The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

thesixthaxis.com:

There’s plenty of tropes that have persisted through the 35-year history of The Legend of Zelda, the developers over the decades painting with the same motifs of Triforces, a battle through the ages with Ganon and Ganondorf, and a young boy in a green tunic for the hero. It’s a testament to the series creators that they’ve still been able to tell such compelling tales while using the same brush and colour palette. But it’s also time for a change. With The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom it’s time for Zelda to be the hero of her own story.

Now it’s time for Zelda to save the land of Hyrule from a great peril, as it’s Link and not Zelda that’s sucked into mysterious purple rifts that are spreading across the land. And that simple-sounding change of protagonist brings with it massive changes for how this game actually works. Nintendo and developer Grezzo could have simply given Zelda a sword and shield and sent her out in a green dress, but instead they’ve cooked up wholly new and refreshing gameplay ideas for her to journey with.

Presented with a Triwand by the helpful rift-healing sprite Tri, Zelda becomes more of a trickster wizard than a frontline brawler. The Triwand enables her to copy all manner of objects through that she find through the world and then summon them as ‘echoes’ to help her get around. Want to get up onto a ledge? Well, laying small tables, crates and beds can create an impromptu staircase to hop up. Need something to throw at the traditional Zelda game enemies? Summon a rock, pick it up and toss it at them! You’re limited only by the amount of energy pips that Tri has, and the temporary cost that each echo has.

There’s other abilities lent to Zelda by Tri more directly, namely being able to Bind to objects and move them around with Zelda, no matter how big they are, or to have Zelda lock to and move with them, such as with a moving platform. You can switch back and forth while linked, which brings huge possibilities together for the environmental