As the Switch approaches its final years, I think it’s worth taking a step back and considering just how many Legend of Zelda games the console has received since its launch in 2017. Despite the luxury, each and every title manages to feel fresh, and that’s doubly true with The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. For the first time since the early 90s, players take on the role of Princess Zelda rather than Link, but this isn’t just your usual character swap. Instead, this shift results in a radically different kind of experience that demands creativity and experimentation on the part of the player.
Looking at the game, though, it's easy to draw comparisons to the 2019 remake of Link's Awakening. That's because this new game appears to have been created using technology and techniques that powered that adventure, meaning developer Grezzo is back at the helm. That game, however, as good as it was, was plagued by performance issues, and the unfortunate reality is that nothing has changed here. In fact, frame rate jitter issues may be even more pronounced.
However, if we look at the many positives, one of the first things I love about Echoes of Wisdom is found in its introduction. An animated sequence shows Link passing the baton of the game to Princess Zelda herself, and the events culminate with our heroine emerging into the overworld, where it becomes clear that you're standing on a version of Hyrule derived from the Super NES game, A Link to the Past.
Despite the similarities between the map layout, the actual placement of everything and the size feels very different. While certain landmarks do line up, the general lay of the land is quite different and the map itself is massively expanded. I think the developer has found an excellent balance here, as you get those nods and winks that reference the Super NES game, but it still all feels decidedly new and different.
This is in stark contrast to Link's Awakening, which sought to recreate the Game Boy game on new hardware. In that game, on the Game Boy, limited memory meant that every wall was limited to 90-degree angles. There were no slopes or more varied terrain like we saw in A Link to the Past. Echoes of Wisdom embraces these features, but takes things even further with complex terrain that may even require the use of magic to traverse. Echoes of Wisdom also removes traditional barriers — you know, things like not being able to swim in deep water. Zelda can perform all of these actions right from the start, which changes how you approach exploration. It's kind of interesting.
What I wasn't expecting, however, was a shared villain between Link's Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom. I was hoping that Link would have defeated him once and for all, but alas, the true face of evil is still there: the lord of darkness, unstable performance. Basically, the issues I highlighted in Link's Awakening's review are back in full force, with the frame rate bouncing wildly and obviously between 30 and 60fps, likely due to a reliance on double-buffered vertical sync. It's exactly the behavior seen in Link's Awakening, but this time it's even worse.
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The first thing to note is that the game world itself is much larger than Link's Awakening, and more complex. Given that it's so fluid, it's perhaps unsurprising that the Switch is struggling, but what's fascinating is where it's struggling. It's not just the GPU being too slow, but it seems more like a memory bandwidth issue during data streaming. Most of the time when the frame rate drops, if you stop in place and use the right stick to move the camera, you'll see it go back up to 60fps. However, once you start running again, it locks to 30fps. So some of the issues are triggered by moving around the world, possibly when streaming level data.
The frame rate constantly goes up and down as you play, so much so that it almost feels like they should have at least included the option to cap it at 30 frames per second if you so desired. However, this can have a detrimental effect in some sections. The arena boss, for example, in the second major dungeon I tackled, required some experimentation to find the right solution, but the problem is that every time the boss unleashes its powerful attacks, the frame rate plummets. For me, it takes away some of the joy of experimenting at a time when you need that performance.
That said, while the overworld and large encounters are typically 30fps with random intervals of 60fps, dungeons are mostly 60fps with occasional 30fps interruptions. Basically, most of the game outside of the overworld is generally smooth. In that sense, it's really a game of two halves. This begs the question: will it bother you, the player? If you were bothered by the issues in Link's Awakening, well, it's no better here. If you didn't have any issues with that game, you probably won't be bothered.
The problem is that the surrounding gameplay is so well-made and interesting that you might be able to tolerate these issues and just enjoy the game. It’s not just that you play as Zelda, but it’s what Zelda is capable of that makes it unique. Everything from combat to navigation to puzzle-solving relies on Zelda’s ability to summon items and characters with a wave of her staff. As you progress, you’ll be able to memorize items and add them to your collection. It has a similar freedom to Breath of the Wild, just within a more focused level design.
The key here is that puzzles don’t necessarily have a single solution, and you can use your freedom to find creative ways to solve those challenges. Combat has elements of this, too – you’ll often summon creatures to do your bidding as you back away, which gives it a strategic feel. That’s not to say you can’t engage in classic sword combat (there’s a mechanic for this), but you’ll spend most of your time utilizing your vast inventory. Considering the amount of stuff you can spawn and the massive increase in world size, it’s no wonder Echoes of Wisdom struggles to deliver a stable frame rate. There’s just too much going on per scene in pursuit of this flexibility.
Then there’s image quality. Here we see the same metrics as in Link’s Awakening. Indoor scenes typically range between a native 972p and 1080p, but once outside the resolution can drop all the way down to 720p, so it’s quite variable depending on the load. It also has the same behavior as in Link’s Awakening: when you leave a building, for example, the outdoor image quality starts at 1080p and then drops over the course of a few frames. I’d say image quality is good overall, though.
The rest of the graphics follow in the footsteps of Link's Awakening Remake as well. You've got the same tilt-shift perspective with depth of field creeping around the edges, the same chibi-sized characters running around the world, and more. The main difference this time around comes from the more complex world. Walls are no longer limited to 90-degree angles, and there are slopes to the terrain. All of this is to say that I think the game looks excellent overall – I'm still a big fan of the visual design and feel like it's a good choice for a game like this. It's really just the frame rate issues that I have issues with. Now more than ever, it feels like it's time for a successor for the Switch, and if backwards compatibility adds some extra horsepower to fix this game's issues, all the better.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this game and plan to finish it. The fun of experimentation is a triumph, as it allows players to solve puzzles however they want rather than following a set formula. It keeps the spirit of the series alive while presenting a decidedly different take on it. Echoes of Wisdom doesn't push any visual boundaries, but still manages to be an attractive, clean-looking game.
It's not easy to look past its performance issues, though. Nintendo's published games this generation have largely managed to deliver solid, consistent frame rates, often beyond what one would expect, but I feel like Grezzo's goal for this game was simply too much for the Switch as we know it today. And that's a shame because that's really the only major flaw here. The rest of this game is interesting and unique. I'm genuinely impressed with what the team has accomplished here in terms of design. I have to say, I wasn't even completely convinced at first – the first few hours contain a lot of bed stacking and flailing – but once you start getting more usable items, the joy of the game becomes clear.