- 07/07/2025
With it’s toy-world aesthetic, puzzle solving magical abilities, and an incredible soundtrack, Echoes of Wisdom pulls off a refreshing, albeit brief series experimentation. But is it worth picking up?
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00:00At its best, The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom lets players go off-script to create
00:04aha moments that Zelda games genuinely haven't seen before. Slotting a magician into the shoes
00:10of a long-time sword and shield hero is mostly amazing in action. Convert long-time Hyrulean
00:16monsters to do our bidding, then manipulate the world to redefine where, when and how we can go.
00:22At its worst, Echoes of Wisdom runs out of good ideas too quickly. What could have been a classic
00:2812-hour game instead slightly drags at the 18-20 hour mark? The result feels like a higher budget
00:35take on the portable first Zelda games of old, think Link's Awakening or Minish Cap. If you're
00:41looking forward to Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, expect a modest helping of Nintendo-calibre
00:46adventure inside an interesting, albeit imperfect, balance between the familiar and new.
00:52We start with a Link fakeout. Don the usual green tunic, destroy monsters and defeat the Zelda
01:01kidnapping big bad, Ganon. This intro loudly assumes we know classic Legend of Zelda archetypes in order
01:08to break them apart, much like how Zelda smashes her way out of a Ganon trap after, surprise surprise,
01:14Link has been sealed away in the game's first few minutes. The focus immediately shifts to Zelda,
01:21at which point we learn that Link's fate isn't isolated. Rifts have opened across Hyrule,
01:26and in some cases the people trapped inside their time-frozen realm have been spat back into the
01:32real world as sneaky doppelgangers. The Royal Guard, including Zelda's father, is now in its evil era,
01:38demanding Zelda's imprisonment. As Link's traditional gear, sword, shield, bow, bombs have also disappeared,
01:45Zelda's only hope to free her subjects and save Hyrule is the Tri-Rod.
01:50A gift from a Na'vi-like spirit named Tri. This tool activates the game's two core abilities,
01:56conjuring new monsters and materials, and binding, or grabbing, existing ones.
02:01The former are known as Echoes, and Zelda can add these to her spellbook whenever she first
02:06encounters any non-living material that Nintendo deems Echo-worthy. Yes to things like pots and blocks
02:13of ice? No, to rupees, bridges, or larger boulders. Zelda can learn how to make Echo versions of nearly
02:19every enemy who battle on your behalf, with larger, boss-sized monsters being an exception.
02:25You can spin up unlimited Echoes, so long as you stay within whatever maximum number of points Tri
02:30can muster. This number goes up as Tri gains power. This is the primary limiting factor throughout Echoes of
02:37Wisdom. In traversal, you can only build so many parts to a makeshift bridge or ladder,
02:42make it too big, and the very first Echo vanishes to restore your Tri points,
02:47thus collapsing your creation. In battle, one armor-clad, sword-wielding Moblin is the same as
02:54four wimpy flying homing attack keese. Each option is effective and fun for different reasons.
03:00The bind function offers two ways for the Tri-Rod to grab Echoes and other objects in the wild.
03:06The first is a basic grab, with the object or Echo following Zelda's movements. Need to lift
03:12and move something heavy, particularly if it could solve a puzzle or it's otherwise out of reach?
03:17Want to use an Echo as a shield? Bind to it, even at a reasonable distance so long as you have a line
03:23of sight and you can move it. The second type of bind is best described as a follow, as it lets Zelda
03:29tag along to an Echoes default movement. If you want to follow a crawling spider up a wall,
03:34or a moving platform across a gap, use the follow bind. That's a substantial combination of tools
03:40to play with on Echoes of Wisdom's canvas, and I could reliably expect satisfying results and
03:45feedback whenever I pushed the game to its magical casting limits. Treasure lines the map's furthest
03:51reaches, tallest cliffs and most hidden paths, always confirming that, yes, we were supposed to build
03:58a rickety bridge ladder thing over there. And the act of dropping ideal enemies in a frenetic battle
04:04comes with satisfying visual and audio feedback. Conjure an upgraded Lizalfos, then watch an insta
04:10strike with a long spear, followed by a swift leap dodge while staring your foe down before attacking
04:16again. In its first few hours Echoes of Wisdom teaches the Tri-Rod's power through a neatly choreographed
04:24range of linear and open-world quests. New Echoes appear at a satisfying cadence, each opening up
04:30new reasons to flip through Zelda's collection and experiment, while dungeons focus Zelda's attention
04:36on puzzles where only a few Echoes and or a clever use of the bind function will lead to a solution.
04:43Figuring out what to conjure, bind to, move, and battle is a frequent Echoes of Wisdom delight,
04:49and knowing I could sometimes deal with a puzzle or battle in dozens of ways accentuated the choices
04:55I made. But once my deck exceeded 60, I slammed into Echo fatigue. This is due in large part to
05:02Nintendo's excruciating lack of Echo sorting options. Players can't tap like on a favourite to quickly
05:10access it. They can't create smaller radial wheels of 8-10 grouped Echoes, i.e. combat, traversal,
05:17stealth, fire, or ice for easier reference. A few sorting options like most used, last learned,
05:24and type help a bit, but they just order the full Echo roster in a left-to-right menu. Since Echoes of
05:31Wisdom revolves so heavily around this menu system, especially during combat, these extra seconds add up
05:38and get in the way, even so that I eventually picked a few good enough Echoes and spammed them
05:44for most of my adventure. Not helping matters is the iffy AI attached to the Echo monsters Zelda
05:50generates, which makes many of the available Echo monsters either redundant or unappealing. In
05:56particular, targeting enemies with an Echo often doesn't work. Echoes will home their targets by
06:02rushing in a straight line, but if they take too long to attack or bump into an immovable object like
06:07a wall or stone, they'll meander away in confusion. Zelda eventually unlocks a timer-limited way to
06:14transform into Sword Fighter mode, with Link's sword, shield, and a few boosted abilities, and in
06:20moments of Echo frustration, it's easier to just turn into Link. I didn't love that conclusion as an
06:27occasional Echoes of Wisdom takeaway, as instead of feeling rewarded for leaning into Zelda's exciting
06:32new series identity, I took the easy Link way out. The Hyrule in Echoes of Wisdom is largely defined
06:39by smaller-stake stories spread across its landscape. Zelda and Triad tasked with healing the biggest
06:44rifts breaking the land apart, and each has some kind of plot attached, usually defined by interpersonal
06:51conflict. These stories range from amusing and memorable, particularly a Zora village feud over
06:57musical instruments, too floaty and generic, and they might have landed better if Zelda and Triad's
07:03own journey had weight. I found myself surprised and crestfallen by how little redemption Zelda enjoys
07:10on her first ever rise-to-magic-wielding Hyrule-saving superhero. Spoilers aside, the ending left a bad taste
07:18in my mouth. Perhaps because a lot of missions saw Zelda merely running from point A to point B. No clever
07:24puzzles or Echoes needed in order to read pages of unskippable dialogue. We learn much more about
07:31an abominable snowman named Konde and a cotton candy-obsessed village of Deku's than we do about
07:37Zelda's realised potential. The 3D engine that powered 2019's Link's Awakening remake has apparently
07:46been reused to build Echoes of Wisdom, and it doesn't add much new to that game's pleasing toy world
07:52aesthetic. Traditional Zelda series biomes are reused with little in the way of exciting
08:00new visual trickery, while the game's framerate fluctuates often enough to be at best distracting
08:06and at worst debilitating in the middle of frantic action. The biggest positive exception is the
08:11still world, a satisfying hallucinogenic space where Zelda and Tri must traverse and puzzle solve
08:18to reach each of the game's dungeons. Nintendo should honestly consider making an entire game
08:24in the still world, which slaps random terrain onto floating, outer space levels like something
08:29out of a Super Mario Galaxy fever dream. If you like the Zelda series for music, Echoes of Wisdom may
08:35be worth buying just for its soundtrack. Its songs are careful to draw inspiration from classic Zelda
08:41leitmotifs whilst charting entirely new, surprisingly pleasant melodies in every single biome, and the
08:48full live orchestration is top notch. Its the game's biggest surprise by far. Do not play this game on mute.
08:58But nitpicking Echoes of Wisdom is easy, and I have others like arguably unsatisfying bosses who can be
09:05spammed with simple tactics instead of requiring clever echo use. Celebrating the game's most clever
09:11moments is trickier, whether because I want to avoid spoilers or because the possibilities inside
09:16Echoes of Wisdom's best puzzles, dungeons and open world sequences are truly so vast. The end result is
09:23as good of a compromise as I could imagine between the tight confines of a classic top-down Zelda game
09:29and the wild massive potential of something like Breath of the Wild. After beating Echoes of Wisdom,
09:35I began dreaming of a sequel, one where monster and traversal Echoes feel more differentiated,
09:41where Echo menus work better, and where new limits on certain Echoes might force more creativity.
09:48To the game's credit, those thoughts came after many of my major Zelda series dreams had already
09:53been fulfilled. I got the top-down series remix I'd been dying for since 2013's Links Between Worlds
09:59had only hinted at such ambitions. All in all, Nintendo and Grezzo have pulled off a surprisingly
10:05refreshing retooling of the Link's Awakening engine. All hail Princess Zelda. The Legend of
10:10Zelda Echoes of Wisdom is a refreshing, albeit brief, series experimentation that blends modern and
10:16classic series elements. Using brand new magic to battle and solve puzzles fits neatly into the top-down
10:22Zelda formula, despite some missteps. Will you be playing Echoes of Wisdom? If so, what are you most
10:29looking forward to about it? Let us know in the comments and stick with GamesRadar for the latest
10:34news, reviews and more!
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