The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a top down 3D entry in The Legend of Zelda series.

The story begins as another ends. Link, hero of Hyrule and Zelda’s loyal retainer, fights his way into Ganon’s dark fortress, where Princess Zelda languishes in a crystal prison. A lengthy battle follows, and the villain is defeated…

…but then, it goes completely off-script. Before he can even get to Zelda, a dark, mysterious void appears from behind, grabbing Link and drawing him in; he just barely manages to crack the crystal with his bow and free Zelda before she suffers the same fate. With similar dark rifts start to open all over Hyrule, and her father replaced by an evil imposter who wants her dead, Zelda is now a fugitive who quickly realizes it is All Up To Her. Aided by a strange fairy companion named Tri who gives her the powerful Tri Rod, Zelda is able to create Echoes, duplicates of everything from furniture to monsters; can the Princess manage to defeat the dark evil behind these rifts and bring peace to Hyrule?

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a top-down 3D action adventure game, the 21st main game in The Legend of Zelda series, released by Nintendo exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. It The Japanese company Greezo notes on their website that they assisted Nintendo in "planning and development". It was the first Zelda game to actually star Zelda as the main playable character since The Legend of Zelda CDI Games released in The Nineties. In terms of presentation and style, it follows from the Nintendo Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. In terms of gameplay, it is distinctly its own game, but leans spiritually more towards the systematic and open approach found in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.Most importantly, it features for the first time^[1] Princess Zelda herself as the true protagonist.

According to Word of God, Echoes of Wisdom is set in the Fallen Hero timeline (the timeline that occurs if Link fails in Ocarina of Time) near the end of the Era of Light and Dark, putting it after The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes and A Link Between Worlds, and before the original game.

Be warned, this game is Spoilered Rotten and thus, spoilers may be unmarked.

• Action Girl: Princess Zelda doesn’t really start as one, but grows into this role following her escape from the castle dungeon in the intro.
• Adaptational Heroism: River Zora are usually enemies in the franchise; even games where some of them are friendly (like Oracle of Ages and A Link Between Worlds) portray them as a whole as antagonists. In this game, only the Chief is antagonistic, but he is more an arrogant grouch than an enemy; overally, all of them are allies, much like the Sea Zoras.
• Adaptation Name Change:
  • The Tri-Force is present in this game, but is instead called Prime Energy.
  • Chu-Chus are The Goomba in this game, but they are called Zols.
• After Boss Recovery: As usual, bosses drop Hearts when defeated, and in this game, they also drop Might Crystals, which refill the Mana Meter needed to assume Swordfighter Mode.
• Alien Geometries: The Still World is a void where buildings and landscapes absorbed by the rifts have been turned into floating islands, pieced together wrong, with floors used as walls and lakes floating in mid-air like large cubes of water. Zelda can still swim in these lakes in order to reach higher or lower areas. People who are taken here are freed when Zelda and Tri disassemble the rift, but there is no guarantee they will return to the place where they had been taken from. The best example, Minister Lefte and General Wright were abducted while in Hyrule Castle, but when the rift is healed, they are found in Suthorn Forest and Jabul Waters, respectively; also, while both were abducted by the same rift, they are taken to different parts of the Still World - as in, freeing both requires healing two rifts.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Hyrule Castle is Zelda’s home, and usually a safe place for her, Link, and their allies. This time, however, the Castle is targeted by the dark rift early in the game, replacing the King, his general, and his retainer with evil imposters, who declare Zelda a traitor and enemy. Until the true King is rescued, Zelda cannot enter the Castle, and needs a disguise to enter the surrounding town.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: Before you get to The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, you must pass through part of the Still World that incorporates terrain from every part of Hyrule. The boss Arena where you fight Tekrom is also a combination of various terrains.
• All There in the Manual: Null's evil creations are called "Tecuums", but this name does not appear in-game, it is only in the game files.
• And I Must Scream: It is not known if those caught in the Still World are conscious, and those who are freed have no memory of it. Still, many survivors are not unscathed, showing fear or despair, often unable to describe what happened coherently. Link himself may have had the most traumatic experience, his first trip to the Still World resulting in him losing the ability to speak. But then, he is also the only one to escape on his own.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Many sidequests give Zelda a new outfit; most are just cosmetic, but some give minor buffs.
• And Your Reward Is Edible: Chests and side quests that do not contain Rupees will usually give Zelda food items, anything from mundane stuff like Milk, Butter, and many types of fruit and vegetables, to odd stuff like Sea Horses and Monster Fangs. Eating these items on their own can give Zelda small benefits, but it is better when made into Smoothies.
• Antidote Effect: Many Smoothies have effects that, while useful, are only such in specific situations. For instance, Smoothies made using Rocktatoes increase climbing speed, while those with Sea Horses let Zelda swim faster. However, your inventory is not unlimited, so you are often better not to carry them unless you plan to be in a place where they are needed.
• Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better: Null (the main antagonist) can create echoes of his oen, and is indeed much is better at it than Zelda is; she cannot create echoes of unique beings (like bosses) but he can indeed do so, able to create echoes of Link, Ganon, and Zelda herself, and many bosses, all of them of much greater duration which are at least partially sapient, able to talk.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • To collect an Echo, you need to defeat an enemy and pick up its Shimmer; if said Shimmer falls off a cliff or into water, it will eventually respawn at the spot where the mob was killed. In addition, if you leave and come back, the Shimmer will still be there.
  • Unlike most games, falling into a bottomless pit will not cost any health, which is very fortunate, as that will be happening a lot, sometimes on purpose in order to reset a puzzle.
  • The Old Bed is an Echo you can get very early in the game, and resting on it allows Zelda to recover her health. So long as there are no hostile mobs nearby, she can literally use it anywhere. As a result, you don’t have to use potions or Smoothies unless Zelda is in immediate danger.
  • In this game, most allies are Friendly Fireproof, as Monster Echoes summoned will not harm Zelda. She can even lift Echos that seem dangerous to touch, like Ignizol, without harm. There are some exceptions, like the Fireworks Echo, and while Torch Slugs and Flame Slugs and Freeze Slugs won’t attack Zelda, the trails of elemental energy will if she touches it.
  • Automatons can break if they are directly damaged, but if you drop them off a cliff or into a pit, or simply walk out of range, they will reappear in your inventory.
  • If Zelda is knocked on the head, there is some impact effect animation. This is a useful feature in caves with invisible ceilings.
  • If your Smoothie inventory is full, the merchant will tell you this right when you use the last space, which saves time.
  • Like other games, carrying a Fairy Bottle with a Fairy in it will protect Zelda when her Hearts are depleted. This time, however, if you have an empty Bottle, all that is needed to do to “catch” a Fairy is touch it.
• Apathetic Citizens: The Deku Scrubs are this, and they’re also big jerks about it. While everyone else realizes how dangerous the rifts are, the Deku Scrubs like the one that appeared in their village, seeing as they like to eat the webs spun by the giant spider-like Gohma living inside it. One unfortunate Scrub is chastised by the others because he is upset about losing his house to the rift. Even after Zelda talks some sense into them and convinces them to try Smoothies, they act like nothing happened.
• Apocalypse How: The dark rifts Zelda encounters are appearing all over Hyrule, growing bigger and more rapidly with each passing day, drawing anything they touch into the Still World, and anything (or anyone) trapped inside will eventually be consumed by the void and dissolved into nothing. Zelda and Tri’s goal (at first) is to mend these rifts in order to save the trapped victims and prevent the rifts from consuming all of Hyrule - or possibly even the entire world. It is eventually revealed that Null’s true goal is enacting this Trope on a Class X-4 scale, creating a universe of nothingness.
• Armless Biped: The Deku Scrubs are Plant People, and all of them except the Smoothie merchants have no arms.
• Arrested for Heroism: Poor Zelda is thrown in jail twice over the course of the story, though only the second time counts as this trope
  • Happens to Impa too; when exploring the Still World version of Hyrule Castle, Zelda finds her in the same cell where she had been held. While she cannot speak (she is, like the other victims, frozen) a nearby journal states that she was overwhelmed by the guards after helping Zelda escape, though it also states that she heard much about them searching for Zelda, assuring her Zelda was still free.
• Arrows on Fire: Once Zelda gains the Bow from Dark Link in the Gerudo Desert Dungeon, she can use a Brazier, Ignizol, or other source of flame to shoot fire arrows.
• Art Shift: Stamp Guy’s stamps look like old fashioned wood-carved stamps, very different from the chibi-like Toy Box Style art of the rest of the game. Stamp Guy himself looks more proportionately humanoid than anyone else in the game.
• Artistic License Physics: In addition to this game having Floating Water and Solid Clouds (both of which can be created with Echoes) the game uses a grid system for how Echoes can be placed. Thus, Zelda can create a bridge using three or four Old Beds placed on top of each other, each of them only having two legs on a solid surface, and then climb it without it toppling over.
• As You Know: The dark rifts have, in fact, been appearing for a long time before the start of the game, but the player does not learn this until Zelda speaks to her father after the prologue.
• Asteroids Monster:
  • Smog, the boss of the East Temple dungeon. A Sequential Boss, once Zelda does enough damage to him, he splits into three small versions of himself; these small pieces cannot be harmed, so Zelda has to manipulate the maze-like arena so as to bring them together in order to make him vulnerable. In the third phase of the fight, he splits into five pieces, making this harder.
  • Slime Eye, the sub boss of the Lanayru Temple. He is only vulnerable if Zelda freezes him; damaging him while frozen causes him to break into smaller pieces, which again, must be frozen to damage.
• Badass Princess: Take a wild guess.
• Bat Out of Hell: The Keese are flying bat monsters.
• Big Damn Heroes: After Zelda defeats Ganon in the Hyrule Castle Still World, the true Big Bad of the game - Null - appears; it is about to attack when Link appears out of nowhere (armed only with a club no less) and defends Zelda, giving her and Tri a chance to escape, though at the cost of being trapped himself.
• Blob Monster: The Zol are slime like monsters that come in elemental varieties.
• Body Horror: Beings sent into rifts are petrified. If the player looks closely at a character in a rift, their limbs are distorted and liquifying, with black goo dripping off.
• Boss Room: Bosses get their own rooms.
• Bottomless Pits: Plentiful in the Still World.
• Co-Dragons: The Tecuum versions of Link, Zelda, and Ganon could be considered Dragons to Null; however, it seems Dark Link is created as a replacement when Ganon is destroyed, and consequently, Dark Zelda is created to replace Dark Link.
• Controllable Helplessness: After Zelda is freed in the prologue, she only has three Hearts and no way to fight, meaning that when the rift appears and chases after her, all she can do is run. It isn’t until she is thrown in jail by the imposter King that she gains the ability to collect and create Echoes.
• Cool Helmet: Gerudo helmets straddle the line between this and a mask, covering the upper part of the face and front part of the head, leaving the back part exposed to accomodate their ponytails.
• Carrying a Cake: In one side quest, Zelda has to bring a Grilled Fish to a child in a wooded area, not very easy because doing so requires crossing a narrow bridge and getting past a group of Moblins who will eat the Fish if given the opportunity. While you can create an Echo of the Grilled Fish, you need to bring him the real one.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the prologue, Link manages to hit Zelda’s Crystal Prison with an arrow before he is nabbed by the rift, cracking it and enabling Zelda to free herself. Much later, when Zelda finds Link trapped in a similar crystal, the player will - hopefully - remember that scene.
• Crystal Prison: In the Action Prologue, Link confronts Ganon in a room where Zelda is held by one of these, much like the one she was trapped in during Ocarina of Time. Much later, Zelda finds Link himself held in one in the Still World.
• Damsel in Distress: Zelda starts as one, imprisoned in a crystal during the intro.
• Dark World: The still world beyond the rift.
• Diegetic Interface: Played with. While there most critical information is displayed conventionally things related to Tri are often displayed diagetically. Triangles trailing them show the amount of echos that can be created, and an echo that will be despawned if a new echo is created will flash to indicate that it will be the one to disappear in such a case.
• Disc One Nuke: Zigzagged. It is possible to get the Lvl3 Sword Moblin, Lvl3 Lizalfos, and Lvl3 Dark Knut (all very powerful Echoes) very early in the game; some players have even managed to get the Lionel Echo in the first act as well. Actually using these Echoes, however, cannot be done until your Tri level is at least 5.
• Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: When fighting against Morgryph, the tornadoes it makes are harmless if not touched.
• Dude in Distress: Link is ultimately caught up in a rift during the intro, as is the King shortly thereafter.
• Eat the Bomb: This can be done against certain monsters.
• Evil Chancellor: The Gerudo have a chancellor who is antagonistic towards the help Zelda provides. She is an imposter.
• Evil Counterpart: Not only is Dark Link back, he's brought a Dark Zelda to help him!
• Exposition Fairy: Tri serves to deliver much of the exposition regarding rifts.
• Flunky Boss:
  • King Jabu-Jabu is a truly unique example. During the fight, he spews up a bunch of water-monsters, such as Octoroks, Tanglers, and Biri. Though he will likely consume them in his attempt to devour Zelda.
  • Also, the Final Boss combines this with Boss Rush, creating degraded versions of Dark Link, Dark Zelda, and Ganon in the final battle.
• Good Bad Bugs: One way to combine Echoes that wasn’t intended: Summon an Old Bed, then stand on it with Zelda at the foot facing the pillow; then summon a Tornado and Zelda will be launched high into the air! Good for getting to high places or escaping danger. Even better, you can keep summoning the Tornado again and again and propel Zelda all the way up a mountain.
• Gotta Catch Them All: There are a grand total of 127 Echoes Zelda can collect; while there is no real reward for getting all of them, it's still pretty fun.
• Heart Container: These can be acquired to increase Zelda’s health capacity.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Played with. The guards post wanted posters all around. Reception is mixed, and a good number of characters refuse to believe Zelda is evil, though some buy in.
• Heroic Mime: Zelda does not talk any more than Link does; curiously, Link himself is stated to be truly mute, having lost his ability to talk due to his first trip (and subsequent escape) from the Still World.
• Hearts Are Health: Hearts are used to represent hit points.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Very literal case. Ganon appears in the intro, but he is not the true villain - in fact, this is not the real Ganon, but an imposter created by Null, the true Big Bad.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Link is this to Zelda in the Final Battle, something of a Perspective Flip of the fight against Ganondorf in Wind Waker.
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: A side quest is resolved by spotting a defect in guard armor worn by someone who is not a real guard.
• Indy Escape: Happens in the intro with Zelda running away from a quickly encroaching Rift.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: Averted, despite being a staple of the top down Zelda games. If the player can figure out a way to get on top of or over something, the game generally lets them.
• Item Get: Know how in some games, when Link found a new item, he’d happily lift it over his head to show to the player? Zelda does that too.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Dark Link is a villain example; in the first boss fight with him, it is near impossible for any of Zelda's Echoes to attack from the front as he deflects any such attack with his shield. The key to defeating him quickly is to use Zelda's Bind ability to take the shield from him.
• Mook Maker:
  • First we have... …. Zelda. Mostly a Squishy Wizard, her main offensive power lies in collecting Echoes from defeated foes and using them to summon magical reflections of those foes.
  • Beetle Mounds spawn beetle monsters. Curiously, Zelda can create an echo of a Beetle Mound, meaning she is a Mook Maker who can create Mook Makers!
  • Many of the rifts spawn globs of darkness that turn into dark versions of various mooks.
• Never Mess with Granny: Ahem, Impa. The lady beats up three armed guards to cover Zelda's escape; given Zelda's expression, even she is shocked.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: It is implied (stated by Minister Lefte) that Null foresaw his defeat at the hands of two children, and as a result, the rifts focused on abducting younger Hyrulians. Given what is pieced together, he managed to grab Link first, but Link escaped, fought his way through many of Null's minions, eventually resuing Zelda, only to be grabbed again. Which is where the story begins.
• No Hero Discount: Played straight with most merchants, but story-wise, the Great Fairy (who you can pay to expand the number of accessories Zelda can use) is the worst, outright admitting to Zelda that she is Only in It For the Money and will not help you for free.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Triiis this game's equivalent to Fi, acting as Zelda's guide, trainer, and mentor.
• Oddball in the Series: Stars Princess Zelda instead of Link and introduced a style of gameplay unique to the game focusing on manipulating the world and echos around Zelda, discouraging straightforward combat to address nearby threats with a rather short time window for Princess Zelda to wield weapons directly herself.
• Oxygen Meter: Zelda has one while diving underwater.
• Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles: Zelda can use these to refill her oxygen when diving underwater.
• Pals with Jesus: While not the first time the Three Goddesses of Hyrule have played a part in the plot, this is the first time you can interact with and speak to them. Of course, that may be because this is Zelda rather than Link; not the first time she has proven able to see and speak to beings that Link cannot.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: All Zelda needs to travel incognito throughout her father's kingdom is Link's hooded cloak. Not only do castle guards not recognize her, neither does many NPCs she previously knew.
• Power-Up Food: Princess Zelda can order smoothies that grant a variety of buffs when used depending on the ingredients used in their creation.
• Prison Episode: An early section of the game features Zelda breaking out of prison before she can be executed.
• Quicksand Sucks: Sand that echos can sink in can be found in the temple in the rift by the Greudo.
• Remember the New Guy?: Sort of. The Big Bad of this game is an ancient evil that predates even Demise, having existed in the Chaos at the dawn of time, Hyrule having been created to be its prison. Still, given its intentions, it's no mystery why the Golden Goddesses decided to keep its existence a secret...
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Zelda, obviously.
• Shifting Sand Land: The area around the Greudo is a sandy desert.
• Squishy Wizard: A veteran Zelda player will figure out quickly that you are not supposed to treat the heroine as a Distaff Counterpart of Link. While she can fight using the Swordfighter Mode (for a short amount of time) most of the time she has to keep distance from enemies while using the various Echoes to fight for her.
• Summon Magic: The main mechanic of the game; Zelda fights and solves puzzles using Echoes, reflections of objects and creatures that she summons via magic.
• Tennis Boss: As per franchise tradition, Link must reflect projectiles back at a boss in the opening of the game.
• The Unfought: As much as the player might love to see Zelda strike down Facette's imposter once she is exposed, Zelda doesn't get the chance - Seera does it.
• Wanted Poster: Poorly drawn ones of Princess Zelda can be found through the game following the intro.