Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

(available for Nintendo Switch only)

So, in a very short space of time, we’ve gone from reveal to release of what is not only the new 2D Zelda, but also the first game where you’re going to take control of Zelda herself.

Echoes of Wisdom was made by the studio Grezzo, and they were the team behind the Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake that came out several years ago. Personally, I really liked that remake and thought they did a very good job at updating the Gameboy Classic. I assumed that afterwards Grezzo would get the job of being the Zelda Remake studio, but to my surprise, they were able to create a new and bold entry into the series.

The game starts out like any typical Zelda storyline. Link walks in and defeats Gannon, however in the process, rifts start opening up which engulf Link and many parts of Hyrule, and also create possessed copies of people. Zelda’s job is to investigate what is going on and rescue Link and most of Hyrule.

The mechanic this time means that you’re not just playing as Zelda in Link’s costume (for the most part, we’ll get into that later and I will have to spoil the first dungeon, so if you don’t want to hear about that, just skip to the final thought section). Basically, this game gives Zelda a new weapon called the TriRod, which allows her to duplicate items and defeated enemies in the world, and then use that to solve various puzzles- you’ll stack items to perform jumps or summon previous enemies to fight new ones. As a result, the game relies a lot more on puzzles than it does action.

It also borrows quite a bit from other Zelda games, for example, early on you get to choose which order of the dungeons you wish to visit. Given who you’re going to visit, it feels very reminiscent of games like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Other than that, if you’ve played  a lot of 2D Zelda games, it won’t be entirely alien to you.

PROS

• Graphics

This is made in the same engine that was used to make Link’s Awakening, and that was clearly where they started building their bases for this. I actually think that Echoes of Wisdom looks a lot better. For one thing, because they had the ability to create an environment from scratch, it means that they are limited by the environments that were created with the limitations of the Gameboy. As a result, I kind of think that it lets those beautiful graphics that were used to make Link’s Awakening pop out even more when you can use the environment, like oceans, deserts, snow peaked mountains, etc. You will get a lot of options early on; this is a very open Zelda game.

Apart from all of that, it feels like the graphics have received a slight update from Link’s Awakening, too.

• World Design

As I said, the world is very open, and I do like the contrasting environments that you get early on, and there’s a lot of things to do that make this world worth exploring. I don’t think that the environments flow as easily into each other like they do in Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, but this game is made on a very different scale, so I don’t hold that against them.

You’ll want to try and get lots of collectibles in these environments because you’ll need it for the smoothie making minigame, which is an excellent source of healing and energy- more on that later. If anything, I think that this is a very bustling Hyrule that felt like a lived-in world. I think they did an excellent job creating this version of the world.

• Puzzle Mechanics

Huzzah, they have done it! They have made a Zelda game where there wasn’t a single puzzle that bored or infuriated me. I think this is to do with the open freedom of the puzzle, there’s no one right answer to solve any of these. For example, some people were stacking beds to reach heights in the puzzles, I did this too until I unlocked the water block item which I then started to use. Thank you, Grezzo, for making Zelda able to swim!

The game teaches you that there is no one way to solve a puzzle, and you really want to think out every single aspect of each environment to figure out what would be the best solution going forward. You gain new abilities as the game goes on which is reflected in how the puzzles work, and it’s worth doing some of the mini dungeons that are scattered about in order to upgrade your copy abilities.

But these mechanics and the puzzle themselves are excellent. Top marks to the team on that front.

MIXED

• Side Content

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the side content, there are plenty of side quests to do, but it often feels like they are there just to pad out the runtime. Some of it is quite good, as I said, there’s one to do with the smoothie minigame and I was going to do that anyway because, well, they were some of the best healing items in the game and they didn’t cost as much as potions.

That being said, by the time I got to the halfway point of the game, I just really didn’t want to do any more side content and none of it was that enriching. The only stuff I was doing was the mini-rift dungeons, because at least then I was getting upgrades- but there weren’t that many of them! I was amazed at how fast they ran out.

• Combat

Okay, the combat is fine in itself, when you beat the first dungeon you will have realised that when you get an upgrade you don’t need to constantly copy your enemies to fight for you since you get access to Link’s sword and shield, and you essentially fight like you are Link (you even get his tunic), while I do like this, I do think that it shows a lack of confidence in giving Zelda her own game with her own identity, though I was challenged on that opinion, so don’t take it as gospel.

Where I do think my colleagues (in said podcast) were accurate, is when they said energy is very difficult to replenish. You only tend to get it in rift dungeons with certain enemies, other than that, you better stock up on chillies as they make the best smoothies for energy.

The combat itself feels fine, but when you combine it all together, it does feel like it could do with some improvement in a follow up, though I was pleasantly surprised that the partner AI isn’t that dumb.

CONS

• Framerate

The framerate in this game TANKS on several occasions, particularly in instances with lots of enemies or lots of people living in a village or a town. The Switch is really struggling to make it work at that point, and it just drove me nuts on a few occasions. Thankfully, it gets better as the game goes on and this was in spite of the fact that when I was playing it, the game hadn’t had any patches.

• Amiibo Functions

When this was put on the Nintendo UK Store for preorder, they were putting up bundles that included repackaged Amiibo, particularly the Toon Zelda from Wind Waker and Link’s Awakening Amiibo. What you can get from these changes as the game goes on, and eventually you get some cosmetics. This is fine, but as far as I can tell, they are completely locked behind the amiibo. So, if you haven’t collected a bunch of Legend of Zelda Amiibos, there’s some content that you can’t access.

• Battery Life

I was actually amazed at how this game drains the battery of the Switch. It’s not egregious, but it definitely felt a lot more than some of the more high-powered games than I’ve played on the system, so be aware that it will drain your battery more than some other games.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite my complaints, I do think that the Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is an excellent game. I like this version of Hyrule, I like the puzzles, the combat could do with some improvements but ultimately, I think it’s quite good, and I didn’t even mention some things like the soundtrack as well as some really clever and colourful characters you get to hang out with. It, however, does feel like a Zelda game was put out just to pad out the lifespan of a console that’s on the way out, and the framerate issues really highlight this- I’d be very interested to see how this game runs on the upcoming Switch successor.

If you like good  Zelda games, I think that this one is a great one to pick up, especially considering how unique this one is compared to the rest of the series. I would like to see a co-op adventure in the future where one person plays as Link and one as Zelda. I think it’s a bit ridiculous that Zelda is still a silent protagonist, and the same with Link in the other games… They need to start getting some established character!

FINAL SCORE: 8.5/10

And now Reece’s review

Echoes of Wisdom is the brand-new Legend of Zelda game available on Nintendo Switch, and it sees the player take full control of a playable Princess Zelda for the first time in the mainline franchise.

The game sees Zelda set out on an adventure to save Link and the entirety of Hyrule by closing various rifts across the land that spit out monsters and abduct people. To help the player in this task the player encounters Tri a small golden fairy type character that allows the player to summon “Echoes” of items or enemies to aid the player in their quest.

Pros:

Art style.

Echoes of Wisdom carries on the same toy aesthetic from Grezzo’s last developed Zelda game in Link’s Awakening for Switch 5 years ago. The aesthetic works great in Echoes of Wisdom as instead of being limited to the small map of Link’s Awakening it uses the larger map based on Link to the Past & Link between World. As it has a more varied environment especially with the Still World added in addition and creates fun fan service moments that we haven’t seen in prior games like the River and Ocean Zora interacting in this art style.

New lore.

As a breath of fresh air after nearly 10 years of games Echoes of Wisdom finally moved away from having Ganon/Ganondorf/Demise storyline that takes up the majority of the various games storylines. Now in Echoes of Wisdom a new main boss is introduced that adds a lot to the pre-existing lore that makes players re-evaluate what has come before, this is most easily seen with Ocarina of Time and the Three Golden Goddesses we learnt about there and the creation of the world.

Exploration.

Echoes of Wisdom takes place in the downfall timeline on the main 3 branches of the official timeline. As such sees the world of Echoes of Wisdom taking a lot of inspiration from Link to

the Past and Link between Worlds, as various architecture from those games reappears, with the easiest sign being the layout of the route from Link’s house to the side of Hyrule castle from the opening of Link to the Past. These call backs aren’t just limited to geography as even some bosses from other downfall timeline games appear (Without naming spoilers) an often forgotten boss from Oracle of Ages, which is more puzzle than boss and a boss that appeared in Oracle of Seasons, but even as far back as the very first Zelda game on NES.

Echo creativity.

Combat is really only as limited as the player’s imagination just like with exploration to break the environment. As instead of only using combat focused Echoes like the Lynels or Moblins, I found great success by using the Deku Baba level 2. Usually, the player cannot use bind on a Deku Baba as it will kill it by ripping it’s head off, but if the player summons it on top of a table, then the player can Bind the table and freely move the Deku Baba around without restriction. This tactic makes it one of the stronger and most lethal Echoes in the game, as it can instantly kill any non-boss by eating them and then spitting out any items they had, like rupees or hearts, but due to being carried around by Bind it attacks a lot faster than other Echoes.

Echoes are also a lot of fun to use to interact with the environment, with one of the very first Echoes the player gets (The bed) is one of the most versatile, as not only can players sleep in the bed to regenerate hearts but also use them to build stair cases to climb over any obstacle.

Swordfighter form.

While the player will usually be forced to use Echoes in combat, players still aren’t locked out of the classic sword & board style of combat of older Zelda games, where players played as Link. After the opening tutorial dungeons, and you get access to the open world, Zelda, unlocks the ability to take on the form of Link to use his arsenal, starting with his Sword of Might and Hylian Shield to block enemy attacks. Then later in the game the player gets access to Link’s Bow and Bombs to expand the combat system outside of only using Echoes.

The downside of Swordfighter form is that the player can only be in that form for as long as they have energy in the bar, that quickly depletes when Zelda is in the form. The player can replenish energy by either killing Rift monsters or making specific smoothies that restore energy.

Actual dungeons.

After over 7 years classic dungeons have returned with actual puzzles that can’t just be skipped by using climbing or Zonai machines, like with Tears of the Kingdom. This helped Echoes of Wisdom feel more like the classic Zelda games that it was inspired by, and while the dungeons never outstay their welcome, they are a great place to pick up new useful Echoes to use outside of the dungeons.

Smoothie mechanic.

Bringing the cooking mechanic forward from Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom, it is a useful addition to this game, as not only does it have the usual heart restoration or defence up the player can create energy smoothies. These were the smoothies I used the most in my play through as it was easier to spam Echoes in combat than rush in with Swordfighter Form to quickly finish off an enemy, while the Echo distracts them and takes agro. So, by having a good supply of energy smoothies meant I didn’t have to keep killing Rift monsters to refill the energy gauge.

Cons:

Frame rate.

The most obvious problem that I personally encountered throughout my entire play

through was the inconsistent frame rate. The frame rate was never stable outside of cutscenes and drastically fell even in non-combat areas like Hyrule Cast Town, just walking around and talking to the NPCs or going inside buildings sees a noticeable drop. The worst time this occurred was during the early boss fight against Mogryph in the Gerudo Sanctum, during the first phase it isn’t too bad but when Mogryph starts flying and summoning tornadoes that is when the frame rate drops to near single digits as it struggles to process all the particle effects.

Echo menu.

One of the biggest issues for combat is using the cumbersome menu to select Echoes to use during combat. It slows the pace of fighting down to a crawl as the player manually scrolls through multiple menus one at a time to select the best Echo for the situation. This problem is exacerbated if the player wants to use multiple different Echoes in combat and wants to cycle between them.

Echo based combat.

Players have no control over Echoes when they have been summoned, thus making combat very slow if the player doesn’t have the energy to transform into Swordfighter form. As the player has no other way to attack enemies or defend themselves making a lot of fights take too long and really slow down the pacing of the game. This is most easily seen with boss fights where if the player’s Echoes don’t go on the offensive often enough then they can just get stun locked by the boss, interrupting the Echo’s attack so they never attack and then die. The only work around was to spam ranged Echoes like Wizzrobes

Smoothie mechanic.

While the Smoothie system is a good idea in general as it brings the cooking mechanic forward from Breath of the Wild. It is a lot more cumbersome to use as the player has to go to dedicated Smoothie stands to mix smoothies and the player is limited to only making one specific smoothie at a time. This system would have been a lot more useful if the player was able to batch make several smoothies at once instead of doing them one at a time and even better being able to make several different smoothies at once.

Otherwise, the smoothie mechanic really slows down the pace of the game, especially since they are usually not that mandatory and can be skipped if the player is competent enough at using Echoes.

Side quests unlocking.

While the side quests are usually not too offensive as they are short and easy to do, the main issue I found was that they are locked behind main story progression. As was the case with my play through, is that I had already fully explored the map before finishing the main story, but if you cleared out an area early then the player misses out on the side quests there. This actively discourages early exploration or having to go back in the late game and revisit every tile of the map to find the side quests the player missed out on by exploring too early.

Side quest rewards.

As the game is so heavily Echo based without more conventional weaponry or armour based like prior entries, I found the rewards for the majority of the side quests disappointing or just very repetitive. As they tend to either be smoothie ingredients or Rupees, as other equipment like Accessories or Heart Pieces are the rewards for puzzles or to buy in the various shops around the map.

Battery drain.

Due to the performance issues on the Switch and the graphical intensity of the art style it really causes the battery to drain rapidly and required the charger after a couple of hours. This was even more noticeable in sections of the Still World and with heavy Echo usage either spawning a lot of the same Echo or using the Bind mechanic to manipulate the Echo into enemies or enemies into the Echo.

Conclusion:

A great return to the franchises origins after the recent trend of a big open 3D world that the series had for the last couple of games with Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom style of gameplay.

If a person is a veteran of the older 2D titles and the Link’s Awakening remake, then I would highly recommend picking up Echoes of Wisdom, as it sets itself apart from traditional Zelda games through its use of Echoes, compared to usually sword or ranged gameplay that Link focused games usually focus on.

Score: 8.7

And finally, Elliot’s review

I’m pretty sure we’ve all heard this joke before, “If it’s called “The Legend of Zelda”, then why do you never play as Zelda?”. It’s a stupid joke told by very unfunny people, but it is kind of a good point. While Zelda has been a playable character in spin-offs and games that include some of the Legend of Zelda cast – most notably Hyrule Warriors and Super Smash Bros – despite her name literally being in the series title, we’ve never had a game where we exclusively play as Zelda herself (I mean, technically we have, but I’ll be rotting in the ground before I acknowledge Wand of Gamelon as an official game). Plenty of other Nintendo franchises have games based around the side cast, Kirby’s had some of his friends be playable in some of his mainline games, and some of Super Mario’s side cast have had full releases based on them, but pretty much every Zelda game has had Link as the sole protagonist. So, I’m certain I’m not the only one who got really excited during the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, when they dropped the trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, not only a game in the same style as the Link’s Awakening Remake, but also a game where you play as Zelda. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was released on 26th September 2024 as a Nintendo Switch exclusive. 

Story

This story begins just as another one ends. The game starts with Link reaching the end of your traditional Legend of Zelda journey, fighting and slaying the dark lord Ganon and freeing Zelda from imprisonment. However, just as Link defeats Ganon, a dark rift opens up and begins swallowing him, giving him just enough time to shoot an arrow at Zelda’s magic prison before falling into the void. Zelda returns to the castle and tells the King about her rescue and is informed that these rifts are showing up everywhere in Hyrule despite Ganon’s defeat and causing its citizens to disappear. Soon after, a rift shows up in the throne room, consumes the King and his two advisors, and doppelgangers of them jump out. The imposter (*sigh* insert your Among Us jokes here) King accuses Zelda of being the one creating the rifts and commands her arrest and later execution. While imprisoned, Zelda meets a small being called Tri, who gives her a staff called the Tri Rod and helps her escape. Now it’s up to the Princess to figure out what’s causing these rifts to appear, find a way to stop them, and to search for and save Link. 

I actually quite enjoyed the story. I like that it starts off at the end of one of Links adventures, having there be a reason why he isn’t there to save everyone. The story also does a good job at portraying Zelda as capable and able to handle all the hardships she’ll be going on. This game proves that she’s far from being a damsel in need of saving. 

Presentation

The game uses the same engine and art style as the Link’s Awakening Remake. Graphically and colour wise, the games don’t look that different from one another, which certainly isn’t a bad thing; I already thought that Link’s Awakening was one of the nicest looking top-down games I’ve ever played. This game still has the charming toy-like aesthetics to everything, the vibrant colours, the light reflecting off the water. In fact, this game goes further than Link’s Awakening by having a larger variety of environments. Last time it was just grasslands, forests and beaches, this time though you have areas like a desert, a volcano and a snowy mountain. It makes the world much more varied and interesting to explore.

Unfortunately, another thing that was brought over from Link’s Awakening is the frame rate issues. The game usually runs at 30fps when exploring the overworld and rises to 60fps when in dungeons. While in dungeons I found that the frame rate stayed consistent, it unfortunately didn’t when in the overworld, regularly dropping to around 20fps. It doesn’t outright ruin the game, but it does become noticeable and can get very distracting. 

Now the soundtrack is just what you’d expect from a Zelda game. The soundtrack is overall very light and upbeat, with songs using particular sounds depending on where in the world you are and who you’re interacting with – a lot of wooden xylophones for places with Gorons or repetitive harp picks in the Zora locations for example. Meanwhile dungeons have somewhat ominous melodies, sounding much more mellow and using longer notes. The most I can say is that it’s your standard Legend of Zelda soundtrack, which is by no means a complaint. 

World & Dungeon Design

The land of Hyrule is pretty big, though luckily, it’s not massive, so while there’s a lot to explore, it’ll likely only take you a couple of minutes to reach your desired area. From the start of the game, you are free to explore the world to your heart’s content, though there are sections you definitely shouldn’t head to if you don’t have enough heart containers. The key areas of the world are very easily found on the map and have a unique type of environment to the rest of the world. That being said though, they’re not always the easiest to get to, most of them are, and this could just be due to me being an idiot having a never ending brain fart, but I did find myself struggling to get to particular sections, either because I had a hard time figuring out which path to take or I didn’t have the right echo. Luckily, there are warp points by certain locations or buildings, so if you run out of potions and need to gather more quickly, you don’t have to run all the way to the shop for example. When you pick a main quest or side quest, you’ll be given an objective marker on where to go, but they’re not always great at pointing you in the right direction. Often telling you the area you’re meant to go to but not who you’re meant to talk to or will just stay at the point where you got the objective, this caused me to get confused a few times and left me wondering where I was meant to go or who I was meant to talk to. 

Your main quest is to enter and close the rifts that have infected Hyrule. Inside the rifts is where you really show your prowess when using Echoes (more of that later). The inside of the rifts is made up of disjointed platforms that you have to navigate. Not only will some of them be at a different elevation to others, there are plenty at a different angle, meaning that you’ll have to climb up them using tree or environment pieces. These sections are really cool and are surprisingly easy to navigate and get around once you understand what you’re doing. 

Dungeons are structured like any other Zelda dungeon. You have multiple rooms, some containing puzzles, many containing enemies, and you have to navigate your way through, finding keys and figuring out where to go, all culminating in a boss fight. I did find these dungeons to be quite the challenge at times, partially due to there being no real solution to each of the puzzles, instead allowing you to use the tools you have to move forward, which I really like. It felt really good to come up with my own way forward, and there were never any moments that I felt were unfair or solutions that made me think “Oh come on!”. 

There are a couple of sections in this game, often when diving into caves or traversing from one floor to another in a dungeon, where the game briefly turns into a 2D Metroid Vania. Gameplay will essentially be the same, you can still use all your abilities, you’ll just be doing it going from side to side. It’s probably because there are fewer directions I can go, but I found these sections more difficult than the rest. It took me a bit longer to figure out how to unlock a door or how to go down one particular path that had a treasure chest in it for example. Though this is entirely due to my own skill and at no fault of the game.

The Tri Rod & Combat(?)

As you’ve likely picked up from the trailers, the main item you’ll be using in this game is the Tri Rod, which is the one of the most unique items in any Zelda game. The key mechanic with this Rod is its ability to create “Echoes” of items. Basically, you can scan a pic of the environment that can be interacted with, or possibly not, and you’ll be able to create a copy of said item whenever you want, from wooden crates, to even blocks of water. This is how you get past the main obstacles of this game and what allows you to use your creativity to do so, as a few examples, stacking beds on top of one another to get across a gap, creating a rock to stop a gust of air from blowing you off a platform, or creating blocks of water and stacking them to swim up to a higher area. The items you can scan aren’t that difficult to find either, you can find a majority of them just by exploring the world for a few minutes, and if there’s anything that is really necessary for a dungeon, you’ll often find it within said dungeon. The items and number of them you can create depends entirely on how many triangles are hovering behind Tri, and how many the item requires, so you can’t just infinitely stack tables on top of one another to reach a high platform for example. This is the mechanic that makes the game for me. I love experimenting and coming up with different methods to solve puzzles and move forward in the story. I especially love that other players will have approached the same puzzles differently and have come up with unique solutions. 

Now what makes combat in this game so unique is… well, how non-combative it is. Zelda comes into this game without any kind of weapon outside of the Tri Rod which isn’t meant to be used for whacking Moblins. She does have a twirl, but that’s more for cutting grass than fighting enemies. Luckily, you do have a few non-traditional methods of battle; the key one being the Echoes. Yes, it’s not just boxes and potted plants that you make with the Tri Rod, you are also able to scan and create Echoes of any enemy that you’ve defeated. These creatures will be your weapons, they will fight any enemy they see for you, though they will have less health than their enemy counterparts, luckily if they die then you can just create another one immediately, so it’s not too detrimental. Just like the other items you can create, the stronger the monster, the more triangles it’ll take up. Unfortunately, fighting like this does have the risk of battles going on for way too long. There is a very likely chance that your monster will just keep missing another enemy, either because of teleportation if it’s a Wizzrobe or just because it’s at a higher elevation like the flying enemies, so these fights can get tiresome if they last too long, especially as you’ll likely just be running around avoiding attacks instead of fighting yourself. 

Now, some of you might be a bit put off by this. You may not want to have others fight for you and want to be in the fray. Well luckily for you, you are still able to. During the first dungeon you’ll come into contact with the shadowy doppelganger of Link, who after being defeated will drop his sword. Once picking up this sword you’ll be able to go into Swordfighter form and be able to fight like Link for a brief amount of time. As you play the game and encounter Shadow Link more often, you will collect more of his items which can also be used in Swordfighter form. While in this mode you’re unable to use the Tri Rod and attempting to do so will force you back into your normal form. Don’t think that you can stay in this form indefinitely however, as you also have an energy gauge that will gradually drain as you keep using Link’s stuff. I actually don’t mind this, I like that the game gives you another mode of combat to avoid fights going on for too long and I like that it can’t be abused, making you have to consider when the best time to use it is. What I don’t like is how difficult it is to collect the energy required to change into Swordfighter form. It’s only dropped by shadow enemies from the rifts which aren’t as common as normal enemies, so I’ll often end up getting into encounters with enemies where I could really use Swordfighter form only to have no energy left. You don’t really need it throughout the entirety of the game, but when you don’t have energy in encounters when you could really use the sword or bow, you really miss it. 

Collectables & Other Useful Items

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way, the Heart Pieces. We all know how these work by now I’m certain, collect four of them and you’ll get a new Heart Container. These are scattered all across Hyrule in hard-to-find places, so be very observant or be just like us rats and use a guide. 

One of the new collectables are the Might Stones. These little things are used to upgrade the weapons you sto- I mean… borrowed from Link, increasing the damage you’re able to dish out with them. Though a large chunk of them will be found within the overworld, you’ll get a chunk of them every time you close a rift, so you’ll be able to upgrade your weapons at least once. 

Throughout the game, you’ll find some materials, such as fruit or monster parts, which will either be dropped by enemies or found within treasure chests. These items can be used at a smoothie vendor to make yourself a delicious smoothie. The effect of said smoothie will depend entirely on what ingredients you use. For example, refreshing grapes will heal you, the chilly cactus will give you resistance to fire, rock salt will increase your energy and many more. You can combine two of these ingredients and the concoction you create will depend on what you use. I’m a bit mixed on this, for starters, I think that two ingredients don’t give that much room for experimentation or use of effects, especially when you compare it to the cooking in Breath of the Wild which lets you use a maximum of five ingredients. The second problem is that it’s way too easy to create an Unfortunate Smoothie, the result of combining two incompatible ingredients. I really hate this because not only does it discourage experimentation of the ingredient effects, but it also practically punishes you for doing so. Because of this I found myself just creating the incredibly safe health smoothies instead of using this mechanic to its full potential.

One pretty big help you’ll get comes from Accessories. These are small wearable trinkets that you can collect and will grant you a small power-up depending on which one you equip. Some will have effects like reducing the damage you take, letting you jump higher, or wall climb faster, some will even increase the likelihood of certain drops when you defeat enemies. These require a bit more digging than the collectables previously mentioned, some are very well hidden in dungeons or caves, some require you to complete a side-quest, meanwhile some can just be purchased from a store. My one complaint with the accessories is that you can only equip one at a time, meaning that you’ll either be constantly going into the menu and swapping them around depending on the situation or you’ll only keep one equipped all the time and ignoring the rest. I would have preferred it if you could equip multiple at once – three at most I’d say – encouraging you to collect more and allow you to get full use out of the effects. 

The final collectable I feel worth mentioning are the different outfits. These outfits will require you to go a little more out of your way to collect, as these will mostly be rewards for particular side-quests or by gathering all or a majority of other collectables. Only a couple of these actually have any effects during gameplay with the rest just being cosmetic, which I don’t actually mind. One thing that may be a bit of a negative for you is that there are three costumes that can only be unlocked via amiibo. Of course, these are entirely cosmetic and don’t have any gameplay effects, but if you’re a completionist and really need these items, then you may have some problems with it. 

Conclusion

This is the most experimental The Legend of Zelda game currently out there. It abandons the usual formula of the series for something new, and in my opinion, it does an excellent job with it. The story was a lot of fun, I loved experimenting with the Echoes, I just had a lovely time with this game. If you’re a fan of 2D Zelda, then I highly recommend Echoes of Wisdom. Honestly, I would love another game like this in the future, turns out you can have a great game without Link. 

8.8/10