The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

[@leviwuzere07]

"Since A Link Between Worlds 11 years ago..." Stop please, my dusty old heart can't take it anymore

[@rainbowkrampus]

Psh, nearly twenty years between Metroid Fusion and Dread. Same going for Prime 4. Who can even say if they'll ever make a good Star Fox again? Meanwhile, F-Zero fans are all skeletons. Nintendo are pretty cruel when you think about it... at least Kirby gets some love every couple of years.

[@skeletalknight]

Yeah I did a double take when he said that. Could have sworn ALBW came out no earlier than 2015. Time flies.

[@asphyxiafeeling]

Can we get a link between world's port for Switch 2!? I'm hoping they can figure out a way...

[@chrislevack405]

@leviwuzere07 funniest part is that it's all based off the same damn game.

[@Scharfster]

@@skeletalknight 2015 is still 9 years ago my friend

[@SolidLoach]

Picking items in a row ui is probably one the most annoying things Zelda devs need to drop

[@Angelo_MS]

The single row of items wouldn't be as annoying if we had a favoriting system

[@DNYLNY]

Fr. I wish they used a hotkey system like all the other Zeldas prior to botw

[@tuskoub]

I really don’t like this “you have hundreds of options but only like 10 are useful” thing they keep doing. That said, I still did love EoW

[@GunnerKitten]

A scroll wheel would be so good for thus

[@Vsauce596]

we used to have the item wheel man

[@SirGameandWatch7]

Despite the marketing making it feel like it was going to be another outside the box Zelda game, the dev team made a very comforting return to form. The game is like Zelda comfort food, coming in a time where no one knew where the franchise was going exactly. Like hot chocolate on a rainy day. Maybe not going to win any awards, but I really enjoyed this game and what it means for the future.

[@birdbig6852]

This is the reason why I prefered 2d zelda than 3d zelda. Way less downtime because of dialogue/story, more framerate and more action. But I largely prefer the BotW/TotK formula, I never liked the old 3d zelda although they were good games and worth doing it one time.

[@paulypipes3082]

​@@BusinessSkrubdefinitely agree with this

[@darthsonic4135]

I mean, it’s still very much an outside the box Zelda. It just isn’t one to the absurd extent of TotK.

[@TrixyTrixter]

​@@birdbig6852 Did we play the same game? There was so much talking that just completely destroyed the pace for me.

[@birdbig6852]

@@TrixyTrixter TotK had a little too much talking but once you are in the overworld, no npc can stop you.

[@Gokulosestoavirus]

It’s fun. That’s the best way to describe this game. It made my son who has special needs very very happy, and when you get a game that he wants to just play and show off to his older sister and her cheerleading team with just a smile on his face. That’s a winning game for me.

[@saikanzen1762]

I loved finding the many throwbacks or ECHOES to previous games.Bosses like Smog (from the also puzzle-centric Oracle of Ages) and how the Tri Rod is similar to the Cane of Somaria, the Cucco lady in Kakariko, the money grubbing Great Fairy, Deku Scrubs and prison, featuring both types of Zora, the return of Yetis, etc. And how Tri reminded me of Fi, especially during the ending when they both show that they've understood what it means to say "thank you".

[@highdefinition450]

right from the beginning it's obvious grezzo are big fans of past games lmao, with the escape sequence reminiscent of oot after the ganondorf fight, and then the stealth sequence, also similar to oot's. i like when series embrace their legacy instead of being seemingly ashamed of it like botw and totk seemed to be imo lol

[@videoket]

Tri was better than Fi, IMO!

[@TrixyTrixter]

​@@videoket Oh absolutely.

[@batrider2985]

How refreshing is it for a content creator to say they were wrong and not try to justify it, and then go from having a negative first impression to having a positive overall impression. Thanks for the review.

[@chiquita683]

Nintendo is very litigious. Cant use their gameplay and give a bad review

[@wordedhalo6746]

@@chiquita683every review I’ve seen of a Zelda game lately is constant bitching. If you for whatever reason enjoy that kind of content just click on literally any recent Zelda review

[@CaptBurgerson]

It may worth noting that Grezzo’s involvement and the ideas of Grezzo staff also played a huge role in shaping this game. In those dev interviews Aonuma said that most of the Grezzo staff are huge Zelda fans- and to me this shines through. This was a game made primarily by long time fans of the series

[@HArrowsmith]

I think it says a lot that my only major complaints with Echoes of Wisdom is that it's not long enough, and not hard enough. I'm very excited for Grizzo to give us Oracle remakes or an Oracle sequel in this style. I think they've really figured out a good formula with these last few games.

[@ShyGuyXXL]

I'm surprised you mentioned the smoothies taking a long time, but not the dojo challenges and minigames throwing you out completely every time you lose, instead of letting you retry immediately. It was soooo frustrating having to spend like 30 to 40 seconds talking to the NPC, waiting for menus to pop up and maps to load every time you lose a 20 second challenge. This should not be an issue in this year of our lord.

[@doolenny9458]

Me doing the short course horse race for the 20th time 💀

[@Logicalleaping]

@@doolenny9458 FR why was the first race the hardest of the three.

[@doolenny9458]

@@Logicalleaping yeah I literally couldn’t beat it normally it was way too tough The other two were very easy in comparison Second I beat first try mastered and long took 3 runs

[@Ryan-qb5wd]

​@@LogicalleapingThe short course required perfection to beat the 17 second time limit. The medium and long courses allowed for some errors and could still be done.

[@jamesmccloud1002]

​@Logicalleaping Idk if yall figured it out, but just pick up one of the last trees. It cuts the time down that you don't have to be as exact

[@Enraric]

I agree with most of your review, but I really like this game's puzzles. Maybe I'm just stupid, but I've found many of the puzzles in this game quite difficult, especially in the back half of the game. Also I find combat with echoes more interesting than combat with swordfighter form. Combat in swordfighter form mostly boils down to spamming attacks, whereas there are a lot of fun little optimizations you can figure out to increase your DPS with echoes. Also I really like Hero Mode in this game, for forcing me to engage more with the smoothie system, which I probably would have ignored if I was playing on normal mode. It made finding smoothie ingredients in the world, and getting them as quest rewards, feel more rewarding.

[@notchristianhodges8123]

I played hero mode and I still mostly ignored the smoothies. I just used beds when my health got low.

[@Logicalleaping]

I kind of agree with the puzzles namely two stand out. 1: in the Faron wetlands temple with the switches you have to press simultaneously and not leave an object on (seriously that didn't feel fair as a puzzle with no sign to read to understand what they do or better indication from the actual switches.) 2: That one puzzle in the Lanayru temple where you need to refreeze the water to get past some hot steam vents... I didn't do this as I only figured out the puzzle after leaving the room as I thought my solution was way to stupid and only possible due to my number of Tri shards.

[@highdefinition450]

personally i kinda hate the combat lol for me it's just a lot of waiting around and spamming summons, not very engaging imo lmao

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

​@@Logicalleaping The Lanayru one was pretty obvious, but the timing switches were bs

[@ponspectorstillwedie4579]

I feel like hero mode should have set more limitations in general. Like, cutting he amount of smoothies you can carry by at least half and making certain echoes such as the water blocks, beds or crawltulas require more triangles. Also you shouldn't be able restore hearts by sleeping in a bed echo in hero mode. What's the point of not having hearts appear from pots or defeated enemies if we can just heal whenever we want anyway? Difficulty aside though, I really enjoyed the game. Not sure how I'd rank it amongst all Zelda games yet, but it is definitely my favourite Switch original Zelda game. I like how they respected the lore of older games while still adding to it in an interesting way. While none of the regional quest you had to do before each dungeon were particularly stellar stories, they were at least a step up from what we got in TotK. Plus I do have a bit of a soft spot for Conde, he's a very good boy. And thank god for the return of classic dungeons. Probably still on the weaker side of dungeons in the series as a whole, but still much better than what we got with BotW and TotK. I enjoyed the bosses as well. My favourite part of the game was when Link fended off Null a primordial entity, with a STICK to protect Zelda. Good shit! P.S You said you wished we got a whole dungeon with Link and Zelda working together the way they do in the final segment. Well I'd take a whole multi-player co-op game using that idea, actually.

[@brotbrotsen1100]

Thats one Thing they never got right, in Hero mode you Always just get more damage, i think in botw enemies also take less and regenerate health, which was a horible idea tbh but atleast something diffrent. And they droped a hard mode Completley in totk, i honestly dont think we will see a good hard mode ever.

[@XxIcedecknightxX]

Amazing contrast hearing your opinion change from when you watched the announcement to now having played it. Good stuff Ratatoskr, I may pickup the game.

[@Mirage475]

Don’t know why people like him make presumptions before even playing the game. Acting like classic Zelda will never return was such an extreme opinion to take in the first place

[@Logicalleaping]

@@Mirage475 Its not an extreme opinion when SS was the last Zelda to follow traditional Zelda routes. Even ALBW was a departure with the removal of items in dungeons. Since then dungeon rewards have been pointless making the player feel more inclined to B-line it straight to the boss. Either way the video Ratatoskr made was fine seeing as he prefaced it with 'these are my current thoughts'

[@eser8167]

@@Mirage475 I think the main reason we believed that was because of Aonuma, who basically led the direction of the whole series for a quarter of a century now. In an interview not too long ago, he said he doesn't understand why people would enjoy games which restrict the player, and his opinion was that people would only prefer linear games because they were younger when they played them. When someone who is the face of Zelda says that, and the trailers showcase similarly sandbox-like puzzle solving gameplay, it becomes fairly understandable to reach the conclusion that this game will also work like the other new ones.

[@RohanSlazar]

@@Mirage475 They always do this. It's all doom and gloom with these types.

[@RohanSlazar]

@@eser8167 "his opinion was that people would only prefer linear games because they were younger when they played them" In which he's completely correct.

[@lulu_749]

You don't know how happy it makes me to hear Aonuma admitting that their previous story approach (likely referring to TOTK) didn't work well with fans, and how they took that into account with Echoes of Wisdom. He even discusses in the interview how he and the development team went on a 9 day story "boot camp" where they looked at different recurring themes in the lore of previous titles to build Echoes of Wisdom's story. While Echoes of Wisdom's story might be a little on the safe side, seeing them respect previously established lore was awesome.

[@Rathadude]

There's full optional dungeons with optional bosses! Wtf Nintendo. Where were these in Tears of the Kingdom?

[@hododod246]

I started to think that people did not play totk and hating for the sake of hating or they just made totk hate their internet personality because they think it is funny. All dungeons and bosses are optional in totk. You don't have to do any of it. You can directly go final boss.

[@Rathadude]

@hododod246 They're "optional" in an extremely loose sense. Unlike Breath of the Wild, Tears doesn't make it as obvious where the final boss is. So most people will assume you have to do the main story quests to access that knowledge. And they are, in fact, tied to main story quests even if you don't technically have to do them to beat the game. That's not the same thing as stumbling upon a dungeon randomly through exploration and that dungeon not being a part of the main story quest.

[@CPNTT]

@@hododod246 You're completely missing what he meant by optional dungeons. He meant dungeons that you just stumble upon, disconnected from the main quests. ToTK four (lame) dungeons are tied to the main quests.

[@alecamp5369]

Those were in TOTK though

[@xSilentZeroXx]

​​@@Rathadude Well, it *was* really obvious where Ganondorf was. Zelda says you're under Hyrule Castle, that's where Ganondorf is, and when last you see him, he's falling straight downward. If you're seeking him out, the Depths under Hyrule Castle would be the first place you look for clues, and... he's there. That being said, no, the game doesn't just tell you that. If you're incapable of using 1% of the imagination of a person of average intelligence, then the game does wait until after you beat every dungeon to finally begin to tell you. Whereas in BOTW, you were told exactly where Ganon was. The intent of TOTK was linearity. So yeah, those dungeons don't count as optional. Honestly, I'd hardly count even BOTW's as optional, and there they 100% are.

[@dbass9544]

The toy esthetic works so well in this game because it really feels like a toy box. The game isn't perfect, but it was definitely FUN, which has always been Nintendo's biggest strength compared to the rest of the industry. Also I loved the Kirby-esc final boss. Super creepy!

[@barbecuesos6242]

Echoes of Wisdom: releases All the lore theorists: we're back

[@PikaPikaLOL]

I enjoyed my time with Tears of the Kingdom, but it is quite refreshing to have a smaller story that focused on the characters and respects and references the series lore repeatedly. It doesn’t have the same highs as something like TotK or even Link’s Awakening, but it’s so consistently good and fun. Really enjoyed this one a lot

[@Zelink108]

TotK didn’t have that many highs, just a lot of disappointments, underwhelming stuff and not even doing a good job of connecting with BotW which it is supposed to be a direct sequel to.

[@Roosader]

One thing that made the combat a lot more fun for me personally was realizing that spamming sea urchins is mechanically very similar to using a sword. It also has the added benefit of creating a barrier between you and your enemies, so it also kinda covers the functionality of a shield. Also, I think the game would be made MUCH better if it just didn't have the Crawltula lol. At lwast not until WAYYYYYYY later.

[@Quazap]

While playing EoW, I felt like the moment-to-moment dialogue was actually better than it was in ToTK. It may be because there are no generic NPCs that repeat the same lines as each other, but they characters felt far more alive to me.

[@RohanSlazar]

Recency bias

[@jimmahgee]

IDK as a comparison, but generally I thought they were quite good. The best were the story-based ones though. I loved how in every case Zelda’s presence played a part in the characters gaining wisdom to live happier lives. Very heartwarming and decent little character progression arcs, especially for the Goron and Zora.

[@vadoslink446]

I thought it was the other way around. Most of the NPCs didn't really have any useful information, so a lot of the dialogue felt like useless flavor text. In TotK on the other hand you constantly hear people talk about things that happen in the world and they tell you rumors about specific places. That often adds to the worldbuilding and overall gameplay, by making you want to check those things out. EoW never really did that, unless an NPC was important for the mainquest.

[@tylerherr4288]

yeah turns out giving npcs some mostly unique features makes them rememberable i do wish they took the time to give each npc a name though which is weird cuz the dialog has a built in feature to show someones name when they are mentioned but never after that for the regular npcs?

[@Sephirothkingdom782]

@@RohanSlazarbro he gave actual reasons and u just say nuh uh

[@SuperSavajin]

I legit teared up when I entered the Faron Temple and it looked like a competent dungeon

[@telerobotic]

“It is a good *classic Zelda* game” - not done playing myself so this video is for later but that’s good to hear!

[@markusszelbracikowski956]

This is the first Zelda game in a long while I actually felt compelled to finish. There's so much charm, the dialogue and animations are great, the story.. I'm definitely going to start a new game and see how it holds up for a second playthrough

[@Yesnomu]

I agree, not perfect but I liked it a lot! And the spectacle of the final area and boss was fantastic. I tried to use swordfighter mode as little as possible through the game, and it was cool to figure out what echoes I could use to deal the most damage and which could hit air targets. I honestly never had much trouble with the menus, between "last received" and "last used" and sometimes the type sort, I could usually find what I needed with just a few seconds. Favorites would have been nice though.

[@erikhendrickson59]

Nintendo has such an impressive ability to create games that are just plain old FUN.

[@Zelink108]

When they are actually good and well done, then there are bad games like Paper Mario Sticker Star or underwhelming like TotK.

[@bri2658]

you can completely skip the entire water dungeon with a crawltula by the way. if you use it to climb the wall in the central room, go right to access the cave section, and grab the boss key and ride crawltula again up to the boss door, you donr have to raise the water level at all lmao. this is not me saying the game is bad, just that im surprised that something so major like that wasnt accounted for

[@gooseguyfilms4460]

Just watched the first 35 seconds and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. I’ve been avoiding echos of wisdom because I was worried for the same reason, but if it goes back to that old formula, I’m gonna at least try it.

[@BrownieEXE]

there is hope, thanks for this review. If they made another Zelda game & didn't make good dungeons & was going to quietly step out. People think that the dungeons didn't need to returns but their excuse was the progress of doing them was getting stale (get dungeon map, compass, item from the place, then boss key). If the can evolve from that, they could still keep it Zelda while making the process of dungeons fresh

[@petercottantail7850]

'people' only said dungeons were old news cause that was the excuse to defend botw and totk at the time. Any criticism to their favorite franchise will be met with an excuse to defend it. of course they say silent when the developers themselves do the opposite of the excuses. just like any criticism to this game will be met with the same strawman logic excuses by nostalgic fans. its just people taking sides at this point instead of opinions and talking

[@jamesmccloud1002]

​@@petercottantail7850 Or maybe people just liked seeing their favorite game series try something new for a change after doing the same thing repeatedly since 1986. And now, after a 10 year break, it's nice to see a little of the old formula. I get it though. It's only 2024. People still don't understand the internet is made up of billions of people with differing opinions and perspectives.

[@samf.s.7731]

I think the combination of open world and dungeons would have been fantastic in a BoTW style game. Elden Ring did it, and it was glorious. With Zelda, we get items and power ups that could later be used in the open world to unlock stuff. So they could have done that, TP already did that and did it very well.

[@jhank0cean]

Stamp Guy has stamped his *_fabulous_* body and love into our hearts forever.

[@Ephesians-yn8ux]

Gay

[@highdefinition450]

imagine if it had been tingle tho lol

[@JanusHoW]

My favorite part about this game was actually the lore. (MASSIVE SPOILERS INCOMING) The reveal that Ganon is not only NOT the main antagonist in spite of being prominently featured on the box art and other promotional material, but the REAL main antagonist, Null, is a far more terrifying villain than Ganon ever was: -Null is a Lovecraftian eldritch horror older than time itself. -The Golden Goddesses (Din, Nayru and Farore) created Hyrule SPECIFICALLY to seal Null. -Even when sealed himself, Null was still able to subdue, capture and seal away the Golden Goddesses. -Null's ultimate goal is to not only destroy everything except himself, but to then prevent any new worlds from being created ever again. -Null's power to create rifts is so dangerous that the Goddesses had to make the Tris, an entire race whose _sole purpose_ was to fix the constant damage Null would cause. Without them, the prison would not have held him very long. -Null is powerful enough that he was able to defeat and consume Ganon, likely with ease. Since the Ganon we fight both in the intro and at the end of the fourth dungeon is an echo, that means Null had to defeat the original.

[@ultraenzo]

Great review and i too was on the fence at the beginning to buy the game I only decided to get it because the consensus online was saying that the dungeons would function similar to classic Zelda, I can say I was not disappointed in that aspect

[@andrethyst905]

Thank you for telling me to stop, as I haven't finished the main game yet and you have now made me more excited to see how it ends.

[@aarondubourg3706]

The game should have had 2 or 3 customizable items/powers buttons like previous classic games. Minimize the time in the menus and could incentivised ppl to use echos that they normally wouldn't use in a given situation.

[@cherubin7th]

After my TOTK burnout this is good to hear!

[@gregpitta]

Thanks for clearly making the spoilers section of the video. Makes all the difference.

[@brandonbernard1570]

I think its kind of clever that the embodiment of nothingness can basically only act by copying existing things.

[@victorthevictorian]

Good point!

[@ninjaeddy1717]

I had never thought of that. Great insight!

[@Excalibur5k]

it makes it a sort of different villain than what we're used to. just about every other game is "light vs dark," and this one is "creation vs destruction," or "borrowing (zelda), vs stealing (null)." it also makes sense that the goddesses couldnt destroy null, they can only create, the triforce they made doesnt have that limitation though.

[@videoket]

Oh man, your idea for the ending (with the switching) is so much better than what was done. I was so confused about the gameplay-narrative tie in of just LOSING an ability you’ve had throughout the game and having to stand around while others fight.

[@virusklaxsosaur4054]

Yeah i had made the final upgrades to it before the final area and was just confused

[@nono9543]

I've always theorized of a Primordial God predating the Goddesses. Good to know we have a name "sorta" to this entity.

[@CJusticeHappen21]

Maybe it's because I'm currently reading Elric of Melniboné, but I really am enjoying the summoning aspect of game play.

[@randaltd]

14:46 Hero Mode also doesn’t have heart drops and you can get OHKO’d by enemies (instead of being left with 1/4 of a heart). I think the smoothie making process is supposed to be tedious so it’s a deterrent from getting quick heals (just like how bed recovery is slow)

[@statesminds]

I’m playing right now and I’m on the last 3 or 4 dungeons, I think. I love classic zelda and a link between worlds is my favorite. Plus this one we play as zelda which is neat. I dont hate botw or totk but prefer these. I really do want more.

[@TurokShadowBane]

Ah! my most anticipated EoW review has come out!

[@MorshuMMMMMMMmmm]

I think the dungeon design in this game just shows why this solve anything you want formula just doesn't work, the dungeons are hardly about concrete ideas and are just a bunch of rooms with stuff in it. I cannot remember a single dungeon idea or set of rooms because there is very little flow to the design. I can however remember every dungeon from ALBW. Tower of hera was an excellent climb to the top with outside portions and spring contraptions to launch yourself with. Dark Palace had it's own set of gimmicks with using light on multiple floors to open the way to the boss. I could go on and talk about them all, but the problem EOW runs into is that it's designed like LA if LA had no dungeon items. All of the EOW dungeons are ideas you've already seen in the area they reside in. Most of these dungeons lack scenario diversity, which the best zelda dungeons have.

[@Glunk222]

I found the dungeons forgettable, too, but I actually liked a lot of the puzzles (especially in the ice temple). I think it's more because the dungeons doesn't really have me considering the entire dungeon as a physical space and how the rooms connect together and all that like in a lot of previous games. The dungeons in this game were extremely linear and there was always a clear path forwards.

[@DylanRiley2011]

Such a spot-on review. I needed to stop because I haven't finished yet. I also appreciate you saying that you can just explore with the main story, because I was starting to pull a BotW/TotK and go places where I shouldn't yet, and it's not too late for me to change that in my playthrough. Great review; will come back for the ending when I'm done!

[@spacecakedup]

I finally found your videos again really missed your voice I didn’t know if you still made videos but keep up the good work the algorithm finally recommended you again

[@sebbysebbington]

and i really like how they brought back the deku scrubs (oot), yeti’s (TP) and lord jabu jabu (also oot)

[@MidlifeCrisisJoe]

I'm going to watch this later, but I'm commenting now to just say that I appreciate the utter succinctness of the thumbnail reviews, Rat-man.

[@Touma134]

Deku being back really made me want to play this. I love the deku specifically the mad scrubs. Too bad they're not in here just the business scrubs but them not being forgotten brings a teat to my eye. Not sure I will since I'm still bitter about new Zelda but happy to see some old Zelda back and especially the deku. I love them so much man.

[@HopperDragon]

What? There's a whole region populated by deku scrubs and they're extremely adorable. What do you mean there's only business scrubs?

[@Touma134]

​@HopperDragon all I saw was business scrubs. I assumed they all shared that model. Point still stands though no mad scrubs but I'm just happy deku are here at all.

[@blakechero378]

Heres to hoping they continue running with the deku scrubs

[@ellagage1256]

​@@Touma134Have you been in the Faron Wetlands? If not you should, might find what you're looking for

[@HenrikMyrhaug]

I absolutely loved this game! It is a short and sweet Zelda game which actually returns to the classic Zelda formula with a semi- linear story and decent dungeons, but at the same time it gives you a lot of freedom similar to TotK and BotW. IMO, EoW is much more fun than both those two games, because there are much stronger and more reasonable limitations to your abilities, allowing the puzzles to be designed in a manner where you can't just cheeze absolutely everything with one ability, but you can beat them with a clever combination of 3 out of the 20 actually useful echoes. For some reason, they made one long linear list of echoes like with the long line of fuse abilities in TotK, and this has to take the cake for some of the worst UI design in the history of Nintendo. However, the fact that you usually just need around 5 echoes at one time makes it tolerable, until you face a puzzle intended for one specific echo where you have to scroll for 15-20 seconds just to find whatever the hell you need. This is by far the worst part of the game. That said, it is not so bad it completely ruins the game, unlike what it did in TotK for me. SPOILERS: When it comes to the room where you and link work together, I completely agree with your criticism, and I wish we got to switch back and forth at will. I was stuck for quite a while because the first thing I tried was getting him to stand on an object with bind and then climbing to lift him like an elevator, but he wouldn't stay on. When I realized that didn't work, I tried building a staircase, but for some reason his dogshit AI kept falling off the stairs for no reason.

[@JeanKP14]

The start menu is far better when you need to look at all your echos rather than searching on the single line menu

[@orpheus0108]

Wish the price was also short and sweet

[@EmmaTeckenbrock]

I hate the final boss fight, it just felt like I was standing there while Link and the Echoes fought the boss. Overall I enjoyed the game, mostly because it was small and not empty. Fun game.

[@underdarkness7692]

there is one broken echo you didnt mention: flying tile it doesnt change your assessment of the puzzles i more or less 100% agree with you, but i skipped maybe 80% of the platforming/traversal challenges in the game just by either jumping on or binding myself to a flying tile. im almost surprised i havent seen more people list it next to crawltulla, it has even fewer downsides IMO

[@XanderVJ]

There are more and more people catching up with that. Unfortunately, the flying tile is this game's equivalent to the hover bike in TotK. Granted, it's not as game breaking as the hover bike was, but it's still up there. Dungeon and item design still has longs way to go before getting the magic back.

[@JeanKP14]

​@@XanderVJI feel like this is fresh and fun. Who cares if don't options are broken? If you don't look it up first, you gave to figure that out yourself, and that's fun!

[@stevenlockhart9255]

It’s unfortunate that it’s so short.

[@Pixelguy9]

I never even considered using bind on the Seismic Talus! My Zelda brain saw the glowing purple part and defaulted to my built-in “hit the glowing weak spot” mode.

[@dizzyhungry]

The editing is very good here! I hope to see more edited like this in the future

[@triforcepower73]

I'm nearly finished with the game so I'll save this vid for later. But I really am having a blast with it. This is such a necessary step in the right direction for Zelda and I couldn't be more excited to see what's next.

[@zetsubou1v1]

I wish that instead of automatons and even swordfighter form, they had given slots to hot swap echoes. That is a piece of old zelda that is still bafflingly being ignored, despite being far more convenient than the modern menus.

[@rhombusx]

I agree with pretty much every point in this review - both positive and negative. It is indeed an easy game - however, I actually found the easiness to not bother me. It kind of reminds me of the IGA Castlevania games, where you're given an almost overwhelmingly large offensive toolbox and you're constantly tweaking and experimenting to find the go-to moveset to dunk on enemies. I also felt the open puzzle solving worked super well, as the slightly more constrained nature of a 2d world and less physics interaction made just about all solutions feel "valid" - unlike in TotK where I often had an almost shameful feeling of cheesing or bypassing puzzles.

[@EtherealMystic]

So glad this game turned out to be great. Another slamdunk 1st party title

[@ripster8766]

I thought it was really good. I was a one play through was enough botw player and didn’t even finish totk because of all my gripes. Anyway I hope one day we get some sort of happy medium. The menus need work big time. And I think it would have been cool if each dungeon had a mini boss who’s echo acted like the items found in previous games. Would have made it feel alittle more rewarding. But if oot is a 9.5 I think I’d give echoes a 7.6. Super solid

[@daruddock]

There should absolutely be a resource mechanic, whereby you can only store a certain amount of echoes before refreshing them, or only store one of each, etc. You should then be able to upgrade these limits as the game progresses. Some games seem terrified of withholding their mechanics from players. In Fallout 4 if you follow the obvious quest markers then within an hour you've already killed an iconic Deathclaw, which is supposed to be a late game enemy, gotten your own suit of power armour, again supposed to be a part of the power creep, and you've unlocked the full and unlimited ability to build bases.

[@mkjjoe]

You bring up how there is never a moment like saying goodbye to grandma in WW, but I really liked how things turned terribly from the intro, until we get to take back the castle, and the simple but sweet interaction between the King and Zelda as they reunite and keep having dialogue as things progress.

[@willmcdono]

So glad to see your take. Can't wait to watch this after I finish it.

[@brandonhelcher3691]

There's 3 styles of Zelda games: 2D. Alttp, Oracle games Albw, Eow. 3D. Oot, Tp, Ww, Ss Open world. Botw, Totk Fine with each style, be satisfied if they keep alternating.

[@Olimario34_]

More like 4 types *2D:* TLoZ, TAoL, ALttP, LA, OoA, OoS, TMC, PH, ST, ALBW, EoW *3D:* OoT, MM, TWW, TP, SS *Open:* BotW, TotK *Multiplayer:* FS, FSA, TFH

[@damonplay8185]

Awesome review I almost have nothing to add! The game really felt like a breath of fresh air after so long.

[@xaviercosta9631]

The goat of game reviews

[@HuggetFisk]

5:30 I am happy to say that I've never noticed such a situation in Tears of the Kingdom. I think Echoes of Wisdom is much closer to falling into that trap, though my set of tools does evolve as I collect better echoes to supersede my old tools, which indicates a tiered situation that I didn't experience in Tears of the Kingdom.

[@eoln_]

I think they didn't change the artstyle to engage people (due to link's awakening sucess) and cut development time. I don't think they're gonna keep it, but this time it worked really well.

[@tysondennis1016]

The water boss is Vocavor, and it’s an anomalocaris.

[@korwindel1]

Was waiting for this! Seem like ages. Just finished it. It is a good classic Zelda game with decent story!

[@PikaPikaLOL]

I used Darknut 3 so much. Echoes still attack when bound, so the Darknut’s spin attack can be moved around akin to the boomerang magnesis glitch in BotW

[@catrinastars]

The fire dungeons music was Boss, digging that violin. Found myself out right singing to that one. 😁👍

[@kaiseravm]

one thing they could do to balance the echo system is having something akin to a stamina bar, since that would mean you cant just spam your echoes you need to use them in a strategic way or you leave yourself open to attacks if you use up that stamina bar as zelda could get in a tired state, and combat scenarios in dungeons could have included that certain monsters in the dungeon could have worked for certain encounters or have more interactions, the system really has a lot of potential

[@Multipurpose_Bagel]

There's a lot to like in BotW and TotK, despite the bad. TotK feels like a wasted potential / misstep situation though. But I'm extremely happy that this new one is different.

[@Multipurpose_Bagel]

To add, I just finished the game today (and then went back to skim the Overview and Launch trailers - it's not a big thing, but Nintendo is bad for ruining some surprises in trailers). Overall, a pleasant little game. Whatever is next, be it 3D or 2D, this makes me look forward to it again. Main thing has to be UI though, 100%. (And yes, pulling on Null's arms only for Link to do a little jump-spin-attack was very satisfying)

[@novicecreed]

As someone who was very disappointed with Totk, I gotta say this game hit like a slap of fresh air and absolutely loved it. It may not be perfect, but just the fact that it was an entirely new game, with a different map and game mechanics pretty much sold me. Also the entire plot reveal with Null was an absolute cherry on top moment for me and I couldn't be any happier.

[@Sr.D]

As a long-time Zelda fan, I can't help but feel disappointed with the direction the series has taken in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. These games seem to have lost the essence of what made the original titles so captivating-the intricate dungeon exploration, the carefully crafted puzzles, and the sense of progression that came from mastering those challenges. While the open-world design offers freedom, it feels like it came at the cost of the structured, thoughtful gameplay that defined the series. The heart and soul of Zelda, to me, were in those memorable dungeons, and without them, the experience feels hollow. What makes it more frustrating is that it’s completely possible to mix an open world with the traditional dungeons from earlier games. Unfortunately, I have little hope for the future of the series if it continues down this path.

[@francoperalta5986]

Have you played these dungeons?

[@Sr.D]

​@@francoperalta5986 no, I hope this one is better

[@Fixti0n]

I want another co op zelda game now. Two player where one is Link and the other is Zelda, and the two of you have to cooperate to solve puzzles. Can totally use it as a single player game now if they make it in the same engine (as much as i dislike reusing the same engine multiple times) by using the AI framework.

[@zinawilliams7934]

So if you have a floating tile through the section at 8:34, you can just fly across. Floating tile is great

[@lukedavies3654]

The echoes give a really good incentive to explore, every cave you have the potential of finding useful tools. This game was so much fun and gives me hope for the future of the franchise

[@lordnul1708]

Honestly I barely use the smoothies because beds are so effective, especially with the silk pajamas. Though it is a touch harder to heal mid battle without the smoothies, but I mainly used them for buffs or to restore energy. So i maxxed out once, and then fom there I needed like, 3 or 4 per visit, and only one visit per dungeon or the dream battles (when the latter lets you use them).

[@tenalf759]

I almost never used the water block. Bed and that stomping lift creature are the MVPs

[@Touma134]

Distortion world pokemon platinum is all i see with the still world. Which isn't a bad thing.

[@cercruder]

Damn I wanna play Windwaker again

[@omnipresent_ninja]

I gotta give this silky voice my full attention !

[@DNYLNY]

This game is fun, just started. My only complaint is the menu diving. It would’ve been cool to assign echoes to hotkeys. Like L1 + a = snake, b = sea urchin, y = trampoline etc. Then it would’ve felt more like an action game instead of a strategy/puzzle. The music is amazing. Among the best in the series.

[@marknashland3884]

Use the crows. That's is all. If you wanna get rich, use crow

[@francoperalta5986]

Maybe its not about the old and new style. Maybe the Zelda staff, they just come up with and act on an idea, and it changes overtime. I mean, this game was originally going to be a dungeon maker, even though Aonuma said its not in the plans at the moment. But they decided to look into that and see if Link can work, and when that didn't pan out, they made the solutions the approaches. While taking some feedback to heart. Regarding the arcs. Dohna's arc reflecting the Zora storyline from breath of the wild, Zelda being framed like Link in ALTTP, Conde's arc regarding his brother, the Kushara and Dradds rivalry. And this game building up this villain and his involvement that predates demise isn't compelling storytelling, I don't know what can be.

[@Greyfather991]

Just in seeing the footage from this video I’ve learned a million different ways to solve the puzzles in this game

[@thelastwindwaker7948]

25:57 I thought that was the intended way to fight it? I just instinctively was like "arms extend? I grab." It reminded me of that one boss from Link's Awakening where you hookshot him out of the walls.

[@Zelink108]

Regarding your take on Null, i disagree a bit, I was actually a bit disappointed with Null, he feels more like a discount nightmare from Link’s awakening what with his shape making powers and the lore around him just feels like it is ripping off of the Cloud of Darkness/Exdeath from Final Fantasy III/V or the generic JRPG with the “embodiment of nothingness” aspect, not to mention that we already had Demise as the “primordial evil/dark abstract entity” as SS revealed and the source of Ganondorf, we didn’t need another seemingly retconny one. Heck, SS says that Demise and the monsters “emerged from a rift in the land”, sounding like the rifts in EoW, it would have been better and more interesting if Null was a lingering piece or aspect of Demise that remained in the primordial chaos after he emerged in the physical world to try and take it and it started to awaken when EoW came around. Heck, I was expecting A Link between Worlds to explain more about where Demise came from, what with the logo art seemly showing a dark and inverted Triforce underneath the regular one, just like how Demise’s sword had a inverted Triforce on it, but nope, it was just a generic mirror world plot and it was called “lorule” (get it, high and low? Real “clever”, Nintendo) and the “dark Triforce” was actually just a regular Triforce that was turned upside down and the “dark” colour on the logo was just meant to represent the lack of a Triforce. EoW feels like what A Link Between World’s should have been about, especially with how Null looks like a dark version of the Tri-spirits just like how there should have been a dark version of the Triforce. Your take on Null is also ironic considering what Arlo thought about the whole thing, do you play to have a debate with him sometime on it? Also surprised you didn’t say anything about the Master Sword not being in the game.

[@ajbXYZcool]

Just completed the game myself, and I'm surprised at some of the echos you're using! Like, I didn't think of using the little rock dudes to cross lava and didnt know the Whirro as my grab-flyer! Not sure if I agree on adding restrictions to Echos - I think for most people, adding those restrictions would only push them towards Swordfighter Mode more, and for me, I focused on an Echo-first playstyle, especially when I had my high-level enemy Echoes. Sure, when I started maxing out my Swordfighter stats, there were a few times I popped it on, but most often I used my squad.

[@itcertdoctor]

As a mid-30s Millennial who grew up playing the classic Zeldas, and who was not a fan whatsoever of BotW or TotK, Echoes of Wisdom felt like traveling back in time when linearity, story-telling, and unique tool expansion (a-la the echoes) were the mainstay of the series Extremely happy with this game, and I suspect that 2D Zeldas will be my mainstay going forward. I understand Nintendo's decision to pivot the 3D formula, and they've clearly had nothing but monumental success with it. Perhaps it's just too difficult for an old man to change his ways...

[@hododod246]

I agree mostly apart from some echoes are being too powerful. Game world and traversal mostly designed around bed and water blocks. They are like your legs. Game does not allow you to progress without bed. It is near impossible to skip water block. Also echoes does not funnel everyone to same solution. In most of the game plays I see, people are using different solution to different situations because each people's mind work differently and game has enough flexibility to accommodate it. For example when I fight with bow fighter Link, I used redeads to stun Link because he was walking around too much and also trying to avoid their shriek. So I thought that was the intended way to fight. But when I see few boss battles, people did differently.

[@mrtesticlease4638]

just a quick thing, i actually never felt the ingredients or rupees were "junk" rewards because they're both pretty important and useful in this game

[@u-mos8820]

Taking the time to let the game make your point for you 9:11 reminds me of what Mandalore Gaming does. It's a nice touch, I really enjoyed that.

[@EPS5000]

14:04 - that’s not “fun” what you’re describing would ruin game. Summoning a squad whenever you want IS the fun part.

[@sfrert2759]

No, is not.

[@WadWizard]

Maybe kinda spoilers as far as my default puzzle solving intuition While there are some echoes that can feel like they become your standard solution i feel like each person ive seen play has had different "cheat" echoes, like i never realized how useful water blocks were cause they seemed to disappear unreliably or wouldnt place sometimes, instead i used clouds flying tiles and those big raising platforms, i hadnt noticed i could use repeated echoes as a form of attack untill partway through where i used the buzz blob and octorocks (after i beat the game i realized i could use caromadillos as sortof ranged attacks) i avoided using swordfighter form because sometimes it seemed like you basically needed it so i was concerned about running out of energy, on that lava area id never connected that i could just use the little talos, and i hardly made smoothies cause i forgot to and kinda felt like i had to go out of my way to make them.

[@jeltajink]

I found very interesting that in the "ask the developer" interview Aonuma says that at first the Hyrule's story was going to be kind of vague, but around summer 2023 they decided to change that. That makes me hopeful that they may have listened to the criticism about TOTK's story. I really liked all the story with the final boss, the music and the dungeons. Even the NPCs. I hope this is the start of a brighter future. Spoiler I liked the fact that this Ganon is not even real, way better than TOTK's "I must rule, and if not I will destroy everything" boring lame excuse of a "Ganondorf"

[@feidamack2006]

Ratatoskr, if you have an itch for more top-down 2D Zelda games but with difficult puzzles, consider trying CrossCode and the upcoming Alabaster Dawn.

[@firenze6478]

Ratatoskr. Null is actually very much connected to Ganon. Null was sealed deep inside the earth’s core, where demise appeared from a fissure or rift and later reincarnated as ganondorf to be able to use the Triforce. This means that demise and subsequently ganon are creations of Null, perhaps even his avatar, and explains why it has an echo of ganon and why ganon cannot truly die since he is an echo of Null.

[@videoket]

“But that’s just a game theory!” On a more serious note, I enjoy the speculation but Nintendo didn’t validate most of our ToTK lore spec at ALL. (Neither validating it or providing much lore in contrast.) So at the risk of sounding like a crabby old man, I’ll care more, when they care. 🤷

[@firenze6478]

@@videoket fair enough

[@tinchuen]

Love you talking about games that I would never have interest on the first place,

[@Aeroblade141]

Items/ echoes problem would be a lot easier to manage if you could create a favorites tab. I should not have to cycle through 127 echoes to find the one that’s relevant at this moment