THE LEGEND of Zelda has often been credited with popularising open-world games, and in its 28-year history we’ve always played as Link.
That’s why people were so excited to get their hands on Echoes of Wisdom, the first mainline game where the titular Zelda is the main character.
Echoes of Wisdom takes inspiration from Breath of the Wild[/caption]
We might have used Zelda’s powers in Super Smash Bros., Hyrule Warrior or Cadence of Hyrule, but not in the main games.
It’s not a The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild-style epic, and is more reminiscent of Link’s Awakening, but fans will take it.
Instead of playing like a reskin of Link, she has a whole new suite of powers, which are more reminiscent of her style.
While efforts have been made to differentiate her from Link, you’ll find that she moves similar to Link in Link’s Awakening, and generally you’ll forget you’re playing as Zelda.
She can use a sword and shield like Link, but she is best off using the Tri Rod to spawn echoes of items she’s encountered.
Combat then plays more like a mini RTS where you spawn various enemies you’ve encountered to take down new foes.
Experimenting with each monster’s strengths and weaknesses is all part of the fun.
This does have the side effect of making things easier as you go on. Once you have a large roster of enemies, you can sit back and watch them fight.
Once your echo is destroyed, you can put those resources into something else without a cooldown period, making it feel risk-free.
You also use echoes for exploration, but we found that most puzzles can be solved by stacking beds.
There are echoes that work better than using beds to make spiral staircases, but you will be able to use them throughout if you want.
It does take inspiration from Breath of the Wild, giving the player more freedom than most top-down Zelda games.
The design philosophies from these bigger Zelda games can clearly be seen throughout, pushing you to try things you might not think possible.
We were pleased to see the return of standard Zelda dungeons with small keys, maps, and compasses to find.
This does mean that bosses that take unreasonable amounts of damage return, but if you’re a long-time Zelda fan, it’s what you will expect.
There are also caves similar to shrines and these add an additional welcome challenge.
Overall there are some small issues which prevent us from calling Echoes of Wisdom a masterpiece, but even an average Zelda game is still excellent.
The new gameplay style completely changes how top-down Zelda games are played, and gives a new breath of life into the series.
It’s a welcome return to Hyrule, and we hope that Nintendo will continue with these smaller experimental Zelda games in between their open-world epics.
If you want to read more about Nintendo, check out our Epic Mickey: Rebrushed review.
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