The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review – Legendary Again

It’s no coincidence that the Zelda series is one of Nintendo’s most successful brands and, by extension, the gaming series as a whole. It’s one of the original pioneers of the “roam a huge open world and have wonderful adventures” idea, but unlike many of its kind, even after almost thirty sequels, Zelda still manages to invent and surprise, enriching not only itself but the entire genre. That’s exactly what the latest rework has done, taking us on a journey with the princess herself for the first time, to wonderfully combine the series’ 2D roots with its latest trends, such as building and limitless interactivity with everything.

• Platform: Switch
• Release date: 26.09.2024
• Manufacturer: Nintendo/Grezzo (Japan)
• Genre: Action adventure game
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Data for download: 5 GB
• Play time: 30+ hours
• Price: 1449 CZK (Alsa)

My dear princess, conjure me

When purple-glowing dimensional rifts begin to open up across the kingdom, swallowing up chunks of the world, including its inhabitants, the first victims are the king and the brave swordsman Link. So Princess Zelda is forced to take matters into her own hands and set out on a quest to uncover the secrets of these rifts and save the kingdom. Luckily, she has the help of a mysterious creature named Tree, who provides the princess with both the necessary magical energy and a magic wand. With these tools, Zelda can create a copy of almost anything she encounters, be it objects or living creatures.

Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz

Source: Martin Zavřel / Zing.cz

While the story is a cute little fairy tale on the surface, it contains a surprising amount of cutscenes and dialogue, and those in the know will know that beneath the surface, it’s rooted in a strong mythology and history of a very complex series, dealing with themes like fate and time travel. So fans of the series can expect some interesting twists and revelations, including the return of many beloved characters and monsters. What’s really unusual, though, are the roles of Zelda and Link. The princess is your main protagonist and playable character, but Link is also very interesting, albeit in a different way than you might expect. If you have a favorite character or element of the series, chances are you’ll encounter it here sooner or later.

The princess can create a copy of almost anything, objects and creatures.

But the biggest star of the whole game is the new ability to create so-called “Echoes,” or copies of things and creatures. Need to go higher? Conjure up a stool. Need to go higher? Conjure up several chairs on yourself. Even higher? Summon a living seagull and let it pull you up. Are you being attacked by monsters or enemies? No worries, summon your own monsters and turn them against you. The game is full of these Echoes, and accordingly, hundreds of combinations that can be solved by overcoming obstacles or fighting. It all starts relatively slowly, but before you know it, you’ll have an arsenal and madness on your screen that you never dreamed of. The only weakness of the system is the need to scroll through a long list of available spells each time — it would have been better to have keyboard shortcuts for a few of the most popular ones. But when the going gets tough, even a princess can pull out her sword and shield and fight toe-to-toe, if only for a moment (using a special spell). There is also a telekinetic ability, reminiscent of the Ultra Arm from Tears of the Kingdom.

Little Big Zelda

The above is extremely original, technically quite incredible and endlessly entertaining. It also gives the princess a noticeably different play style than the Link games. But it also works beautifully because it is based on the very strong core qualities of the classic Zelda game: you can go in any direction and move freely across a huge, open and varied landscape. But once you enter one of the smaller or larger dungeons, the game includes individual rooms and puzzles that are a real pleasure to solve. In addition to the main story content, the world hides fun side quests. In addition to the epic boss fights at the end, the dungeons also offer additional hidden treasures.

Incredibly original, technically incredible and endlessly interesting.

Of course, the visual quality of all this and the wonderful fairytale atmosphere are enhanced by the unique audiovisual processing. If you played the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening, you have a good idea – after all, the game is made by the same creators. Thus, the graphics resemble a collection of toys or a Lego set, over which a relatively low-positioned camera glides. In addition, the dungeons have passages with a 2D side view. Everything looks like it is made of tangible material and comes to life beautifully in motion. Unfortunately, there are also occasional dips in smoothness, but the game aims for 60 frames, and it often manages to achieve this. Absolutely uncompromising is the beautiful orchestral music, recorded with live instruments.

It’s a bit like an early Christmas: in such a short space of time, we’ve got another incredibly fun and accessible game that will easily charm both male and female gamers of all ages. Like the title Astro Bot, the game is a reminder of the very essence of the word “playful” and will have you grinning ear to ear – like when you use a boss, move from one side of the arena to the other to the right during an epic battle to quickly conjure up your own bed and take a quick nap in it to replenish your energy before returning to the fight. Or when you unlock and equip one of the fun costumes with unique properties. Or when you cross a lava lake by creating a water tunnel high above the ground. Or if you conjure up a flock of magpies that will collect rupees from the grass around you. There are an absurd number of wonderful moments in this game.