The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Preview – Who needs Link anyway?

thesixthaxis.com:

It only took them 38 years, but Zelda is finally getting to be the star of her own legend. Sure, she’s had cameos as a badass in a bunch of the games that she lends her name to, but The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is the first time that she is the leading protagonist. It’s also the first time that hitting things with a sword or boomerang won’t be your first instinct when playing, and the blend of creative puzzle-solving at the heart of this game is a thoroughly refreshing change of pace.

Hyrule is once again thrown into complete chaos as a malevolent force reveals itself, dark and star-filled rifts spreading across the land, consuming the landscape, buildings and villages, and the people of the world. Some are even replaced by shadowy doppelgängers, including Zelda’s father, the king, who goes on to sentence her to death!

Surely some of the castle’s guards would have objected to such a dramatic change of tone, you’d have thought, but our hands on time with Echoes of Wisdom starts with Zelda locked up in a prison cell with only a mysterious new sprite named Tri for company. Gifting Zelda the Tri Rod, we’re quickly introduced to one of the most fundamental new ideas in the game: echoes.

The Tri Rod allows Zelda to copy and then recall all manner of objects that she comes across on her adventures, from tables and crates, to rocks, pots, trees, signs, trampolines, and even beds, if she needs a quick restorative nap! Right from the off, they lend a huge amount of playfulness to the puzzle-solving in the world, whether it’s creating steps to get up to a ledge, summoning pots to throw as a sound distraction (or to hop and hide in), layering trees and beds to make walkways, and so much more. It’s such a simple delight to use this ability as you’re getting around, and in a similar vein to Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo really leans into enabling player creativity when applying logic to overcome different scenarios – do you drop a heavy block to smash boxes, or set them on