The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is classic Zelda, with some brilliant twists

I’ll admit that I didn’t really know what to expect going into The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. On the one hand, it was refreshing to see the series finally let you play as the titular character being the lead playable character in a mainline entry. But on the other, I haven’t been the biggest fan of the game’s cartoonish art style, which was taken from the 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake, and I’m still riding the high of last year’s sprawling Tears of the Kingdom.

But after playing nearly an hour and a half of Echoes of Wisdom in a behind-closed-doors PAX West demo, I’ve come away extremely impressed. On top of (slowly) warming up to the cutesy aesthetic, I’ve found the hard pivot back the classic Zelda series structure, as centred around the wholly unique moveset of our Hylian princess, to be remarkably compelling.

That all starts with the premise. After a mysterious blight encroaches upon Hyrule, Link has gone missing and Zelda has been framed for yet-to-be-revealed reasons. It’s there that our demo begins, with Zelda having to team up with a spirit named Tri, who gives her a magical “Tri Rod” to escape the castle dungeons.

Right away, this is effective both in creating intrigue (how, exactly, did we get here?) and serving as a solid tutorial for all of Zelda’s Tri powers. Essentially, she can magically conjure up imitations (“Echoes”) of objects and even enemies at any time. Early on, this manifests in simple stealth puzzles in which you have to stack stools, plants and even beds to reach platforms above prison guards.

But eventually, things get really interesting with the Echoes of enemies themselves. First, it adds fascinating layers to combat, as you have to decide on the fly which enemy type is best suited for the situation. For instance, the bat-like Keese can’t take much damage, but you can summon a few at a time to fly around and swarm a foe. On the flip side, the Spear Moblin is slower but has projectile capabilities. What’s more, you can even combine both objects and enemies in satisfying ways; when my Spear Moblin couldn’t quite reach a Strandula spider, I used a stool Echo and then placed my minion on top of it so the curvature of his throw was perfectly aligned with the creepy crawler.

And that’s just for standard enemies; boss fights promise to offer even more depth. In my demo, I got to face off against the evil Link, who was teased in the latest trailer. With his iconic Hylian Shield, he can easily block front-facing attacks while jumping and slashing around at your Echoes. Therefore, you have to get a bit crafty; how can you use both the close-quarters rock-filled cave arena and your litany of creatures to get around Link’s shield? Indeed, there was a satisfying white-knuckle freneticism as I ran away from Link while lobbing different enemies at him — a feeling I’ve rarely felt in a Zelda game, where combat can generally feel fairly stale. Here, though, it’s actually quite novel thanks to the almost strategy game-lite focus on deploying enemies in real-time.

All in all, the Tri mechanics capture the endearing goofiness and “think outside the box” DIY mentality of Tears of the Kingdom while still keeping things tighter and more dungeon-focused since you’re not building entire vehicles and other contraptions to navigate a giant open-world.

Instead, you’re exploring classic Zelda-style dungeons, just through a completely new lens thanks to the princess’ unique repertoire. This includes the Tears of the Kingdom Magnesis-esque Bind ability that lets Zelda either move objects around, or Reverse Bond that lets her tether herself to moving objects to reach other areas. One particular standout puzzle section had me alternating between conjuring Strandulas to vertically climb their webs and Reverse Bond to traverse horizontally-moving platforms. Even just a few hours into the story, I was delighted to discover the variety and interconnectivity of Zelda’s powers, and I can’t wait to see what else she has up her sleeve.

The demo concluded with a tease for Zelda’s Swordfighter form, which lets her become a spirit version of Link, sword, shield and all. It’s both great fan service seeing Zelda assume the role of her greatest protector, “Hyah!”-ing and all, while also giving her some offensive capabilities beyond the enemy summoning. At the same time, it’s carefully balanced since it works on a depleting metre that only charges with certain energy crystals you can find while exploring, so you have to determine the best time to let it rip.

In so many ways, Echoes of Wisdom is already capturing what I admire about the Zelda series. Above all, I love that the series can have something as gargantuan and genre-defying as Tears of the Kingdom in 2023 and then something that’s more comfortably traditional yet also still remarkably inventive as Echoes of Wisdom the following year. It remains to be seen how worthwhile the Hyrule overworld will prove to be, but for now, Echoes of Wisdom has shot up to the top of my most anticipated games of the year, and I’m dying to play more.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom will launch exclusively on the Nintendo Switch on September 26th, 2024.

Image credit: Nintendo

Update: 04/09/2024 at 5:51pm ET — This feature previously listed one of Zelda’s abilities as “Reverse Bind,” but it should say “Reverse Bond.” We’ve updated accordingly.