys, one of an armored soldier wielding an axe (a darknut) and the other of a waxy blob creature with big eyes and a flaming wick on top of its head (an ignizol).

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The echo system creates play in a much less direct way than, say, throwing a fireball. It’s often goofier and more entertaining than a simple attack. It’s magic with a mind of its own, distinctive in its unruliness and just plain fun in its variety and quirks.

Image: The darknut echo stands among a flaming patch of grass, ready to swing its axe at a flaming, panicking moblin. The ignizol is nearby, its own flame blowing in the direction of the larger fire. Zelda smirks and looks knowingly out of the page and at the reader.

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This all takes place in a Hyrule that feels well-assembled from the tired-and-true Zelda toybox.

Image: A chest emblazoned with the Triforce cracks open, and light shines from within.

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You’ve got the classics: Gorons, the Deku, Mt. Hebra, and so on and so on.

Image: A oddly blocky mountain covered in snow and surrounded by clouds.

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Quest design is a high-point as is aimless wandering. And the characters (aside from the Zora) are charmingly written. Everything works well, making for a polished iteration of Hyrule. But as much as I appreciate polish, I did want something more.

Image: Zelda stands before the mouth of a cave, and holds her Tri-Rod out to her side.

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While Echoes brings us something novel in its gameplay, it occurs in a Hyrule that already feels well-explored.

Image: Zelda smiles and waves at an elderly boulder creature (a Goron), who waves back.

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There are no big surprises like Wind Waker’s ocean, or Twilight Princess’s shadowy otherworlds.

Image: Zelda smiles and talks to Tri, as an octopus-monster (an octorok) sneaks up behind her.

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And by committing to the toy aesthetic, the game’s atmospheric range is similarly limited.

Image: Zelda looks surprised as she turns her head and holds her hand up.

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The bright colors and softened edges effectively evoke play, but undercut moments that would otherwise convey fear or unease.

Image: Zelda and Tri look on from a ledge as a man who has been sapped of color floats in a dark void. Zelda has a neutral expression.

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All in all, Echoes of Wisdom is worth playing for its inventive gameplay and well-designed questing. But next time, I’d like to see more risks taken outside of the lead character’s toolkit. Regardless of who that hero may be.

Image: Zelda fires a beam from her Tri-Rod as Tri looks on.