The Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Review - A Link Between Eras
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom offers a link between the two worlds of Nintendo’s iconic action-adventure franchise. It has the playfulness and freeform puzzles of Tears of the Kingdom and the traditional dungeon design the franchise was known for prior to Breath of the Wild’s seismic shake-up. Echoes of Wisdom deftly bounces from past to present and establishes its own identity, turning the page to start a new legend for Princess Zelda.
By now, you’re probably well-aware that the major change here is that the franchise namesake is finally the playable character. Technically, the Philips CD-i game Zelda’s Adventure was the first to do this, but that abysmal game was nothing like Nintendo’s Zelda games–it wasn’t even published by Nintendo. Echoes of Wisdom is the first proper game starring Zelda, which sounds rather ridiculous when you consider the fact that Tingle has starred in three games and a multi-function DSiWare app where you can have your fortune read by the creepiest dude from Hyrule.
From a narrative perspective, the role reversal makes little impact, largely because Echoes of Wisdom is light on story. A malevolent force is creating rifts across Hyrule that turn residents of Hyrule, including Link and Zelda’s father, into statues inside the dark and dreary dimension known as the Still World. Much like how Link was accused of wrongdoing in A Link to the Past, Zelda is accused of creating the rifts and is subsequently imprisoned; you’ll even find Wanted posters around Hyrule, this time showing Zelda’s face instead of Link’s. In her cell, she meets Tri, an ethereal being who accompanies Zelda on her quest and is essentially Zelda’s version of Navi from Ocarina of Time. Though some express momentary shock that Zelda is the kingdom’s only hope, she is mostly viewed as the one person capable of defeating the evil threatening to consume Hyrule.
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