Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

@ShieldHero
Honestly, the favorites menu changes the game big time. It's completely customizable and kept me in the action most of the time. Pretty much fixed the only problem I had with the game in the first place.

I had so much fun playing it through for the second time and completing almost everything. It feels like a game that was crafted with love and care, as corny as that sounds. There are so many cool little quests and stuff to do after you cleanse each area. So many fun little puzzles that aren't particularly challenging but still make you feel good after solving them.

@rallydefault, Echoes of Wisdom really is awesome. I did as I said and returned briefly yesterday on my Switch 1, got the last 3 echoes I was missing. Because of how well-designed it is, I'm still considering ranking it higher than botw and totk, and would've done that already if those games weren't awesome as well. 10/10 game in my book, the brief return was worth it. 😄

@ShieldHero
Yea, BotW and Tears are amazing games, but it’s this flavor of Zelda that I’ve always loved. I’m someone who would take most of the 2D games over most of the 3D games, though, except for maybe Ocarina.

I found the game to be a bit lacking personally, but it's mostly just boiling down to how the combat feels less tight when most of it revolves around standing around and summoning things rather than using the sword. I used the Sword ability constantly- especially towards the end of the game when the charm of the new combat wore off for me.. but then they sort of take it away from you, and it makes the final fight a genuine slog to get through.

I guess it was an interesting experiment, but I sort of hope the next 2D Zelda goes back to something more akin to A Link Between Worlds rather than Echoes of Wisdom.

@VoidofLight, I can definitely see how some people who are used to the sword combat don't like the echoes that much.

I just liked the idea of summoning echoes of monsters because stuff like that is in some of the anime I watch 😃.

The only time that I didn't particularly like using the echoes was during those Dojo time trials in Kakoriko Village. I left half of them unfinished because of how inefficient the computer controlling the echoes is. The computer controlling them is fine for the most part... when there isn't a time limit going on 😵‍💫.

And I can see why you'd think the final boss is a slog... it took me almost 25 minutes, I think 🤣.

And about your final paragraph, it certainly is an interesting experiment (an experiment that I give a 10/10 score personally, since, for the most part, I loved the echo summoning), but even I, someone who loves the game, would rather like the next game to go back to the classic sword combat. Though what am I even saying... if the next Zelda game also had echo summoning... I would still play it 🤣...

@ShieldHero @VoidofLight The final boss felt more like an interactive cut scene to me than a final boss. Kind of an odd way to end the game, but it was an interesting artistic choice and I didn't really mind it. Maybe I would have liked it less it if I had died or if it had taken longer.

The rest of the combat in the game though? I never once used my sword except for the couple places the game forces you to. But I also didn't stand still. I sprinted and dodged like a maniac, throwing various echoes directly in enemy faces or in their paths when they were moving, platforming around off my echoes, etc. How fast you can kill various bosses with the right (and correctly positioned) echoes was always an interesting fast-paced combat puzzle.

I do really like traditional top down Zelda games also though.

@FishyS,

"I sprinted and dodged like a maniac, throwing various echoes directly in enemy faces or in their paths when they were moving, platforming around off my echoes, etc."

This was me for most of the game since I didn't use my sword much myself except for a few dojo time trials and bosses 🤣. My most used combat echoes early on were the Wolfos, Crow, and Fire Zol. But later on I mostly used Sword Moblin Level 3 and Mothula Level 2. As for non-combat echoes, I mostly used the beds, water blocks and flying tiles.

I will agree with the complaint here about the combat. It became especially irritating with any sort of flying enemy, cause man, those flying echoes did not like attacking things in a timely manner.

For me, the issues with the echoes was that it felt like once you got the higher ranking enemies, you didn't really need to use the other Echoes to fight anymore. There's over 100 echoes to collect, and it's nice that they brought back some obscure Zelda enemies that haven't been used in ages to fill out that roster.. but I found myself just using the higher ranked ones when I got them, or the ones with abilities that felt broken. It also got annoying to utilize them when you had no direct control over them. A good chunk of the Echoes forced you to kinda sit and wait for them to attack or move close enough to the enemy.

This combined with how the dungeons were laid out are probably the largest two complaints I have for the game- outside of just them reusing A Link to the Past Hyrule again for the third time.

You could always bind them and wield them directly. Also there were quite a few which did damage instantly so you could spam summon and unsummon them to basically nuke enemies. I tended to direct control some and let others do their own thing as backup.

I don't think anyone used all 100 echoes. A chunk of them were pretty useless. There were probably 50 I used a lot at least temporarily, but 20 at any given time and my favorite 20 evolved throughout the game. I'm surprised how many were useful tbh. I'm glad there weren't more because the number got a bit rediculous near the end.

Flying tiles are 100% combat echoes - I used them as arrows. For that matter, water blocks drown enemies. Beds can make funny traps, but that's pretty indirect 🤔

Echoes was and still is a great game, I absolutely loved it. I do have to agree that most of the echoes were pointless as I got through most of the game using Lynel and Crows and almost nothing else, the game had flaws but it was still lots of fun.

The concept is great and think if they make a sequel then they can do it a lot better. EVERY echo should have a purpose and not just for combat. They need more sections were you need to obtain a specific echo from Area A and use it to defeat an enemy or solve a puzzle in a dungeon in Area D. It would also make more sense if every enemy in the game had a specific echo you needed to use in order to destroy it, each enemy in the game has a weakness to another in the game and you being challenged to find out which one would have made it more challenging and more fun I think, and made collecting all those echoes make more sense.

I really do hope a sequel is in the works.