I'm gonna have to disagree about the music, I personally really liked the mix of a small live ensemble with elements of electronic/chip-tune thrown in. I thought the dungeons did a fantastic job of setting the mood of each area, the towns were pleasant and had character that represented each race, and the battle themes had high-energy stakes and some weird time signatures (which I greatly appreciate). While it's not bombastic, I think the OST did what it needed, to a very high degree. I understand that not everyone will absolutely love it, but the more I listen to it, the more I appreciate everything it does.
Kakariko, jabul waters & the main theme are all classics to me now, could listen to them all day :D also agree on the dungeon tracks, I think I like all of them apart from Faron’s (amusingly this is the games best dungeon) haha
Yeah, I can’t for the life of me understand what they were on about, about the music! The only ‘region theme’ I didn’t love was the Goron music; but the Faron Wetlands, Business Shrubs’ Smoothe Stands the Jabul Waters songs are incredibly catchy!
Still somewhat early on (finished Gerudo moving on to Zora) but Echoes of Wisdom is the healthy middle ground of open air and classic Zelda that I wished ToTK was. First of all, the abilities feel much more balanced. Echoes and Bind are very powerful skills but not to the point of immediately skipping puzzles with easy and uninteresting solutions that ultrahand and recall provided. Getting new and useful Echoes isn't nearly as frequent as I expected them to be after the first hour which means there is this nice sense of progression that's similar to getting new dungeon items. It feels good. Playing summoner is nice and Swordfighter form is a nice Devil Trigger style ability that can wipe the floor with enemies but it's also appropriately limited. It might be there somewhere but I haven't yet found an echo that has snapped the entire game in two, we'll see with the water blocks later I guess but the puzzles while not *too* hard, are much more engaging and fun than most of the shrines in ToTK. Also having real proper dungeons again is just nice. That said, I seriously wished the UI for echoes was more efficient, the single row makes picking an echo slower than it should be and sorting options aren't quite what I want. Also why can't I equip 2 echoes at once, Nintendo? The A button is free most of the time, LET ME USE IT.
Agreed so much, never got behind BotW style gameplay, if puzzles can be completed any way you can think of and outright skipped then it's a poorly designed puzzle compared to those with one solution like previous Zelda games. Finding echoes in dungeons and using those same echoes to progress through the dungeon and fight the boss was similar to finding a dungeon item or weapon so this game still has that sense of progression and limits that BotW lacked, also don't even get me started on those poor dungeons in BotW. Also whoever decided to have echoes be swapped by scrolling a long row of echoes needs a stern talking to, several ways to fix this is make it a grid, make a shortcut wheel that you can assign your favorite and most used echoes to and lastly allow you to remove echoes you never use from the list.
I love how you talk about the different ways you guys solve the same puzzle. I just got done with the game yesterday so I’m watching other playthrough and seeing the different methods to solve these problems was so exciting.
Smog is from Oracle of Ages. I recently played and completed that game in the lead up to Echoes of Wisdom coming out and when he showed up here I was like "Oh my good its that asshole!".
I also replayed the Oracle games before Echoes came out since I haven't played them in over a decade. I really enjoyed the Smog fight (despite the fact that the music restarts between each phase lol), and I was just shocked that I had zero memory of this guy existing despite how unique the fight was. Then just a couple weeks later he shocks me again by showing up in Echoes of Wisdom out of nowhere in a random mini-dungeon.
I just finished the game last night, it was a fantastic experience, might be now my favorite top down Zelda game (let's stop using the term 2D Zelda game, that's my message to the fandom). My only major conplain/nitpick is that I didn't think the ost was that memorable? But maybe I just didn't pay enough attention, will be listening to the music now to see if I change my mind, and I did definitely notice that the music was cozy enough. The story was great. The exploration was great. The world is vast and recognizable. The combat is unique and fun. The characters and locations are full of charm and soul. The bosses are surprisingly grand and epic. The Still World is incredibly unnerving and unsettling. The Dungeons had a nice initial curve in the beginning and the last three really let loose. The game mixes ideas from the entire franchise and brings new ideas too. 10/10 GOTY, will be an underrated entry in the franchise. STORY SPOILERS TIME BECAUSE I NEED TO GET THIS OUT OF MY BODY OR ELSE I EXPLODE: - How cool is it to start the game playing as Link and battling Ganon? And this Link gameplay with Z-targeting in a top down game? Fantastic, I can see a blueprint for the future. - Speaking about Link, he's not present for 95% of the game yet the game does him justice fantastically. So many NPCs, major and minor, talk about him. He truly is a Hero. Reminds me of how you explore Hyrule in TotK and see all the deeds Zelda has done in the past years. Fun parallel huh? - About the World: I love how the map expands - that's the key word- the map from A Link to the Past. I love finding landmarks from the old map like the ruins of the Desert Temple or the forest grove where you meet Flute Boy. And I love the new areas, the new villages, and all the species. And you can explore wherever you want after the first tutorial Dungeon. Wow - About the characters: so full of charm. Tri is a beloved companion, does the Fi thing much better. Tri is not a robot but they're a clueless little orb spirit that throughout the game they learn emotions. Very sweet. You also have memorable characters. I liked the Gerudo captain Dohna, you feel like she becomes a good friend to Zelda. The Zora chiefs are funny and a rivals to almost lovers story. The Dekus were hilarious, the Gorons were endearing. But my favorite was Condé (the Yeti?). Heartwarming. - About bosses: surprisingly epic and grand. And I like that you can find your own way to battle them. The rock golem is a nice tutorial, then the mole flying tornado making guy was tough but fun to dodge around. The sea horse was meh but the surprise fight against Jabu Jabu was awesome! Volvagia was a great surprise, same as mecha Gohma, the fire and ice Yeti.... And fighting Ganon as Zelda was amazing. The final boss literally felt like a Kirby final boss, if you know both series you know what I mean. - Finally, LORE: the story was going nice and then you reach the middle point of the game which is the Hyrule Castle Dungeon, you battle Ganon Echo (I realized Ganon was an Echo before this, great surprise!), Link shows up and gets captured into a crystal haha. And then LORE. The Triforce is called the Prime Energy, then you beat the second half Dungeons and the freaking Goddesses speak to you ??? And you learn of new context about the creation of the World which was to imprison Null, the embodiment of nothingness. And at the end Null's body is basically a Tri ??? I also love that the evil Zelda Echo gets to the Triforce first but it breaks because its heart is not in balance like the real Zelda. This hasn't happened since OCARINA OF TIME BTW. Actually, the game does not explain it. You need to know the OoT story to understand why the Triforce split like that. And then you fight a Zelda Echo, great! You rescue Link, and then cooperate to solve puzzles and combat and fight together the final boss. It was great that the game removed the Swordfighter form for the end and forced you to rely on Echoes. As for timeline placement... Too early to say, I'm inclined to say it's between A Link Between Worlds and Zelda 1, because the world is clearly referencing ALttP, and then finding the Triforce (much much time has to have passed for the name to be lost in legend and instead called the Prime Energy) might have lead to the "Golden Era" before Zelda 1. No Master Sword though huh? Makes sense because it's Link's weapon but it's not in the woods. But the woods are mysterious as always so maybe that explains it
I got excited when I got the Wolfos echo. Wolfos are my favorite Zelda enemy and they’re really useful in this game. They’re FAST! I absolutely loved this game. I do hope we see more games starring Zelda in the near future.
It is definitely my second favorite top down zelda! Link's awakening on the gameboy color was my first nintendo game and my first zelda game. It will always be my favorite zelda game. I do think this is a "better" game tho
@@sparkypack minish cap is fantastic especially the soundtrack. I love breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom, and ocarina etc.,but the top down zelda games have always had a special place in my heart
@markruffalo8761 for me it would be the oracle games. I loved the ring collecting and world interaction mechanics. Plus the secret final boss from ccompleting bith games was awesome.
@@biggums5 I didn't even know the oracle games existed until I picked them up on 3ds virtual console. Anything involving fujibayashi is top tier. Poaching him from capcom was the best thing for zelda.
This game more than any other has such varied experiences across players. I thought I solved so many puzzles in the intended/satisfying way only to hear someone else did it a completely different way that was equally satisfying. So excited to do another playthrough and try doing it differently.
EoW was an amazing experience and super charming! I was smiling ear to ear at every new echo encounter and dungeon. It really felt like the evolution 2D Zelda in the same vein that BOTW was to 3D Zelda. Minish Cap is my favorite 2D Zelda and I'm debating if I would rank EoW equal or above it (I rank 3D Zelda separately).
For combat I relied on Ignizols (very little early game resists fire), then the highest rank Darknut I had until I got the Lynel and Water Lizal (for underwater fights only)
By end game, my go to echo was jut a lynel. it is super OP. it's got super armor, a massive frame, and a big spin attack that destroys everything. I also just beat the final boss with Zelda in her silk jammies because honestly, that's probably my favorite outfit for her. it is just simple but nice design.
Just finished the game. I like the open nature of traversal and I can see this being refined in subsequent games. Dungeon design was a bit hit or miss. I think the designers knew that some dungeons were coming off of having been swamped with NPCs so they tried to simplify them. The best dungeon by far was the Faron woods dungeon. I loved going in and out looking for keys and solving puzzles. I assume this game is after ALBW considering all the landmarks and Ganon being echoed. This Zelda, or perhaps one of her close descendants, could even be the one sleeping in Zelda 2.
The way I see it, there's two spots in the timeline where the game fits. - Between ALBW and Zelda 1. - After FSA. Both ALBW and FSA feature Hyrules akin to ALttP, River Zoras, and a blue pig Ganon to be echoed. However, EoW matches ALttP and ALBW's world much more closely, with the hill ALttP & ALBW Link's house is on, the platform ALttP Link prayed on the access the Desert Palace, and even Hebra Mountain's broken bridge left intact. FSA had the general layout, but not these smaller landmarks. The translation did render the old Palaces as "Temples" loke FSA did, but that has no bearing since the terms are the same in Japan. Same with Hebra Mountain. The Light World's Death Mountain was ALWAYS Hebra in Japan. Except in FSA, where I don't know if they called it Death Mountain or Hebra Mountain. Could someone look into that for me? The Wikis are being unhelpful.
There’s just too many inconsistencies. None of those games had deku scrubs or both types of zoras like EoW. The developers do not consider the timeline when making games.
@@Yae_1995 The Oracles literally have all three of those, and are confirmed ALttP Link games prior to ALBW In fact, the Sea and River Zora distinction comes from the Oracles.
@DarkLink1996. Not to mention both of them are outside the bounds of the ALTTP map, so it's possible they were there but for whatever reason only River Zora ventured further inward
During the final boss, the controller menu should’ve popped up and asked if you wanted to play co-op. How badass would’ve it been if you could bring a friend in for the final battle. Co-op with joycon is kinda what the switch is all about.
It would have been disappointing to play the final boss fight as link since it’s literally Zelda’s game. I liked the feeling that she’s sharing her powers with link and you get to really feel how their abilities work in harmony with eachorher
I just finished the game, I found it very interesting but I also felt like the game was almost TOO “unlocked” in some ways. The best way to traverse is usually to ignore the level design (when you get the cloud echo, you won’t need to do any of the Still Worlds anymore) and that just made the game end up feeling same’y. I know that’s ‘my fault’ for abusing the freedom, but the game letting you do frivolously (which in part happens due to many of the extra chests and such being really non-useful food-items), knocks it down a peg. Still a fantastic game though! …I also found the “Prime Energy” and “Priestess” very odd, not sure what that was about.
"Do whatever you want" isn't necessarily good. You should instead say that this game just executed that philosophy well. Also, a linear hardcore-story-based puzzle-solving adventure is not necessarily worse than "Do whatever you want". This game in fact mixes linear and "do whatever you want" philosophy.
Yeah. After the the first dungeon, i spent awhile just filling out the map. The open world has a linear-ish story. You don't have to do all the dungeons in a certain order, which is fine.
@@ravenebony2267 I hope the future of the franchise is that we will continue to get a variety of design philosophies and devs will continue to experiment and f*ck with the formula in exciting new ways
And it’s better for it, the old Zelda design is archaic and would no exaggeration need a massive rework to even slightly hit the same level as the new games
While I do sadly disagree with most points made in the video, I’m really glad this game has struck a cord with so many people. It was great to hear you gush about it!
I definitely had a couple issues with it. First, the game took me out of the action a lot with lengthy dialogue (this is just a nitpick, but it negatively impacted the game for me). Second, it was way too easy early on, so I turned on hard mode (I’m glad the option is there during initial play). It says it prevents some items from functioning, but never which ones. Just gray them out so I don’t uselessly equip something! And third, I leveled up my sword, bow, bombs, and energy to prep for final fight, only to be stripped of that ability completely.
I'm really happy we got a new villain and not a returning one. We so rarely get them in this franchise, and it helps give this game its own unique identity.
I LOVE this game, I’ve got to the bit where you find your father and set out to save Link, it really feels like it’s opening up again! It’s just the game I need, old school but feels really fresh and fun! Glad to get rid of that cloak! I hope people give it a chance and that it sells well!
I loved how awesome and empowering it felt to get the priestess outfit and the horse and to be able to just hang around the castle like it’s you’re home
I hate to say this but I feel like Grezzo is the only reason we got a good game. I don't buy "Nintendo has struck a balance." No, Gezzo struck a balance and Aumona was critical of them every step of the way. He's basically becoming the Todd Howard of Japan and my forecast of the Zelda franchise is still bleak. But hey, maybe this game can be a turning point. It's a glimmer of hope.
I was gonna make a teasing joke about “taking a shot every time they mention OoT and LttP” but I honestly think you would die if anyone legitimately attempted it 😅😂
At this point I now prefer 2D top down Zelda games over the 3D ones. I just don't like BotW style of handing the player all abilities at the start, there is no sense of progression other than completing shrines to increase hearts and stamina which is not as satisying as finding heartpieces hidden throughtout the world. Puzzles that can be completed by any means don't come off as well designed as puzzles with one clearly method to solve it, this goes for dungeons too.
Pretty standard Zelda narrative that relies heavily on characterization to drive the narrative which is pretty much the best thing you can do in story telling. There is stuff for the edgy lore bros but mostly it’s a cute story with good characters and lots of sweet heartwarming moments along the way
@@joelsytairo6338 I more meant in terms of is there prompting along a solid path, "cutscenes" pushing the story forward etc, or is it just the start, a bunch of directionless wandering with some NPC dialogue relevant to the single area you're in and eventually an ending like in the last two Zeldas? The Oracle games were relatively light on story compared to Skyward Sword but they still felt like a story-gameplay-story-gamplay-story-gameplay kinda thing as opposed to just all gameplay with some dialogue to give context to what you're doing
@@TaliesinMyrddin it’s definitely gameplay guided story. It’s more linear and curiated than the wild games and in my opinion the small scope of the game allows the side quests to be a lot more high effort and being the world and the characters to life very well it is a story driven game and while there are points you have a branching path in terms of where you can go on the world, it is still a lot more directed than the wild games where you just run out in the world and randomly encounter story moments out of order. Tri and Zelda have cute little character arcs and develop over the course of the story. I’d say oracle games or minnish cap are a decent point of comparison
@@joelsytairo6338 Awesome, thank you. I was really hoping the next 2D game would be more traditional in that sense. I don't need a fantastically deep or unique story, I just need to feel like I'm playing through a series of events that the player character is actually involved in with a decent continuity
Playing this game on hard mode was quite frustrating tbh. In crucial moments I was solely dependent if my echos AI would cooperate or not, and as a result combat felt really non engaging because I would just have to run to the side and cross my fingers. Everything else was pretty fun. 7/10.
@@bobloblaw4361 yeah I found normal to be too easy so hero mode felt better. I just honestly wished there was more for me to do during combat other than run away and hope my echo would swing their sword lol
@@UltimaRedFireEskimo The trick I found for a lot of echoes, the Sword Moblins, Darknuts, and Lynel in particular, would attack immediately after spawn if I was targeting an enemy. So I would spawn them, reposition while they swung, then immediately summon another for another attack.
I felt the puzzles were too basic and repetitive, and the combat was leaned into too much. The sword felt like a bandage on the overall gameplay, and the bosses took too long especially for a 2D Zelda game. I wish they put more focus on tight puzzle design with more depth and less focus on fights. The final boss was especially agonizing just because of how long it took. It was an easy fight too, so I didn't feel too engaged with it because I was just moving around and spawning things. More open games like this can be nice, but I also dodnt engage with the world as much as one would in other Zelda games since barriers didnt matter all too much. Bypassing everything gets boring, but I also dont feel encouraged to engage with the world. Overall, I like the ideas behind the game, but I didn't walk away feeling particularly satisfied.
I think most of the time when a games ost is criticized it’s because who ever is doing the criticism is making a direct comparison to and old game they like and if it’s not exactly like that they get mad. That’s pretty much the reason all nintendo games get hate upon announcement and release because Nintendo has a philosophy of innovating and trying new things with their games and people tend to be dumb and just want “this game I like but bigger”
""What its doing is so much more important than framerate" Good job, now you sound like a normal human being. How about you guys shut up about frames for the next 20 years and appreciate the amazing stuff Nintendo is pumping out on $300 hardware. You guys are the only ones who were whining about this. Learn from this moment and move on. Also the claim that "LTTP is more freeing than LBW" is one of the dumbest takes of all time. LBW is a freeing game that led to BOTW, while LTTP was a linear Zelda game. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.
I'm sorry, you guys may love this game... it just doesn't speak to me at all. I was never a fan of the aesthetic style of the Link's Awakening remake, and I'm very tired of the do anything aspect of new Zelda games.
The dungeons were very disappointing. And there's only like 7 of them which is low for a 2d Zelda. The fire and water temples were like 5 rooms long. I thought only the gerudo and Faron ones were top tier.
7 is still a high amount of dungeons though for Zelda, also there is a quite a bit of adventuring and questing before actually getting inside the dungeon unlike previous ones like ALttP where you find a dungeon and can immediately enter it.
I replayed ALBW and played minish cap and links awakening for the first time this past year. The dungeons were right in line with the quality of those games.
This comment section is… something Complaining about how this game isn’t linear enough, whining about how they should’ve used the wind walker art style, crying something about open ended problem solving is somehow worse than traditional Zelda puzzles. There is a very good reason the series went in this direction, the old formula was showing its age. Heck, skyward sword had hints of that open ended problem solving, especially in combat And with how much botw and totk hinged on that, I find it very hard to believe the people saying these games are “wide as a lake, deep as a puddle” have actually played the game. How much of this is just the rose tinted glasses talking? You do not represent the majority of Zelda fans, hell you are already a minority of the online fandom, which is a minority of the whole fanbase in of itself. You are only ruining it for the people who are actually able to enjoy these games
Yeah. This fanbase has been absolutely miserable since BotW came out. I used to have fun discussing Zelda online but now it feels like you can’t talk about it without someone coming in and just ruining everyone else’s day.
pretty insane how zelda fans, of all people, are unable to recognize that the series' roots literally are exploration and non-linearity. like, what did they expect exactly??? OOT's railroading has poisoned their brains so much i swear lmfao
There are objectively two big problems with the game. - Performance. - Horrible controls. The echo sliders. I just don't understand how they thought that this was okay? L1, down d-pad and B buttons are empty. If they categorise echoes, add favorites menu and allow to map multiple buttons, it would help tremendously. On top of that target locking is so bad. You cannot change your targets, it just automatically target one of target. Prime day Miyamoto would never allow this control scheme. And I have few personal problems. - I am not fan of art style. I just don't like it. - Writing is too childish. Hated the stamp guy. They could target children and it can still be appealing to adults. For example studio ghibli movies. - hero mode is welcomed but puzzles are way too easy. Apart from 2 dungeons, it was mostly walk from room to room. Other than these It was fine.
@@j23roa Nintendo has gotten so much flak for the Wind Waker art style that they kind of just gave up on it after Triforce Heroes. So now its been replaced with the "toy" look. I personally think its cute but I get why people wouldn't find it appealing.
@@Pufflizard i understand that reasoning, however i don't think a toy look would be the answer to people being disappointed in a cartoon look haha Would like to see more games that has Zelda as the hero, or at least very active in the game alongside Link, and preferably with more interesting and expressive character designs
Performance is wonky but fine. Controls are fine, you just need to pause to look for specific echoes. Art style is fine, it’s cute and does its job. Writing is fine, it’s cute and does its job. All in all, this game just amounts to one big “fine”. Not the finest Zelda out there, not the worst either. The one annoying thing to me was how repetitive still zones felt after a while (if I had to hear Tri say “stand back, Zelda” one more time…)
The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom Review Scores: Siliconera- Perfect 10! Shacknews- Perfect 10! Player2- Grade A+, The Perfect Evolution of the Zelda Series! The Enemy BR- Perfect 5 Stars! Digitally Downloaded- Perfect 5 Stars! Dexerto- Perfect 5! Daily Star- Perfect 5! Nintenderos- 9.7 out of 10 NintendoLife- 9 out of 10, Excellent! Hobby Consolas- 9.1 out of 10 IGN- 9 out of 10, Amazing! Press Start- 9.5 out of 10 MyNintendoNews- 9.5 out of 10 Eurogamer- 4 Stars out of 5 GameSpot- 9 out of 10 VG247- 4 Stars out of 5 Atomix- 95/100 GameOverGR- 9.5 out of 10 The Games Machine- 9.3 out of 10 God Is A Geek- 9 out of 10 Wccftech- 9 out of 10 IGN Spain- 9 out of 10 Checkpoint Gaming- 9 out of 10, Amazing! Stevivor- 9 out of 10, Awesome! WellPlayed- 9 out of 10 SECTOR.sk- 9 out of 10 TrueGaming- 9 out of 10 GLITCHED- 9 out of 10 GamePro- 88/100 MeriStation- 9.2 out of 10, Excellent! GAMINGbible- 9 out of 10 A Royal Success! Screen Rant- 4.5 Stars out of 5 Nintenduo- 90/100 Power Unlimited- 90/100 Vooks- 4.5 Stars out of 5 GameSpot- 9 out of 10 Superb! ComicBook- 4.5 out of 5, An Adventure Worthy of Royalty! Nintendo Insider- 9 out of 10 Pocket Tactics- 9 out of 10 Vandal- 9 out of 10 Famitsu- 36/40 Areajugones- 8.7 out of 10 Remarkable! Daily Mirror- 4 Stars out of 5, Top Down Zelda Magic Reinvented For the Better! Filmweb- 9 out of 10 Stuff- 4 Stars out of 5 GamesReviews- 9.5 out of 10 Enternity- 9 out of 10 Daily Nintendo- 4.5 Stars out of 5 Vida Extra- Nintendo Pays An Historic Debt With Zelda In The Revolution of Hyrule! GamerSky- 9.0 out of 10 OpenCritic- 87% Mighty! Metacritic- 86% Commonwealth Realm (RU-vid Channel)- 92/100 MobileSyrup- Echoes of Wisdom is Both Familiar and Fresh in the Best Way! Quest Daily- 9.5 out of 10 GLHF on Sports Illustrated- 9 out of 10 GamingBolt- 9 out of 10 NintendoEverything- Thumbs Up!
