What we do now echoes on in eternity.
Like most people, when The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was first announced in the 2024 Nintendo Direct, I was both immediately intrigued but completely skeptical that this successor and apparently direct sequel to Link’s Awakening would both revolve around Zelda herself and attempt to recreate the same densely packed and adored adventure from the GameBoy era. Unlike most streamers and reviews at the time of it’s release, I became absolutely smitten and immersed once again in this particular era of Hyrule’s timeline, and felt that playing as Zelda was just as engaging and rewarding as any of Link’s own solo adventures ever were.
I watched, frustrated and incredulously, as countless streamers bemoaned and frankly refused to engage with any of the game’s new mechanics. Instead of thoughtfully considering a room’s layout and the echoes available to them – they would breathlessly say ”Well if I had the Hookshot’ or ‘Roc’s Feather’ or the ‘Cane of Somaria’ I could be done with this.’ Jetting from one location to the other, spamming the Swordfighter form to clear rooms of enemies, chugging Salted Milk Smoothie’s, but then groaning when they couldn’t possibly understand which echo would do what to solve what puzzle.
Streamers themselves aside, who mostly use games to farm engagement and whose interaction with them can be a startlingly dubious metric for how good a game’s mechanics can be, I regret that so many young gamers tune into these streams to use the ham-handed gameplay and general refusal to actually engage with the game’s mechanic as any sort of basis for how engaging and valuable a game can be. The culture around Speedrunning as well has seemed to create an idea that the goal of any game is to blast through it as quickly as possible – hitting mandatory story beats and ignoring any organic urge to explore or experiment or soak in environments or art direction or sound design. Bragging about a low playtime as if anyone would treat any other medium by how quickly and slap-dashed they can watch a film or dissect a painting.
Games like Echoes of Wisdom may not be paragons of storytelling nuance or white-knuckle difficulty, because instead they beg the player to take their time. To smell the flowers. To go with the flow, and to soak up all the little interactions and modest challenges – just as Link’s Awakening did 30 or so years ago. And it’s that attitude, along with it’s fantastic visual design and innovative changes to the ‘Zelda’ formula that makes it worth playing – and of course, talking about.
Narrative Design
Story, Themes, and Conflicts
Echoes takes place in the ‘Fallen Hero’ timeline of Hyrule’s history, arguably the most compelling and colorful timeline in the series, an era marked by an iconoclasm of Hyrule’s creation myths, and a general ignorance of how the world works and it’s history – the most fantastically ‘medieval’ of settings offered from the Legend of Zelda series. Dotted across the overworld are vestiges of past entries from this timeline – The Eastern Palace from Link to the Past, ruins of the Desert Palace, in fact – Echoes overworld is essentially an expanded version of Link to the Past’s map. Where in Link to the Past, the boundaries beyond the playable world are obscured by clouds, Echoes reveals what was waiting on the other side – the Gerudo Desert, the Zora villages, the Faron Wetlands, and more.
Obviously the topography has changed some, but of course it would over the course of centuries. During this benighted era, the ‘Hero of Time’ is simply the ‘Hero’, the Sage is the ‘Priestess of Wisdom’ (evoking images of a shrine maiden purifying her temple and summoning shikigami), Ganon has been reduced to ‘the Blue Monster’, and the Triforce is only ‘The Primal Energy’. While the Triforce has been explicitly named and referenced in past entries into this timeline, it seems that Echoes wants to drive home that this name has been lost to time – even the current King of Hyrule only refers to it as ‘Primal Energy’. While introducing Zelda’s helpful and mercifully curt companion Tri, Echoes seems to suggest at least one way of ‘reclaiming’ the lost title of ‘Triforce’ to this timeline – now named partly for the plucky little void sprite that assisted Zelda in sealing the rifts across Hyrule.
Echoes is a story all about partings – bittersweet farewells, and the joyous reunions that follow. The very first plot point is the separation of the player from Link, and the separation of Link from Zelda. Link is separated from all those in Hyrule whom he is actively helping in his daily life, Lueberry, the residents of Suthorn, and more. The rifts themselves tear apart families, friends, and relationships, both literally and figuratively. Zelda’s mission across Hyrule, more than anything, is about repairing these rifts, and in turn, reuniting Link with Hyrule – and with her. Condé is separated from his father and his brother. Darston from his father and his tribe. The Deku Scrubs are separated from reality – indulging in their cotton candy instead of seeing the danger that is swallowing their homes. The ‘Echoes’ are multitudinous, Echoes of Wisdom is quite literally an echo of previous games – topographically and thematically. The story of Hero and Priestess has been echoing over and over across the centuries – the same conflicts rising and falling, with Hyrule ever caught in it’s wake. The deuteragonist in this story – Ganon, is only an echo. No one even knows his name or his true purpose in this grand circumlocution – his appearance to this Link only an echo from past Links and past conflicts long gone.
Echoes are also the reverberation of sound waves – typically in areas with large voids – that is, empty spaces with as little friction as possible so that we can more clearly hear the sound waves reach back to us. Null himself is a void creature – a buddhist-like chaos element that only functions to bring the world back to it’s ‘primal’ state – nothingness. Null himself is an ‘echo’ in a void. And of course the name ‘Echoes of Wisdom’ is Zelda’s use of Echoes. Her patron embodiment infused into the very essence of the echoes she is wielding against Null and his rifts.
Void or Chaos has long been a recognized element since before Aristotle. The buddhists recognize the void as an element. It stands to reason that the Legend of Zelda mythos too would place host to an entity that isn’t interested in power or anything tangible – but as a primordial demigod that cannot comprehend any state of being other than it’s own. A demiurge of some kind, tirelessly tearing at the fabric of reality in pursuit of it’s perceived loss of control on the world wrought by the creator goddesses.
Characters
Design, Development, and Dialogue
There is a lot of ‘nostalgic’ art design bandied about these days, what with Square Enix’s modestly successful HD-2D series, and a handful of various attempts to invoke the same pixel and sprite-based designs from the 80s and 90s. The Link’s Awakening remake and now Echoes of Wisdom, took a different route and created a modern art style that in many ways more accurately represents the art and design of the pixel era – without actually being pixel based. Characters are simple but detailed – environments are bursting with the same detail but just as simple and easy to navigate as any game from those bygone eras. It’s unique – and it’s painfully appealing. You can’t play through this game without being pulled towards every character and wanting to hear whatever it is they have to say – partly to enjoy their lighthearted smatterings of dialogue, but also just to soak in and review their intricate little designs. Their homes reflect their personalities, and their character designs influence their homes. They are a joy to interact with – even if their dialogue only boils down to ‘Hey there, Princess! Lovely day!’ The various races of Hyrule are fantastically displayed here, the Sea Zora are sleek and minimalistic and refined, while the River Zora are a little more rough around the edges and laid back. Both however are just completely adorable and bring so much life and character into this Hyrule. The only race who’s designs are a little all over the place seem to be the Gorons – but they are also the most physically diffuse of the races presented in this installment.
There is little ‘development’ to be spoken of in this title, but each chief of each tribe goes through a loss and retrieval. Condé and the Scrubs (more or less) also do as well. They are mild, but they all tie in to the main thematics of the game quite tidily. Tri, more than anyone, seems to go through the most development. He begins his journey purely focused on his mission – repairing rifts. But over the course of the journey he remarks how strange the residents of Hyrule are with their strong feelings and squabbles. It’s not until he meets Condé that Tri seems to express genuine concern for the Yeti and his family, and after the story is concluded feels like he has become more attached to Hyrule and the peoples therein. He is a parallel of sorts to Null – who only wants to bring things back to zero, without heed of any lives or feelings or ideas that might perish in that pursuit. Null’s final form as well very much resembles Tri and his ilk – whether this is because he has absorbed so many of them or because perhaps he is the progenitor OF Tri, it’s difficult to say.
Dialogue in Echoes of Wisdom is delightfully succinct – there are no mounds of dialogue to surf through, characters have one maybe two sentences to speak and that’s it. Tri as well is extremely non-invasive for a guide companion, his commentary is to the point and terse and helps move the adventure along at a pleasant pace. The brevity of the dialogue keeps the adventure feeling genuine or earnest – it’s not trying to use melodrama or long monologues to pull emotions out of you – it lets the characters and world and scenario speak for itself, it makes no pretense at being a grand millennial narrative, but like it’s predecessor Link’s Awakening, allows the simplicity and earnestness of the narrative speak for itself.
Gameplay
Influence, Mechanics, and UI/UX
The loop is simple, but effective – overworld discovery, bite-sized stillworld athletic courses, and then a traditional Zelda dungeon. Conservative mini-games are scattered throughout as well, ranging from mini collectathons to horse races – and my personal favorite, finding Stamp Guy’s little stands a la Breath of the Wild’s Korok Seeds (more or less). Echoes attempts to bridge the gap somewhat for new and returning players between the massive open world BOTW and Tears of the Kingdom games and the more traditional top-down entries from this timeline. Similar overworld monster skirmishes, same minimalist HUD, even going so far as to include the same RPG-buff elements like ‘Climb Speed’ and ‘Dive Time’ into the smoothie and accessory mechanics. It feels natural here, not shoehorned in or heavy-handed, and almost a natural evolution echoing back to Oracle of Ages and Seasons ‘Rings’ system to some degree. The overworld is much larger than Link’s Awakening, but also just as densely packed for the most part. There’s new echoes to learn and experiment with, treasure to collect, puzzles to solve, heart pieces to collect, terrain to crawl and explore for stamp stands, and interestingly – a straightforward quest system and journal.
Accessories and outfits are especially fun to play around with, though the outfits are frankly a little sparse and underexplored. The accessories however are plentiful, with the Frog Ring and Mastery Scrolls being the most fun to find and use. They pair well with the smoothie system, and the effects stack and can complement each other so you aren’t always changing accessories every few stops along the way (unless you want to). Some are even vital to switch in during specific boss or puzzle challenges.
Dampé and his automatons, however, feel like a little bit of an afterthought. They are powerful and interesting puzzles to solve and complete for him, but with the breadth of abilities at Zelda’s disposal, I often neglected them and completely forgot about using them in the dust of the frays. The fact that they break and require the somewhat rare Monster Stones (at least early on) to repair are a huge downside as well when you can summon echoes endlessly. Nonetheless I used them on occasion, and loved watching them overwhelm groups of enemies with their colorful abilities (when I could remember them).
The Swordfighter and Sword of Might, when used sparingly, are a great way to change up Zelda’s limited movement and abilities for tougher challenges and foes – especially the guardians at the end of each dungeon. The game allows you to use whatever is at your disposal to take down enemies however you wish, but there is an especial emphasis on using the Sword of Might during boss encounters, when shards of might float across the screen and can help you maintain the form a little longer. The first portion of boss encounters typically encourage you to use echoes or Zelda’s overworld abilities like binding and bonding (another element pulled directly from BOTW/TOTK) or echoes to subdue the boss, and then use the Sword of Might to deplete their health swiftly and cleanly before they recover. It’s a fun back and forth that takes advantage of everything you have at your disposal in a pleasant tit for tat back and forth. Even here, should you choose – you can rely solely on echoes and get along just fine. And there’s a great fun to finding which echoes will succeed the best in each encounter.
The final stretch of the game fully separates Zelda from LInk’s Swordfighter form and creates a sort of single-player co-op experience where you have to control Zelda and use her echoes as deftly as you can while guiding Link through the final dungeon, opening new paths for him and taking down groups of enemies together to move forward. Frankly, I wish this section had been much larger. It was extremely fun and engaging to be challenged in this new way so close to the end, and brought to mind Jabu Jabu’s Belly from Ocarina of Time (except actually enjoyable). Taking down Null too was quite reminiscent of OOT’s and BOTW’s endings where you must fully join forces with Link and together take down your foe. It’s fast-paced, a little brutal, and was an extremely strong way to end this adventure – with another joyful reunion.
Sound Design
Acting, Soundtrack, and Effects
While there’s no traditional voice acting to speak of, all the characters have a charming series of murmurs and grunts that they use to punctuate their dialogue. Each is tailored so specifically to each character and there’s an absolute menagerie of variety in them. The Dekus and the Hylians especially have strings of unique sounds they make as they speak that are just as much a joy to hear as it is to read what they’re saying. It gives a great life to their dialogue without being fully voiced that helps keep the dialogue brief and the adventure well paced. There are many times where fully voiced dialogue can slow a games pace to a crawl. Not everything needs to be fully voiced. Sometimes a few charming coos can convey more emotion and purpose than a fully voiced brick of dialogue can.
Echoes’ Soundtrack is staggeringly beautiful, merging some of the more ambient scores from BOTW/TOTK with some of the more melody-driven traditional tracks that are more usual for this timeline. Music is (as always in the Zelda series) a big part of the world and a unifying element between all of the diffuse races and perspectives across Hyrule. Some particular standouts include:
Suthorn Beach
A shy, coquettish first step into your adventure. I truly wish this had been the ENTIRE overworld theme.
Stilled Hyrule Castle
An unsettling, duplicitous melody that brings to mind ‘Hyrule Castle’ from Link to the Past.
Eldin Temple
A surprisingly jaunty tango that makes exploring Eldin a joy.
Faron Temple
Ocarina of Time fans should recognize the inspiration for this earthy, naturalistic, ambient track.
Last Judgement
Pros, Cons, and Verdict
Echoes of Wisdom is likely to be misunderstood by those laboring under nostalgic reverence without being able to transform it into something productive, without being able to see through it to something new. However, with those who are open to new experiences and iterations on the age old conflict between Power, Wisdom, and Courage – they will find a warm and tender embrace in this charmingly paced diorama-like successor to the GB/GBC era of the Legend of Zelda.