“The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom” follows Zelda in her first game as the lead protagonist, finally making the confusion surrounding “The Legend of Zelda’s” lead character being named Link dissipate. This spin-off follows Zelda after Link is kidnapped and an evil force takes over Hyrule and its residents.

Zelda as the lead protagonist of a “Legend of Zelda” game has been a long-awaited concept for fans, and Nintendo finally delivered. Having this come about via Link’s kidnapping right after saving the princess comes as a unique twist on the story. The game opens with the player as Link, but as he rescues Zelda from the “big bad,” he’s whisked away into a shadow realm. This leaves her to escape the dungeon on her own. While unique, the surprise might have been more entertaining if the trailers didn’t market this as a Zelda game. 

The gameplay loop and mechanics are interesting but can get tiresome. The player is given a new tool called a “Tri Rod” that creates “echoes” for the player to use. An echo is a copy-paste item that the player can summon on command. Players can spawn pots to fall and make noise to distract enemies, they can place tables to make stairs to high points and they can even summon enemies to fight alongside them. It’s an interesting mechanic that works well, but given the near 20-hour game runtime, this mechanic can get old quickly.

Seeing Hyrule in a new way and in the “Link’s Awakening” remake art style is refreshing. The cartoonish aesthetics fit the franchise well and truly make it feel like a storybook unfolding before the player as the game progresses. The open-world elements of both “Breath of the Wild” and “Tears of the Kingdom” changed the franchise’s pace nicely. But, having a Zelda game that returns to the 2D, top-down perspective of the classic games stands as a nice reminder that just because of the success of the last two Zelda entries, Nintendo has no intentions of ditching the style of the classics.

Fans of “The Legend of Zelda” will love “Echoes of Wisdom” as it’s a spin-off that has heart. Despite boredom that could come from the simplistic and repetitive style of the main mechanic, the game feels incredibly charming and has a lot of fun puzzles for players to goof around in during their adventure.

8 echoes out of 10