The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
A new Zelda game comes out later this month and I’m still not really sure how to feel about it.
I’m excited, for sure. New Zelda is always a good thing. But I pre-ordered Tears of the Kingdom and I still haven’t actually played it. The kids did, and they seem to have enjoyed it. For me, I just couldn’t get enough uninterrupted time with the Switch while I was simultaneously interested in picking up something new. Alas, I OWN TotK, I just haven’t bothered with it yet.
Echoes of Wisdom is interesting in that it actually stars Zelda, the namesake of the entire franchise. Despite the propensity of players to name their character “Zelda” in some past entries of the game, Link has always been “that little green man” (as my grandmother called him) that we got to actually play as. That finally changes with Echoes of Wisdom, as Princess Zelda is the player character.
I’m glad we finally get to play as Zelda. That’s a cool theory that fans have discussed for years. I feel like there was playground talk of playing as Sheik back in Ocarina of Time. The fact that we can finally play as Zelda for real is really neat. That doesn’t necessitate that it’s going to be a good game, but it’s something new at least.
Watching the release trailer for Echoes of Wisdom, I can’t help but have mixed feelings. The graphics and environments look remarkably similar to the Switch remake of Link’s Awakening, which is probably one of my favorite remakes of all time. They took a game that was really fun but limited by hardware, and baked it out into a full-fledged console release. And did it WELL. Link’s Awakening is probably one of the main games I would recommend to new Switch owners, even over Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (go ahead and light me up for that one).
The gimmick (and I use that term intentionally) of creating “echoes” of things you’ve encountered seems like it will get old quickly. I get that they’re trying to provide players with multiple ways to solve a problem, but I feel like that’s more confusing than just having a planned way to navigate any given issue. It’s one of my main gripes about A Link Between Worlds. The flexibility of obtaining new items at any point in any order makes it harder to know what players will approach a particular problem with. It just feels inherently un-Zelda.
I’m certainly not writing off Echoes of Wisdom before I even play it. Maybe it FEELS a lot better than it LOOKS, and you can’t know that until you experience it for yourself. It does mean that I’m not pre-ordering, though. If my oldest wants it for his birthday, we can make that happen. If either kid wants it for Christmas, I’ll keep an eye out for Black Friday deals. But I’m not going out of my way to pick this one up immediately after release. You early adopters can try it out and find the issues that inevitably result in patches. I’ll play it once those problems are sorted out.
I have to confess, I do LOVE 2D Zelda games in general. I have my complaints about A Link Between Worlds, but I just think the overhead camera angle is more traditionally Zelda-esque. I’m cautiously optimistic that this game could reignite interest in 2D Zelda. Although turn-based RPGs were a product of hardware limitations at the time, they’re still my favorite type of RPG. Similarly, overhead Zelda games were something developers were restricted to at the time, but they really did create an interesting type of game and I can’t see why they should be entirely forgotten.
Maybe in a couple of months, I’ll publish a glowing review of Echoes of Wisdom. Heck, maybe I’ll get around to playing and reviewing Tears of the Kingdom for that matter. For now, I’m just keeping an eye on reviews and community opinions to see how it shakes out. When Echoes of Wisdom inevitably makes it to the Games Done Quick stage, I’ll be forced to pick it up and play through it so I can watch the run without spoiling anything for myself. Until then, I’m just a passive observer of the Zelda franchise and gaming industry as a whole.
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| Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94RTrH2erPE |
Echoes of Wisdom is interesting in that it actually stars Zelda, the namesake of the entire franchise. Despite the propensity of players to name their character “Zelda” in some past entries of the game, Link has always been “that little green man” (as my grandmother called him) that we got to actually play as. That finally changes with Echoes of Wisdom, as Princess Zelda is the player character.
I’m glad we finally get to play as Zelda. That’s a cool theory that fans have discussed for years. I feel like there was playground talk of playing as Sheik back in Ocarina of Time. The fact that we can finally play as Zelda for real is really neat. That doesn’t necessitate that it’s going to be a good game, but it’s something new at least.
Watching the release trailer for Echoes of Wisdom, I can’t help but have mixed feelings. The graphics and environments look remarkably similar to the Switch remake of Link’s Awakening, which is probably one of my favorite remakes of all time. They took a game that was really fun but limited by hardware, and baked it out into a full-fledged console release. And did it WELL. Link’s Awakening is probably one of the main games I would recommend to new Switch owners, even over Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (go ahead and light me up for that one).
The gimmick (and I use that term intentionally) of creating “echoes” of things you’ve encountered seems like it will get old quickly. I get that they’re trying to provide players with multiple ways to solve a problem, but I feel like that’s more confusing than just having a planned way to navigate any given issue. It’s one of my main gripes about A Link Between Worlds. The flexibility of obtaining new items at any point in any order makes it harder to know what players will approach a particular problem with. It just feels inherently un-Zelda.
I’m certainly not writing off Echoes of Wisdom before I even play it. Maybe it FEELS a lot better than it LOOKS, and you can’t know that until you experience it for yourself. It does mean that I’m not pre-ordering, though. If my oldest wants it for his birthday, we can make that happen. If either kid wants it for Christmas, I’ll keep an eye out for Black Friday deals. But I’m not going out of my way to pick this one up immediately after release. You early adopters can try it out and find the issues that inevitably result in patches. I’ll play it once those problems are sorted out.
I have to confess, I do LOVE 2D Zelda games in general. I have my complaints about A Link Between Worlds, but I just think the overhead camera angle is more traditionally Zelda-esque. I’m cautiously optimistic that this game could reignite interest in 2D Zelda. Although turn-based RPGs were a product of hardware limitations at the time, they’re still my favorite type of RPG. Similarly, overhead Zelda games were something developers were restricted to at the time, but they really did create an interesting type of game and I can’t see why they should be entirely forgotten.
Maybe in a couple of months, I’ll publish a glowing review of Echoes of Wisdom. Heck, maybe I’ll get around to playing and reviewing Tears of the Kingdom for that matter. For now, I’m just keeping an eye on reviews and community opinions to see how it shakes out. When Echoes of Wisdom inevitably makes it to the Games Done Quick stage, I’ll be forced to pick it up and play through it so I can watch the run without spoiling anything for myself. Until then, I’m just a passive observer of the Zelda franchise and gaming industry as a whole.
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