For the first time since The Legend of Zelda’s inception in 1986, the series’ namesake is finally the playable protagonist. Echoes of Wisdom is not a spin-off or a non-canon entry in the ongoing legend but rather a proper Zelda game filled with dungeons and puzzles. Getting to explore a version of Hyrule as Zelda is overdue, and efforts have been made to make sure it retains the feeling of a Zelda game, while undeniably trying something new. Echoes lacks the scale and grandeur of previous Zeldas and its primary mechanic loses steam near the end of the adventure. It is, however, successful on enough other fronts that it absolutely earns a spot in the legacy of one of video games’ most undeniable franchises.
Echoes’ big hook is Zelda’s ability to clone and use just about every enemy and object in the game to complete her goals. This stands in for the typical Zelda item and even extends to swinging a sword, which Zelda herself doesn’t technically do. Zelda uses clones to solve her problems, and they are exciting to use in many ways. Finding new items to clone is exciting and becomes a fun collection sub-game; figuring out ways to use certain enemies (like grabbing onto a bat to fly over a gap) is rewarding.
I did find, however, as I made my way beyond the halfway point, that I had a handful of clones I used to bypass just about every task. I was still excited to find new enemies and items to clone, but I relied heavily on the old faithfuls. The dungeon design also suffers from the cloned-item-enemy approach as I experienced fewer and fewer revelatory moments. I wasn’t solving new puzzles in unique ways so much as I was figuring out how to use the same giant yellow platform with an eyeball to progress.
The combat generally underwhelmed me. Spawning my own enemies to watch them fight isn’t particularly thrilling. Zelda does have the ability to channel Link and use his sword (and other items) temporarily, but that also wasn’t particularly satisfying as it became a ripcord I often pulled when I was getting bored with watching my clones battle it out. Boss fights, thankfully, afforded a bit more creativity and I was always eager to take them on.
Where Echoes’ primary mechanic lost steam over the course of the adventure, the overall presentation never lost its charm. Borrowing the style of Grezzo’s last Zelda game (the 2019 Link’s Awakening remake), the character designs and world are incredibly charming. The music is fantastic, and, as is often the case with Zelda, the themes are familiar but approached from a new wonderful direction. Echoes has one of my all-time favorite Zelda overworld themes. The narrative also presents some fun surprises and, thankfully, doesn’t linger too long on its opening twist, which I was grateful for as I am sure it would have been exhausting for it to be the game’s full throughline.
Exploring that overworld (with the excellent soundtrack) is a strength. The dungeons’ open-ended nature sometimes made them feel superfluous and without challenge, but being able to go anywhere outside fairly early in the experience was welcome. The 2D Zelda games tend to suffer the most in the open world as that is where they feel the most constricted where they shouldn’t, but that is not the case in Echoes. Not only is exploration fun and open but there are often rewards for ending up in places you previously thought were inaccessible.
Echoes of Wisdom’s presumed goal was to find a happy medium between the rigid linearity of classic 2D Zelda and the experimental openness of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. A middle ground between the two does exist here, but I ultimately felt pulled in both directions without ever feeling fully satisfied with either. Sometimes I wanted to be able to experiment more, and sometimes I wanted to experience the joy of solving a defined puzzle with a specific item. But in the end, I finally got to experience a full, proper, no-asterisk Zelda adventure without having to explain, “Actually, you play as Link,” and I am grateful for the experience.
This 2025 review reflects our thoughts on the game’s current state at publishing. As such, post-launch updates were factored into the final score.
