The Legend of Zelda – Echoes of Wisdom

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Grezzo and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It is the first mainline The Legend of Zelda game with Princess Zelda as the main playable character. Players control Zelda on a quest to save Link and the kingdom of Hyrule using the Tri Rod, a magical artifact provided by the fairy Tri, who assists her. The visual style is similar to that of the 2019 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, which Grezzo also developed. Echoes of Wisdom was released to generally favorable reviews.

The player controls Princess Zelda, who can use the power of the magical Tri Rod to create “echoes”, which are imitations of objects and monsters that can be used freely. However, there is a limit on how many can be summoned and each echo has a different cost; how many echoes can be created is indicated by the number of triangles visible behind Tri. She can also “bind” objects with Bond, allowing an object to move with her, or move with an object using Reverse Bond In addition to having echoes fight enemies, Zelda can fight enemies directly by wielding a sword that transforms her into the Swordfighter form, which resembles Link. 

This form can only be used for a limited time before its energy must be replenished by collecting orbs of energy found in the Still World. Zelda can travel through various methods, including echoes, fast travel sites called Waypoints, on foot, or on horseback. She can also change outfits or equipment and combine ingredients to purchase smoothies. In addition to Hyrule, the game features the Still World, which is connected to Hyrule through rifts that each lead to a different section of it, where people, objects, and terrain transported there are frozen in time.

There are also dungeons that Zelda explores, each with a boss that must be defeated in order to progress. Many of the people of Hyrule appear throughout the game, including the Gerudo, river and ocean Zoras, Gorons, Deku Scrubs, and Yetis. Dampé creates automata that function similarly to echoes. While rescuing Zelda from Ganon, Link disappears into the Still World after falling into a mysterious rift; similar rifts appear throughout Hyrule, causing others to disappear into the Still World, including its king and his advisors, General Wright and Minister Lefte.

Upon Zelda’s return to Hyrule Castle, imposters of the king and his advisors frame her for causing the rifts and imprison her in the castle’s dungeons to be executed. Zelda escapes with help from the fairy Tri, who gives her the Tri Rod and accompanies her on her journey throughout Hyrule to repair the rifts and rescue those trapped in the Still World. During her adventure, she confronts an imposter of Link and rescues the real Link from Ganon after confronting and defeating him in Hyrule Castle, but Ganon is revealed to be an imposter created by the primordial evil Null, who also possesses the ability to create echoes and captures Link.

After Zelda repairs the rifts affecting the shrines of the Golden Goddesses, Din, Nayru, and Farore, they explain to her that Null resided in the void that existed before reality, consuming life when it developed in order to remain the only being in existence. The Goddesses created the universe over the void to seal away Null, causing it to resent them. After Hyrule was founded, Null attempted to break its seal by creating rifts in order to destroy it and return existence to the void. To counteract the rifts, the Goddesses sent the Tris to repair the rifts and return to them once their purpose was fulfilled.