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Princess Zelda has to escape from jail. She was tossed into prison over her alleged involvement in the appearance of mysterious “rifts” all over the land of Hyrule. Under normal circumstances, she’d be stuck down there until longtime hero Link could come rescue her.
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, however, doesn’t play like that. In this game, Zelda can save herself—and Link too.
Echoes of Wisdom, launching September 26 for the Switch, is Zelda’s first game in the leading role. When Nintendo announced the game in June, Legend of Zelda stalwart Eiji Aonuma said that the goal was to “create a new gameplay style that breaks conventions seen in the past.” In other words, a new way for Zelda to step out of the damsel role and into her own power.
Although it may look like the 2019 remake of Link’s Awakening—brightly animated environments and characters with adorably big heads—it’s closer to the inventive spirit of Nintendo’s last game in the franchise, Tears of the Kingdom. After more than an hour in the game during a recent demo, we found Echoes of Wisdom to be a playground of puzzles where everyone is in charge of their own adventure.
Zelda is no experienced swordsman, so her powers are different by design. By using the Tri Rod, with a little help from a new character called Tri, she can create object replicas called “echoes” to help her navigate the world. There’s a lot for her to copy and create, from tables, beds, and fire pits to enemies of all varieties. Need to make a bridge? Stack together a few crates. Or tables. Or beds, just after you’ve taken a little nap in one. Boss-fight? Try siccing a fleet of bat-like Keese on it, or maybe an armed Moblin.
The first part of the demo included Zelda’s escape from prison, where she’s just beginning to learn how to make echoes, and spilled over into a small portion of the game’s overworld. In a small village, I learned how to make a trampoline echo and used it to bounce onto rooftops. Out in the field, I unleashed a spiky ball enemy to use as a battering ram on other foes. It was the second half of the demo, however—a small dungeon complete with boss-fight—that felt the most satisfying.
Echoes of Wisdom isn’t nearly as expansive as recent games like Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, but the exploratory formula is there. Zelda has a few other abilities she’ll unlock later in the game, like the power to grab onto an item and pull or push it. Combining echoes—it’s unclear how many there are in total, but the demo had over a dozen—with Zelda’s grabby power has a lot of potential for goofy solutions, like the flame-throwing penises people made in Tears. I was especially fond of trampolining over everything I could and throwing whatever I found, whether that was a rock or an enemy echo. Another player, according to a Nintendo rep, unleashed an echo to fight for him while he took a nap in bed.
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Echoes of Wisdom also has an ability for fans of more traditional Zelda gameplay: the power to transform Zelda into a Link-like tank, sword and all. It’s a limited feature, one you’ll need to collect energy to power up into, but it also gave the demo a welcome familiarity. Zelda’s unique powers are what make Echoes of Wisdom so intriguing. And it’s nice to see Hyrule’s princess finally get a sword.
