“Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom” is the newest addition to the “Legend of Zelda” franchise. Released early Sept. 2024, the game was highly anticipated after the release of “Breath of the Wild” and “Tears of the Kingdom,” the games that helped revolutionize open-world games.

This game introduced a new concept to Nintendo’s iconic series, making Princess Zelda the main character rather than the hero Link. Yet it also brought back the nostalgic linear dungeon crawling and key item-styling progression from the older games in the series. Combined with the freeform problem solving mechanics that were well-liked in these games, I had high expectations for this game.

With the mawkish cartoonish character designs, a solid 180 from the cel-shaded art style of “Tears of the Kingdom,” it is a direct call back to the stylized pixel art from the original top-down Zelda games like “A Link to the Past,” “The Minish Cap” and “Link’s Awakening (2019).” In my opinion, even the enemies and bosses look very cute in this simpler style. The bright colors are captivating, especially after seeing Nintendo’s release of the official artwork of Zelda over the summer. It was great to see the unusual vibrancy of characters that pop out of the screen. 

The overall story of the game starts after “Link’s Awakening,” where the characters are back in Hyrule as Link comes to save Princess Zelda from Ganon, soon after Link is swallowed by a purple rift but manages to free the Princess before he is fully consumed. This is the first game where the player is able to properly control Princess Zelda and play as her, even though it has been several decades since the first release of the series. While she, in other games, is a very prominent side character, it was honestly cool to see her finally as the main character of the series named after her. I wished that the first game revolving around her had a stronger storyline than “Echoes of Wisdom,” but it is still a good debut. 

After this incident, Zelda is imprisoned in the castle, as she has been framed for causing the rifts that have been swallowing up people throughout the Kingdom of Hyrule. She is thrown into the castle’s dungeon, and with the help of a fairy named Tri, she is able to escape. Zelda is then put on an adventure to eliminate the origin of Hyrule’s mysterious rifts. It was interesting to see a reintroduction of a fairy-like creature that helps the main character traverse the world. It really reminded me of the fairy Navi, who was first introduced in “Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,” as Link’s navigator. 

The whole premise of the game consists of players using echoes to solve puzzles and quests and to navigate the world. A new mechanic brought to the game is copying monsters and being able to conjure them in battle — reminiscent of real-time strategy games. I personally really enjoyed this aspect of problem solving. Rather than just focusing on attacking, I had to focus on creating a battle strategy as well, and the overall dungeon-esque style of many of the battles in the game piqued my interest. 

However, with this style of combat, I was really disappointed to see that Zelda is so passive when in battle, only relying on using echoes to conjure rather than having a skill to directly hit the monsters. Plus, the only way for Zelda to attack is when she is in the form of Link. I wish that this game had fully just been a story about Zelda, rather than still including such a big factor of transforming into Link. 

The pacing of the game is very smooth sailing. All of the side quests blended well with the main story, and the exploration and world limitations make sense. One issue I found with exploration though, was that temples cannot be completed in any order, like how they are in the more recent games. Despite this factor resembling older games in the series, I was disappointed with how structured the exploration is with temples, especially since the game was released after “Breath of the Wild” and “Tears of the Kingdom.”

Overall I was really excited to finally see a game about Princess Zelda. While I wished that the game could have been in the same art style of the previous games, with the lackluster storyline, the simpler artstyle seems to fit better. Despite my complaints, I give the game a genuine 3.84/5.

Verdict: 3.84/5