The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Reviews
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a new release in which the series returns to its roots again with creative stage design and a wonderful game that satisfies the fans of the series who miss its classic atmosphere, despite some flaws, it remains a Zelda game experience that cannot be missed.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a very successful debut outing for the titular princess. The game does still suffer the frame rate issues of Link’s Awakening and at times, felt as if the story became too centered around Link so that it became less about the character we play, but the ideas, mechanics, feel, look and style of the game are an absolute treat. Alongside Another Code, it’s my favourite Nintendo release of 2024 so far and gives an exciting glimpse into what Nintendo may be cooking for 2025 and beyond.
Playing The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has reignited my desire to play through some of the other older Zelda games. It has been an absolute joy to play through and honestly I really hope that we get to play as Zelda more often because that Princess can slay! Sorry, couldn’t resist. Yass Queen (Princess) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom gets the Thumb Culture Gold Award.
The latest Legend of Zelda game on the Switch puts the titular princess in the lead role for the first time for an experience that’s both refreshing and familiar.
Everything else about 'Echoes of Wisdom' rules. Its aesthetic and music are endearing, the echo system creates tons of really clever puzzle solutions, and it harkens back to old Zelda games without abandoning what makes the newer ones special. There are a couple of areas in which Echoes of Wisdom is a slight disappointment, but it is a mostly delectable late-in-life treat for Switch owners.
Zelda takes the lead in the adventure and uses all the creative tools at her disposal to explore, fight and solve puzzles.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom turns the tried and tested Zelda-formula on its head with its magic wand and 'Echo' clones. The daring gameplay experiment works for the most part. It's fun to find new monsters and items and experiment with them — both in combat and when solving puzzles. Every now and then I wish I could take a more active part in the battles. The limited “swordfighter mode” only partially satisfies my appetite. Unfortunately, the otherwise expertly crafted game is somewhat marred by a cumbersome menu navigation and annoying stutters. Despite these shortcomings, fans of the series can look forward to an excellent 2D-spin-off that does a lot of things differently and yet still feels familiar.
Review in German | Read full review
Although 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.
Dungeons return to a quality we haven't seen in more than ten years and the musical presentation is excellent. Performance while consistently hitting 30 frames-per-second strains fruitlessly for 60. But ultimately 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.
After cooking up extremely innovative 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.
Echoes 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
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a triumph of both style and storytelling. Princess Zelda feels like a true protagonist and doesn't simply "take Link's place" in the adventure. The creativity of the "Echoes" system is wonderfully done for the most part, and most will definitely want a new adventure of this nature in the future.
The 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.
The 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.
The 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.
The Zelda license is making a magical return to Nintendo Switch with a title that brings a welcome breath of fresh air.
Review in French | Read full review
I went into The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom wondering about where the direction of more classic Zelda games might go. Now, after rolling credits, I was delighted to see that Nintendo has (mostly) been able to find a nice middle ground about how to best pay tribute to this classic adventure series’ past while also incorporating elements of where it is now, thanks to the likes of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel. While it’s true that echo summoning is full of potential it also has its limits, as proven by that last pesky dungeon and many of the 127 featured echoes doubling up for one other. This, combined with the Nintendo Switch continuing to show its age via some less-than-ideal technical performance, holds Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom back from achieving true legendary status. However, Zelda’s time in the spotlight is still a refreshing and often surprising top-down adventure that, thanks to its central idea, comfortably stands apart from what’s come before.
At 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.
The 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.
Overall, 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.