I was as excited as everyone else when The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was revealed. For more than a decade now, Nintendo has worked to break with the conventions that many came to expect from its long-running series that may have inadvertently creatively shackled its evolution.
That experimentation resulted in the groundbreaking achievements that have been witnessed the world over in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and, as we patiently await news about the Nintendo Switch successor, it is a top-down adventure that has now been approached with such ambition.
Hyrule is once again faced with a great threat. Strange rifts have started to emerge across its lands, pulling in buildings and citizens alike. Even Link has been caught out by them. With the green tunic-clad hero’s whereabouts unknown, it is up to Princess Zelda to save her kingdom from the brink of ruin. I’m intrigued about the mystery behind these rifts – who created them and what their purpose is – and, after having the chance to take the game for an eighty-minute spin from its opening moments, that desire to learn more has only been heightened.
You start the game beneath Hyrule Castle. Princess Zelda is locked up in a prison cell, awaiting her fate after she is wrongly accused of being the one responsible for creating the rifts. After meeting Tri, she will soon be able to make her escape…
Even early on, it’s clear that this adventure is strikingly different to anything that has come before it. We’ve shifted Link inside walls and shrunk him down to a minuscule size, but now, with Princess Zelda as its welcome heroine, we’re handed the Tri Rod to wield with which we can conjure Echoes.
You must first learn Echoes (ZR Button) – any unlearnt objects clearly marked with a golden sparkle – before you can cast (Y Button) their imitations into existence. These range from Tables and Wooden Boxes to Decorative Shrubs and Trampolines, and the ability is not endless – limited to how much of Tri’s power is available to you, represented by the triangles that float behind the mysterious fairy’s head.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom very much relies on you to harness your imagination. The obstacles that you need to overcome are obvious, but it is up to you to come up with your own solution. Making your escape from Hyrule Castle acts as your tutorial to this new gameplay mechanic, evading the patrolling Hylian Guards requiring you to conjure objects to help clamber over bookcases, block paths to trap them on their routes or even hurl pots to create a momentary distraction as they investigate what caused the noise. Some objects even have additional uses, such as resting on an Old Bed to recover lost hearts.
While there’s an overriding sense of mischief (and an inevitable facepalm if you find yourself chased down by the guards), this change in approach admittedly felt disorientating at first. Princess Zelda is vulnerable, and I had to think about each room as a puzzle encounter rather than simply being able to run in swinging a sword about as Link. You can conjure objects such as Boulders to chuck at enemies to damage them, but it’s long-winded in execution rather than a rapid button press.
That worry started to be alleviated as I continued to make progress. Eventually fleeing into the game’s overworld soon saw me taught that new monsters that you encounter leave a Shimmer behind when defeated. These can be learnt in the same way as Echoes, allowing you to conjure Zol, Keese, Spear Moblins and more to fight alongside you. Their methods and rates of attack differ, and I tended to use them as a distraction while I lobbed anything I could find.
The overworld appears to be packed with far more interesting things to encounter and explore than the faithful remake that came before it, soon seeing me stumble on Moblin Camps to overcome and spotting treasure chests off the beaten track to deviate me from pursuing my main objective.
After a detour through Suthorn Village and learning that fairies like Tri are responsible for mending the strange rifts, I was able to leap into the Still World for the first time. This was revealed in a new trailer last week, and, according to Tri in-game, anything that becomes trapped within it will break apart and vanish completely over time. Those who are pulled in are petrified and will, too, eventually fade away.
Thankfully, Princess Zelda is protected from such danger. Beneath the Still World’s luminous purple hue, I made my way to brave the perils that awaited me in the Suthorn Ruins – the first Rift dungeon that the game challenges you to beat. It is here that you are taught the Bind and Reverse Bond abilities that Nintendo has previously spoken about, but, more importantly, I really enjoyed tackling its puzzle-orientated depths and hope that the rest of the dungeons that the game similarly hold up. I’d rather leave some sense of discovery to your experience than spoil too much about it.
However, it was unlocking the Swordfighter Form that came as the biggest surprise in my time with the game. Defeating an impostor Link in a mid-boss battle leads to Princess Zelda recovering a mysterious sword it leaves behind. She can expend her energy gauge to transform into Swordfighter Form, which not only allows you to attack with a sword but lets you jump higher, defend with a shield and perform a Spin Attack. I was glad to see Princess Zelda granted an ability that I could go on the offensive and get stuck into combat with. It’s also required to hack your way through a hardened gooey substance that occasionally blocks your path.
In June’s Nintendo Direct, The Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma said that the team had “created a game where each player’s experience will be different.” That was certainly the case from seeing how others around me had come up with puzzle solutions compared to mine. I even toppled Suthorn Ruins’ final boss, Seismic Talus, in a completely different way from those shown in last week’s trailer. It’s going to be fascinating to see how everyone approaches everything – an obvious comparison being to the many ways to overcome Shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
I sadly do have concerns, too. It’s never obvious how old the build is that we had the chance to play, but, in busier moments, frame rate dips were a frequent occurrence in the overworld. These were never enough to derail the experience but certainly detracted from it, much in the same way as those seen in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. It’ll be disappointing to see such a promising adventure continue to buckle on aged hardware.
I’m also slightly worried about being inundated with Echoes throughout the course of the game, and not being able to quickly navigate through them. I unlocked so many early on that the quick access menu soon felt inadequate. It prioritises those that are recently used, but I wish that there was some categorisation to reduce the time needed to scroll through them all – even separating objects and monsters would be a start. I’m hoping that there were more options there that perhaps I didn’t have the chance to explore.
That isn’t to say that the time I spent with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom wasn’t overridingly positive. This feels like a classic top-down adventure rejuvenated for a modern audience. It has menacing monsters to defeat, umpteen puzzles to solve and dungeons to conquer, coupled with new gameplay mechanics to approach its challenges in entirely new ways. I can’t wait to return to Hyrule to experience it from start to finish.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will be released digitally on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch worldwide on 26 September 2024.
