Princess Zelda must escape from prison. She was sent to prison for her alleged involvement in the appearance of mysterious “rifts” throughout the land of Hyrule. Under normal circumstances, she would be trapped there until longtime hero Link could come and rescue her.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of WisdomHowever, that is not the case. In this game, Zelda can save herself and Link as well.
Echoes of wisdomComing out September 26 for Switch, it’s the first Zelda game to feature the character. When Nintendo announced the game in June, Legend of Zelda Eiji Aonuma, a fan of the game, said the goal was to “create a new style of gameplay that breaks away from the conventions of the past.” In other words, a new way for Zelda to stop being a damsel and come into her own.
Although it may seem like the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening—brilliantly animated environments and characters with adorably large heads—closer to the inventive spirit of Nintendo’s last game in the franchise. Tears of the KingdomAfter more than an hour of gameplay during a recent demo, we discovered Echoes of wisdom be a puzzle playground where everyone is responsible for their own adventure.
Zelda isn’t a seasoned swordswoman, so her powers are different by design. Using the Tri Rod, with a little help from a new character named Tri, she can create replicas of objects called “echoes” to help her navigate the world. There’s plenty to copy and create, from tables, beds, and campfires to enemies of all kinds. Need to make a bridge? Stack some boxes. Or tables. Or beds, right after you’ve taken a little nap on one. Fighting bosses? Try sending out a fleet of bats. Keese upon him, or perhaps an armed Moblin.
The first part of the demo involved Zelda’s escape from prison, where she’s just learning how to echo, and extended into a small portion of the game’s overworld. In a small village, I learned how to echo on a trampoline and used it to bounce off rooftops. In the countryside, I unleashed a spiked ball-shaped enemy to use as a battering ram against other enemies. However, it was the second half of the demo — a small dungeon with a boss fight — that I found most satisfying.
Echoes of wisdom It’s not as expansive as recent games like Breath of the Wild either Tears of the KingdomBut the exploratory formula is there. Zelda has a few other abilities that she’ll unlock later in the game, such as the power to grab an object and pull or push it. The combination of echoes (it’s unclear how many there are in total, but the demo had over a dozen) with Zelda’s grappling power has a lot of potential for silly solutions, such as the flamethrowing penises people made in TearsI especially loved jumping on everything I could and throwing everything I found, whether it was a rock or an enemy echo. Another player, according to a Nintendo representative, released an echo to fight for him while he was napping in bed.