Zelda review: 'Echoes of Wisdom' is a worthwhile remix, not a revolution

Link’s got 20 hearts and a full arsenal — I steer him through the dungeon and tear into Ganon. Minutes into the latest Legend of Zelda game, I’m already slashing through to the classic conclusion I’ve played more times than I could count.

But this time, after beating the familiar archenemy, a purple rift starts to swallow Link whole. He fires his bow as he sinks, the arrow cracking the crystal trapping Zelda. Within seconds, he’s subsumed entirely, but the camera doesn’t go with him — it lingers. Experimentally, I tap a button. Zelda bashes her crystal prison, breaking it further. I tap again and again until she’s freed herself. Link — the hero of the series for nearly 40 years — has left the picture. Zelda’s fate is in her hands and mine.

Variations on a theme

It’s a bravura opening for Nintendo’s most surprising title in years — the first in the main Zelda series to star the titular princess. While the game’s at its most tantalizing before the plot slides into a well-worn groove, it’s still a triumph of iterative, experimental design.

Zelda herself is something of a blank slate — a beloved royal on the run after imposters take over her kingdom. Together with the mysterious Tri (the latest in a long line of fun-sized companions), you’ll copy enemies and monsters to conquer devious puzzles and enemies.

Where Tears of the Kingdom lets you assemble stupendous machinery, Echoes of Wisdom gives you a dazzling menagerie to let loose. I’ve fought Moblins, Keese, and Darknuts for decades — never before have I collected them like Pokémon to battle on my behalf. See an ice enemy? Summon a fire critter to melt it. A murder of crows? Try a Peahat — a helicopter-plant with razor-sharp thorns. Despite the game’s cozy vibes, it’ll make you feel like a field commander who can instantly summon troops.

Similarly, puzzles don’t demand one solution. That far-off chest? Magically bind yourself to a flying monster to reach it. Or conjure trampolines to bounce to it. Or perhaps use the reliable method of stacking mattresses to form a makeshift bridge (nearly every time I did so I squawked “Time for bed!” — because, yes, I am insufferable).

The game doles out these unique “echoes” right until the end — so many that they quickly become tedious to scroll through — but I came to rely on a mere handful. I never stopped experimenting, but I’d frequently fall into familiar habits. So, too, does the broader game.

The Legend of Link

Tears of the Kingdom scored emotional heights by focusing on Zelda and Link’s shared history. In contrast, these new versions of the characters don’t know each other at all. At first this works to the game’s benefit. Zelda’s unburdened from expectation and free to explore — from the brackish waters contested by the Sea and River Zora to the deserts the exclusively-female Gerudo call home (which Zelda, blessedly, doesn’t need to sneak into, as Link usually must!).

Yet the game gradually reveals its commitment to precedent. You’ll acquire Link’s sword, bow, and bombs, which you must spend a limited energy meter to use. I’d always summon my favorite allies to help in fights — but this “Swordfighter” mode increasingly became my preferred combat tactic.

That’s in part because I could easily supply energy-boosting drinks. Rather than let you pluck apples from trees or wheat from fields, Echoes of Wisdom stocks cooking ingredients in shops and chests you’ll find scattered throughout the world, which you can whip into nutritious smoothies for a small fee.

These mechanics echo past titles, but Link haunts the game most of all. Zelda has to save him to fulfill their mutually destined roles, which fall along predictably gendered lines. I could accept Link as an equal partner in Hyrule’s salvation if the game gave me more reasons to care about him. Instead, he remains a lore-mandated presence and a stranger to Zelda, who spent the entire game proving that she really can have it all. Where the opening minutes felt like Link passing the baton, the last felt like him refusing to let go.

Still, Echoes of Wisdom stands as a quietly revisionist work despite this dissonance. While the game’s experiments aren’t quite as successful as Tears of Kingdom’s, Zelda has proven to be capable of shouldering the series that bears her name. As Nintendo plans a new gaming console, I can only hope it has the wisdom to build on this promising new Legend.