‘Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review – Gotta Catch ‘Em All

The Legend of Zelda series has been around since 1986. That is almost 40 years of playing as Link! Released on the Switch in 2019, Grezzo worked on the fantastic remake of Link’s Awakening. In 2024, Grezzo delivers the first canonical mainline Zelda title with the Princess of Hyrule as the playable protagonist. And Echoes of Wisdom is her adventure through and through, because this time around, Link is in need of saving.

Developer & Publisher // Grezzo, Nintendo
Platforms // Nintendo Switch
MSRP & Release Date // $59.99, September 26th 2024
Reviewed On // Nintendo Switch

Story

Echoes of Wisdom fits into the “hero is defeated timeline”. It takes place in a Hyrule that has aged a fair bit. The inhabitants who know of the Triforce refer to it as “prime energy”. Dungeons and areas of games like A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds are still here, but now they are relics of the past. The bad guy this time is not Ganon, however, the intro of the game would lead you to believe it is. Later on in the game, we learn that the rifts popping up that are swallowing the world are controlled by an entity named Null. And that Null is the main antagonist in this story. 

I enjoyed the story and world of Echoes of Wisdom, but I felt like the villain fell flat here. It is intriguing that Ganon is not the main baddie, but Null, being this almost intangible entity, makes it unmemorable for me. However, the smaller stories that supplement the golden path are endearing and lighthearted. And these proved to be a solid hook for me to continue the story. But we start Echoes of Wisdom at the beginning, in a brief stint with Link.

He’s close to saving Zelda and comes across an Echo of Ganon. And after the fight, Echo Ganon laughs in his face and then summons a rift that engulfs Link. While sinking into the rift, Link can set Zelda free, and this is where we start our adventure, with Zelda running away from this initial rift. While this is happening, she is guided by a golden light. This light that is guiding Zelda plays a pivotal role in this title, acting as Zelda’s sidekick.

The Sidekick in Echoes of Wisdom

The sidekick that accompanies Zelda is a little sprite named Tri. Tri is in charge of Zelda’s main powers with her Tri Rod which is used to create and copy echoes. This cute yellow spirit also gains levels as you progress through the story and mend rifts. Leveling Tri up makes Echoes cheaper to cast or adds to the small triangles that follow Tri.

These triangles represent how much each echo costs to cast. Tri not only serves as Zelda’s powers but also provides the means for Zelda to travel in and out of these rifts by creating portals to the still world. Tri is also responsible for the Bind and Reverse Bond abilities. These prove to be crucial for problem-solving and defeating certain enemies, but more on that in the gameplay.

Gameplay in Echoes of Wisdom

Echoes of Wisdom is a traditional Zelda game in a sense because the game offers eight main dungeons to go through. And the dungeons are shorter and more bite-sized. And in typical Zelda fashion, at the conclusion of each dungeon, there is a boss to fight and a heart piece to obtain. Along the way, there are enemies to face, but outside of her swordfighter form, Zelda uses echoes as her main source of offense and traversal. It makes sense that her abilities focus on problem-solving, considering she typically holds the Triforce of Wisdom.

One of my favorite dungeons is found in the Zora region called Jabu’s Den. This dungeon starts with a mini-boss fight against the Echo of Lord Jabu. In this fight, you face him from a top perspective in a water arena. Then, when you defeat the echo here, you progress through the dungeon. Then, at the end of the dungeon, you face another boss, in a water arena named Vocavor. But this time, the boss takes on a 2D side-scrolling perspective. This dungeon holds my favorite set of fights in the game because they played around with the perspective in both fights.

Echo Ability

Now, to explain all of the abilities she has at hand. Zelda is able to create Echoes of objects and enemies she faces, and there are 127 of them to collect. So think of it like this. If you, as the player, come across a new item or a new enemy. Defeat it to be given a chance to copy the echo of the item or enemy. This is where we gotta catch ’em all! Although one negative I have with the echoes is that going through all of the echoes collected is not intuitive. And there is no custom category in place for us to easily sort through the echoes we like the most

Having a wide arsenal of Echoes makes for different strategies in combat. Players can cast a bunch of cheap echoes strategically across the battlefield and have a wider net of damage output. Or players can just cast more expensive echoes and stand back to let these more powerful echoes do all the work. This is different from other Zelda games where Link is almost always on the aggressive. Whereas in Echoes of Wisdom, Princess Zelda primarily plays defense and lets her echo army do the grunt work on offense.

As a tip for players, I recommend seeking out the echoes for a spider named Crawltula and the platform named Platboom. Having these will make traversing the world a lot easier earlier on.

Bind & Reverse Bond

To explain bind and reverse bond is simple. With the help of Tri, Zelda can bind onto any object or enemy with the press of X. Binding to an object allows for the object to move according to Zelda’s movements. So if there is a rock in the way, you can bind yourself to the rock and move it. A tip here is that if you lock on to an enemy or object with ZL, and then press X to cast the bind, Tri will bind to whatever you have locked on to. And you can still cast echoes while you have a bind on an enemy. 

Now, the Reverse Bond ability works in a similar fashion, except it allows Zelda to follow the movements of the object or enemy. This is why I recommend the Crawltula echo earlier, because the direction Zelda casts Crawltula will be the direction the spider will crawl. It can crawl up large walls and trees, making moving vertically very effective. And to do the Reverse Bond, all you need to do is bind onto the echo with X, then press and hold the right Bumper to lock Zelda’s movements to whatever she has bind on.

My favorite ability to play around with is the Reverse Bond. Tying Zelda’s movements to the movements of the creatures and objects in the world is fun to experiment with. Seeing which ones work for me and which ones do not is also some fun player-driven experimentation. All in all, adding all these mechanics to this title makes for a good evolution of the top-down Zelda formula.

World & Sound in Echoes of Wisdom

As you crawl, fly, or hop around the world using Zelda’s entire arsenal. It is apparent that this world is not that vast, but it is varied. Hyrule in Echoes of Wisdom offers forests, beaches, desert temples, volcanoes, and snow-covered mountains to explore. Something important to note is that you can place pins on the world map to mark locations that you may need to revisit! The typical subjects in past Zelda games are here as well, such as the Gerudo and the Zora. Since there is no spoken dialogue in Echoes of Wisdom, the most you will hear from the characters are slight grunts, sighs, or short gasps. Occasionally, you will hear a “hmm” or a “hey” but I do wish there was at least some voice acting present.

However, with each passing area, the backdrop ties really well to the setting. It all starts with the different instruments that are present. In the tracks, you will hear Drums, Bongos, Mandolins, various string instruments, and all different forms of woodwinds. There are so many different instruments in the soundtrack, and they all work together to convey the tone of the world beautifully.

My favorite track here is the cozy and melodic track that serves as the backdrop of the Gerudo Town. It has this mix of mellow and playful tempo with a hint of mystery. And in this track, the instruments that shine the brightest are the the woodwinds and bongos. I especially enjoy the texture the bongos bring to the track. But I would say having masterful music is a common thread that links every Zelda game. Another common thread for Zelda titles is their lack of options. 

Accessibility & Options

This is the biggest con to Echoes of Wisdom, and if you are looking at Zelda titles as a whole. They generally lack a breadth of options in the settings menu. Especially if you are comparing these games to modern triple-A standards. In Echoes of Wisdom, you do not have many options at all.

Firstly, the performance of the game is not great. Especially in the overworld outside of the smaller interiors, the still world, and the dungeons. It does target 60 fps, and the moments it does hit 60 fps, it looks great. But I believe adding a 30 fps and a 60 fps toggle in the settings can dramatically improve the perceived stability of the game.

Secondly, there are no settings for button remapping in the options. Whatever control scheme we boot up in is all we have. And last but not least, there are no colorblind modes or contrast settings! I found the options provided in Echoes of Wisdom to be lagging behind modern releases.

Final Verdict on The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Aside from a few gripes, I thoroughly enjoyed helping out in the land of Hyrule. The Legend of Zelda is all about the essence of adventure. It is about seeking, solving, and conquering. Putting your might and wit to the test and coming out victorious! All of that is present here in Echoes of Wisdom. Just this time around, instead of playing as the hero of time, we finally earn an adventure where we save the world as Zelda. And Echoes of Wisdom lives up to the excellent standards of the series’ prior entries.

Final Score: 9.0/10

Pros.

• Good move set for Zelda
• Plenty of content
• Great music
• Charismatic and varied world
• Open-ended traversal
• Variety in problem solving
• Endearing quests
• Good evolution of the top-down formula

Cons.

• Bad performance in the overworld
• No voice acting
• Unmemorable main villain
• Lacking accessibility options