The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

For the first time since the original game hit TV screens back in 1986, Princess Zelda finally takes the leading role in her own game. It’s a monumental moment that fans have eagerly awaited, but does Echoes of Wisdom let out a triumphant cry, or does it fail to find its voice?

The people of Hyrule are being stolen away by strange rifts that have appeared—and with a certain swordsman among the missing, it’s up to Princess Zelda to save her kingdom in a brand-new The Legend of Zelda story! Switch version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.

Echoes of Wisdom is a great maiden adventure for the franchise's eponymous princess, marrying old and new convincingly, and setting up a foundation for 2D Zelda games to thrive alongside their bigger 3D cousins.

Echoes of Wisdom brings the spark of the latest games, but also dives deeper into the ethos of the old games with its use of dungeons. While the regions are the same, there's a new life that's presented in this that nails the aspect of refreshing the franchise in a way that isn’t a total reset. The game delivers on bringing those two elements together and valuing the series. While it isn’t perfect...

In her first main series starring role, Princess Zelda has a lot to live up to, but Echoes of Wisdom is the kind of Zelda game you’d expect in style, substance, and quality.

Thanks to playful puzzles and an imaginative reinvention of Hyrule's historic iconography, Echoes of Wisdom emerges as a bold and creative new chapter in Zelda's legend.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a charming follow-up to Link's Awakening that builds on that game’s beautiful aesthetic while introducing just enough new mechanics to feel truly distinct. The dubious performance and repetitive combat can drag, but this is largely an excellent adventure throughout.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom takes the best things from its Switch counterparts—and a few of the bad ones—and creates an incredible unique free-form top-down experience.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a refreshing, albeit brief, series experimentation that blends modern and classic series elements. Using brand-new magic to battle and solve puzzles fits neatly into the top-down Zelda formula, despite some missteps.

Echoes of Wisdom does a good job setting up Zelda with fun and creative powers and a vast and adorable world to save. Echoes add fun creativity to puzzle solving, though do also have a tendency to break the game.

“The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom only feels like the beginning for what could become a great Zelda saga.”

Finally, Zelda takes the helm as the main protagonist in The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. After decades of being an NPC or relegated to spin-offs, Zelda now features as the hero in a mainline title. But does the game do her justice?