Nintfinisho, after cforfeitly four decades, is taking The Legfinish of Zelda somewhere novel. With Echoes of Wisdom, the video game company not only produces on the experimentation of its last Switch free, Tears of the Kingdom—it also does someleang no other Zelda title has done before: Give the princess power that was previously afforded to only Link.
“They gave Zelda a sword” has been the refrain for Echoes of Wisdom since it was proclaimd back in June. But that isn’t the entirety of what produces the game exceptional. Rather, it’s part of a top-down 2D series for the franchise, one with a contrastent watch and sense than Tears of the Kingdom that still engages the freedoms that executeers got with previous games—appreciate the ability to produce everyleang from Korok prisons to enormous mechs.
In Echoes, that unbenevolents being able to apvalidate various pieces of the world itself to copy and repurpose them. For series producer Eiji Aonuma it also unbenevolents executeers won’t get tired with Zelda (the games). “We begined to sense,” Aonuma shelp recently, “that fans may not carry on executeing this franchise unless they can leank autonomously and try various leangs freely on their own, rather than adhereing a set path.”
It may not be intentional, but this shift also unbenevolents executeers won’t get tired with Zelda (the character) too. Here, the namesake hero can produce leangs and fight her way out of dungeons in ways Link never could.
The game commences as many Legfinish of Zelda games do: Zelda has been apprehfinishd, and Link is on his way to save her. This time, however, after combat off her captor, Link is pulled into a proset up, purple rift and Zelda has to free herself. She does, but her satisfied reunion at home is cut illogicalinutive when Zelda gets denounced for rifts popping up all over Hyrule. Now a fugitive, she must figure out how to shut the rifts and save Link with the help of a magical novel frifinish, Tri, who grants her the ability to produce copies—“echoes”—of items and enemies.
Zelda isn’t a prolific fighter, so echoes become her main armaments, her main everyleang. Beds produce fantastic lgraspers when stacked equitable so; flying tiles can shoot Zelda atraverse big gaps; pots thrown in the opposite honestion produce diversions. The happiness of Echoes of Wisdom is figuring out how to engage everyleang you discover to your obtain. In one baffle, for example, I could see the pieces that the game predicted me to engage: two conspicuously stacked rocks perfectly aligned to cut off steam from two vents that would obstruct me from moving forward. I skipped the whole leang with a confineed nurturebrimmingy placed cubes made of water. I swam to my freedom and shiftd on, senseing appreciate a genius.
Ingenuity is at the heart of Echoes of Wisdom. Becaengage there are multiple ways to rerepair many of the game’s mysteries, carry oning thcdisesteemful them sometimes donates executeers the sense that they snuck thcdisesteemful a section under the growers’ noses. Areas I had no business being in became accessible with a confineed cleverly placed beds, a trampoline, and a childappreciate persistence. I requested armies of batappreciate Keese to fight my battles for me while Zelda napped cforfeitby. Is this how I was unbenevolentt to execute? Probably, but it felt mischievous all the same.
The game’s echoes are so effective that I challengingly engaged Zelda’s Link-appreciate abilities, outside of situations where the game needd me to. The princess can alter herself into a blue, sword-wielding, arrow-shooting device device chucker, but the time spent in this establish burns up energy that needs to be purposebrimmingy refilled. It’s unbenevolentt to be engaged sparingly.
