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There are a lot of Zelda games you can play on the Nintendo Switch. The big two are of course, Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. But on top of that you’ve also got the two Hyrule Warriors games, the remake of Link’s Awakening, and the re-release of Skyward Sword. And all that is to say nothing of the many games on the various virtual console offerings if you have a Nintento Switch Online subscription. Basically, you’re not wanting for Zelda games on the Switch. So, with all those other games available, this one would have to do something a bit special to differentiate itself from the competition. I’m going say a few words about how Echoes of Wisdom tries to stick that landing and whether I think it pulls it off.
So, and I realise many people won’t know this but it’s a matter of some note here within the Zatu bloggers community, I don’t particularly like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom. As somebody who has grown up playing these games for over 30 years now, I found both of those games didn’t really deliver in the story, I found the worlds large, but quite empty, and the lack of classic dungeons left me feeling pretty aimless. I don’t think Nintendo have quite nailed the open world formula yet. Hopefully one day.
A different kind of legend
And with that potential prejudice out of the way, we turn our attention to Echoes of Wisdom. This 2024 release is in some ways a bit of a throwback but in others it treads some brave new ground for a near 40-year-old series. Which is pretty impressive.
Echoes of Wisdom is a single player adventure game where you finally get to take control of the titular Princess Zelda and head off on a quest to try and rescue the swordsman of legend and save the kingdom of Hyrule from being torn apart by voids.
These voids are swallowing up large portions of the map and taking any of the population who are unlucky enough to get too close and replacing them with a dark, twisted version.
The game kicks of a proper with Zelda being thrown in jail after being accused of causing these rifts. But a small floating yellow fella called Tri gives her the power to summon echoes. These are copies of objects or creatures that can be placed in the world to help you. After escaping your imprisonment, you head on out into the world. A world, by the way, that is heavily inspired by the map from the excellent Link to the Past from the Super Nintendo. Here you set off on your quest to right wrongs and bash baddies.
But that baddy bashing is not quite what you may be expecting. As Princess Zelda doesn’t really fight. She uses the echoes she summons to fight on her behalf. This is a pretty massive departure for a game series traditionally about swinging swords and firing bows. For the most part though, it works well. Different enemies are weak to different attack types. The way they move or where they are found also means you need to consider how you are going to deal with them. And because of this, you actually find yourself regularly switching out your echoes to try a new approach.
I’ve heard that this was the reason for the weapon degradation system in BotW and TotK. If a weapon breaks you must try something new. It sort of punishes you into using that weapon you found but wouldn’t normally try. Whereas here the game encourages, and rewards you, when you experiment. It’s a different approach and it is way more positive here in Echoes of Wisdom.
Echoes of something lost
Every time you defeat an enemy for the first time it drops a little floating collectable which will allow you to summon it as an echo to fight for you. Different echoes will take different amounts of Tri’s power to summon, so you can only have a limited amount of stuff fighting for you at a time. You’ve got a choice, one big bad fighter or a mob of smaller ones. Both approaches work in different situations.
There are also various bits and bobs that you will be able to copy from the world. Stuff like boxes, vases and bed. Oh, those beds. You can summon a bed and have a bit of a rest to regain hearts. All the while your other summoned echoes fight in your name. This led to some funny moments where I’d just create a bunch of warriors and then go off for a snooze in the corner. With that said though, you do have a timed ability where you can transform yourself into a more traditional swordsman echo and use a sword, bow or bombs to get the job done.
The game does lean a little puzzlier than average for a Zelda game. There are a lot more moments where you are trying to work out which echoes you need to use to cross a gap or trigger a switch. There are also a few smaller stealth sections as well. Nothing too tricky and I say that as somebody who doesn’t have the greatest love for stealth as a mechanic. You won’t find many Splinter Cell games in my collection, put it that way.
There are times where you dive into the void world where you will be navigating strange floating islands which can be orientated in weird ways trying to find items or rescue characters. These sections feel quite fresh and a nice little break from the main game when you find them. A lot of these void sections are optional, so you can head on out to find them to boost your power.
Sidetracked by the void
There is a lot more stuff keep you occupied outside of the main story as well. You’ve got the standard heart containers to find, but there is also an array of side quests to be quested. You have stamp cards to fill by reaching hard to find areas. Automatons to build by finding different combinations of echoes. There are different accessories to find that can boost your abilities as well as various outfits, one of which gives you the ability to talk to the many cats you’ll find on your travels. After I found that I was basically a cat girl princess on a mission.
The world is a treat to travel though. It has loads of character, thanks in part to using the same game engine as the excellent remake of Links Awakening. This gives the characters a nice, expressive, look and the world feels varied as you travel through its many biomes.
The music is pretty good too. I’m not going to say it’s as good as it gets. There are a few moments where you may hear a refrain you recognise, the main overworld theme contains Zelda’s theme from Ocarina of Time for example. But on the whole, this is all new music and it is fine. It always fits and it is in no way bad, but whereas I still find myself humming bits of Ocarina of Time or Link’s Awakening I could not hum you the overworld music from Echoes of Wisdom and I only finished it yesterday. The music is good, but not memorable.
There are a few performance issues to be mentioned as well. On a few occasions you’d feel the frame rate start to drop a little. It’s nothing catastrophic but it is noticeable in a few areas of the game if you summon a load of stuff and then set all the grass alight.
Some new fun
The game was a lot of fun to go through, the story is nothing to write home about, but it is there and it drives you to go explore new areas of the map. There are still a few side quests I need to finish, and I am going to go back for them, but I’ve had a great time playing with Echoes of wisdom. I felt I could use the summoning/building system enough to feel like I was solving problems in my own way without it getting to overwhelming. I do wish there was a way of saving certain combos for a quick re-summon, rather than having to build everything up each time, but this is a relatively small gripe as most things will have less than 5 components to them anyways.
I can’t say this is my favourite Zelda game out there. And I can’t say hand on heart you should play this over Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the Wild. Sure, I preferred this game to those two, but I realise I am in a minority of people who don’t think those games are flawless gems. But, if you’ve been playing Zelda for a while and both enjoy the old top down games and would like to try something a bit different this outing may well be worth your while.
