The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Hands-On Preview
In the annals of Player2 history, namely episodes of Patched, it has been very well documented that the path Nintendo had chosen to pursue with their work on The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, and The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, wasn’t really for me. I enjoy the more defined paths of the Zelda games of yesteryear and the complete sandbox of the two new Switch entries wasn’t of much interest to me. With the announcement of The Legend Of Zela: Echoes Of Wisdom however, there was a fire in my heart that stirred once again as a Zelda game could once again be reconnecting with me. Now, thanks to Nintendo Australia, I’ve had the opportunity to dive into Echoes Of Wisdom, and while it’s not the complete step in the direction I would have wanted from my ideal Zelda game, I quickly came to realise that in its own unique ways, this Zelda came could too rekindle my love of the franchise.
Across an approximately 90 minute demo I had the opportunity to check out some of the earliest stages of Echoes Of Wisdom with Zelda taking centre stage, and I was astounded by just how superbly that both Nintendo and Grezzo have intertwined combat and puzzle design. The traditional formula of the Zelda franchise saw these two pillars of gameplay exist separately but with a change in lead protagonist, so to has there been a change in the way these two pillars interact. Everything, including combat, is a puzzle in Echoes Of Wisdom, and while I had the luxury of playing the game myself, I also had the ability to look across at what at what a fellow pair of journalists were doing on the big screen. While I completed everything the demo could offer me first, I was impressed by the how often that their approach to combat, or to solving a puzzle would differ to my own.
The creative license that Breath Of The Wild or Tears Of The Kingdom provided you with is somewhat more contained in Echoes Of Wisdom however with Zelda having the ability to summon echoes, players still have many different ways to get innovative with the available mechanics. From summoning pieces of furniture to different types of defeated enemies, you will seemingly always have what is required to navigate a situation, but your success is then dependent on how you utilise those echoes to achieve your goal. Acquiring echoes, especially those relating to enemies isn’t hard, however I did find that quite a few even from this vertical slice, were missable. There were a surprising number of hidden nooks and crannies where opportunities for loot and new echoes were hidden, a number that I missed but my fellow previewers happened upon, some made the later encounters substantially easier.
With mysterious ally Tri, along with the Tri Rod, Zelda can expend a finite currency of Tri’s power. These follow Tri around making it easy for players to see how much they still have available to use. Want to bite off more than you have available? That’s fine, but you will then lose access to the earlier summoned Echoes to provide Tri with the requisite power to summon your newest echo. At first it feels like a lot, but as soon as you begin to keep track of the cost of summoning a rope, versus a crate, or a moblin, it’ll quickly become a case of strategy, more than luck, that gets you through.
Zelda also has the ability to force push or pull items using a ‘Bind’ ability, while the quirk ability to ‘Reverse Bond’ allows you to link up with a moving object and get dragged through space in parallel to the movement of the object. It felt through the demo like I was barely scratching the surface of what was possible with this combination of powers as I dragged objects around and was carried over cavernous pits with reverse bond, so I’m incredibly intrigued (and even paritally intimidated) by the possibilities that will unlocked in time. For a brief period, Zelda can even swing a sword, seemingly owned by Link. By raising it, Zelda has a brief window where she can inflict as much damage as she can just like the iconic hero of time. Beyond this, Zelda can also jump higher, defend with a shield and launch spin-attacks. These exciting bursts serve as much appreciated touch-stones to the traditional Zelda experience that I greatly appreciated.
The toy-like designs found in the 2019 Link’s Awakening remake return but with an original Zelda experience comes new opportunity to stretch the legs for what this art-style can be. While the environments I navigated through this demo were somewhat familiar in their design, as players get the opportunity to explore the spooky ‘Still World’ and other realms of Hyrule, the stylings of the game will surely be tested further, and I look forward to what both Nintendo and Grezzo can do with it. The audio experience was, as always, a treat to behold with fresh and iconic Zelda tracks echoing through my ears, with more auditory bliss likely to come down the road.
I couldn’t be much higher about The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom if I tried. Having felt a bit burned by the direction of the prior new Zelda experiences on Switch, this was the change of pace that I never knew I wanted, but absolutely need more of. It may not be of the same enormous scale of Tears Of the Kingdom, but it has Echoes Of Wisdom has a heart that is even larger.
