The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom releases in just over 3 weeks time, and today loads of previews have been released with hands-on impressions of the game. We’ve all been enjoying the trailers, the hype and the build-up – but what it the game like to play? Today I’m going to go through all the latest hands-on previews for Zelda Echoes of Wisdom.

Before we begin, check out the description for all the hands on impressions used in todays video. Plus this video contains some light spoilers, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, consider this your spoiler warning.

We start with Tom Philips from Eurogamer, who describes using Zelda’s Echo ability and how it makes the game feel unique from other Legend of Zelda games.

Early on, as Zelda attempts to escape the dungeons of Hyrule Castle, she dons a cloak previously worn by Link and is briefly mistaken for him. At any second, I was expecting her to produce the Master Sword from a hidden pocket and start swinging. But Echoes of Wisdom is not that kind of game – and is all the better for it.

Where Link’s most common starting item is typically something to start hitting enemies with, Zelda’s fancy new Tri Rod tool allows you to conjure up Echoes of objects you have seen previously. In video game terms, you don’t have a weapon per se, but a toolkit with which to solve a problem – a puzzle or group of enemies that need clearing – through other means. And what means! You quickly amass a library of in-game assets available to spawn and despawn into and out of being, from garden variety objects such as barrels and boulders to every kind of enemy you encounter.

There’s a playfulness here, a sense that experimentation is something to be encouraged. Need to cross a gap? One of the first Echoes you can access is a bed, perfect for bridging spaces and walking across. (You can also choose to use it for a quick nap.) Need some cover to hide in, as enemies near your position? Wave the Tri Rod to summon a large potted plant to duck behind.

Your new magical staff is powered by Tri, the Zelda series’ latest companion character, and one you’ll want to keep an eye on. Tri’s pixel-like tail indicates how many Echoes you can create at any one time (you start the game able to conjure three at once, but it looks like this will be upgradable). As each Echo is created, Tri’s tail shortens. When you remove that Echo, it grows back. It’s a handy visual guide for how many more Echoes you have to play with.

Echoes provide you with a range of options with which to solve puzzles, further explore and do battle, and the system feels both powerful and inventive. Being attacked by a flying bat enemy? Call upon a Moblin with a bow and arrow to shoot it down. Alternatively, though, you could pop down a spiny-shelled critter in front of you and watch the bats divebomb that instead, finishing themselves off.

Bat enemies can be used for gliding. Spiders can be used to ascend their dangling silk threads. At one point, I acquired the Echo for a giant slab of meat – with the hint it’d be useful to distract a certain type of enemy in the future. I would later summon up the meat to feed an enemy I thought would love it, only to see them ignore the meal. Still, having that giant steak lying there meant I’d accidentally penned the enemy in, allowing me to fire off an armadillo enemy that pinballed off of surfaces, crashing around the meat to flatten everything in its path.

The Echoes system gets deeper, too – thanks to the inclusion of physics and elemental systems that might seem more at home in Breath of the Wild. Heavy boulders placed on top of breakable objects won’t necessarily crush what’s underneath, for example, but summoning them while up high then heaving them down on top of something breakable (or directly onto an enemy) below will do the job, thanks to their momentum.

Brian Altano from IGN describes the Dungeons in Echoes of Wisdom.

The Suthorn Ruins dungeon was the perfect proving ground to test all of these toys out. It’s a traditional Zelda dungeon through and through and it looks and feels fantastic. It was truly exciting to finally be back in one of these again. But instead of relying on one newly discovered item or weapon to beat it like you would in an older Zelda dungeon, you’re learning how to summon new things every other minute. You’ve got an entire arsenal to play with, and each room feels rife for experimentation and playfulness. Some puzzles had a clear and obvious answer while others demanded some creativity, and seeing how different people solved them in different ways was a total joy. The speedrunning and sequence-breaking communities out there are gonna have a blast with this game.

Alex Olney from Nintendo Life describes fighting Link at the end of the first dunegon.

Link was honestly terrifying – we never want to be an enemy in a Zelda game if fate will allow it. We tried everything we could, but beyond a few hits in the back of the head from a Moblin spear here or there, his shield blocked everything else, and we couldn’t attack fast enough to counter once he dropped his guard to stab us.

Then it struck us. Earlier in the dungeon we’d needed to use Tri’s Bind to pull a shield off something to progress. Our dingus brains hadn’t made the connection straight away, but sure enough, Link’s guard could be disabled by ripping that beggar from his hands. That’s when he started moving about twice as quickly and became significantly more aggressive. Whoops.

We hasten to point out that this is absolutely not required to defeat him — we managed to take him down to less than half health with a series of bodge-attacks from Echoes — but this one little bit of effortlessly elegant, expert game design was unbelievably satisfying.

Defeating ‘Link’ also provided us with a recently announced gameplay feature, Swordfighter Form. This gives Zelda a sword (!) and your abilities essentially mirror those of Link. At first, we were a touch disappointed by this, feeling as though it was an admission that the game couldn’t be carried by Echoes alone, but after a short time, we changed tune.

Swordfighter Form is (at least when we played it at ‘Level 1’) stupendously brief, lasting maybe 15 seconds. It’s seemingly required for a few puzzles, but more than anything it served as a ‘panic button’ for us. If we were suddenly mobbed by an onslaught of nasties, we could rely on Swordfighter Form to quickly give us a breather, but the energy you need to recover in order to use it again was surprisingly scarce. Nicely balanced – well done, Nintendo.

Michael McWhertor describes using Zelda’s Reverse Bond ability

In addition to the Tri Rod’s copy-and-paste abilities, Zelda’s magic wand can also Bond her to objects. When Zelda bonds with something, it moves as she moves. Bond is helpful for creating makeshift shields or pushing objects and monsters around. Inversely, Zelda can also use a power called Reverse Bond, with which Zelda moves in accordance with an object, like a floating platform or a spider climbing up a wall.

Bond can also be used in battle. One of Echoes of Wisdom’s early boss battles is a showdown with what appears to be a possessed Link — or a magical recreation of Link. Zelda needs to use Bond to tether herself to Link’s Hylian Shield and yank it out of his hands for him to be vulnerable to attack. Once Link’s shield is gone, though, Zelda can summon all manner of monsters to take him down.

Brian Altano continues talking about blending the best of 2D and 3D Zelda games

Just you when you think they’ll do the most obvious thing, they hit you with a surprise out of nowhere. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom takes everything they’ve learned from decades of 2D Zelda games, throws in some of the freeform creativity and problem solving from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, and puts it all together in the beautiful Link’s Awakening remake art style. It’s also solving one of the biggest gripes players have with modern 3D Zelda games by bringing back the traditional dungeons, a key ingredient of this cherished recipe that’s been sorely missing recently.

It’s taking all of the best things that the 2D and 3D Zelda games have done and fusing them together to create the future of the series, and so far it’s really working for me. Seemingly every screen in Echoes of Wisdom provided me with an opportunity to approach it in a unique way while still feeling like I was playing an old-school top-down Zelda game. Initially, my impulse was to just slash everything with a sword like I’ve made Link do for most of my life, and I was admittedly a bit frustrated that I couldn’t.

It takes a bit to get used to Zelda’s abilities here, but once you find your groove, things start to get really fun and interesting. You could throw rocks at enemies to kill them like some sort of brute savage, but wouldn’t it be funnier to swarm them to death with bats, summon moblins to target them with spears, or my personal favorite: bowling ball them to death with a small army of adorable but dangerous Caramadillos? God, I love these weird little guys.

All the previews seem very glowing, which makes me even more excited for what’s to come when Zelda Echoes of Wisdom releases on 26th September 2024.

Once again, check out all the hands on previews with the link’s in the description. Let me know what you think in the comments.