75%Nintendo Switch

Interesting concept, but the puzzles and combat are too easy

80%Nintendo Switch

graphics: 4/5
nintendo tends to stick with graphics that age well. since it's the same/similar models used in the remaster for links awakening it looks pretty good.

sound: 4/5
the new music for the overworld and dungeons were very good. they stuck with my long after i played the game. most of the monsters were silent as were most of the people in the game so it was sound effects and overworld music.

story: 4/5
it was nice to let zelda have the center stage for once. the story was very original and it was nice to not fight ganon in one form or another. there were lots of side activities to keep you busy but you didn't really care to much about the characters. they were filler.

gameplay: 3/5
zelda started with basic sword gameplay and only evolved once breath of the wild/tears of the kingdom came along. instead of another copy=>paste from the top down they changed it up quite a bit but i'm not sure it's for the better. the monsters do 90% of the work. you keep finding new more powerful monsters and that makes combat much easier. you have the powers of link for a limited time so you have just the tiniest bit of basic zelda gameplay. towards the end you have an npc that is pretty braindead but you have to guide them along and it got pretty tricky. not fun ... just tricky.

functionality: 4/5
the game ran well in terms of bugs but it slowed down a lot. in some sections of the game it was a solid 60fps. then when too much starts happening it drops to 30. i wish it was a bit more even. maybe it will run better on the super switch.

90%Nintendo Switch

Proof that a game can look and run like crap and still be great. Well done Nintendo I had a blast

90%Nintendo Switch

They turned BOTW/TOTK into a 2D Zelda.

80%Nintendo Switch

It's Zelda, so there are a lot of cool moments and puzzles. There's the normal amount of cameos and nods to former games, but also new characters too. I really enjoyed how different it was to play as Zelda and how creative you could be to solve puzzles. About midway through I learned the water block that helped me reach high places, and then that one echo became my go-to. I only had to be creative a few times after that. Good game, but I liked it less than all the other recent Zelda games.

70%Nintendo Switch

Story : 7
Gameplay : 7
Graphics : 7
Animation : 7
Sound Effects : 8
Music : 8
Value : 7

80%Nintendo Switch

Great game with classic Zelda puzzles and bosses.

95%Nintendo Switch

Finished last month, really sad I dragged my feet on finishing it. I usually inhale Zelda games in like a week. Game was cool as hell from start to finish, though.

Really excited to see Grezzo finally get to work on their own Zelda game after all their work on the remakes and remasters of the other titles, and I hope going forward they get to do even more Zelda stuff. They really do just get all the intricacies of the series lineage. It's SUCH a good fusion of the classic 2D games with accents of the modern open world titles.

There was some worry about the Echoes mechanic and whether or not it would lean too much into being more like TotK, rather than a classic Zelda game, but if anything I'd say the echoes are just supplemental replacements for dungeon items. Classic Zelda dungeons are back in full swing, and it feels so good to welcome them back after the sort of half-hearted dungeon design of BotW and TotK (as dearly as I love them.) Super strong return to form, and stuck the landing on the first try. I fucking love you Grezzo..

As for playing as Zelda and the paradigm shift that may or may not approach the franchise moving forward, it was a cute time. You get to see new interactions between her and other long-standing characters that would usually be happening off screen, or that just didn't happen in the first place due to Zelda's notorious lack of plot-agency. Like, there's an actual moment of solace between Zelda and her father, something you generally wouldn't really see in a Link-oriented game. It definitely makes for a more personal and engaging time in some interactions, I think it's a positive change. Hoping to see more agency afforded to plot stuff outside of broader beats in Zelda games, eventually?

Game's good. A fantastic blend of old and new, evenly balancing radical series changes with longtime series staples. Game's good as hell, I only wish I gave it more time tbh.

50%Nintendo Switch

It's not the same but, in Mario 64 or Pseudoregalia, the non linearity aids to what can feel like game breaking achievements. When you get a star, you can go the normal way or commit to some back-flip wall-jump long-jumps and reach it way faster. Now imagine if instead of an area you can navigate to maximize efficiency you've got an instant win button; that's Echoes of Wisdom. And that was really fun for the first 10 hours, but soon after I just felt nothing. I don't remember a majority of my time with this game; most of what I remember is the times I couldn't hit the instant win button. The Deku prison escape and the Lanayru Temple Dungeon were full of really interesting puzzles that you had to think about to solve. While basic, it had been so long since I used anything other than a bed or floating tile, that it had me struggling for a minute. The music rarely hit, the UI is atrocious, terrible quest rewards, useless as fuck mechanics (wind-up and smoothies), most dialog is from lobotomites, and the performance issues made me (who doesn't ever notice that sort of thing) notice. The bosses and map are great, Zelda is a fun and unique character, the graphics are good, and the lore implications are neat. Being honest though it makes me scared to replay Tears of the Kingdom out of ruining a good experience. I didn't discover the "goblin cycle" until late in the game, and did my best to engage with the level designs. But in that fire temple, fighting with the cart mechanics made me feel silly for not constructing a flying machine. And that's what my dissonance and frustration is all about: having an arguably less fun time by breaking it in the same ways the whole game, V.S. the many different ways it might've been planned but not designed.

80%Nintendo Switch

8/10 - good old school Zelda experience

40%Nintendo Switch

It's okay. I don't particularly like the combat or echo system. It does make you experiment a lot which can be fun, but I just found it mostly frustrating. It was definitely something I felt like I had to get accustomed too, and by the end of the game I still didn't feel like I really had it perfected. So that makes it unique from other Zelda games which is kind of interesting. Still the same story.

75%Nintendo Switch

Fun, chill and solid experience. They did a very good job of incorporating into 2D Zelda new mechanics from BOWT and TOTK.

75%Nintendo Switch

A very decent, casual experience! 100% complete with all echoes, recipes, outfits, accessories, quests, heart pieces, upgrades, and stamps.

Pros:
- A more back to form Zelda, refreshing change from the open worlds as of late
- Echoes are unique and fun to obtain and use
- Satisfying sense of progression
- Awesome nods back to previous Zelda games (business scrub my boy)
- The blur is not as bad as Link's Awakening, it didn't bother me at all this time
- Art style is adorable
- Side quests and collectibles are easy to keep track of, especially after finishing the main story
- The map is really well done, interesting to explore and easy to navigate

Cons:
- The performance is horrendous. It's extremely noticeable and jarring
- Final boss was terrible. I understand the point was to help Link, but it felt extremely passive, and was very tedious. Taking away your sword mechanic at the end was so disappointing, especially since I came prepared with energy smoothies, not that I needed them anyway lol see next point
- Dungeons were incredibly easy. Everything was. This is probably the easiest Zelda game that currently exists
- The lock on mechanic rarely works as I'd want it to, and there's no easy target switch. I wish it had a smarter way of determining what you're locking on to, like prioritizing nearby enemies/switches instead of your own echoes
- Similar to above, I don't know if it was just my controller, but I had a pretty difficult time getting Zelda to place echoes where I wanted her to, especially water blocks

Nitpicks:
- Long cutscenes with characters nodding at each other or overexplaining got on my nerves
- Naming it "prime energy"..............
- Chests feel pointless to grab because they usually contain ingredients which there are an abundance of
- I've seen people say switching between echoes is difficult, and you do end up using the same handful over and over. However, I didn't find this to be too big of an issue personally

I don't regret playing it :^)

80%Nintendo Switch

J'attendais un Zelda vu du dessus original et en monde "ouvert" depuis un bail (le remake de Link's Awakening ne compte pas même si il était génial). Il est enfin arrivé et le jeu se parcours bien de long en large sans trop trainer. Moins de 40h pour le 100% (qui est assez simple) ce qui est parfait selon moi. Je recommande pour ceux qui aime les jeux du genre sans se prendre la tête.

70%Nintendo Switch

J'ai bien apprécié ce nouveau Zelda. Le Game Play est vraiment original, avec la possibilité de résoudre les différents puzzles de plein de façons différentes grâce aux échos. Graphiquement c'est beau pour de la Switch et les musiques, ben c'est du Nintendo/Zelda, donc c'est top. Par contre, çà manque de précisions c'est terrible... quand on veut placer précisément un écho c'est une plaie... pareil quand on veut déplacer un objet avec Tri. Cà m'a fait rager à plusieurs reprises. Un autre point noir c'est la répétitivité/lenteur de certains dialogues/scènes notamment quand on entre/sort d'une faille... d'autant qu'il y en a pas mal... çà coupe l'action et c'est dommage. Les quêtes secondaires manquent de profondeur, c'est dommage car il y avait vraiment de quoi faire dans ce petit open world. Cà reste un jeu sympa. La quête principale n'est pas trop longue (et c'est tant mieux car avec ses défauts, je m'en serai vite lasser), même si çà reste ultra-classique.

80%Nintendo Switch

2D Zelda with a twist -- you actually play as Princess Zelda! It's cute and quite Zelda-y. And just like everyone else I hate to scroll for items when creating echoes. It's just something that the devs can certainly make some adjustments to improve quality of life/gameplay.

80%Nintendo Switch

It's not a true zelda, more of puzzle game. Puzzle creativity is where it shines - even more than TOTK. Some very satisfying solutions to puzzles - some of the best aha moments in the whole series. Main reason to replay game is to try alternate puzzle solutions.

The deku and mountain dungeons were big, complex, and a lot of fun. LTTP/LA dungeon vibes. I do like the ability to do the dungeons in any order.

Main story is super boring. Side quests pretty bad - stamp guy, acorn collecting for 10 rupees, chicken catching AGAIN.

Visually great and runs great, only one or two hiccups. Loved some of the cute isometric takes on characters/enemies - deku scrubs, zelda, horse, King, re-deads, etc. Environments were solid looking, but not super memorable.

Exploration was alright. Stumbling into caves and finding rare echoes is a cool reward. Equipment is a good concept but there isn't enough - I found it all too quick. Didn't ride much horse bc couldn't call it, which sucks.

Combat via summoning monsters took a lot of getting used to. I think it kind of sucks until you have built up a diverse team, like pokemon, and then it becomes more fun as you learn how to use your monsters. Eventually I was enjoying it. What I didn't like is the Blue Link power. Feels like a cop out - I should have to figure shit out as zelda, it shouldn't be so easy to just turn into Link for any form of combat. Blue essense should be WAY more rare to make transforming seem like an emergency option only.

In some ways it really feels like a low budget zelda designed to bridge the gap before the switch 2. But in other ways it feels like a fresh and exciting new direction for the series - the creativity of Botw/Totk may prove to be a turning point for Zelda that this follows.

80%Nintendo Switch

I have mixed feelings about Echoes of Wisdom.

On the one hand, there’s a lot of positives. You get to play as Zelda, which is such a neat change of perspective for the franchise. With that comes the summoning mechanic, which is a really cool way to tackle challenges. Every fight or obstacle becomes a puzzle where you get to figure out the best summon to use. Another highlight for me is the world—it’s actually pretty fleshed out for a Zelda game! The characters have actual character, with small but meaningful arcs, and there are some great references to existing lore that I really appreciated.

On the other hand, there’s the little annoying stuff and the bigger negatives. For example, exploration feels kind of pointless when the rewards are just more rupees or smoothie ingredients. And the repetition of cutscenes, like watching Tri open a portal for the hundredth time, got old really fast. By the end of the game, I was absolutely sick of the companion.

The most mixed choice for me was the Swordsman Form. It feels like it completely undermines the summoning mechanic, which is supposed to be the main draw of the game. Summoned allies are so slow at taking down enemies that it’s like the game went, “Here, just use this instead to make combat easier.” It’s such a weird design choice that clashes with what makes the game unique.

All that said, I did have fun with Echoes of Wisdom. It’s a fresh take on the Zelda formula, and when it works, it really works. I just wish some of those other choices didn’t slow down my overall enjoyment.

80%Nintendo Switch

The main problem with this game is that you end up being a bit passive gameplay-wise, this is especially apparent when you reach the final boss. And when it comes to the puzzles I used a lot of the same echoes a lot of the time – I used the old bed ridiculously often, and I stuck to a few favourite enemy echoes. So not top tier for a Zelda game, but still a very enjoyable experience that I can recommend to most players. It is on the easy side, which makes it perfect for playing together with younger gamers.

75%Nintendo Switch

Makes you fill smart, sometimes...

90%Nintendo Switch

The concept from the announcement already had my interest, but Nintendo really stuck the landing with this one. Echoes of Wisdom is a charming game with some fiendish puzzles and an almost terrifying amount of ways to overcome every challenge you're faced with, even if I chose to overcome everything with either bats or cubes of water. It's also great to finally have a good game with Zelda herself as the protagonist. Highly recommended.

90%Nintendo Switch

A phenomenal game all around. The gameplay is the best part. The echoes mechanics never get old and you're constantly discovering new echoes, which can be used in creative ways that keep you engaged and inventive. I even surprised myself when I came up with new combinations and uses for echoes. There are plenty of collectibles, and the difficulty is perfectly balanced for a family game: mildly challenging puzzles with forgiving combat.

Tri makes for a nice companion, and the support characters are charming. The story is simple yet interesting, which works well. I absolutely love the art style; the character design is top-notch for a "chibi" game, and the variety of non-human NPCs is impressive. Small details make each one feel unique, although I do wish the side quests were more complex, as some feel way too simple..

The music is sweet, with standout tracks like Stilled Ancient Ruins, Final Boss (3), and my personal favorite, Faron Temple (those percussions!). While some areas experience frame drops, they aren’t disruptive enough to ruin the experience. The overworld is surprisingly large for a 2D Zelda, making exploration very enjoyable. I appreciate that the dungeon order isn't entirely linear, adding replayability, as getting different echoes impact how you approach puzzles and enemies. This game feels like a refreshing take on the Zelda formula and will likely remain one of my favorites. Can't wait to play it again.

80%Nintendo Switch

Solid fun Zelda title that feels like a little present that feels like it will be forgotten in a few years. It is a bit too easy for my taste and the game mechanics don't leave much room open for experimentation.
Mainly because you only need a few of the Echoes to get around in the game. In that way it still feels like a classic Zelda game.

80%Nintendo Switch

ECHO ECHo ECho Echo echo

90%Nintendo Switch

8.5

80%Nintendo Switch

It's fine, I liked it. It has some interesting ideas. The overall concept is well thought out. The visuals are fine - the music is... a bit weird at times? I don't know.
Now for what bothered me. It's a bit too much of always the same. Going to the void world 50 times to look for some blobs. As many have said, it's all a bit too easy - maybe more geared towards newcomers? The echoes could be a bit smarter - it's kind of annoying if they never do what you want. Targeting also doesn't seem to help (if you even manage to target what you want to target).
Some dialogs could be just a bit more streamlined - Tri says the same thing a hundred times.
Finally, yay for the OG zoras.

80%Nintendo Switch

An interesting turn of events happens in this episode, the gameplay isn't based on a link wielding his sword around anymore.

The game is cute, just as the remaster of link's awakening, but the engine still got some imperfections that lessens the score, as some traveling cameras are laggy and some blur effects look clumsy.

Overall the game offers a variety of side quests, with a finely tuned combination of riddles and several solutions depending on what echoes the player has unlocked, without imposing a path to completion, thus less linear than the previous "handheld" Zelda games.

New tones appear as well in the soundtrack of the game, letting the game grow its own traits.

85%Nintendo Switch

I really enjoyed this game. I am a lifelong Zelda fan, and this was a fun, fresh take on the Zelda series, and introduced a lot of fun new mechanics. It took parts of what I enjoyed about BOTW/TOTK and introduced them to the top down Zelda mold, and showed that the team behind these games are still capable of making linear-like Zelda games even after the success of the most recent entries. It makes me really excited to see where they will take the series next.

That being said, I do have a few small complaints about the game overall. The biggest one is about the echoes. It isn't about the inventory navigation, although I will agree that it wasn't great sorting through them a lot of the time. It is that I found myself always resorting to the same handful of echoes over and over again for basically every situation I found myself in. I would use either the old bed, the water block, for the floating tile piece for what seemed like 90% of platforming/getting around. And for combat I would basically use the darknut level 3 every time. All of the other echoes that I used were basically only for one off situation the required a specific echo, and besides that they were never used. It would have been nice to have more forced variety, which would have kept the game more engaging in the long run.

My other main complaint is about the reward variety. Besides heart pieces and a few useful accessories, almost all quest/chest rewards were different smoothie materials. The problem with that being that I hardly ever found myself using smoothies. If I needed to heal, I would just echo a bed and sleep, and the game was easy enough that I didn't find much need to be taking smoothies to increase my armor, etc. The only time a smoothie was necessary was for cold resistance, and that was only one small part of the map. This made me much less inclined to complete side quests or go far out of my way to get to hard to reach chests, since the rewards would most likely be yet another bunch of warm kelps (as an example), taking my total inventory of warm kelps from 84 to 89. I would have liked more reward variety, or at least more useful rewards that made it seem worthwhile obtaining.

I spent most of this time complaining, but don't get me wrong: I really enjoyed this game. The dungeons were a bit hit or miss, with some being pretty basic and others being more standout (shoutout to the Lanayru Temple, which was fantastic.)The exploration was fun, the combat was fun overall, the music was great as always, the story was a fun twist on the formula while still maintaining the core Zelda principles/lore, and I would still recommend it to just about anyone, especially Zelda fans. I just know that it could have been that much better though, so hopefully the development team take this as a starting point and improve on it in future entries.

80%Nintendo Switch

It's been so long since a new 2D Zelda, and now that this is finally out, I'm happy with it. The echo mechanic is simple, but allows for very creative solutions. Echoes of Wisdom has definitely inherited some of Breath of the Wilds' DNA as the freedom to solve puzzle in many different ways using whatever echoes you have is great. The game isn't too long, and the visuals are very charming to look at. I still think I like Link to the Past a bit more, but that might be just nostalgia.

The actual bossfights are surprisingly good, especially the final boss.

Overall, very pleased with the game. It's definitely not the AAA Zelda game (that was Tears of the Kingdom), but it can hold its head up high amongst the rest of the games.

70%Nintendo Switch

While the game is fun and really different, I feel like the balance is a bit off. The game lacked some difficulty and a couple of echoes were all you needed for most of the games. It was hard to die. It's kind of all over the place. However, it's just the right length and I'm happy that I finished it.

80%Nintendo Switch

Cute little Zelda Game

85%Nintendo Switch

Great game. A cool concept and ending. I loved the echo ability and the Trirod. This is really neat way to give Zelda a unique move set.

Some of the main story missions were quite good (Zora) and some really kind of meh (Goron). There is enough side content to do that was pretty good and exploration was fun.

I didn’t mind this art style for this game and link’s awakening, but I hope they use a one for the next 2D Zelda. I’m a little tired of this art style now. I was also hoping we’d get animated cutscenes like Link’s Awakening, but we didn’t which is a little disappointing. I wanted to see what this Zelda looked like in non-Chibi form.

This isn’t my favorite 2D Zelda. Minish Cap and ALBW still beats this game for me, but it was quite good. The music was also good, but I preferred ALBW’s soundtrack.

The ending was also cool and the villain was an interesting concept.

Overall, I’d probably give it a 8.5/10. I had a lot of fun with it and there is still some side content I need to do. Not sure if I’ll do it though. I’m pretty satisfied with what I played.

90%Nintendo Switch

9,5

85%Nintendo Switch

No Tripple A Zelda, but a wonderful feelgood Game. Loved to play it.

85%Nintendo Switch

Awesome game! The use of Echo is a really nice mechanic. However in the end you end up only using around 10 echo's to do everything in the game, which is a shame. The story is really cute and Tri is my favorite character, that little one is just so adorable. All the boss battle and puzzle are very do-able and you do not need a guide to go through it.

55%Nintendo Switch

Echoes of Wisdom was, at first, a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect it to keep the sandbox vibe from Tears of the Kingdom, and although not crazy about that, I was happy to see a top-down Zelda taken seriously for the first time in a long while.

Unfortunately, besides not being as deep as in TotK (which was both predictable and forgivable), the gameplay is kind of crippled by the weird decision of having a non-fighter heroin. There obviously was no point in having Zelda as a playable character just so she plays the same way as Link in dozens other games ; Grezzo asked themselves a good question, they just provide an unsatisfying answer. First of all, they miss the point in doing a Zelda-with-Zelda game because, well... they just tell us that girls can't fight (even worse : they tell us that girls have to literally change into boys in order to fight!). So much for the pink-washing, guys.

More annoying is the very impact it has on gameplay: having Zelda fighting 'by proxy' drives Echoes of Wisdom to be a very, very slow and passive game. It wouldn't matter that much if it was short, but since Echoes wants to be a true mainline Zelda, it happens to be crazy long for what it has offer. Around 20 hours is the perfect duration for a classic action/adventure Zelda ; thing is, Echoes of Wisdom is more of a puzzle-platformer with an invasive story and dozens of uninteresting fetchquests. 10H would have been way enough.

I know I'm harsh since all in all, Echoes tries a lot things and have plenty of fresh ideas in the Zelda-sandbox area. This is furthermore, and by far, the most beautiful and polished game ever made for Switch. But it never felt like an adventure to me, only a linear succession of easy puzzles set in a cute but pointless open-world. For sure, some people will be delighted. Top-down Zelda lovers? Not sure. Not me.

80%Nintendo Switch

The Legend of Zelda has been a staple Nintendo series dating all the way back to the mid 80’s with the release of the first title. Despite the name, the player never plays as Zelda, it has always been Link that is the protagonist in the games (not counting the CDI games, but they weren’t handled by Nintendo directly). Echoes of Wisdom is the first Zelda game that actually lets you play as Zelda, and with that, a different gameplay mechanic that isn’t seen in other Zelda titles.

I want to jump right into the gameplay because Echoes of Wisdom separates itself from other Zelda titles in its “Echo” system. The Echo system allows Zelda to copy objects such as pots, boxes, rocks, etc, and even enemies after you defeat them. Enemies Zelda summons will fight for you, and engage other enemies. The echo system is intrinsically tied to everything in this game, navigating the world feels limited until you collect certain echoes, or upgrade the number of echoes you can place. Collecting echoes is also fun, as there are TONS to get, especially enemies as there are a lot of enemies in EoW, some of which are new to the series. The tradeoff for such a powerful echo system is that Zelda cannot directly attack enemies. There is no sword, bow, bomb, hookshot, and other typical Legend of Zelda items that are staple to the series. This makes combat very interesting, relying more on summoned monsters to engage enemies, and summoning boulders or pots to throw. However, while at first I didn’t mind this approach to combat, it does begin to wear the longer you play, as I would rather fight enemies directly along with summoned allies. The developers even acknowledge this, as after a certain point you do get access to Link’s sword, which you can use with a limited meter that can be refilled (similar to the magic meter in past titles) as you play. Having limited sword usage further expands this issue, and feels like a bandaid fix for it.

Visually EoW looks great, using the same engine as the Link’s Awakening remake used a few years ago, EoW has a very clean look with a vibrant use of color, and characters kind of have a toy-like look to them. I will say something I wasn’t a fan of was that this artstyle kind of has a “plastic-like” look to them, and I would love to see Nintendo dabble with something similar to what Square Enix does with an HD-2D approach, but what is here looks good. Accompanying the good visuals is some great music, while there are plenty of classic Zelda tunes, the new stuff added sounds excellent as well, and fits right in with the game.

One aspect I wasn’t a particular fan of is the difficulty, or rather lack thereof in EoW. This game is really easy, with only a couple of areas that felt slightly challenging in the whole game. I died a total of one time in my playthrough, and even then it was because I stepped into a boss room with already beeping health. There are way too many ways to fill your health in this, between tons of smoothies you can carry, summoning beds to sleep and regen health in, to bottles that can capture fairies. This game almost feels designed for people who have never played a Zelda game with how easy it is. This ease of difficulty unfortunately also carries over into the dungeons of the game, gone are the complex labyrinths of other Zelda styles of this style (they are also absent in Breath and Tears as well), and instead are just bite sized dungeons that can mostly be completed fairly quickly. Shout out to the Faron temple dungeon, as I found that one to be the most fun and complex of the bunch. Outside of the two open world Zelda games, big and challenging dungeons are a part of Zelda games of this style, and unfortunately that is one area I feel that Echoes fell short with.

I know my last paragraph may make it seem like I didn’t like this game, but that is definitely not the case. This is still a Nintendo developed Zelda, and the love and care that went into it is still very apparent. I do have some disappointments with some of the aspects it fell short on, especially due to me still wanting this style of Zelda to coexist with the big open world ones. I think having Zelda be playable and giving her a different style of gameplay than Link is a good idea, but I feel like the execution did fall short. Regardless, there is a good game here, but I feel like long time fans might be a bit disappointed here too.

Pros:

+ Collecting Echoes is a lot of fun
+ A big world map to explore with many things to find
+ Lots of optional quests
+ Great music and visuals
+ Echo system provides a unique experience in how to approach enemies and situations….

Cons:

- ….however when it comes to combat, the echo system doesn’t feel like a good replacement for directly combating the enemy, and a limited use sword exacerbates this feeling.
- The game is very easy to complete
- Dungeons lack the complexity and depth of previous Zelda titles in this style

95%Nintendo Switch

Starting out after completing the intro, controlling Zelda and using echoes was very fun. Echoes at least in the early game before all the upgrades and with less echo options solving puzzles was super enjoyable. At first I didn't think the bind ability would be of much use, I figured I might just forget about it half of the time, but it ended up being very handy for a lot of puzzles and it complements the echoes really well. The combat is much better than I expected too, in fact a majority of the echoes in the game are monsters who fight for you, I was not disappointed with it.

One of the other major mechanics introduced early on is the sword-fighter form which is pretty handy, but I'm not actually the biggest fan of it. I can appreciate the fact that Nintendo considered the potential problems with the echo combat, but the sword-fighter form wasn't a necessary addition in my opinion. First of all most of my uses of the sword-fighter form were for required segments, like special goop needing to be destroyed with the sword. Second of all it's very limited in the overworld, especially after handling many of the rifts in the map there are absolutely no void enemies to supply the very limited energy of it. And last of all, it's more of a minor issue, but I think the sword-fighter form just takes some of Zelda's unique identity away by straight up giving her the appearance and abilities of Link. The sword-fighter ability is the only mechanic of the game that I'm not a big fan of, but it has a relatively small presence in the game so it doesn't ruin any of the experience for me.

The only major flaws of the game are the performance, and the echo menu. Personally the performance didn't bother me a ton, I've grown accustomed to low frame rates on the Switch so it didn't damage my experience too much. Though the sudden drops from 60 FPS to 30 FPS were very noticeable so I can understand criticism of it. Echoes of Wisdom's biggest flaw is the echoes menu. I don't mind the fact that there are a whopping 127 echoes in the game, what I do mind is that they are all shoved into a ridiculously long horizontal menu that can take a minute to scroll across and search through. The amount that I had to scroll through that menu back and forth searching for that 1 echo that I needed was a complete joke. The major problem with it is that there are 3-4 variants of many enemies and objects, and each takes up their very own slot. The echoes themselves are fantastic, but the menu for accessing them is painfully bad.

Almost every puzzle could be solved in at least 2 or 3 ways which I absolutely love, though later on a few overpowered echoes like the cloud dominated the puzzles a little too well. The overall dungeon quality is great, probably the only one I didn't enjoy was the ice themed one, but all the others are great. I didn't expect it, but the combat might even be better than traditional 2D Zelda combat. Each of the bosses are very unique and fun to fight against, I find it incredibly fun how Zelda is essentially a summoner, fighting large hordes of enemies feels great. Most of the puzzles are just interesting and enjoyable too, the design quality is great.

The world size is just about perfect as well. It's large, but isn't overwhelmingly large, the density of content feels pretty good. The quality of the collectible placements as well as the fact that terrain doesn't completely inhibit Zelda's movements makes finding all of them extremely reasonable and fun. The only invisible walls on the map are around rifts and the outer map borders, as long as you have the resourcefulness you can go anywhere. The collectibles are super rewarding too. Having Tri leveled up completely was immensely useful, as well as the energy upgrades. There is a fantastic quality of life feature added as well, a collected items filter in the map which shows every single collectible you've found on the map which made getting the final few things really nice. Crafting all of the smoothie recipes was surprisingly fun as well, it's a near perfect way to do craft-able consumables.

The accessories are a magnificent addition, and I love all of the outfits, though I wish more of them provided unique buffs. The stamp collecting while not super useful was very fun. And overall Echoes of Wisdom is a ridiculously cute game, mostly due to the art style. The amount that Echoes of Wisdom kept me hooked even when doing the final 100% cleanup was great. The endgame and post-game are impressively captivating. The final boss Null is extremely fun to fight, all of the special boss moves that are incorporated into the fight are super cool. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is yet another near perfect entry into the series, it is my personal game of the year so far.

80%Nintendo Switch

Echoes of Wisdom is a great 2D Zelda game lots of fun new concepts, some being more well implemented than others. Echoes are a cool addition to gameplay, are fun as fighting companions, and can be used so creatively to solve puzzles. Combat did feel a little hands off in the first hour of the game before I unlocked the swordfighter form, but once enemies started to have more deadly attack patterns and appeared in larger numbers, as well as had specific elemental weaknesses, it felt like there was more strategy around how to use Echoes. Bind is used in very creative ways to solve a lot of the games more tightly designed puzzles in dungeons, and can also be combined with Echoes for creative solutions to problems. Automatons felt like the most undercooked aspect of the game. They dont have much use and are unlocked through an optional side quest. The overworld map is absolutely fantastic and so much fun to explore. Theres so many little hidden caves and even optional mini dungeons with their own bosses scattered around the map. The biomes and species are more diverse than any other 2D Zelda game! I loved Faron, that was my favorite ^_^
The dungeons are very well designed for the most part and i enjoyed being able to choose which one i wanted to do next! I think that the story in each region did feel a little bit samey. The problems of the different inhabitants were fun every time, but theres a lot of healing rifts and finding Tri-spirits in the Still World in each region.

Echoes of Wisdom is a lot of fun! Its a great game, although it isnt my favorite 2D Zelda. I loved just how open it was, and I think that the 3D Zelda elements like exploration, horses, side quests, etc, made the game feel really unique! I do think it went on for just an hour or two too long, but I still loved my time with the game! ^_^

100%Nintendo Switch

This game is so creative and fun. As most people, I did not expect it to be so good when I first saw the announcement but it is much more than an spin off; Nintendo has put a lot of effort and creativity on this game. It has many the same graphics as Link's Awakening remake + many mechanics from the new games (BotW and TotK), giving the player a lot of freedom to solve things in the order and way they like. It is a 10/10 to me.

90%Nintendo Switch

Amazing new entry to the Zelda games, taking many of the ideas of Breath of the Wild and applying it to a beautiful world akin to the one from Link's Awakening DX. Open ended puzzles, you can choose the order of the dungeons, with many checkpoints to stop mid dungeon and come back later, food mechanics, ... Taking powers from enemies is one of my favorite game mechanics and using summons to fight and solve puzzles in many different ways is a blast, although the UI for selecting the "echo" as they are called is a mess, could've been better with some folders separating enemies from objects or grouping by elements. Also, I did not explore much because half of the chest rewards in caves were golden eggs for smoothies instead of rupees or heart pieces, and rupees aren't too useful in this game, no heart pieces in shops for example . Boss and dungeon design were pretty okay, not amazing but still fun, even the water dungeon! And I loved the 2D sections of the game! Totally recommended game, not a masterpiece but one of the best of the franchise in my opinion

80%Nintendo Switch

Good game. I wish I had selected Hero Mode from the start. The Overpowered bed makes the game very easy with its heart recovery, making the smoothies near useless. In turn it makes finding its ingredients as rewards disappointing.

I find it odd that some caves have 3 screens puzzles only to get few rupees as a reward. Nothing felt very rewarding in fact. But the core gameplay was fun and aside from the echo browsing mess it is a fun overall experience.

80%Nintendo Switch

Echoes of Wisdom is rough around the edges, but is nonetheless a great compromise for fans of both old and new Zelda.

90%Nintendo Switch

Really nice!! brings the breath of the wild mechanics to a Link to the Past all mix with bosses and characters of iconic Zelda games. Very enjoyable. I don´t give it a 10 because at the end it was the same and you can elude the puzzles easily with the powerful echoes, nevertheless, 100% recomended!!

90%Nintendo Switch

Solid fun. Can recommend.

90%Nintendo Switch

Another Zelda banger, this series never disappoints. This will be remembered among the bests. The echo mechanic adds a lot of freshness to an otherwise "usual" isometric Zelda, and I loved it. The music is fire.
A bit short on the QoL side, exp for the echo selection.

100%Nintendo Switch

+ Springentaste
+ Quicktravel (auch im Dungeon)
+ NOCH mehr QoL Features als bei Link's Awakening
+ Tolle Echo-Funktionen: Erinnert an Superhand aus Tears of the Kingdom <3<3
+ Semi offene Welt, direkt zu Anfang zwei Möglichkeiten
+ Mit Betten überall regenerieren
+ Echos einfach sehr frei kombinierbar
+ Fühlt sich dolle an wie ein "Best of", viele bekannte Gebiete, Personen und Mechaniken werden toll kombiniert

100%PC

Goty or nothing

70%Nintendo Switch

I played Echoes of Wisdom on Nintendo Switch after picking it up with a Nintendo Switch Online voucher. I started playing on launch but took a 2 week break to play Thronefall before finishing.

### Gameplay: 7/10

The first few hours of Echoes of Wisdom are an absolutely dream. The freedom and power you feel while effortlessly climbing over obstacles historically used to force you down a linear path in 2D Zeldas past is utterly liberating.

Collecting echoes of enemies and objects feels as good as capturing Pokémon and certain echoes unlock significant new strategies or power boosts. That said, many echoes feel like reskins of each other and often fall into the “never used” category. Worse than that, they clog up the linear echoes menu forcing you to scroll endlessly to find that one echo you need in the current situation.

I’m guessing most players will end up with a similar “most used” selection of echoes, including the bed (the game’s swiss army knife), a powerful mob for combat, a flying mob for gliding, a bomb, and a rock. Most situations generally call for one or more of these.

One of my favourite things about classic Zelda games is that spectacular feeling of unlocking a new item or ability that flings the doors wide open to new possibilities. Think of the hookshot or the bomb bag. It feels like Echoes of Wisdom gives you 80% of the tools needed to finish the game before the first dungeon and never really innovates beyond that.

That’s probably the main reason why I had to take a break from the game between the end of the first set of dungeons and starting the second. Sadly, it all ends up blurring into one. The gameplay is reduced to “go here, speak to NPCs, close a rift, repeat”. Luckily the freedom this game allows you in your approach to puzzle-solving keeps things engaging enough to finish this short-enough game.

### Story: 5/10

Hyrule is in trouble again, and this time it’s up to Zelda to save the kingdom, and Link. Throughout the story you meet characters old and new from the Zelda franchise. A notable switch-up was two feuding tribes of Zora, possibly explaining morphological differences across the games. And the Stamp Guy stands out as the best new character across the board with his infectious enthusiasm.

For a game that strives to give the player ultimate freedom in the order and method of approaching the core conflict, it really does its best to keep you rooted in place scrolling through reams of unskippable dialogue. None of which is particularly ground breaking or interesting.

I did appreciate the efforts made in trying to make some of the minor conflicts personal, such as Condé the yeti looking for his brother or Darston the Goron coming into his own as a leader. These were sweet little distractions from the main story but felt almost as in your face as the endless cutscenes from the likes of Pokémon Sun and Moon.

### Sound & visuals: 8/10

The cartoony toy-like visuals from the Links Awakening remaster return here. As do the performance issues in the overworld. I’m a huge fan of this gorgeous art style, it’s just a shame it pushes the switch to the limit in terms of performance. The still world sections are where the graphics really shine.

To no one’s surprise the soundtrack is excellent. A couple of standout tracks were the soothing tones of Jabul Waters and the remixed overworld theme featuring a triumphant Zelda’s lullaby motif.

### Overall: 7/10

I really wanted to love this game, and for the first few hours I almost did. Sadly repetitive gameplay and slogging through constant cutscenes held back what was otherwise a novel and engaging new Zelda experience. For younger players this would be a delightful introduction to the franchise, but otherwise I would pick up Breath of the Wild or its excellent sequel.

95%Nintendo Switch

I have a hard time giving anything 100%, However, compared to most Zelda games which seem to feature a few main problems people discuss, I can't pick out any major flaws with this game. It accomplished everything it set out to do, pioneering a new Zelda experience with a greater focus on puzzle-solving, using almost entirely new mechanics to the franchise. The world feels large but alive and filled with content, the main story is gripping and satisfying, the game has a sufficient peak of difficulty, and the visuals take the Link's Awakening remake style much further.

If I had any complaint, it would be the concept of "back to last save" endings, but I can't blame them as the ending reached a satisfying conclusion, leaving no way for a postgame to work.

Definitely worth a play-through, especially for anyone who enjoys the puzzle-solving aspects of other Zelda games or Zelda-likes.