The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom [Review]

A true classic in all regards, Echoes of Wisdom is one of those games that keep the quality and consistency throughout the main scenario. It is really polished and inventive; constantly challenging me to be innovative in the ways that really interact with the world.

And what. a. world!

It is such a big and dense Hyrule. There are a lot of different activities and mini-games to do, with collectibles sprinkled around. Zelda's always learning new monsters, furniture and unexpected stuff to summon, and this loop of discovering and using assets of the world is really addictive. Zelda is pretty much the world's strongest Blue Mage!

Although the 'nostalgic' art is not much my cup of tea, the new designs for new monsters are super cool, as the new races and peoples of Hyrule. I wish Echoes of Wisdom was more stylized, but it is far from ugly, or too cutesy and derivative. The game is solid in its vision and design.

The music is superb. Everywhere you go, the sounds are great and the music works so much. The boss themes are incredible, and the overworld music is one of the best in the franchise.

As the name implies, it is a “wisdom”-y game. In many ways, I needed to mostly solve puzzles – and the dungeons are filled with them, more than any 2D Zelda before, rivaling the length of the N64 to Wii Era of console 3D entries.

The brilliancy is when the game uses its fast and experimental summoning system, turning the game into something snappy and fulfilling. The tools at Zelda's hands are awesome and vast, and the mix between action and summons makes it unique, she feels powerful, and yet I constantly adjusted, summon, and attacked when the situation allows it. It's fun stuff.

No Zelda game has the same side quest system and In Echoes, the approach to them is more similar to big, western action-adventure games: I had a quest log with activities that are like pocket adventures. I often needed to talk with a lot of people and use my brain, as I know where the quest happens but not exactly where I needed to go or do. It could have been the best side quest system in any Zelda game, but unfortunately the rewards most of the time are bad and there are some quests that are really fetchy and passable.

Either way, it is a magical adventure with fun characters, pretty and polished graphics, fast and nice gameplay with some bad rewards. One of the best Switch games overall, and a Zelda title to be remembered.

9/10

Unfortunately, I don't have any captures that I've done from this game. Everything here is from IGDB.