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GAME: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Game Review




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FishLion



Joined: 24 Jan 2024
Posts: 244
PostPosted: Tue Oct 29, 2024 1:08 pm Reply with quote
You're so real for pointing out that both Zoras are hot
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Yune Amagiri



Joined: 28 Jul 2016
Posts: 1092
Location: France
PostPosted: Tue Oct 29, 2024 2:21 pm Reply with quote
I didn't have high expectations and wouldn't particularly recommend it, but I still had a great time finishing this game. Solving problems in a different way than the obvious was by far the most exciting part of the game, it was the only possibility I was really looking forward to as I absolutely loved doing it in BoTW and ToTK, This feeling of freedom is almost mandatory in a modern JRPG for me to have fun, unfortunately most are linear.
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Fluwm



Joined: 28 Jul 2009
Posts: 1042
PostPosted: Tue Oct 29, 2024 9:35 pm Reply with quote
I'm enjoying the game so far (on to my third dungeon), but I feel like it's running into the same problems as TotK and, to a lesser extent, BotW. All three of these games make combat *very* tedious, either by forcing you to fight indirectly, or to keep swapping out your weapons, and rely on enemies that scale up to have more and more HP. And then the games throw a *ton* of enemies at you, with little to no meaningful reward for defeating them.

So the optimal move 90% of the time is simply to avoid combat altogether.

At least on BotW/TotK the actual combat mechanics were pretty dang fun... I keep thinking EoW's indirect combat will click with me, eventually, but... it hasn't. Not yet. Swordfighter mode's resource cost makes it an absolute last-resort, and tying that resource to *more* combat just defeats the purpose (IE if the point of SFM is to avoid needing to fight enemies indirectly, it's odd that you have to fight enemies indirectly in order to restore the SFM gauge). I can't help but feel like I'd be having a better time with the game if SFM weren't there, and instead Zelda's little spin-attack would knock back enemies and maybe stun them for a second or two (without doing any damage). That, at least, would make me feel like I had a little bit more leeway as I summon a half-dozen different monsters and watch helplessly as they flail about, trying to attack each other and missing over and over again.

....

Okay, that's enough complaining. I genuinely love everything else about the game. Sure, the sidequests are a bit dull (100% of the ones I've found so far are just "summon X object in front of NPC") but I love all the extra flavor we get from having so many more NPCs than the usual for these top-down games. And I will never *not* be delighted every time I see a Deku Scrub. And using Zelda's abilities for traversal is pure, undiluted joy.
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SenpaiDuckie
ANN Community Manager


Joined: 16 Sep 2021
Posts: 523
Location: PH
PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2024 3:34 am Reply with quote
Quote:
That being said, Echoes of Wisdom's big new idea, actually playing as the titular Zelda, is executed phenomenally. The game acknowledges Zelda's long-awaited status subtly and thematically rather than being the overt text of the game, which is the correct decision as an in-your-face “girl power” narrative would be tonally dissonant with the rest of the Zelda franchise.

Echoes of Wisdom is Zelda's Zelda game, and her long overdue journey to become the hero of her franchise is tasteful, touching, and a lot of fun.


Thank you for this review! I was honestly unsure if I should get it or not. I'm just new to the Legend of Zelda universe and have played both Breath of the Wild and its sequel. Both games did not disappoint -- it was a masterpiece! When I watched the trailer, it definitely piqued my interest, but still left me unsure. The art style was super great and refreshing in the eyes, as it greatly differs from Breath and Tears games, but it's the gameplay that I wasn't sure of... and yet I really want to play as Zelda. Smile
To read this review and overall rating settles my decision that it'll be definitely my next game to play!
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Yune Amagiri



Joined: 28 Jul 2016
Posts: 1092
Location: France
PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2024 7:51 am Reply with quote
Fluwm wrote:
Zelda's little spin-attack would knock back enemies and maybe stun them for a second or two (without doing any damage).


There is an accessory that allows us to do this and a few others that solve the energy bar generation/consumption issues in sword form but yes it would have been better as a baseline, it takes too long to get them compared to the length of the game, by the time we get it it's already irrelevant, same for the Mecha monsters, I got them when my playthrough was 90% done ( we can certainly get them sooner though ) .
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