- Publisher: Nintendo
- Release Date: Sep 26, 2024
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Oct 1, 2024Zelda: Echoes of wisdom is difficult to put down and offers a lot of freedom and creativity due to the echoes. Exploring the colourful world of Hyrule is rewarding as you unlock new items and echoes, while you encounter plenty of weird minigames and sidequests. The story itself focuses on the gameplay and the old school dungeons. Although the long menu of echoes can be cumbersome, the game’s overall experience is fantastic, and it sets a high bar for future 2D Zelda games.
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Sep 26, 2024You’ll find yourself quickly and expertly tossing pots to distract baddies, stacking boxes and tables for extra height and firing out little green critters to fight for you, while you run around enemies to escape. It’s a joy to play, looks great and an excellently crafted mashup of gaming ideas to deliver a fresh-feeling new Zelda.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is a great send-off to The Legend of Zelda's most successful era. The game is the ending point for a very clear path started by Breath of the Wild and continued in Tears of The Kingdom, of games that have an unyielding faith in the player's ability to solve problems in very creative ways. All of that is combined with the structure of classic 2D-era Zelda games.
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Sep 25, 2024The perfect evolution for the Zelda series. It feels, in every way, like this is Zelda’s story, and this game does a great job of proving that there are many different ways to be a hero.
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Sep 25, 2024Long-time Zelda players will be smiling from ear to ear when they roll credits. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is full of wonderful surprises, engaging gameplay, and tons of stuff to do in the biggest top-down iteration of Hyrule yet.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom features all of the amazing hallmarks of the series, yet feels completely innovative, unique, and fresh.
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Sep 25, 2024While Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom successfully brought exciting new concepts to Nintendo's iconic series and helped revolutionize open-world games – Echoes of Wisdom feels like a big step forward for classic Zelda. The game is a punchy cocktail of old school Zelda, expertly blended with modern mechanics from the series’ two open-world giants. As a result, Nintendo has created something that feels both nostalgic and uniquely fresh…It may have taken 38 years for the series's titular princess to finally get her own game, but boy was it worth waiting for. Echoes of Wisdom not only demonstrates that Nintendo is capable of wowing Zelda fans, but it can breathe new life into its legendary series. Echoes of Wisdom is a resounding success, a masterclass in creativity, and a worthy debut title for the series’ legendary princess.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the perfect Legend of Zelda game. Where Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom took the series in new directions, to the point that they're barely related to what came before them, Zelda’s first outing as a protagonist feels like it fits seamlessly in with the traditions of Ocarina of Time, Link’s Awakening and Link to the Past. Not only that, but Nintendo has built a gameplay system that is more whimsical and creative than any of those previous titles, making this a more complete and fully realised vision of what the series has always wanted to be. I desperately hope that this wasn’t just a one-off experiment, and The Legend of Link is here to stay.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has managed to surprise me by mixing the limitless creativity that the 3D games of the franchise have been offering with the classic flavor of the two-dimensional Zelda games. Playing as Princess Zelda is a breath of fresh air, and mechanics such as creating Echoes or Bind give room for many possibilities.
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Oct 11, 2024In Echoes of Wisdom, we have everything that I hoped for and more. New and old, revolutionary and yet traditional, it pulls you back to a place of long-treasured happiness without solely relying on nostalgia. More than a worthy entry in the series, destined to be held in affection for decades to come, it could introduce a whole new generation of Zelda fans to the magic that the best of this series delivers.
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Oct 2, 2024As criticisms go, that’s hardly a terrible one: saying that a game gives you freedom to play it as you want to is probably something more games should aspire to. That The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom gives you all that freedom without ever feeling unfocused or overwhelming is evidence that it lives up to its iconic lineage.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom offers a variety of clever puzzles that go hand in hand with its excellent gameplay and charming story, which looks and feels like it came straight out of a cozy fairytale. It's nothing short of a highly memorable and fulfilling experience.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a game with a considerably smaller scale than the last two installments in the series and therefore, with much more earthly goals and objectives, however, Grezzo brings to the table a title with a lot of proposal that knew perfectly how to mix the whole new philosophy of the franchise, with its oldest and most beloved traditions by fans. This opens a completely new line of thought that tells us that smaller-sized The Legend of Zelda also have a place in the future. Needless to say, we are facing one of the great video games of this very strong 2024, one that of course, you shouldn't miss for anything.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom feels like the perfect compromise between old and new. It incorporates some of the best elements of open-world design from the more recent 3D titles into the solid linear structures of the classic 2D instalments to create something that feels familiar without being too stale, and structured without being restrictive. No matter what your history with the series is, you’d be wise to check this one out. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom launches for Nintendo Switch on 26 September 2024.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom elegantly bridges old and new Zelda with grace and gusto. The Echoes system is inventive, the dungeon designs are strong and the whole experience feels like everything a classic Zelda experience should be. While minor performance issues hold Echoes of Wisdom back from being everything it could be, they're only minor blemishes on an otherwise stellar adventure fit for a princess.
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Sep 25, 2024Anarchic, exciting and at times ingenious: The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom is an adventure that will test your brains without overstressing your fingertips. It doesn't last long and hardcore gamers will perhaps complete it too quickly, but the journey is sensational and enveloped in the usual ‘made in Nintendo’ magic that makes it a must-have in any case.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom reclaims the relevance of the games with this perspective within the franchise. Leaving Link aside allows us to play a fresh formula that at the same time remains recognizable.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom cleverly combines the format of classic installments with the style of modern ones; a link between the past and the future of the saga that also brings home-grown ideas full of possibilities and freshness. The princess has shown why she has always been HER legend.
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Nov 6, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the first brand-new top-down adventure in almost a decade. Fans might be used to long pauses between outings, but Echoes was worth the wait. It not only introduces Zelda’s first canonical solo adventure, but merges familiar and new to create an incredibly creative and beautiful experience. Despite some graphical load issues, let’s just say Zelda’s first adventure presents a strong contender for 2024’s Switch game of the year.
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Oct 16, 2024Echoes of Wisdom marks a welcome change in protagonist and introduces a brilliant new approach to items and combat, but it’s otherwise business as usual for the series; this is a beautiful, joyful and surprising fantasy world to explore, with just the right mix of nostalgia and innovation. It's a stellar debut for a new heroine (despite her name being in all the series titles), and an instant classic.
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Oct 10, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a wonderful first (no, CD-i doesn't count) outing for the titular princess. It's at once nostalgic and brand new, combining classic Zelda gameplay with the flexibility and freedom of the modern styles. It's a genuine delight from start to finish, with the only real complaints revolving around the fact that the performance hasn't improved from the last game that was developed on the same game engine. If you're a fan of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom is a must-play.
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Oct 7, 2024Ultimately, though, these are minor complaints. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is another outstanding entry in this wonderful series. To bring back the 2D series style after nine years without missing a beat, maintaining the franchise’s identity while putting a unique stamp on Zelda’s first true starring role, is a major achievement and quite possibly the best Switch game of 2024.
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Oct 7, 2024This simple but effective fun formula, which I don't mind calling "pure Nintendo fun", combines with a bunch of toys you can use and drops you into an extremely cute looking playground.
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Oct 5, 2024While it likely won’t be remembered to the same degree as “bigger” Zelda installments, it’ll absolutely go down as a classic to me. Echoes of Wisdom is brilliant in its creativity and versatility, one of the best in the series as far as I’m concerned...Also, Octoroks. Octoroks for days.
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Oct 4, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a great adventure with interesting mechanics and exciting puzzles.
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Oct 3, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is a must-have game. Abandoning metroidvania roots turned out to be a great idea. Phenomenally designed skills are reminiscent of Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, while finding summons and learning their uses has a kind of Pokémon magic to it.
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Edge MagazineOct 3, 2024Where once upon a time this series might have built an entire dungeon around a single gadget, here it's possible to pick up new inventions every few minutes, for hours on end. [Issue#403, p.96]
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Oct 2, 2024Echoes of Wisdom brings the spark of the latest games, but also dives deeper into the ethos of the old games with its use of dungeons. While the regions are the same, there's a new life that's presented in this that nails the aspect of refreshing the franchise in a way that isn’t a total reset. The game delivers on bringing those two elements together and valuing the series. While it isn’t perfect, it goes without saying that the game is impressive and reels you in right at the start and will make you want more after the credits begin to roll. Echoes of Wisdom should be seen as an addition to the mainline of The Legend of Zelda series. I mean, Zelda is in the name, so why not?
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Oct 2, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom twists the typical Zelda formula while still staying true to the franchise. It is a truly innovative experience that Nintendo will hopefully continue to explore in future entries.
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Oct 2, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is yet another stellar release that not only continues to redefine the series through experimenting with gameplay mechanics and creative storytelling, but we finally got Princess Zelda as a playable protagonist.
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Oct 1, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is yet another stunning entry in the Zelda franchise and those looking for a new Zelda experience but also clamour for something different should give this title a definite try.
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Oct 1, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is simply delightful and is how every top-down Zelda game should feel like. It’s not huge in the scale of Tears of the Kingdom in size or depth, but it still manages to give you plenty of hours of fun, exploration, and wonder that make it an influential entry in the Legend of Zelda series.
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Sep 30, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is a great maiden adventure for Zelda, marrying old and new convincingly, and setting up a foundation for 2D Zelda games to thrive alongside their bigger 3D cousins.
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Sep 27, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom presents us with an adventure that we will remember for a long time, where Princess Zelda is the protagonist, and you will rely on your wit to navigate dungeons in multiple ways. This kind of freedom is changing TLOZ into a gaming offering that anyone can enjoy.
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Sep 27, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a lovely way to return to Hyrule, and the echo system revitalizes the experience of exploring this world. From combat to exploration, your approaches will be wildly different from any Zelda game before, and that’s what makes Echoes of Wisdom worth playing. While it’s not quite a Zelda masterpiece, it’s definitely an essential Nintendo Switch game.
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Sep 26, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom offers a fresh perspective on the series, boldly blending traditional elements with modern innovations while finally giving Princess Zelda the lead role. Her unique abilities bring a new layer of creativity to puzzle-solving and combat, encouraging exploration with inventive solutions. Despite minor technical issues and a cluttered Echoes menu, this new Zelda installment takes the franchise in a promising direction.
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Sep 26, 2024Nintendo takes a bold step by making Zelda the central playable character, introducing fresh mechanics that distinguish the game from previous entries in the series. While the story lacks surprises and the Echo selection menu can be frustrating, the game excels with creative puzzles, engaging combat, and flexibility that caters to both series fans and newcomers.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom offers an excellent, classic Zelda game experience. The main idea of the game is very fun, as it gives players unlimited options in how to tackle the puzzles and confront enemies; You will not find two players playing the game in the same way.
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Sep 25, 2024Quotation forthcoming.
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Sep 25, 2024This is the best '2D' The Legend of Zelda in recent decades: it offers an adventure of rare charm and overflowing creativity, giving the player great freedom without ever losing sight of the intuitiveness of the mechanics, and without allowing them the ability to undermine the meticulous level design of the game. The bold hybridization between the classic formula and the open-air approach could shape the future of the series.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom brings a delightful entry to the classic franchise with Princess Zelda as the leading lady. Use your wits and a catalog of echoes in an incredibly well-rounded game to rediscover every corner of Hyrule in a new story.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is a marvel both visually and gameplay-wise. It's riddled with clever puzzles and gives you total freedom to choose to save Hyrule in your own way. An outstanding experience marred only by a few usability issues.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is an exemplary game. It has completely obliterated the limitations of the old top-down Zelda formula and will have huge gameplay ramifications for the next generation of Legend of Zelda games, whatever form they take (Zelda Maker seems so obvious). It’s heartbreaking to see some control oversights and the glossy plastic art direction hampered slightly by the technical wobbles. I barely cared, though. I just wonder how I’ll be able to go back to the overhead adventures of the little green-hooded twink after this.
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Sep 25, 2024After Princess Peach’s turn in the spotlight, Princess Zelda readily demonstrates that she is more than capable of saving her own kingdom. Grezzo should be incredibly proud of what they have achieved here, delivering a complete reinvention of what awaits us in a top-down adventure across the kingdom of Hyrule with an experience in which past and present collide that succeeds in repeatedly subverting your expectations.
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Sep 25, 2024A perfectly-paced, delightful twist on the classic 2D Zelda formula, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom takes everything Nintendo has learned from the Switch era and condenses it into a tight adventure jam-packed with heart. Through its wonderfully magical Echoes mechanic, satisfyingly diverse dungeon design, and unique blend of modern and classic design elements, this is both a celebration of the franchise’s history and a bold first offering for Zelda as protagonist. Performance issues aside, Echoes of Wisdom is impossible not to love for newcomers and series veterans alike.
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Sep 25, 2024On almost every level, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a delight. Its art style begs for your attention at every turn and I couldn’t get enough of the Echoes system, always eager to explore new combinations to overcome the next challenge. Given the dramatic shift that Breath of Wild brought to the series, Echoes of Wisdom feels like the perfect answer in kind for the top-down Zelda titles, expanding the gameplay in a whole new way whilst maintaining the core look of the franchise so that existing fans don’t feel too isolated. It may have taken a long time for Zelda to star in the leading role, but for it to finally come about in Echoes of Wisdom, the wait was most certainly worth it.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is far more than some second-tier spinoff, combining the expertly crafted dungeons and item progression you’d expect from a 2D Zelda with the wild creativity provided by Tears of the Kingdom.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom doesn't quite manage to deliver the level of freedom seen in 3D entries like Tears of the Kingdom, but it's hard to complain about some rigid puzzle elements when the game has opened things up so much. Clearly, Nintendo's developers are looking for ways to blend the new and old, and this is another part of that journey. The Echo system is a pleasure to use, the world is more attractive than the last Zelda game, and there's a lot of content in this package. The result is a 2D Zelda game perfectly tailored for fans that first discovered the series with Breath of the Wild. That said, whether you're a longtime Zelda fan, or someone newer to the series, Echoes of Wisdom is a bold step forward for the 2D entries in the franchise. It took decades for Zelda to have a great game to call her own, but the result is worth celebrating.
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Sep 25, 2024Ultimately, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom can be considered a successful experiment. Playing as the princess is not only genuinely fun, but it offers a new perspective on the entire imaginary of the kingdom of Hyrule. The mechanics of the replicas interact perfectly with the possibility of seeing Zelda in the role of swordswoman, while the ideas related to physical principles further enrich the gameplay. In Echoes of Wisdom, male and female players can adopt the approach they prefer, favoring exploration, use of ingenuity or use of bizarre weapons, equipment and accessories. An excellent adventure, which with a more refined artistic sector and a greater refinement of interfaces and technical aspects could have been a complete masterpiece. If you have a Nintendo Switch on your home table, however, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a very valid reason to grab the joy-con and enjoy the genuine fun offered by the kingdom of Hyrule.
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Sep 25, 2024If Zelda's debut in the spotlight is a one-off, at least it's a memorable adventure. But hopefully this is the beginning of a new legend for the heroine. Echoes of Wisdom's brilliantly integrates echoes system links two eras, proving that the freeform mechanics of the new age can coexist with the franchise's classic formula. Don't mistake this for a spin-off or minor entry between big "mainline" games: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a major moment that shouldn't be missed.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the Zelda game I’ve always wanted, putting Hyrule’s princess into the thick of it for the first time and coming up with incredible results. The gameplay loop is phenomenal, the story is lovely, and with any luck this will be the first of many adventures for the Zelda series’ leading lady.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom should be the new standard for top-down Zelda going forward. Rather than abandoning the classic formula, Zelda has shown that the old and the new can come together and produce wonderful results that reward experimentation and reinforce the joy of play. This is easily in contention with A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds as one of the best top-down adventures in the series, and we hope we don’t need to wait another 35 years for Zelda to take a starring role again.
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Sep 25, 2024Nintendo reimagines The Legend of Zelda series by using Zelda herself, creating an adventure very different from those of Link. It's clever and rewarding, offering almost complete freedom to experiment and turning this "classic Zelda" into a revolution of 2D sandbox games.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom gives Princess Zelda a starring role, combining new and classic elements to deliver an inventive title that's one of the most delightful in the series yet.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom gives the princess a worthy game, with a brilliant gameplay mechanic that, despite technical flaws, stimulates your brain in a classic way.
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Sep 25, 2024Even with this overabundance of options, and even considering the technical limitations and simplicity mentioned above, it's hard not to play Echoes of Wisdom and think, "This is what I've been waiting for.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom may not be a game for everyone. Maybe not even a game for every Zelda fan. It does things differently, turns the traditional formula on its head and asks you to do something other than traditional combat. But that's what impressed me about it. It's not trying to do the same thing that worked five years ago. It's building on that, but it's doing something new, something fresh and something interesting that's hard to tear yourself away from.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom is a unique new addition to the Zelda family. It’s wonderful to see the same boundless creativity celebrated in a smaller-scale title.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom brings some new ideas to the table, but in the end, the game is more about modernizing the classic 2D Zelda experience. The attention-grabbing echo copying mechanic has its pros and cons, but where Echoes of Wisdom consistently hits is in the tried-and-true design of its world and dungeons, which are as good as any the franchise has delivered in the past. This may be Zelda's first starring adventure, but past Legends still echo strongly here.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the twist on the old Zelda formula that we've been craving. Classic systems like a large number of dungeons are still present, while the magic system makes for an incredible array of solutions to your problems. The named downsides, like the unintuitive item menu and the framedrops, are annoying, but otherwise do not bother this solid game.
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Sep 25, 2024It may have taken nearly four decades, but the first mainline Zelda game with the titular princess in the lead role was worth the wait. This is a magnificent adventure that whizzes and pops with imagination, and proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with the very best of Link’s tales. If this is the Switch’s final Zelda game - and surely it has to be - then we’re going out on a high.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a gorgeous, brilliantly clever game in a series that continues to be unique and innovative.
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Sep 25, 2024The new Zelda game, where you finally play as Zelda, offers an unexpectedly grand adventure, blending the best of the series' 2D titles with crafting-like mechanics inspired by Tears of the Kingdom. Echoes of Wisdom is more than a spin-off or mish-mash of previous concepts – it’s a well-crafted, refreshing addition to the legendary series.
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Sep 25, 2024Where Link’s Awakening already looked fantastic and sounded even better, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has all of that, but with a unique gameplay concept on top. The ability to learn and copy objects and enemies adds so much more depth than you might expect at first glance. It seems like multiple solutions are possible for everything, and you might have a completely different approach to most of the game than I do. Selecting the Echoes is somewhat awkward, and this user interface is the biggest criticism I have of the game. By limiting direct combat, you’re forced to think differently, and in most cases, this works out well, though it can be frustrating at times. Beyond that, you’ll find a wonderfully traditional Zelda adventure full of secrets, great dungeons, and boss fights, but filled with small environment-based puzzles and challenges.
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Sep 25, 2024Subverting the franchise's standard narrative, Echoes of Wisdom sets the titular princess out to save the kingdom - and Link - from the forces of evil. Even without wielding a sword and shield at all times, Zelda uses the greatest weapon she possesses: wisdom, and there's nothing more “Zelda” than that.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom proves that a classic approach to the series is still possible as long as it only partially negates the evolutions of recent years. The new gameplay mechanics blend perfectly with the old-school structure and are fun, while the art direction takes your breath away.
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Sep 25, 2024To get a game this innovative, charming and polished over a year after the remarkable “Tears” is miraculous.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom blends Zelda tradition and modernity into an all-round harmonious and beautiful package.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom lays the groundwork for the future of the Zelda series, offering a beautiful and exhilarating experience that blends classic elements with forward-thinking design.
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Sep 25, 2024While the world and story of Echoes of Wisdom are a lot like what you're used to seeing when playing as Link, Zelda's distinct abilities make for a fairly different experience. Selecting an Echo is clunky at times, but each can be used creatively as a solution to a myriad of clever puzzles. Performance leaves something to be desired, but the princess' first outing as protagonist is a strong one.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has the potential to become a whole new series on its own thanks to the many possibilities that Zelda introduces as the main character, both narratively and gameplay-wise. It may not be the most ambitious entry in the franchise, and it definitely has some flaws, but even so there's a very big chance for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom to become a fan favorite game.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is a great new dye entry in the series that combines a very classical approach with creative gameplay where (generally) much more than one way leads to a solution. You will never ask yourself why Nintendo decided to give Zelda the main role. After playing this, you will ask why she did not get her chance earlier. A must-buy for series' fans.
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Dec 16, 2024Echoes of Wisdom proves that Zelda can be a true protagonist of its titular franchise. It’s maybe a bit slower when it comes to pacing, or a bit less engaging when it comes to combat, but it’s truly a title that feels like one of the building blocks of Hyrule Castle. A nice break while we’re waiting for a bigger, mainline entry that hopefully won’t take long.
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Oct 6, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom took quite a gamble when it decided to abandon large parts of the winning formula of the Zelda games we know, but the result is a creative, fun and very special game that somehow manages to be one of the best games of the beloved series. With that being said, a slight performance drops and discomfort in regards to controlling the echoes can be a bit annoying, so it's not as perfect a game as I hoped it would be.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda once again manages to renew itself brilliantly, thanks to a strong concept executed with care. You can always complain about the outdated interface or the technical limitations that hinder progress at regular intervals, but the power of the Echoes and the freedom given to players to solve the puzzles sweep these minor flaws under the carpet. A very good game, far from perfect, but highly recommended.
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Sep 25, 2024Zelda's first adventure is colorful, cute and surprisingly versatile fun. Dozens of echoes provide variety, the friendly game world and Zelda-typical puzzle fun do the rest.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is a fantastic game that skillfully redefines the classic 2D Zelda formula, while taking inspiration from other games in the series. These changes will be noticed mostly by veterans, but even new players will find lots of fun here.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is not a second-rate copy of a Link adventure. It is indeed a new episode of the saga in its own right which also has the heavy task of following Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, both considered masterpieces. Although it is less ambitious and displays a very withdrawn narrative, Echoes of Wisdom manages to offer attractive gameplay based on reflection. It is cleverly concealed by a universe that is still as rich as ever, intended for both long-time fans of the series and newcomers. It is also through its additional content that it shines, which for us is only optional in name as it encourages creativity. With Echoes of Wisdom, the legend of Zelda has truly moved into a new dimension with an episode that brilliantly brings together the old and the modern. It is, without a doubt, the essential Nintendo game of 2024.
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Sep 25, 2024Even though I love this franchise a lot, innovation is always welcome. The echo system is a fascinating blend of new ideas and established concepts. Using random objects and enemies isn't totally new, but making them the main form of offense is. Transplanting 3D ideas into a 2D plain is a tough challenge, but the devs have handled it nicely. I wish the echoes were easier to scroll through, and the combat could have been harder. But I loved exploring every inch of this world. Even after the credits rolled, I still went back for more. If you're looking for something charming and unusual, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is right on the money.
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Nov 19, 2024If you’ve been hankering for a more classic Zelda experience, Echoes of Wisdom should do the trick. That said, with its unique Echoes mechanic in tow, this adventure feels like something new and old at the same time. Its gorgeous graphics and engaging soundtrack are a treat for the senses, brought down a peg only by some shaky performance woes. Still, the technical problems that Echoes of Wisdom has aren’t enough to dissuade me from recommending fans give this one a shot. Echoes of Wisdom is a wonderful, worthwhile addition to the Zelda library of games.
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Sep 25, 2024Zelda's great adventure is packed with beautiful stories. A highlight for every Switch collection! However, we have to lower our score because of technical issues: the heavily fluctuating frame rate, especially in docked mode, spoils the fun.
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Oct 16, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom may not star Link, but it is on par with many of those classics. The echoes system is another demonstration of the franchise's ability to craft engaging gimmicks. While it may be underserved by the system’s dated tech, Nintendo has once again delivered a creative entry in one of their flagship series.
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Mar 30, 2025The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdow combines the freedom of exploration seen in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom with the claymation art style of the Link's Awakening remake. It then tops it all off with a new and creative mechanic, and gives us Zelda as the main protagonist. The ever-expanding echoes mechanic is a marvel when solving puzzles and in combat, and it quickly becomes a key part of the gameplay experience. The gorgeous art style and exquisite soundtrack then wrap it all together in what is yet another Zelda classic that fits perfectly in the Nintendo Switch catalogue.
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Mar 25, 2025We finally got to experience a full, proper, no-asterisk Zelda adventure without having to explain, “Actually, you play as Link,” and are am grateful for the experience.
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Nov 1, 2024Overall, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a good game but not a great one. The echoes setup is certainly cerebral, but the lack of basic combat moves outside of the Swordfighter Form is jarring and only emphasized further at the end of the game. Here’s hoping that the next time Zelda ventures out into the wild world of Hyrule, someone remembers to give her a sword.
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Oct 16, 2024Ultimately Echoes of Wisdom excellently weaves itself into the grand tapestry of Zelda with surprising originality while being careful never to trample on what has come before.
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Oct 15, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom flips the script, putting the fate of Hyrule on Princess Zelda’s shoulders. While the game offers a vast world to explore with charming visuals and music, it suffers from repetitive gameplay elements, as many challenges can be overcome with the same few Echoes, though it still provides enjoyable moments of creativity and discovery.
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Oct 6, 2024Echoes of Wisdom feels like a top-down take on Tears of the Kingdom's core building concept. It's one of the most inventive titles I've played all year and I've had a blast with it so far, despite its rampant technical issues. Creating Echoes and watching them do your bidding as Zelda is just as compelling as slashing away at foes directly as Link. But I can't help but wish the game ran smoother and was locked to 30fps; hopefully Nintendo releases an update at some point.
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Oct 2, 2024Despite its charming chibi aesthetic, Echoes of Wisdom is the best version of The Legend of Zelda yet. Despite some changes in the mechanics, I think Nintendo's first adventure turned out very well. We must recognize it for what it is: a game in which we had to replace our beloved Link.
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Oct 1, 2024This wonderfully engaging adventure combines the best features from classic Zelda games with several new mechanics from more recent entries. Developer Grezzo doesn't nail every aspect of the experience, but the neverending stream of fun puzzles and charming gameplay easily outshine the game's weaker points.
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Sep 30, 2024After cooking up extremely original ideas with the latest 3D entries in the series, it is great to see Nintendo apply this lust for originality to top-down Legend of Zelda, too. There isn't a lot to be said for difficulty, and, like Tears of the Kingdom before it, certain gameplay features can be abused to make the quest easier, but the key thing about Echoes of Wisdom is that it is so much fun to play. The 3D games got their much-needed shake-up, and now the top-down format has received it for the better, as well. It was far too long of a wait for Princess Zelda to get her playable role in the series that bears her name, but this is an excellent start to hopefully bigger things to come.
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Sep 26, 2024Who is this Zelda Echoes of Wisdom really for? This is the perfectly legitimate question that one can ask oneself after finishing the adventure, not without some desire to give up along the way. By wanting to play the break with the remake of A Link's Awakening and avoid taxing this episode as a simple DLC with a playable Zelda, Nintendo has opted for a gameplay that is the opposite of what a Zelda game represents for many people. No real combat here, but instead room for reflection and puzzle solving, that's the heart of the gameplay and we can obviously understand that the game risks displeasing a large part of the usual audience.
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Sep 25, 2024Playful and with a spatial openness previously unknown in the isometric Hyrule, Zelda celebrates her grand entrance, but also proves that the Switch is technically at the end of the line even when it comes to in-house productions. ... The approach of omitting iconic tools works because the heroine is able to shake a bouquet of alternatives from her staff in return - and thus builds up more than a sword could ever tear down.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom is a solid game with fantastic ideas that will force you to reprogram that Legend of Zelda brain you've been shaping over years and years of practice. Grezzo has created an experience worth trying and a journey no fan of the franchise will regret starting. That being said, we can't ignore the fact that there are several elements in the game's design that fall short because they don't reach the level of maturity we see in era-defining games.
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Sep 25, 2024The Zelda license returns magically to Nintendo Switch with a title that brings a welcomed breath of fresh air. Giving us the unprecedented opportunity to embody the Princess herself, Echoes of Wisdom carries the legacy of an entire license to which it brings its load of (small) new additions. Grezzo has succeeded in combining the feeling of dungeon exploration that many fans have been missing, with gameplay directly inspired by Tears of the Kingdom. In this way, the game manages to appeal to fans both past and present, for an experience which proves that even after almost 40 years, Nintendo's historic IPs know how to renew themselves and, above all, don't hesitate to dare. After such an opus, we can only ask for even more ambition for future 2D Zelda games.
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Sep 25, 2024None of these criticisms should dissuade potential buyers, for Echoes is filled with the usual Zelda-series charm, humour and adventure, while the copy-and-paste mechanic introduces some smart and mischievous puzzles.
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Sep 25, 2024Zelda takes the lead in the adventure and uses all the creative tools at her disposal to explore, fight and solve puzzles.
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Sep 25, 2024After many years of living in the shadow of the brave Link, Zelda has finally been given a protagonist role in her own game. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a colorful and charming spin-off that may, however, offer too little to appeal to fans of Breath of the Wild.
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Sep 25, 2024How Princess Zelda repairs mysterious rifts across Hyrule is what makes Echoes of Wisdom special. With a magic wand, she can make an echo, or copy, of nearly everything — clay pot, quilted bed or sword-swinging Moblin.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has a lot of merit and begs to be played, especially by fans who have been clamouring for something new in the series. It's also a proof of concept, courtesy of a new studio, showing that Nintendo intends to explore new avenues of gameplay, which in the future may result in iterations that further separate Link and Zelda as playable characters. Maybe with another character who shall not be named, you know, to complete the Triforce.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a charming follow-up to Link's Awakening that builds on that game’s beautiful aesthetic while introducing just enough new mechanics to feel truly distinct. The dubious performance and repetitive combat can drag, but this is largely an excellent adventure throughout.
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Sep 25, 2024The result is a game that is the definition of a truly mixed experience - but if you take the rough and under-developed with the smooth and innovative, there’s a lot of fun to be had. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is perhaps a victim of being part of a series that has one of the highest batting averages of any franchise out there - what is ‘good’ by Zelda standards is great to many other franchises and publishers. This is by no means the earth-shaker that some Zelda games are - but it sits up there with many other classic 2D Zeldas just fine. I just wish Zelda herself felt a bit more defined and present throughout, given this is her first true playable debut.
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Sep 25, 2024This isn’t the swashbuckling, swords-first sort of game that The Legend of Zelda players have been given in the past, and that’s a wonderful thing. With a dose of whimsy and some very clever ideas, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom makes a memorable, exceedingly lovely impression.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom introduces refreshing ideas but it can't keep up the initial excitement.
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Sep 25, 2024In all, Nintendo and Grezzo have pulled off a surprisingly refreshing retooling of the Link's Awakening engine. All hail Princess Zelda.
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Sep 25, 2024At times inconsistent and unrefined but the echoes concept is excellent and allows for one of the most innovative and open-ended 2D Zeldas of the modern era.
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Sep 25, 2024Really, Echoes of Wisdom feels like the perfect sign-off for the Switch with new hardware reportedly on the horizon. It’s a colourful, accessible epic that pushes its console to the limit, with all of the mechanical depth and invention, artistic design, whimsy, and spirit of adventure that you expect from a first-party Nintendo adventure.
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Sep 25, 2024Thanks to playful puzzles and an imaginative reinvention of Hyrule's historic iconography, Echoes of Wisdom emerges as a bold and creative new chapter in Zelda's legend.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom proves that even after nearly 40 years, The Legend of Zelda still has room to surprise us... Echoes of Wisdom feels like the Zelda-fronted game I’ve been waiting decades for. I only hope this isn’t her last turn as the series’ star.
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Sep 25, 2024Despite how much joy I mined conquering its temples and delving into its many rifts, at times it doesn’t push its ambition far enough. That never stops Echoes from being a warm hug of a video game that enraptured me from start to finish, but it does leave me infinitely more curious about what the future holds. Now Zelda has helmed her first epic outing, it’s only a matter of time until she goes onto bigger and better things.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a charming delight, an adventure for Zelda herself that embraces a wholly different style of gameplay to Link's tales, allowing for player expression and creativity throughout.
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Sep 25, 2024Although it's a mostly great experience, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a clear step below the S-tier Zelda games like Twilight Princess, Tears of the Kingdom, and so forth. There's still plenty of fun to be had if you're a fan of the classic Zelda games and perhaps this return to that formula is the shake-up that the series needed following Tears of the Kingdom.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom takes the best things from its Switch counterparts—and a few of the bad ones—and creates an incredible unique free-form top-down experience.
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Sep 25, 2024Is Echoes of Wisdom the perfect blend of old and new? Not quite, because despite the great freedom, some echoes are simply more reliable than others, which makes you wonder if the great freedom is really necessary? Nevertheless, the Princess' debut game is the best example yet of a Zelda game where two very different design philosophies are allowed to compliment and not trump each other, which is why it can be recommended to all fans, new and old.
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Oct 7, 2024A charming, modern take on a classic style of Zelda. Zelda is able to carry the weight of main character like the strong Princess she is. Now it's Link's turn to be the damsel!
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Oct 17, 2024It is a good game, but also a game that occasionally falters and makes it painfully clear that the Switch is now the gaming equivalent of an old-timer car. Nevertheless, the graphical style masterfully disguises the Switch's technical shortcomings. The music is also incredibly good. And this game is everything its predecessor was and better. With Echoes of Wisdom, you get to play a kick-ass sequel to the previous “classic” Zelda game: Link's awakening. But that's what it is: a sequel.
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Oct 16, 2024The closest analogue to the sorcery that Zelda gets to pull off throughout this game is the Scribblenauts series, and even then, there’s something so much more special about that idea of conjuring things out of thin air in a Legend of Zelda game, let alone all the charming secret abilities of some items and how much they encourage players to try and break the game.
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Oct 4, 2024This Echoes of Wisdom is a clever subversion, but a little more intrusive than it would like to be, due to complicated mapping and a few situations inherent in this philosophy. A minor Zelda game but one whose radicalism is commendable.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has a lot going for it. There is a lot to do and discover without being overwhelming. The visuals are vibrant and fun, and the characters are cute. Although the controls can be annoying at times, it is satisfying when you finally get past an obstacle. It will be interesting to see where Nintendo takes us for the next Zelda installment in the future.
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Sep 25, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom follows a different approach than you are used to from the series. Instead of an action/adventure game, you play a puzzle adventure. This generally works out well. The gameplay is fun, with a fairly large world in which there is a lot to do. The puzzles are interesting and sometimes quite challenging in the dungeons. What does not work so well is choosing the Echoes. At a certain point you get so many that choosing takes a lot of time, which interrupts the action for too long. The optional rifts also become a bit monotonous quite quickly. The biggest thorn in the side is the performance, with a frequently changing frame rate and resolution, which makes the game not play well. That affects the experience. If the technical side is or is being addressed, you can add a whole point to the final score.
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Sep 25, 2024Echoes of Wisdom’s best parts are the ones that break away from what’s expected. My favorite moments largely happen in Still World rifts, where I need to carve my own path through twisted snippets of Hyrule’s world using echoes. I’m attuned with Zelda most when I find a large gap I can’t pass, but realize I can get to the other side by grabbing hold of a flying tile with my bind ability and following its path. In clever puzzle platform moments like that, I feel like I'm tapping into her third of the Triforce; I’m using her wisdom to meet any challenge that arises. And I’m doing that by drawing on her connection to all things within her kingdom and communicating her eternal royalty through tangible play.
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Sep 30, 2024The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom puts a new spin on the series’ formula but never quite finds itself. I like coming up with creative ways to use as bed as much as the next person, but I’d prefer if the challenges were more consistently creative in return. Instead, things just bled together until I could have just played on autopilot. It takes more than a dress and a bed to keep things interesting.
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Sep 25, 2024It’s great to finally get to play as Zelda, but working out how to take an active without being able to fight is rather hard work.
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Sep 25, 2024Despite some ambitious ideas, beneath the surface Echoes of Wisdom is surprisingly uneven Zelda adventure. Few of its headline mechanics are utilised to their potential which means that, while enjoyable and charming, it ultimately feels less essential than other modern 2D entries.
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Oct 21, 2024The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom is the perfect demonstration that Nintendo remains the queen when it comes to renewing and twisting its franchises to offer us something that is completely new and familiar at the same time. [Recommended]
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Sep 26, 2024Echoes of Wisdom successfully combines the feel of earlier Zelda games with the new creative direction that the modern entries have been going in. By fusing the classic key item progression of older Zelda games with the more modern, player-driven problem-solving of Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild, Echoes of Wisdom creates something both familiar, yet distinct from every other game in the series so far. Also, our long-suffering Hyrulian princess finally gets some time in the spotlight, and that is a welcome change of pace.
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Sep 25, 2024It’s a fun as hell game. It’s challenging and satisfying. And it fits neatly in the established mythos as another incarnation of our beloved hero(es). There’s a real sense of accomplishment in conducting a herd of boomerang-wielding Bokoblins as they pepper every enemy with attacks and then conjuring a bridge made of beds to cross an unjumpable gap. Sure, you might not be swinging the sword, but Echoes of Wisdom proves that the pen — or the bed, table, crate, or boulder — can be even mightier.
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Oct 6, 2024Mind you, we don’t love every element imported from the recent Switch games to this new installment: Maybe we’re just broken-souled weirdos who don’t properly appreciate fine cuisine, but we didn’t feel like this style of Zelda game was necessarily missing cooking—or the various design decisions attached to it, including getting food ingredients as rewards that could have been something cooler, and the fact that enemies hit like Mack trucks to justify you needing to lug around a backpack full of health-restoring smoothies. (Also, Echoes retains Breath and Tears‘ shameless willingness to let you bury yourself in a 50-entry menu as you go digging around for the one tool you desperately need.) But these feel like small quibbles, in the face of Zelda continuing to execute one of the most fascinating re-inventions in gaming: Transforming from a series where you basically always knew what you were going to get, into some of Nintendo’s most aggressively weird design in decades. All that, and it looks cute as a button, too.
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Sep 25, 2024After 35 years of lending her name to the iconic franchise, I wanted Zelda’s first game to be a little bit more worthy of her intelligence and her strength.
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