Summary
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom features Princess Zelda as the main playable character for the first time.
- Players can capture the essence of items and enemies to use for exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat.
- The game has an impressive overall rating of 85, making it one of the highest-rated new game releases of 2024.
The reviews are in for the new Nintendo Switch exclusive game The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, set to launch on September 26. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is taking the franchise in bold new directions. While it features a style of gameplay similar to classic Zelda games and an art style lifted from the Link's Awakening remake, Echoes of Wisdom also features plenty of brand-new ideas.
For one, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom features Princess Zelda as the main playable character instead of Link for the first time in series history. Secondly, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom has a brand-new gameplay mechanic where players are able to capture the essence of items and enemies they encounter in the game world to then summon those things for exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat. The Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom gameplay videos have looked incredibly impressive, and now that the reviews are in, it's clear that the game has largely lived up to the hype.
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Was Originally Going to Be a Very Different Kind of Game
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom didn't start out its development as one might expect, with a very different direction initially planned for the title.
35 critic reviews have been counted for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom so far, earning the game an impressive 85 overall rating according to review aggregate site OpenCritic. This makes Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom one of the highest-rated new game releases of 2024, though it's not rated nearly as high as some other games in the series. Regardless, 85 is a great score, and it will be interesting to see how it fluctuates after more reviews are counted. Critics have praised the game's unique gameplay features and vibrant art style, while some have complained about performance problems when exploring the overworld.
Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review Scores
While 85 is a great score and indicates that The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is indeed a great game, it's technically the lowest-rated new Zelda game released on the Switch. The Link's Awakening remake earned an 87, while Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom both have 96. Again, it's possible that Echoes of Wisdom's review score will fluctuate, and so there's a chance the game's score will end up closer to Link's Awakening when it's all said and done, though fans shouldn't expect it to get close to the extremely high scores enjoyed by Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
There are rumors that the GameCube-era Zelda games could be getting ported to the Switch, but there's a good possibility that Echoes of Wisdom will be the final Zelda game released for Nintendo's home console/handheld hybrid. If so, one has to imagine that the next Zelda is in the works for the Switch's successor, and when it's revealed to the world, it will be interesting to see how it stacks up compared to Echoes of Wisdom and the other Switch Zelda games.
-
OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 85 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
- Released
- September 26, 2024
- ESRB
- E10+ For Everyone 10+
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo, Grezzo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Havok
- Franchise
- The Legend of Zelda
WHERE TO PLAY
Save Hyrule—this time with the wisdom of Princess Zelda!
The people of Hyrule are being stolen away by strange rifts—and with a certain swordsman among the missing, it’s up to Princess Zelda to save her kingdom in the latest adventure in The Legend of Zelda™ series!
Team up with the ethereal creature Tri and use the Tri Rod to create “echoes,” which are imitations of things you find in the environment—then recreate those echoes whenever you like to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. Use echoes like water blocks to reach new heights, make bridges out of old beds, throw rocks at foes, or find your own combination of echoes to do things your way. You can even make echoes of monsters to fight at your side in combat!
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
