Preview: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Emphasizes Player Freedom, Boasts Series’ Classic Feel

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the opening portions of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.

The Legend of Zelda‘s namesake character is set to star in her first true solo adventure later this month in Echoes of Wisdom.

Retaining the charming art style of 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake, this new Switch title will see our beloved princess take on the forces of evil and save her kingdom with the help of a new companion named Tri and a magical item known as the Tri Rod. With this staff, Zelda will be able to harness Tri’s power to summon copies of objects and creatures, called Echoes, that she encounters during her quest. These Echoes will help her solve puzzles, fight off bad guys, and explore in ways we’ve never seen before in a top-down Zelda game.

Zelda Dungeon was lucky enough go hands-on with Echoes of Wisdom during PAX West 2024, and we were absolutely delighted by what we played. The Echo mechanic was unsurprisingly the star of the show, as we played through the game’s opening sections to get a feel for how Echoes work, what could be done with them, and how much they opened up the established Zelda formula for even more player freedom.

Read on, dear traveler, for our first impressions of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom!

 

Echoes, Echoes Everywhere

Echoes of Wisdom‘s marquee gameplay feature is, of course, the capture and summoning of Echoes. With her trusty Tri Rod, Princess Zelda will be able to record objects and creatures that she encounters during her adventure and then spawn copies of them into the game world. Mundane objects like tables, pots, and beds, as well as monsters like Zols, Moblins, and Darknuts, are all up for grabs!

We were surprised by how quickly the game introduced new Echoes into the mix. In our demo, nearly each new room and area offered up at least one new Echo to learn, whether they were in the form of objects sitting around or monsters crossing our path. New Echoes often came in handy in the very room they were introduced in — they resembled traditional dungeon items in that way. The game always seemed to give each new Echo a chance to shine right away, demonstrating each one’s unique utility when it came to problem solving, traversal, and combat.

So how do you learn Echoes in the first place? Well, for objects, whenever Zelda first encounters something that can be used as an Echo, it will emit a yellowish glow; all you need to do is approach the object and add it to your collection of learned Echoes. Super easy! From that point forward, you’ll be able summon a copy of that object whenever and wherever you feel appropriate. You can even recall one, or all, of your active Echoes with the push of a button.

For monsters, Zelda will need to take down the enemy in battle in order to learn its Echo. This means that every new monster you encounter in the overworld, in the Still World, or beyond is another Echo that you can add to your collection; so be sure not to bypass any combat! While the public PAX demo only gave players a chance to mess around with Zols and Sea Urchins, a behind-closed-doors demo offered to select outlets (which took players up to end of the game’s first dungeon) included nearly a dozen different enemies to experiment with. If that rate is maintained throughout the entire adventure, we don’t expect to get bored relying on the same old Echoes over and over again.

There are limitations on how many Echoes can be active at once, of course. Each Echo carries a cost of “power,” represented by a number of triangles, with lesser objects and monsters costing one triangle of power and stronger monsters costing more. (Darknuts and Peahats cost three triangles to use, which was the maximum available in the demo.) The total power available to the player is communicated visually through Zelda’s companion Tri, whose tail is made up of the triangles used to summon Echoes. While there was no confirmation in our demo, we expect being able to expand Tri’s power as Echoes of Wisdom progresses, perhaps as a reward for finishing dungeons.

Using Echoes proved intuitive enough. Players will be able to select Echoes in one of two ways: by pausing and choosing an Echo from a “Notebook” sub-menu, or by holding right on the D-pad to open a sliding sub-menu (much like Tears of the Kingdom‘s Quick Item menu) and choosing one from there. A selected Echo will then spawn directly in front Zelda, who — unlike Link in 2019’s Link’s Awakening — has a full 360° range of motion available to her.

The process worked seamlessly in most circumstances, but there were a few hiccups when placing stationary Echoes like tables, beds and crates. Thinking of the world of Echoes of Wisdom as built on a grid, like the pixel-based Zelda games of old, these objects are shaped to occupy a set number of squares in that grid — a table takes up one square, while a bed takes up two. These Echoes can therefore only be placed in one of the four cardinal directions surrounding Zelda, never diagonally. This minor peculiarity caused us to spawn Echoes in an unintended place a few times because Zelda wasn’t pointed in the exact right direction, but we were able to avoid repeat mistakes with extra-careful positioning and a steady hand.

It is also a tad disappointing to see that Nintendo did not learn any lessons from Tears of the Kingdom‘s cumbersome Quick Item menu. Scrolling through every available item in Link’s massive inventory in that game could be a laborious task, so we anticipate running into the same issue as Zelda’s Echo collection continues to grow throughout her adventure. The game does kindly provide a “most used” option, but we’ve yet to confirm if there will be favorites list at all.

 

Just the Right Amount of Freedom

Echoes of Wisdom is in many respects 2D Zelda‘s answer to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, as players will be able to approach challenges and obstacles in various different ways.

And, depending on your view of those two games and the design philosophies that drive them, that description can be either a welcome prospect or a sign of concern. That latter reaction is likely to come from players who felt that Tears of the Kingdom was too open-ended in its design, with many puzzles and challenges vulnerable to certain exploits permitted by the game’s versatile abilities. Some of us missed the “a-ha” moments in those games, the satisfaction felt when a solution to a puzzle or the path forward finally clicked in our brains.

We’re happy to report that, at least in our demo, Echoes of Wisdom provided just the right amount of player freedom without sacrificing the clever design and deliberateness that veteran Zelda fans may have missed in the latest 3D entries. The versatility provided by Echoes, as recent gameplay teasers have demonstrated, do make good on Nintendo’s promise that you’ll “do things your way.” However, at the same time, the game’s puzzles, obstacles, and challenges still retain the craftsmanship and thoughtfulness that top-down classics have boasted for decades. It strikes just the right balance.

The opening section of the PAX demo was oriented around stealth, as Zelda and Tri needed to sneak past royal guards and escape Hyrule Castle (more on the story behind the situation later). Though the game provided a seemingly meager number of Echoes to assist the princess in this endeavor, most of them provided multiple options depending on how players wanted to approach each obstacle.

Sure, there were a few points where a player could avoid the sentries’ lines of sight or sidestep a patrolling guard, as if they were infiltrating Hyrule Castle in Ocarina of Time; but we were much better off using Echoes to come up with creative ways to sneak by. A crate Echo, for example, could be used to box a patrolling guard in a corner or to help Zelda traverse a high path that avoids the guards altogether. A pot Echo, meanwhile, can cause a distraction if smashed (calling to mind Four Swords Adventures most infamous level) or be used as mobile camouflage (calling to mind The Wind Waker‘s Forsaken Fortress).

That same emphasis on creativity extends to the games’ underground areas (where the perspective changes from top-down to a side view, like in Link’s Awakening) and to the overworld.

Late in the public demo, Princess Zelda moved into a series of submerged caves underneath Hyrule Castle, which were presented from the side perspective. Here, the player could see how Echoes could be combined with environmental hazards like pools of water. Objects made of wood like crates will float in water, while heavy boulders will sink. So, to traverse this portion of the game, players needed to think critically about the Echoes they had on hand. Perhaps a few crates could be used as a bridge to cross over a pool of water, or maybe a boulder was needed to push a platform deeper into the drink.

These subterranean sections, which in many ways seem to signal how the game’s dungeons will operate, did a lot to quell fears that Echoes of Wisdom will be too easy or that Echoes will too easily “break” the game. While certain puzzles could be overcome in a variety of different ways, they all carried the deliberate craftsmanship and cleverness that we’ve missed from the older Zelda titles following Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom‘s over-emphasis on freedom and open-endedness.

Sure, there will always be the risk that the game will break under the weight of its open-endedness, as more Echoes (such as the water block) and abilities (such as Bind) become available to players, but the demo gave us the impression that those problems will be mostly limited to the overworld, where the player isn’t constrained by four walls and the developers’ intent therein. In interior spaces (especially in regards to dungeons), where developers will likely have more control over the player’s options, puzzles and challenges will retain the “classic” feel, even if Echoes will allow for more than just one solution or path forward.

Echoes of Wisdom‘s emphasis on creativity and versatility extends to combat as well. While Link’s combat abilities were in no way limited in past games, our green-clad hero often resorted to taking enemies on head-to-head. Princess Zelda can’t be that straightforward during her adventure. She won’t have a direct mode of attack right away, so she’ll need to rely on her Echoes to take down the forces of evil.

Though we went into our demo fearful that Zelda’s lack of swordplay would needlessly slow the pace of combat, we were relieved to find that taking away the option of direct sword attacks allowed for plenty of unique, entertaining combat encounters driven by our choice of Echoes.

We had the option of exploring Hyrule’s Suthorn region with a small band of Zol to protect us, or we could lay down Sea Urchin traps to keep enemies away. And, thanks to the pot and rock Echoes that were available to the player very early on, we always had something on hand that we could pick up and throw if we were in a pinch (aided by a lock-on feature new to 2D Zelda games). The extended demo offered up even more possibilities, as monster Echoes with elemental properties (like fire), projectile attacks, or mobility options were thrown into the mix.

A willingness to experiment yielded plenty of satisfying, and often humorous, results, and we can’t wait to try out as many Echoes in combat as we can.

If anything, Princess Zelda will have countless more combat options than Link ever had. Even in her Swordfighter Form (which will become available by the end of the game’s first dungeon), presumably made for the Zelda purists out there, Zelda will have a few surprises up her sleeve, such as a jumping slash attack. So if you found yourself concerned that combat would suffer due to Echoes of Wisdom‘s tweaks to the formula, keep an open mind. Fighting bad guys is still a lot of fun.

 

Princess on the Run

Let’s discuss the story of Echoes of Wisdom a little bit. The game’s trailers have already established that mysterious “Rifts” have appeared throughout Hyrule, swallowing the kingdom’s terrain and denizens alike, but the PAX demo provided some additional context to Hyrule’s and its princess’ predicament.

The public PAX demo kicked off with Princess Zelda and her companion Tri locked in a jail cell beneath Hyrule Castle. It seems that an imposter king has taken the place of Zelda’s father, and this phony, as well his advisor General Wright, is blaming the princess for the Rifts that have beset the kingdom. Under orders of the imposter king, Zelda is due to be executed, and thus Hyrule’s guards are under orders to keep the princess locked up until her scheduled punishment. This premise informed the stealth section at the start of the demo, as well as Zelda’s role as a fugitive for the rest of her adventure.

A story scene following the stealth section of the demo, involving this game’s version Impa, demonstrated Echoes of Wisdom‘s witty script and focus on humor. We fully expect this game to be as charming, endearing, and funny as Link’s Awakening. This scene also introduced the game’s Adventure Log, which, like Tears of the Kingdom‘s Adventure Log, will document Zelda’s main quests and side quests.

We even got a rough map of Hyrule!

At this point in the demo, Zelda also gained a “Spin” ability. But don’t go thinking it works like Link’s tried-and-true Spin Attack. Zelda can’t actually harm enemies with her Spin; the technique chiefly serves as a dash option, which can be used to move faster or to quickly get away from a dangerous situation. The Spin can be used to cut grass too, retaining that beloved Zelda staple.

Speaking of Zelda’s mobility, as mentioned above, Echoes of Wisdom will allow Zelda to move freely with a full 360° range of motion, a step above the rigid eight directions of Link’s Awakening. The princess will also start the game with a dedicated jump button, which will serve her well given Echoes‘ emphasis on platforming — especially in the Still World sequences. One other movement feature we noticed in our demo was that Zelda could swim in water from the very start of the game — no Flippers needed!

Though the public demo came to an end shortly after players escaped Hyrule Castle and found their way to the Suthorn Beach, the extended demo brought its players to Suthorn Village (some outlets noted frame-rate issues here) and the surrounding region, and later to the Still World and the game’s first dungeon, Suthorn Ruins. You may have already seen some footage of these areas in the game’s latest trailers, but there are still plenty of surprises awaiting you in these early portions of the game.

While there is no confirmation that this will be the case, we have a hunch that the game will open up after the first dungeon and allow players to approach other regions in any order than want, as A Link Between Worlds, Breath of the Wild, and Tears of the Kingdom do. Consider that speculation on our part though.

 

Conclusion

Our time with Echoes of Wisdom flew by quickly, and we can’t wait to play more.

As advertised, the Echo mechanic provided so much variety to the gameplay experience, as most challenges could be overcome in several different ways depending on which Echoes we summoned and on how we chose to use them. But it didn’t throw the baby out with the bath water. At the same time, there was still a welcome structure keeping us from breaking the game wide open, proving that Echoes of Wisdom has struck the right balance between Tears of the Kingdom‘s open-endedness and classic Zelda‘s deliberate design.

Even combat, something we were concerned about after watching Echoes of Wisdom‘s latest trailers, proved inventive and enjoyable. Princess Zelda may have less direct fighting techniques at the start of her adventure, but a steady stream Echoes being added to her arsenal will ensure that combat remains fresh, fun, and often funny. We’re sincerely excited to experiment more and more with all the Echoes hiding out there.

All of this combined with the gorgeous visuals inherited from Link’s Awakening, charming cast of characters, and some snappy dialogue looks to make for a Zelda adventure that will stand alongside the series’ greats. We all have something magical to look forward to.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is set for release September 26th, 2024. You can pre-order the game right here.

What are you most looking forward to in Echoes of Wisdom? Are there are any details from our demo that you’d like to know more about? Let us know in the comments!