The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom review: a good start, but not yet royal

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom MSRP $60.00 Score Details Pros

Echoes make for clever puzzles
Great exploration
Classic formula still holds up
Excellent music

Cons

Limited selection of echoes
Poor echo UI
Some out of place systems

When I think back on my decades’ worth of Zelda memories, there’s one that sticks with me the most: that time I squashed Dark Link like a bug.

Partway throughThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Link must fight his doppelganger. The shadowy villain is his perfect match, countering every one of his sword slashes. It’s a tough fight — or at least I imagine it would have been. Rather than trying to beat him the old-fashioned way, I simply equipped my Megaton Hammer and squashed him like a bug. Anytime I’ve relayed that story to a friend, they’re almost always surprised. They’d either out-slashed him or fought back with their bow. It’s a simple moment, but one that makes my playthrough feel special. It’s not just Link’s adventure that I’m tuning into; it’s my own, too.

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Nintendo has drilled down on that feeling with recent games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but now it’s taking that idea to its classic formula. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom both revisits and reinvents the series’ top-down days by placing Princess Zelda in the lead role and giving her a new item-copying ability. That change opens the door for a whole adventure full of “Dark Link” moments, as every challenge in Hyrule becomes an open-ended puzzle. It’s a great idea for a series that thrives on change, but one that’s not yet fully realized. With a limited selection of objects to copy and a safe reliance on series staples, Zelda’s first solo adventure doesn’t fully step out of Link’s shadow.