I’ll be honest: when The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was first announced, my initial reaction wasn’t the “oh boy, a brand new Zelda!!” burst of excitement you’d expect from such a momentous announcement, but more of a “this looks like a rushed reuse of assets” scoff, due to how uneventful Nintendo’s own reveal felt like. To be fair, my initial statement was quite unfair, as my favorite Zelda game of all time, Majora’s Mask, was exactly that, a rushed reuse of Ocarina of Time assets, just used in a very smart and creative manner. I didn’t give Echoes of Wisdom too much attention when it first came out, but I took advantage at the sheer nothing released in late December to give it a go. So, how was it?

A shockingly sizeable Hyrule for you to explore and sequence break.

The idea of finally being able to play as Zelda in an official and canonical episode of her own franchise was actually exciting. The issue was that Echoes of Wisdom just oozed “spin-off” vibes from all of its marketing campaigns. In this regard, I honestly feel Nintendo is partially to blame, as not a lot was being showcased of the game’s lore and the fact it wasn’t just a spinoff during its promotional period. In truth, Echoes of Wisdom might look like a mere recycling of Link’s Awakening‘s assets, but this is a brand new title, with a lot more scope than the Switch remake of the Game Boy classic could have ever dreamed of, but that might also be one of its biggest weaknesses.

So, as expected, you play as Zelda. Instead of being the typical damsel in distress, her role is to save Hyrule from a brand new threat not called Ganon, as Link is the one missing in action. Upon being attacked by a series of evil clones of her close ones, she meets a fairy-like creature called Tri, who conjures a special staff which allows Zelda to summon “echoes”, which are copies of other things or enemies she finds across the land of Hyrule. Given how Zelda, for some stupid reason, is unable to fight on her own, she uses the power of the staff and her conjured slaves to save Hyrule from this brand new threat, all while trying to find Link in this somewhat large map of the land, at least for pseudo-2D standards.

I feel like at least two thirds of all puzzles can be solved by simply creating a pile of beds.

Pseudo-2D? You may be asking yourself this right now. Let me explain this nonsense. Echoes of Wisdom might be inspired by other 2D Zelda games, but this is still, in theory, a 3D game. There is a surprisingly impressive emphasis on platforming, given how you have a jump button, and a good chunk of your most useful echoes can be used to create elevated platforms, allowing you to skip entire sections of the map if you plan properly. In fact, I noticed how an excessive amount of the game’s puzzles could have been solved by merely stacking beds on top of one another, creating long and tall staircases which allow Zelda to reach other platforms or even walk on top of trees, in a borderline sequence breaking manner.

I appreciate the creativity in the puzzle solving, however. There aren’t many items to collect in Echoes of Wisdom, so the echoes themselves are used as such. Electric echoes can light switches, bats can be used as gliders, gust machines can remove piles of sand and put out torches, Ignizol can light said torches, and so on. The game shines when it gives you a puzzle, only for you to figure out how to solve it. Very rarely will Echoes of Wisdom throw a puzzle at you that features just one solution. The development team has clearly taken notes from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in this regard.

The game has a surprising amount of side dungeons and boss battles.

It’s the same that the UI is just downright atrocious, and you have no idea how weird it feels to play a Zelda game with such a glaring issue. Echoes of Wisdom features more than 120 echoes, but you only have one slot to use them. Furthermore, you need to select them from a menu with a simple horizontal line. All 120+ echoes are set in the same list, making the act of searching for them, or to even look for new ones to experiment with, absolutely tedious and counterintuitive. You will tend to stick to your most used echoes, as they will constantly show up at the beginning of your list. Ain’t nobody got time to scroll past hundreds of echoes at a time just to “experiment”.

The other main glaring issue with the game is the combat. You see, this might be Zelda’s first adventure as a protagonist, but I don’t think Nintendo wanted to give her the same degree of attitude and power as Link. Zelda cannot actively attack any enemies. She has three methods in order to fend off against threats, but none of them ever feel ideal in an open world environment like this one.

Echoes of Wisdom is full of side-scrolling sections, with lots of echoes being a perfect fit for these areas.

The first method is to simply pick up rocks or crates and throw them at enemies. It’s your initial method of attacking enemies, before you’re able to capture their essence and then conjure them as an echo. Once you have acquire an enemy echo, you can freely summon them as weapons against other enemies. Think of them as your bodyguards. You gotta outsource your combat to cheap slave labor, like the royal scum you are. This never feels intuitive. At first, enemies are stupidly weak, so your echoes feel useless. At the same time, once you acquire powerful echoes like Darknuts and Lynels, Echoes of Wisdom becomes a boring cakewalk. You will feel endangered ever again.

The third method is to morph into Link and then use your sword, bow and bombs against enemies. In essence, you can then play as the Link from the Switch remake of Link’s Awakening. Of course, this comes with a big fat caveat. You can only become Link for a brief period of time, essentially using this game’s equivalent to the traditional Magic Meter seen in other Zelda games. This is the only moment in which the combat feels somewhat satisfying, but sadly, your energy meter isn’t as easy to replenish as Magic is in other games. Echoes of Wisdom imposes theses hurdles in order to pretty much force you to use monster conjuring as your main attacking method, and I really didn’t like that.

The Business Scrub from Majora’s Mask returns as a smoothie vendor. Zelda is such a valley girl.

It is a shame, because there’s a lot to love in Echoes of Wisdom, and I do mean a LOT. This is the return to form to anyone who was hoping for a brand new traditional-ish Zelda experience. Even if the game allows you to tackle some of its dungeons in any order… it’s exactly that, you tackle dungeons. With small and boss keys. There are minibosses and traditional bosses, maps to collect. The somewhat big land of Hyrule is full of collectibles, such as Heart Pieces and some pieces of equipment.

I loved the dungeon design. It takes inspiration from A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, but it adds a layer of third-dimensional complexity to the mix. These are some of the best dungeons I’ve seen in Zelda games, period. Better than most Wind Waker temples, for instance. The creativity in the puzzle design, the fact their exterior counts as an explorable area, it’s some impressive stuff. Granted, some temples are much better than others (the Deku and Gerudo ones being vastly better than the Zora and Goron ones, for example), but all in all, a really impressive assortment of explorable dungeons, and a great return to form for the traditional Zelda formula.

I don’t know who thought this echo selection user interface was a good idea, but I can safely say that person was wrong.

The Zora, Gorons, Deku, Gerudo, they are all here. As mentioned, each region is ruled by a specific race, with a temple to tackle. It’s a vibe not unlike Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, especially since a lot of character from both games make cameo appearances. In terms of presentation, Echoes of Wisdom features the same adorable art style seen in the remake of Link’s Awakening, but with bigger, more creative environments. That has also resulted in an incredibly unstable framerate, however. It targets 60fps, but it rarely reaches that. In fact, it actually drops to the mid-20s more often than not. Yet another victim of being held hostage under the shackles of the Switch’s super dated hardware.

Finally, just a quick note on the sound design. Even though it has some really good tunes with motifs taken from other Zelda games, I wouldn’t call it one of the most impressive soundtracks in Zelda history. Better tunes are unlocked midway through the plot. It’s still pretty good, please don’t get me wrong, but I expect magnificence from a Zelda soundtrack. C’mon. It’s Zelda.

Once you acquire echoes like the Lynel or the Darknut, combat sections become a mere formality.

You may leave this review thinking I didn’t enjoy Echoes of Wisdom, but this is not true. In fact, I liked it a lot more than I could have ever predicted. A lot of elements in Echoes of Wisdom are magnificent. In some aspects, it’s probably the best 2D Zelda ever made. It has some of the best dungeons in the series, and it’s full of creative ideas. I just feel like some of its main gameplay features actively hinder it more than make it stand out. It’s just a flawed game, something you rarely see coming from this franchise. Still, if you can put up with an admittedly disappointing combat system, I wholeheartedly recommend giving Echoes of Wisdom a go. It’s the return to a traditional formula you’ve been asking for, and it’s one of the most charming Zelda adventures to date.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is available now on Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.