A “Now Playing” article is a quick snapshot and thoughts on a game that I am currently playing. In this case, I am looking at The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. This is an action-adventure game with strong puzzle elements. It is mostly a top-down, 2.5D environment, but also seamlessly switches to some 2D side-scrolling platforming sections.
Quick Stats
Time Played: 23 hours
Amount Completed: Estimated a little over halfway through
Platform: Nintendo Switch with pro controller
Difficulty Played: Normal
Plan to Complete: Yes
The Legend of Zelda franchise has been around since the mid-1980s, but this is–as far as I know–the first title where you mainly play as Zelda. Usually you play as a character named Link who is on a quest to save Zelda, but this time the roles are reversed. Zelda games are typically a mixture of exploration, fighting, and puzzles that have you switch between an “overworld” and several dungeons. The overworld is where you tend to go to different areas, talk to other characters to progress the story, and find various side-quests and mini-games. Dungeons are more geared toward combat, puzzles, and “boss” battles. This game follows that format with a large, somewhat open-world map containing different regions such as grasslands, deserts, snowy mountains, and more. It is not fully open-world in that the game mechanics limit where you can go based on where you are in the story, and what in-game skills and equipment you have acquired. There are several small dungeon areas scattered about in the form of caves and similar type of things that you find while exploring the world. Those dungeons are fairly small and are not required to visit to finish the main storyline. The main dungeons are much larger, have their own map, and are a main part of the game.
A major mechanic of the game is what they call “echoes”. Whenever you defeat an enemy or come across certain environmental item such as a bed, you can “learn” how to create that thing on demand. Those echoes are then used to fight other enemies on your behalf, solve puzzles, and navigate the world. There are limits to how many echoes you can create at one time based on how far you have progressed in the game and the “cost” of the item. Since Zelda’s ability to fight and jump are quite limited, echoes are crucial for combat and getting around the world. While Zelda does obtain weapons such as a sword, those cost energy to use and Zelda only has so much energy. You can replenish that energy by drinking “smoothies” that you create using certain items you find in the world, and you can also increase the total amount of energy you have by finding certain crystals. But combat is mostly finding the “right” echo to use against an adversary, dodging attacks or the environment, and only occasionally attacking the enemy directly.
It is difficult to explain how much freedom this game provides especially as one gains more and more echoes. For example, to ascend a cliff, I may possibly build a staircase using echoes such as step stools, boxes, bed frames, etc. Or I may just build a column of water and swim up it. The amount of game design that had to go into making the player feel that they have so much creativity in how they play the game while making the game still challenging is impressive. There have been a couple of times where I felt like I “cheated” the game by using a “weird” combination of echoes to get somewhere or solve a puzzle, but those could also have been intentional solutions. Whatever the case, being able to experiment with different echoes in different situations is really fun for me.
None of the puzzles or combat have been especially challenging for me, but it is also not a total walk in the park. Most boss battles I’ve completed the first time, but some have required a second or third attempt. And while puzzle solutions are pretty straight-forward, a decent amount require a bit of thought and a good understanding of the capabilities of your echoes. These days I gravitate toward games that do not require a lot of time in one place, (e.g. repeatedly fighting a boss or going through a boss stage learning a little bit more each time until you finally complete the goal). I certainly enjoy that sort of game as even though there may be sometimes an hour (or in some games much more) of frustration at repeatedly dying or missing the mark, the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finally overcome that obstacle is (usually) well worth the struggle. I just have too many games that I want to play and limited time to do that. Therefore, having a game that is slightly challenging with its puzzles and combat, but is not something that requires a lot of time and practice to get through, is a perfect balance for me. I still get some feelings of accomplishment, although not the “jumping up and down while yelling” type I’ve gotten in some games after literally hours of struggling to beat an enemy or get through a level.
While gameplay is key, I am also influenced by art design and graphics quality. The Switch game console was not designed to be a graphical powerhouse, but can be quite immersive with its visuals especially when they are more cartoonish in nature. This game just feels a little rough on the eyes and occasionally breaks that immersion for me. I am not sure how to explain it except that things can look a little “jagged” at times. Games like Super Mario Odyssey prove that the Switch can handle what I would call a “smoother” look which I would have liked to see in Echoes of Wisdom.
All-in-all, I am completely enjoying this game. It is a good mix of exploration, puzzles, and combat, without being a large time commitment to progress through the story. The echo system gives at least the impression of a large amount of freedom for the player to solve things their own way. Looking at how much time I have played this game, broken down by day, it is a wide variety from 30 minutes to 8 hours. I like games that allow me to just pick up and play for 30 minutes while feeling that I have made actual progress. Some games I know I need to have at least a couple of hours to make it through something, which is not bad; it’s just nice to have gaming options that match how much time I have. There are also different ways to spend my time with the game. For example, if I do not want to engage in combat, I can still explore the world some, collect items, make smoothies, and take on some small side quests. While I will probably not try to find every single secret area or hidden item, nor will I go out of my way to learn every echo and skill, I definitely plan to complete the game and a good chunk of the side content.