Echoes of Wisdom flies close to the sun, but just misses the golden light of a perfect score. This is a fantastic return to form for the Zelda series. Dungeons with a classic vibe, tons of returning enemies from throughout the series, and the new ability to use echoes as Zelda. It really doesn’t fall short as a fantastic puzzle game with multiple ways to tackle problems. Including the rare one that will stump you for a moment or two.
However, Echoes also has the same problem Zelda has had in recent years. It comes very close to remembering what the series is about, but it just misses the finish line.
I’m going to get into some spoilers here. Including some for the whole franchise. So if you care, stop reading now.
Zelda as a series always followed the tale of Link defeating Ganon. That isn’t to say that Zelda herself can’t have a crack at it too. As time went on, we ended up with a dark wizard, who eventually lead to Ganon. Then Ganondorf (in a world where people don’t own history books and didn’t question why some dude was called Satandorf.) who becomes Ganon at the end of Ocarina of Time. Then there was whatever happened at the end of Breath of the Wild where we fought a pig. Just, a giant pig. Not actually Ganon. Just, I guess his ultra form he just becomes a pig. Which is… cool?
Anyway, Echoes gets so close. Just like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night you fight the big bad right at the start of the game. Jump in, and battle Ganon. Whoo! Oh no, he seems defeated. No tricks, no nothing. He’s just gone. How is the Still World even able to make echoes of him? He was never taken into the Still World!!
Then it happens. You go through, you beat the game, and heeeey! There’s no Ganon. We at least got the Triforce, which no one in Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom questions it scrawled all over the place. But, that’s it. Sure, you get to fight him twice. But that’s it.
No Master Quest where you actually play the Link storyline on his way to defeat Ganon. No extra area like in Pokemon Gold and Silver where you get to lets say explore the original NES Zelda world on your final quest to stop Ganon’s return. Just, you won. You stopped the rifts.
Why even bother remembering Ganon even exists only to just under use a villain we haven’t seen in… almost 20 years? ALMOST TWENTY YEARS! Twilight Princess was released in 2006, and even that was the half and half Ganon.
Imagine if Bowser was dropped off like this. Lets not even mention the side trip to Subcon in the canon non-canon Mario sequel that was a remake of Doki Doki Panic but was originally planned as a Mario game. Ganon and Wart are just ridiculously forgotten. I can’t even imagine how epic Tears of the Kingdom would have been if we dipped into the dark timeline where Ganondorf actually becomes the moblin-like dark wizard Ganon.
Don’t get me wrong. Echoes is amazing. It felt true to form, and it let me relive the gameplay I’ve been missing for forever. It even gives good reason to its art style by needed a 3D game to actually make use of jumping and height puzzles. Yet, how does it fall just short? It’s right there! Everyone lives happily ever after.
The game is fine. Tons of fun, lots to explore, even if it has that problem of Breath and Tears of giving half baked rewards from some chests. Boy that was a hard puzzle! Have an apple or five. Really? But if we’re going to go this close to nostalgic treasure, just make a sequel set in the NES era next. Don’t mess with it. Don’t add Ganondorf. Don’t give me a million burn off items to collect. Give me treasures that matter (Candles, Bracers of might or whatever, hookshot even) and equipment like Zelda gets for boosts. Let me loose in an expanded version of the map from the original NES game, or heck, even across both that and Link’s Adventure.
There are tons of references and fan games out there for all this. Just DO it already. Echoes of Wisdom is an absolutely wonderful sequel to Link’s Awakening. But that’s literally what it is. A Zelda sequel that tells a fantastic story, but it’s still a side story from the main plot line. It’s a amazing story with epic consequences, but just keep throwing that nostalgia in my face and give me the excitement I crave. I’ve followed Nintendo for forever. Even when I was a kid, I wrote stuff that would have made for an amazing Mario sequel, and fan games have even tackled over the years. Yet I was just heartbroken as a child to receive my production bible back in the mail with a letter saying “For legal reasons we can’t read this.”
Over the years, big corporations have literally photocopied and stolen my work from my animation day job. If Nintendo would have just taken my ideas forever ago and gave me a free copy of Nintendo Power for it, it would have been better and more than I’ve received in my adult life actually working as a creative.
Just… it’s right there Nintendo. No more four dungeon or five dungeon games. No more “This is Ganon, but it’s the mirror universe, hand drawn, bubble gum statue, glowing variant from a sticker book version.” Just give me GANON.
Batman has Joker. Mario has Bowser. Link has… whatever really.
Also where did the Stalfos go? Do skeletons not come to life anymore?
Echoes of Wisdom is great! Buy it, love it, but there’s my rant. The title is fitting. It’s echoes of the glory days. Now we just need the resounding return.
