Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review - The Princess Leads

👑 Introduction — At Last, the Princess Is the Hero

🗡️ This review is part of our The Legend of Zelda Hub — every mainline game reviewed and rated, plus the movies and the LEGO Zelda sets, all in one place.

For decades, the running joke wrote itself: the series is called Zelda, and yet you almost never play as Zelda. With Echoes of Wisdom in 2024, Nintendo finally, properly fixed that — and made one of the most creative entries in years in the process. This is the first mainline game to star Princess Zelda as its playable hero, with Link, in a delicious role reversal, cast as the one who goes missing and needs saving. For the Dadnology community, this is a 9/10 — a charming, inventive, genuinely important game that proves the princess can carry an adventure brilliantly on her own.

Ad

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo Switch) (opens in a new tab)

The full game on Switch — the first mainline adventure starring Princess Zelda, playable docked or in handheld and ready for Switch 2.

It is not just a reskinned Link adventure with a new face, either. Zelda plays completely differently. Instead of swinging a sword as her primary tool, she wields the Tri Rod, a magical staff that lets her create “echoes” — copies of objects and creatures she has encountered — and use them to puzzle, fight and traverse her way across Hyrule. It is one of the most open-ended, sandbox-flavoured toolsets the top-down series has ever offered, and it makes Echoes of Wisdom feel fresh from the first hour.

Playing as Zelda: A Role Reversal Done Right

The headline is the heroine, and the game treats the moment with real care. Early on, the usual order of things collapses — rifts open across Hyrule, people vanish, and Link himself is among the missing. Zelda, far from waiting to be rescued, picks up the Tri Rod and sets out to put things right. It is a role reversal handled with charm and confidence, never a gimmick, and it gives the whole adventure a fresh perspective.

Zelda is a likeable, capable lead, and seeing familiar Zelda situations from her side — meeting characters, exploring dungeons, saving the day — is quietly satisfying after all these years. It also dovetails beautifully with the direction the series has been moving, from Zelda’s expanded role in Spirit Tracks to her starring turn here. For my kids, in particular, the idea that the princess is the one doing the rescuing is a lovely message, and it never feels forced. This is long-overdue, and Nintendo nailed the execution.

The Echo Mechanic: A Sandbox of Possibilities

The Tri Rod and its echoes are the creative heart of the game, and they are genuinely brilliant. As Zelda encounters objects and enemies, she learns to summon copies of them at will. Need to climb? Summon a stack of beds. Need to cross water? Conjure a raft or a block of water to swim up. Stuck behind a gap? Drop a series of crates. Facing a tough foe? Summon a monster — or three — to fight on your behalf while you hang back.

Ad

Nintendo Switch 2 (opens in a new tab)

Plays Echoes of Wisdom beautifully, with the extra horsepower smoothing the original's occasional performance dips.

The result is a top-down Zelda that thinks like a sandbox. Most puzzles and encounters have multiple valid solutions, and the joy is in experimenting — discovering that a problem the designers expected you to solve one way bends easily to your own daft, inventive approach. It is the same systemic, “the world is your toolbox” philosophy that powers Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, translated cleverly into a 2D-style adventure. Building a teetering tower of summoned beds to reach a ledge and grinning at your own absurdity is peak Echoes of Wisdom, and it is a delight.

The Art Style: A Toy-Like Hyrule

Visually, Echoes of Wisdom is a treat. It uses the same gorgeous toy-like, diorama art style introduced in the 2019 Link’s Awakening remake — a world that looks like a beautifully crafted tabletop model, all soft focus, rounded shapes and tilt-shift charm. Characters have an adorable figurine quality, and Hyrule feels like a handcrafted playset you are reaching into.

It is one of the most instantly appealing looks in the series, especially to children, and it suits the playful, creative spirit of the echo mechanic perfectly — a toy box of a world to match a toy box of a toolset. The presentation reinforces the game’s whole identity: light, inventive, and joyful. There is real visual craft here, and it is a big part of why the game charms so completely from the moment you boot it up.

Combat, Difficulty and a Couple of Caveats

In the spirit of honesty, this is where Echoes of Wisdom shows its limits. The combat is easy — perhaps too easy. The echo system lets you summon monsters to do most of your fighting, and while a later swordfighting form for Zelda adds some directness, the game rarely pushes back hard. Veteran players hunting for a stiff challenge may find it gentle, and the sheer flexibility of the echoes can occasionally undercut tension, since there is almost always a trivially easy solution available.

There are also some performance dips on the original Switch hardware, with the framerate wobbling in busier moments — exactly the sort of thing the extra power of a Switch 2 helps smooth over. Neither issue is remotely fatal: the creativity and charm carry the day, and the relaxed difficulty is arguably a feature for its target audience. But they are the reasons this lands at a 9 rather than a 10. A little more bite and a steadier framerate would have pushed it over the top.

Where It Sits in Modern Zelda

Echoes of Wisdom occupies an interesting place in the series’ evolution. It is, in effect, the top-down equivalent of the Breath of the Wild revolution — taking the systemic, freedom-first, “solve it your way” philosophy of the modern 3D games and proving it works just as well from a bird’s-eye view. After years where the 2D-style Zeldas were the more traditional branch of the family, this one drags them firmly into the modern era.

That makes it more than just a charming spin-off; it is a statement of intent about where the handheld-style Zelda can go. Pair that with the milestone of a playable Zelda and the beloved Link’s Awakening art style, and you have a game that is both a lovely standalone adventure and a meaningful step forward for the franchise. It honours the past — the toy-box look, the top-down roots — while pointing clearly at the future.

Hyrule’s Charm and the Supporting Cast

Beyond its big mechanical ideas, Echoes of Wisdom is carried by sheer charm, and a lot of that comes from the world around Zelda. This Hyrule is dotted with likeable characters, gentle humour and small, warm stories — the kind of texture that makes the toy-box setting feel inhabited rather than just decorative. Helping the various peoples of the land, from the Gerudo to the Zora to the Deku, gives the adventure a pleasant rhythm of community and consequence between the dungeons.

There is real personality in the writing, too. Zelda’s interactions with the creature companion who accompanies her, the reactions of townsfolk to the rifts tearing through the land, the playful logic of an item-summoning princess — it all adds up to a game with a light, good-hearted spirit that is easy to spend time in. The music suits it perfectly, a bright and breezy score that matches the diorama visuals.

It is this warmth that elevates Echoes of Wisdom from “clever experiment” to “genuinely lovable game.” Plenty of titles have a strong central mechanic; fewer wrap it in a world this charming and this welcoming. By the end, Hyrule-as-toy-box feels like a place you are happy to keep returning to, and that affection is a big part of why the game lingers in the memory after the credits roll.

Family Fit: One of the Best Modern Zeldas for Kids

Echoes of Wisdom might be the single best modern Zelda to put in front of a child. It is rated E10+ with only mild fantasy combat, the toy-like art is irresistible to young players, and crucially the creative, open-ended echo puzzles reward imagination over reflexes. A kid who finds twitchy action games frustrating can thrive here, experimenting with summons and finding their own daft solutions — exactly the kind of play that builds problem-solving confidence.

The accessible difficulty, often a knock for veterans, becomes a genuine strength for families: nobody hits a wall, frustration stays low, and progress feels steady and rewarding. And the framing — Princess Zelda as the capable hero saving the day — is a wonderful one to share, especially with daughters who have spent years watching the princess sit on the sidelines. As a creative, gentle, empowering adventure to play with a child, it is close to ideal.

Do you play as Princess Zelda in Echoes of Wisdom?

Yes. It is the first mainline Zelda game where you play as Princess Zelda herself, rather than Link. In a fitting role reversal, Link is among those who go missing, and it falls to Zelda to save Hyrule using her new Tri Rod and its echo powers.

How does the echo mechanic work?

Zelda’s Tri Rod lets her create ‘echoes’ — copies of objects and enemies she has encountered. You can summon beds to climb, boxes to stack, water blocks to swim up, or monsters to fight for you. It is a creative, sandbox-style toolset that lets you solve most puzzles in multiple ways.

Is Echoes of Wisdom worth it?

Yes. It is a charming, inventive and genuinely important entry, with a creative echo system and a gorgeous art style. Easy combat and a few performance dips keep it from perfection, but the freedom and the milestone of finally playing as Zelda make it a strong 9 out of 10.

Is Echoes of Wisdom suitable for kids?

Very much so. It is rated E10+ with only mild fantasy combat, the toy-like art is delightful, and the open-ended echo puzzles reward creative thinking over reflexes. The accessible difficulty and Zelda-as-hero framing make it one of the best modern Zeldas for younger players.