Found myself absent-mindedly scrolling down to the comments 2 minutes into the video, saw this comment, and realized that the video had yet to actually say anything
At least 3rd game in a row where Nintendo refuses to make a proper Zelda game. I fear we'll look back one day and realize there hasnt been a good Zelda game in 20 years like Pokemon today
@@chiquita683lol I remember when people said that about wind waker back in the day. And twilight princess. And skyward sword. Zelda was always about trying something new.
@@jjtheman523 the comment above mine is the answer. CD-i. It's better you look it up. Me trying to describe it won't really make sense unless you see it yourself
It will make you realize why Zelda is constantly needing to be saved by Link, she doesn't even get an attack in the game lol, you have to summon cloned versions of enemies to fight for you while you run around picking up rupees like a wimp.
@@grizzlywhisker You’ve not been watching the trailers. One of the first things she gets after the magic copy ability is the ability to transform into a Sword Fighter mode that basically plays like Link.🤣
Okay, the fact that we have poes and darknuts back makes me really happy. But I love that we have the little stamp stations back. I always wondered if Nintendo would ever let us collect stamps again after Spirit Tracks
@@eileensmiller8041 that and an ocarina of time remake! Ugh, I’d kill to get a “The Hero of Time Collection” with a remade Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, and a “Zelda HD” collection or whatever they wanna call it, with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. I’m praying they’ll do something like that either for the new system like you said, or at least as a swan song last big release for Switch, especially since the TP and WW games were already made for Wii U and judging by the amount of games ported from Wii U to Switch, shouldn’t be a difficult port for them. I swear, sometimes I see Nintendo answer fans prayers with remakes and remasters, but not the obvious ones, and I’m sitting here like really? lol.
@LemonTerps Eh, why not? I think as a spin off it'd be totally acceptable. It'll never happen though - I don't think Nintendo would ever do it, and I think too much of the fanbase would rebel.
i've 100% this already and i have to say this is the first zelda game in YEARS that i genuinely enjoyed. The combat isn't even new, either. This is the EXACT same combat that's present in nearly every zelda game, except made the main focus and greatly expanded upon. You know when you play an OOT randomizer and you don't have a sword or shield? it's like that. do damage with rocks, pots, etc. now you can do it with enemies too! Love this game, very happy it exists.
After putting in about 120 hours on Tears of the Kingdom, I absolutely loved playing a Zelda game that I could finish in a single week, and one which was blissfully not tricky (either the puzzles or the boss fights). It also dropped at the perfect time... I had some pretty devastating family news right before release day, but this game provided the perfect distraction and really helped me through the first week of it. Can't tell you how much I adore this game. ;-)
I'm extremely excited about this! I loved the look of the Link's Awakening remake, but never could quite justify spending the money for it. This, however, is a totally fresh game so I'm all about it
Yeah the Link's Awakening remake was great, but at the end of the day it's just a remake of the original game and it's quite short. This game is much longer, although it's nowhere near the length of something like BotW or TotK, but I'm sure nobody expected it to be. The map might feel kind of small, but it's got a lot packed into it. I've been playing through the game over the past couple days and I've easy put in 20 hours, I'm probably 3/4 through the game, maybe not that far though. If you do the side quests and hunt down all the upgrade materials and heart pieces (as well as things like accessories) you will probably get 30 hours out of it.
3 หลายเดือนก่อน +10
I'm buying this and I'm sure I'll love it... but it blows my mind they didn't make the echoes menu 2D instead of 1D. Scroll left/right for categories of echoes (monsters, furniture, nature, etc), and then up and down to select the specific echo under the category you're hovering on. All the sort options could work both for the categories and the specific echoes under each category, leveraging the benefit of the sorts even more.
You mentioned it took 15-20hrs to complete. Was that a playthrough that largely focused on the main quest? Or would you say a playthrough that included most/all side quests would significantly beef up that time frame?
@WolfPlisken I would usually agree, but with there being a few references to side quests and the length they can be, it naturally concerned me that the 15 hours may include a good few of them. Either way, it looks brilliant and I can't wait to play.
This game is like a Lego game - the Lego version of Breath of the Wild. It's like Nintendo compressed the open world game into a bite-sized miniature Play Mobil. Then throw in some Pokemon gameplay - when you defeated a monster, you can use it to battle other monsters later. This makes you want to collect all the creatures. "Gotta catch them all!"
Wait, you can access hero mode without having to beat the game first? Finally (not huge into replaying games I beat, especially ones that have a big time sink into it). Been wanting this for years
I've been playing the game over the past couple days (I'm probably about 3/4 through the game) and I never saw any option to play "hero mode" anywhere... The first time you boot up the game there's no title screen or anything, it just throws you right into the intro of the game so I didn't notice anything like that.
@@grizzlywhisker it's in Difficulty when you press the + button. Normal and then Hero Mode, aka Hard Mode. Hero Mode is not a transformation mode or anything.
2:28 Am I the only one that see this endless scrolling of items and thinks this is poor game design? Breath of Wild and Tears were bad sorting through items but this is orders of magnitudes worse
I'm about halfway through the game right now and I'm absolutely loving it. It feels like the perfect mix of classic Zelda and botw/totk style Zelda all in a top down format (my favourite type of Zelda). My expectations weren't incredibly high but they have been completely shattered, I'm so impressed with how much fun I'm having. Just a constant smile on my face. If this keeps up a link between worlds may be dethroned for me and I truly didn't see that coming.
Absolutely wort it, I never liked Zelda games. It was either too much grinding or walking around aimlessly without feeling any serious progression. This feels so immediate you can solve the puzzles in so many different ways, just like the last one where the building mechanics are brilliant. But this for an 80s gamer has that 80s feel and nice colourful settings, I simply adore it.
Besides breath of the wild and TotK what games felt grindy and painfully slow? Wind waker i can kinda see an argument for. Personally ive always thought Zelda has had a great exploration:reward ratio
@@dylanwoods523 the original back in 1986 was relentless. So frustrating, no way you could solve that on your own. You needed the collective mind of your peers. And I hated the backtracking… especially indeed the one with the sailboat my room mate played that (I didn’t) and I was like: “no way I can stand this.”
Oot always felt slow between dungeons with the overworld that had nothing to do in it. The game had terrible exploration. Still like it though. @@dylanwoods523
Yeah, Windwaker is my least favorite zelda game because of the backtracking to collect the Tri force pieces at the end of the game. It's really weird that people think highly of Windwaker now one of the worst zelda games. I would rather play the Cdi games over it.
@@PreferablyPurple There is an option if you press in one of the analogue sticks where it changes the camera to top down view... I didn't notice it until I was already like halfway through the game though lol.
I’m willing to bet that this game is just the natural evolution of the tech demo they used to prototype Breath of the Wild. It's kind of how Nintendo creates games. Most developers come up with the game concept first, then design the gameplay/world around it. Nintendo designs a "toy" that's fun to play with, then builds the concept around it.
The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom (The Legend of Link) a game where you play as Princess Zelda herself to save Link and it's still no The Legend of Link: Well EXCEUSE ME Princess have one answer: It is WORTH it!
saying a game is or isn't "worth it" is rather subjective lol. price vs gameplay and enjoyment. I'm sure the game is worth it for many, although it isn't for me.
6:45 idk, complaints about 60fps performance feels like one of those patrons at a restaurant that complains that their steak is medium even though they asked for medium well and then complain to the manager. It’s like calm down yall 9:27 also, life is hard enough. I don’t understand why people want to make something that is fun, harder. Feels like the people that need a harder experience are the kinds of people that need to experience real world shit. Lastly, if you disagree, just do me a favor and ask yourselves to “ask me if I care” about what you think about my opinion. The answer is: I don’t.
It takes the old formuler and converts it into something else. Sidequests provide fun little diversions that lead you to hidden caves, optional bosses, and sometimes even accessories to help Zelder along the way.
100% agree. You get a ton of useless or redundant echoes, and the only way to change them is to scroll through all of them. Plus the puzzles are very easy and you barely even fight. You just summon and stand back. I'm about 6 hours in and it may be the first zelda game I don't finish.
I want to know if you can select them from the grid view that shows them all. Materials in totk mostly didn't need to have you scroll through the whole quick menu list. Not sure why people did that when trying to find items when it's just easier in the other form Nintendo let you find and drop them to fuse. it was called a quick menu for a reason. Surprised no one has talked about if there is the alternate method to equip but I expect so otherwise whats the point of the encyclopedia grid of echoes.
@@enorma29that won't work. They clearly use that menu design for a reason. It meets their design requirements they would have clearly laid out, and they very rarely implement quality of life changes in a released game. They wait between sequels like they did with botw and totk.
It's Breath of the Wild mechanics but with a more simpler, top down gameplay. Nintendo is clearly still capitalizing on the open air style of gameplay.
This game is 100% a test for some puzzle ideas and it helps innovate the series as well. Love the stamp guy def ripped that from Spirit Tracks (IYKYK). It feels like a mashup of a bunch of zeldas and it celebrates the series as a whole.
Watching this tomorrow after I pick up the game. Don’t want any spoilers or ideas on how to play the game. Thanks for reviewing. This is one of my favorite video game channels on TH-cam
I love these style of Zelda games over the huge 3D ones. my dad bought me a SNES that came with A Link to the past and I loved it. These remind me of it so much! I hope one day they make one that expands more on side quests.
After playing Elden Ring and it's DLC I'm so sick of hard games if I could just remove hero mode from the games programming I would because it's wasting space on my hard drive. I just want to relax and play as Zelda in game series using her name sense it's inception.
…just… dont turn hero mode on? I dont understand the complaining here. If the argument is that hero mode takes up too much storage for something your not going to use, it probably doesnt even take up a megabyte of storage. I dont get it.
I just started this game yesterday. It's easy but not too easy. It's puzzles are cute and fun and not incredibly hard or really that hard at all. I love playing as Zelda it's been a dream of mine since I was a child playing Link to the Past. Great game looking forward to more Zelda games like this as much as I loved BoTW and ToTK this is like classic meets future.
Thanks for the review with no spoilers. Games aren’t in my budget right now but I hope to pickup a lot of my backlog soon when the switch 2 gets released and prices drop on titles hopefully.
I really want to play this. I’m just finishing Links Awakening on the Switch and I loved it (I actually took a break from playing it bc I feel I’m very close to the end and I’m scared of it being sad). But the performance really seems to be an issue so I think I’ll wait this one out and play it on the Switch 2 ASAP.
It looks like a Top down old school version of BOTW/TOTK. That worries me because if it's as big and quest heavy as those i doubt I'll ever finish it. Still working on TOTK and that game feels simply too massive! I hope it's not gonna be so puzzle heavy that I'll get frustrated and have to look up the solutions like those mind bending shrines in TOTK.
I feel like a 9/10 is kinda high considering the performance issues. Hopefully Nintendo gets a patch out to fix that (or perhaps the Switch 2) will iron that out.
Maybe that's the reason they gave it a 9 and not a 10. Not sure why people comment on what the score should be, it's the reviewers opinion based on their experience playing the game, and they clearly weren't impressed by the slowdown but it didn't feel egregious to them or detract from the amount of joy they were having. Makes sense to me.
The importance of performance depends on the game/genre. I care about framerate a lot more in a fast-paced action game or shooter than I do a city builder or farm sim. Echoes of Wisdom is more puzzle focused, so the performance issues are worth criticizing, but they don't hamper the experience much.
@@neonswift All reviews are arbitrary, but I was weaned on the review scores of old being far more critical than modern reviewers tend to be. From 1986-1997 not a single game received a perfect score from Famitsu, but from 1998-2007 they gave out nearly one per year, from 2007 onward they handed them out like candy. I point at Famitsu because they are one of the longest running game reviews, and are known for being more difficult to achieve a perfect score since their review scores are not a single person’s scores but 4 different people. You can pick any long running game review and see how there has been a shift towards more glowing reviews. It’s even more apparent when looking at games that score poorly.
@@jclkaytwo Proving my point with that one. Pick your favorite long running game review, they simply rate things more favorably than back in my day. I may be a curmudgeonly old man, but the point is we expected more of games in the old days. Too many Good Games are given perfect scores and Bad Games are given Passing scores.
Ok so honest question: If I hated BotW and TotK but loved every other Zelda before those, will I like this? Or because of the open world nature of the game would you say it’s more similar to those two games? Normally I prefer 2D Zelda’s but it’s because they used to be linear. Minish Cap is my favorite. I just need to know if this is still going to be good to me or if I’d be fine skipping it.
Helloooo! Background: I took an instant dislike to BOTW (and never bothered with TOTK). It was too big, I didn't really know what I was doing and I kept running into ludicrously overpowered enemies who 1-shot killed me. I've only actually played bits of Skyward Sword and Ocarina. The only Zelda game I ever completed (several times, because I adore it) was Wind Waker. This game, so far, is really enjoyable. It feels really creative and fun. You can wander all over but it seems to give you a very clear idea of where you "should" be going. It's also piss easy, so far, which is great for a casual gamer like me but I am just playing normal mode rather than, the more difficult, hero mode.
6:13 you say targeting is bad but use a clip where whoever is playing seems like they have no clue what a controller is, either that or they just have 1 hand and only 3 fingers no thumb
You know... people keep mentioning this so-called frame dip... I've finished all of the Gerudo Desert section, even with the sandstorms, and if there was any dipping, I haven't noticed. We'll see if I feel the same when I get to Hebra, but so far I've had no issues at all.
I took a quick break from playing to tell you guys, this game is fun AF. Defeating enemies then being able to use them to do your bidding? I'm not the biggest Zelda fan, but damn this game is dope
My question is, is it the biggest map of any top down zelda game made? Also second question, is there a dedicated jump button or do you run off a cliff and it autojumps like ocarina
I've been playing this game earlier than most and I have several issues with the game this review failed to mention. The UI is horrific in this game. Tears of the Kingdom's """quick menu""" is back with a vengeance. Scrolling through 100+ echoes to find the one you need is not fun and this game requires possibly more menu surfing than the aforementioned. Not being able to favorite summons is a huge issue. Being able to completely unselect certain summons from the quick menu would be nice as well (as there are a lot of the same enemies but +2 in power, leaving many to feel redundant and worthless later). There is more menu surfing in this game than in any other Zelda before it. It's crazy NL played in hero mode (so did I) and didn't mention the bonkers healing system which returns again from BotW and TotK. The healing is done in a pause menu and you can stuff 1000 peppers down your face to cheese healing at any time, defeating the purpose of hero mode by quite a bit. You'd think this would be disabled in favor of a more limited smoothie mixing option. Smoothies, btw, are just cooking from BotW simplified -- if you had a problem with hoarding dozens of broken food items, it's back. In hero mode the enemies are *very* spongey too and it's borderline not fun especially when you have the combat system. The combat relies a lot on dumb af AI. There are several times AI summons got caught on objects or wouldn't perform and action it would otherwise (like attack). It's a bit ridiculous how little agency you do have in combat and the Link transformation mode is absolutely a band-aid solution to this issue. Relying on AI as much as this game does leads to frustration after frustration and I think it was a complete misfire to approach the combat this way as opposed to taking on abilities from enemies instead via Kirby or something adjacent to that. Not allowing players agency just becomes a dodge-the-enemy game while praying your companion does what it needs to. The sidequests and rewards for them are often bad, either providing rupees or fruit for smoothies or one of the many useless bottles (which only allows you to hold fairies now). In general, like Tears and Breath, the progression of your character isn't really felt as strongly in this game. Anyway, as someone who mildly enjoyed Breath and didn't like Tears, this is *not* a return to classic Zelda. It's fundamentally 2D Tears of the Kingdom with all the flaws that carries with it. If you're like me and miss old-school Zelda, maybe pass on this one. This review was not real or upfront whatsoever.
Is it just me or does Zelda look like Bridgit Mendler regardless of her design (either way, this is a major step-up from Tears of the Kingdom; power to those that love it more than me, with the graphics of Link's Awakening HD and the title of a Zelda game finally living up to its name because besides being actually really fun to play in Smash, she's also playable in a mainline game for the first time; it's like Nintendo took a note from Princess Peach: Showtime even though it's far from the first time Peach was playable... and while fun to play as, she can have her outdated weaknesses, probably because of her long history of either taking care of herself or forcing the Mario Bros. to save her more times than even they feel like they should. Adventuring through worlds can be a lot of fun, but then it turns into hell when it gets arduous and you don't get the most extraordinary of rewards which feels less like gratitude and more like a way to promote stereotypes of women, like take for instance, in Paper Mario: Sticker Star which is much less amazing than all its predecessors. But I digress, and I apologize if I offended anyone who likes Peach, and over the years, I started to appreciate her more... depending on what Nintendo makes.)
Both types of Zora's are in this game too, there's the one's we've seen a million times since N64 but they brought back the classic NES style "River Zoras" from the NES game too.
I got a question. So the hero mode, is recommended for people who have experience with zelda game or is just like a super hard mode for extremely challenge. i'm all for a challenge just it sounds like an overdrive of a challenge
LBW was developed in-house at nintendo EPD when the zelda team had a seperate 2D division (which has since been dissolved and merged into the 3D team which is why Grezzo has developed the last 2D releases).
I’m actually really okay with Nintendo shining the spotlight on their side characters (especially Peach and Zelda). Mario’s been doing it for years with Luigi, Yoshi and Wario. I’m glad Princess Peach Showtime exists and Zelda DEFINITELY deserved her own full length adventure game. A nice way to get new fans without losing the fun Nintendo charm. It makes me wonder who else will get their own game?
Handholding fi 2.0, 3 echoes onscreen at a time, slower minion response when they are summoned to battle, fi 2.0 speech bubbles are very distracting, echoes are irritating to search for once one has acquired more than five. I hated it and felt that Link's Awakening was far superior to this. Needless to say i took mine back and put the money towards two pre-orders to retro realms Ash vs Evil Dead. One physical copy for me and the other for my friend for his birthday
Tri did not feel like Fi at all, and I say this as someone who actually likes Fi. And while I do think Links Awakening is better, tbh that would've been hard to top, seeing how it's my #1 favorite Zelda. Echoes is still a good game imo.
This might be a great game but I have a major concern: How often do you need to navigate a menu? When I played Tears of the Kingdom, all of the menu navigation like literally every 30 seconds or so really took me out of it. I honestly thought that dropped it from being an amazing game down to just ok. BOTW was so much better from the immersion standpoint because you could go for hours without messing with the menus if you wanted to. Echoes of Wisdom looks like it might carry over the TOTK menu issues and if so, it is unforgivable.
i’d say it’s worse. while at least in TOTK you can argue the scrolling (while annoying) is quickly used for select materials and fusing arrows and stuff. with this game it’s THE main mechanic and it’s tied to combat, progression, traversal, puzzle solving. and there’s 120 echoes to sort through. you can’t favourite or put into a grid or sections, it’s just sort the long list into most used, common types etc. so if TOTK’s UI annoyed you, this probably will be worsens
@@ninetailedfox579121 It's a reference to a test Wolfden did, where he left a switch oled screen on for 2 years on a BOTW screenshot of a shrine (which has a lot of blue light on the roof)
I’m not the biggest fan of plastic funky pop art style….BUT despite that, I had fun with links awakening so I honestly can’t wait to get my grubby mits on this game
Wish these review titles didn't all have to contain "Is it worth it?" I feel like that casts doubt on a brand new release, where something could (and often should!) be an exciting experience! Like... Please let the positive emotions flow-or whatever people are feeling-without tainting their perspective from the get-go.
Should this have been held back as a launch title for the successor to the Nintendo Switch? I say that as this last hurrah of games makes me wonder what will be coming out with the next console.
Inconsistent framerate could be an indicator that they're willing to sacrifice the performance of OG switch for games that run perfectly on the new switch that they're inevitably going to announce soon
Maybe someday Alex will refine his craft enough to provide the exact right amount of waffling rather than always overshooting the target.
I fear the correct quantity of waffling may be a moving target, so he is forever doomed to miss his mark.
“That’s exactly as much waffling as these circumstances called for; let’s dive right into things!”
Found myself absent-mindedly scrolling down to the comments 2 minutes into the video, saw this comment, and realized that the video had yet to actually say anything
I want to try these waffles
We need more waffling!
Finally subscribed because not only do I appreciate your great reviews, I simply love being greeted by the classic “Hello there, lovely people!”
You wont need a greeting if you spend time with family and friends in real life.
HAPPY ZELDAY EVE EVERYONE
🙏🥳
HAPPY ZELDAY EVE!
My copy shipped early from Amazon so got it this morning
🎉🥳
Wait it’s out ? It was supposed to come out tomorrow
Basically, if you like dnd wizard, then you will love this. Zelda is a dnd wizard.
At least 3rd game in a row where Nintendo refuses to make a proper Zelda game. I fear we'll look back one day and realize there hasnt been a good Zelda game in 20 years like Pokemon today
@@chiquita683 Naa, this is a great one.
@@chiquita683
So just because YOU personally don't like this style of game that it's "not proper and bad?"
@@chiquita683 y'all were tired of that formula by Skyward and Link Between Worlds. You did this to yourself.
@@chiquita683lol I remember when people said that about wind waker back in the day. And twilight princess. And skyward sword. Zelda was always about trying something new.
Princess Zelda first grand adventure? Absolutely must buy.
Cdi😂
@@dennisveneman9469 No entendí.
Second, technically, lol
@@jcook7408what was first if I may ask and not counting hyrule warriors series
@@jjtheman523 the comment above mine is the answer. CD-i. It's better you look it up. Me trying to describe it won't really make sense unless you see it yourself
I'm so excited about this! I've been playing Zelda games for 30+ years and i can't wait to finally play as the person that the game is named for.
Never played Wand of Gamelon?😂
@@MungkaeX - We dont talk about Wand of Gamelon. Not for all the baby oil in the world.
What about Link's Crossbow Training?
It will make you realize why Zelda is constantly needing to be saved by Link, she doesn't even get an attack in the game lol, you have to summon cloned versions of enemies to fight for you while you run around picking up rupees like a wimp.
@@grizzlywhisker You’ve not been watching the trailers. One of the first things she gets after the magic copy ability is the ability to transform into a Sword Fighter mode that basically plays like Link.🤣
Okay, the fact that we have poes and darknuts back makes me really happy. But I love that we have the little stamp stations back. I always wondered if Nintendo would ever let us collect stamps again after Spirit Tracks
Didn’t the HD remakes of wind Waker and twilight Princess do that stamp thing too for messages? Can’t remember if it was the same concept or not.
@@nyguesswho I unfortunately don't know as I never played the HD remakes
@@eileensmiller8041 ah man, they were great! I bought a Wii U just to play them lol. Here’s hoping they FINALLY release a port for switch 🤞
@@nyguesswho I'm hoping. Maybe have them as a dual release whenever the next console comes out.
@@eileensmiller8041 that and an ocarina of time remake! Ugh, I’d kill to get a “The Hero of Time Collection” with a remade Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, and a “Zelda HD” collection or whatever they wanna call it, with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. I’m praying they’ll do something like that either for the new system like you said, or at least as a swan song last big release for Switch, especially since the TP and WW games were already made for Wii U and judging by the amount of games ported from Wii U to Switch, shouldn’t be a difficult port for them.
I swear, sometimes I see Nintendo answer fans prayers with remakes and remasters, but not the obvious ones, and I’m sitting here like really? lol.
I would love Zelda, Link and Impa to be playable in an RPG. Especially a HD-2D styled RPG
CD-i remakes
@LemonTerps Eh, why not? I think as a spin off it'd be totally acceptable. It'll never happen though - I don't think Nintendo would ever do it, and I think too much of the fanbase would rebel.
@LemonTerps yes
Paper zelda for the win
I've been saying this for months, I'd love this!!!
i've 100% this already and i have to say this is the first zelda game in YEARS that i genuinely enjoyed. The combat isn't even new, either. This is the EXACT same combat that's present in nearly every zelda game, except made the main focus and greatly expanded upon. You know when you play an OOT randomizer and you don't have a sword or shield? it's like that. do damage with rocks, pots, etc. now you can do it with enemies too! Love this game, very happy it exists.
After putting in about 120 hours on Tears of the Kingdom, I absolutely loved playing a Zelda game that I could finish in a single week, and one which was blissfully not tricky (either the puzzles or the boss fights). It also dropped at the perfect time... I had some pretty devastating family news right before release day, but this game provided the perfect distraction and really helped me through the first week of it. Can't tell you how much I adore this game. ;-)
I'm extremely excited about this! I loved the look of the Link's Awakening remake, but never could quite justify spending the money for it. This, however, is a totally fresh game so I'm all about it
Yeah the Link's Awakening remake was great, but at the end of the day it's just a remake of the original game and it's quite short. This game is much longer, although it's nowhere near the length of something like BotW or TotK, but I'm sure nobody expected it to be. The map might feel kind of small, but it's got a lot packed into it. I've been playing through the game over the past couple days and I've easy put in 20 hours, I'm probably 3/4 through the game, maybe not that far though. If you do the side quests and hunt down all the upgrade materials and heart pieces (as well as things like accessories) you will probably get 30 hours out of it.
I'm buying this and I'm sure I'll love it... but it blows my mind they didn't make the echoes menu 2D instead of 1D. Scroll left/right for categories of echoes (monsters, furniture, nature, etc), and then up and down to select the specific echo under the category you're hovering on. All the sort options could work both for the categories and the specific echoes under each category, leveraging the benefit of the sorts even more.
You mentioned it took 15-20hrs to complete. Was that a playthrough that largely focused on the main quest? Or would you say a playthrough that included most/all side quests would significantly beef up that time frame?
With how reviewing a game typically goes, I’d assume that’s just straight shot main quest
@WolfPlisken I would usually agree, but with there being a few references to side quests and the length they can be, it naturally concerned me that the 15 hours may include a good few of them.
Either way, it looks brilliant and I can't wait to play.
Im on 20hrs now and I've done all side quests and randomly looking for things and I'm still not finished yet
Oh actually on 25hrs now
@@choiceschoices nice!
This game is like a Lego game - the Lego version of Breath of the Wild. It's like Nintendo compressed the open world game into a bite-sized miniature Play Mobil. Then throw in some Pokemon gameplay - when you defeated a monster, you can use it to battle other monsters later. This makes you want to collect all the creatures. "Gotta catch them all!"
So like Lego pokemon… zelda
Wait, you can access hero mode without having to beat the game first? Finally (not huge into replaying games I beat, especially ones that have a big time sink into it). Been wanting this for years
yeah you can
@@Meepalasheep that actually be one of the things I am most excited about and something they should do with every entry going forward
I've been playing the game over the past couple days (I'm probably about 3/4 through the game) and I never saw any option to play "hero mode" anywhere... The first time you boot up the game there's no title screen or anything, it just throws you right into the intro of the game so I didn't notice anything like that.
@@grizzlywhisker man, that’s a bit of a damper. I may have to Google this
@@grizzlywhisker it's in Difficulty when you press the + button. Normal and then Hero Mode, aka Hard Mode. Hero Mode is not a transformation mode or anything.
WHAT NO 1500 KOROKS TO FIND! GAME FAIL! not worth playing... jk either way everything look awesome and fun as hell can't wait to play
Game looks awesome! Don't have the money quite yet but I'll be able to order it from amazon when we reach October!
2:28 Am I the only one that see this endless scrolling of items and thinks this is poor game design? Breath of Wild and Tears were bad sorting through items but this is orders of magnitudes worse
There's the "Most Used" sorting mechanism. Also, you can select an echo from the grid view using the + button.
I found BotW and TotK pretty easy by just using Most Used, I didn't have any serious issues. And you can always select directly from the + menu
This design is not the best, but I am not too bothered with it.
no. it feels gross ☹️
Yeah, give me a chart or table of items. This is asinine. The UI should change depending on what it's used for.
I'm about halfway through the game right now and I'm absolutely loving it. It feels like the perfect mix of classic Zelda and botw/totk style Zelda all in a top down format (my favourite type of Zelda). My expectations weren't incredibly high but they have been completely shattered, I'm so impressed with how much fun I'm having. Just a constant smile on my face. If this keeps up a link between worlds may be dethroned for me and I truly didn't see that coming.
Absolutely wort it, I never liked Zelda games. It was either too much grinding or walking around aimlessly without feeling any serious progression. This feels so immediate you can solve the puzzles in so many different ways, just like the last one where the building mechanics are brilliant. But this for an 80s gamer has that 80s feel and nice colourful settings, I simply adore it.
Besides breath of the wild and TotK what games felt grindy and painfully slow? Wind waker i can kinda see an argument for. Personally ive always thought Zelda has had a great exploration:reward ratio
@@dylanwoods523 the original back in 1986 was relentless. So frustrating, no way you could solve that on your own. You needed the collective mind of your peers.
And I hated the backtracking… especially indeed the one with the sailboat my room mate played that (I didn’t) and I was like: “no way I can stand this.”
Oot always felt slow between dungeons with the overworld that had nothing to do in it. The game had terrible exploration. Still like it though. @@dylanwoods523
well im looking for a zelda game so if someone who doesnt like zelda likes this then ill pass💀
Yeah, Windwaker is my least favorite zelda game because of the backtracking to collect the Tri force pieces at the end of the game. It's really weird that people think highly of Windwaker now one of the worst zelda games. I would rather play the Cdi games over it.
so excited to finally play a new 2D Zelda again
topdown not 2d (TD)
@@PreferablyPurple There is an option if you press in one of the analogue sticks where it changes the camera to top down view... I didn't notice it until I was already like halfway through the game though lol.
Not 2d but yeah
I’m willing to bet that this game is just the natural evolution of the tech demo they used to prototype Breath of the Wild. It's kind of how Nintendo creates games.
Most developers come up with the game concept first, then design the gameplay/world around it. Nintendo designs a "toy" that's fun to play with, then builds the concept around it.
The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom (The Legend of Link) a game where you play as Princess Zelda herself to save Link and it's still no The Legend of Link: Well EXCEUSE ME Princess have one answer: It is WORTH it!
No.
@@n1nj4l1nkhey just beacuse you hate it doesnt mean others have too
@@baconburgeronly3089 oh, I'm sorry. I don't remember saying that other people have to share my opinion, could you point it out for us?
@@n1nj4l1nk sure you just said it
saying a game is or isn't "worth it" is rather subjective lol. price vs gameplay and enjoyment. I'm sure the game is worth it for many, although it isn't for me.
6:45 idk, complaints about 60fps performance feels like one of those patrons at a restaurant that complains that their steak is medium even though they asked for medium well and then complain to the manager. It’s like calm down yall
9:27 also, life is hard enough. I don’t understand why people want to make something that is fun, harder. Feels like the people that need a harder experience are the kinds of people that need to experience real world shit.
Lastly, if you disagree, just do me a favor and ask yourselves to “ask me if I care” about what you think about my opinion. The answer is: I don’t.
It takes the old formuler and converts it into something else. Sidequests provide fun little diversions that lead you to hidden caves, optional bosses, and sometimes even accessories to help Zelder along the way.
-Mr. Krabs/Alex
People who don’t acknowledge Wand of Gamelon as the first time we got to play as Zelda are lacking the Triforce of Courage! 😂
Too old and not cannon, why would I care?
That basic menu for summoning objects is unforgivable though.
100% agree. You get a ton of useless or redundant echoes, and the only way to change them is to scroll through all of them. Plus the puzzles are very easy and you barely even fight. You just summon and stand back. I'm about 6 hours in and it may be the first zelda game I don't finish.
Fucking hate that so much, so what? Is this a Zelda game design staple now? Horrible
I want to know if you can select them from the grid view that shows them all.
Materials in totk mostly didn't need to have you scroll through the whole quick menu list. Not sure why people did that when trying to find items when it's just easier in the other form Nintendo let you find and drop them to fuse. it was called a quick menu for a reason.
Surprised no one has talked about if there is the alternate method to equip but I expect so otherwise whats the point of the encyclopedia grid of echoes.
@@enorma29that won't work. They clearly use that menu design for a reason. It meets their design requirements they would have clearly laid out, and they very rarely implement quality of life changes in a released game. They wait between sequels like they did with botw and totk.
It's Breath of the Wild mechanics but with a more simpler, top down gameplay. Nintendo is clearly still capitalizing on the open air style of gameplay.
"how can you beat the game in the most indirect way using random items?"
Zelda echoes: yes!
My four year old daughter loves this game thus far ☺
Great way to get young girls into the franchise ❤
This game is 100% a test for some puzzle ideas and it helps innovate the series as well. Love the stamp guy def ripped that from Spirit Tracks (IYKYK). It feels like a mashup of a bunch of zeldas and it celebrates the series as a whole.
When you talked about drops in frame rate, did the clips you talked over show those drops?
no. he weirdly showed gameplay with mostly stable performance.
I wish they would make a Pokémon game out of this artstyle gameplay
I mean they KINDA tried doing that with BD/SP, but it didnt go so well
Watching this tomorrow after I pick up the game. Don’t want any spoilers or ideas on how to play the game. Thanks for reviewing. This is one of my favorite video game channels on TH-cam
I love these style of Zelda games over the huge 3D ones. my dad bought me a SNES that came with A Link to the past and I loved it. These remind me of it so much! I hope one day they make one that expands more on side quests.
After playing Elden Ring and it's DLC I'm so sick of hard games if I could just remove hero mode from the games programming I would because it's wasting space on my hard drive. I just want to relax and play as Zelda in game series using her name sense it's inception.
@@J31 get a life
Its a game bro calm down😂@@J31
…just… dont turn hero mode on? I dont understand the complaining here. If the argument is that hero mode takes up too much storage for something your not going to use, it probably doesnt even take up a megabyte of storage. I dont get it.
This is so petty 💀
I already pre-ordered it, so I'm gonna like whether I like it or not.
I'm so excited to play Princess Peach!
Looking forward to playing Echoes of Wisdom. I love the art style and the echo Mechanic which has so much potential.
I just started this game yesterday. It's easy but not too easy. It's puzzles are cute and fun and not incredibly hard or really that hard at all. I love playing as Zelda it's been a dream of mine since I was a child playing Link to the Past. Great game looking forward to more Zelda games like this as much as I loved BoTW and ToTK this is like classic meets future.
Hype! Ill be picking this up at midnight for sure. Get an hour or two in before bed.
Think we’re any closer to getting a third party ots shooter featuring linkle?
That’d be cool. Or at least make her playable in the next SSB game?
Thanks for the review with no spoilers. Games aren’t in my budget right now but I hope to pickup a lot of my backlog soon when the switch 2 gets released and prices drop on titles hopefully.
Another classic from Nintendo. Easily up there with all the past top doen entries
I hope this game is Nintendo testing if they can blend the new 3D Zelda mechanics (BotW, TotK) with classic Zelda level/dungeon design.
I'm already not thrilled with that long horizontal scrolling list of echoes. I hope there is a way to organize that.
I really want to play this. I’m just finishing Links Awakening on the Switch and I loved it (I actually took a break from playing it bc I feel I’m very close to the end and I’m scared of it being sad). But the performance really seems to be an issue so I think I’ll wait this one out and play it on the Switch 2 ASAP.
It looks like a Top down old school version of BOTW/TOTK. That worries me because if it's as big and quest heavy as those i doubt I'll ever finish it. Still working on TOTK and that game feels simply too massive! I hope it's not gonna be so puzzle heavy that I'll get frustrated and have to look up the solutions like those mind bending shrines in TOTK.
Can't wait for it.
The best channel for any Nintendo news/reviews imho
😂 they are biased!!! Nintendo pays them
i just hate that the echoes list gets so long and it takes forever to find items you've never or rarely used
I feel like a 9/10 is kinda high considering the performance issues. Hopefully Nintendo gets a patch out to fix that (or perhaps the Switch 2) will iron that out.
Maybe that's the reason they gave it a 9 and not a 10.
Not sure why people comment on what the score should be, it's the reviewers opinion based on their experience playing the game, and they clearly weren't impressed by the slowdown but it didn't feel egregious to them or detract from the amount of joy they were having.
Makes sense to me.
The importance of performance depends on the game/genre. I care about framerate a lot more in a fast-paced action game or shooter than I do a city builder or farm sim. Echoes of Wisdom is more puzzle focused, so the performance issues are worth criticizing, but they don't hamper the experience much.
@@neonswift All reviews are arbitrary, but I was weaned on the review scores of old being far more critical than modern reviewers tend to be.
From 1986-1997 not a single game received a perfect score from Famitsu, but from 1998-2007 they gave out nearly one per year, from 2007 onward they handed them out like candy. I point at Famitsu because they are one of the longest running game reviews, and are known for being more difficult to achieve a perfect score since their review scores are not a single person’s scores but 4 different people. You can pick any long running game review and see how there has been a shift towards more glowing reviews. It’s even more apparent when looking at games that score poorly.
@@MungkaeXfamitsu gave a perfect score to new super mario bros wii. I don't think there's any reason to take them seriously as reviewers.
@@jclkaytwo Proving my point with that one. Pick your favorite long running game review, they simply rate things more favorably than back in my day.
I may be a curmudgeonly old man, but the point is we expected more of games in the old days. Too many Good Games are given perfect scores and Bad Games are given Passing scores.
yes picked it up the other day so fun
Ok so honest question: If I hated BotW and TotK but loved every other Zelda before those, will I like this? Or because of the open world nature of the game would you say it’s more similar to those two games? Normally I prefer 2D Zelda’s but it’s because they used to be linear. Minish Cap is my favorite. I just need to know if this is still going to be good to me or if I’d be fine skipping it.
Helloooo! Background: I took an instant dislike to BOTW (and never bothered with TOTK). It was too big, I didn't really know what I was doing and I kept running into ludicrously overpowered enemies who 1-shot killed me. I've only actually played bits of Skyward Sword and Ocarina. The only Zelda game I ever completed (several times, because I adore it) was Wind Waker.
This game, so far, is really enjoyable. It feels really creative and fun. You can wander all over but it seems to give you a very clear idea of where you "should" be going. It's also piss easy, so far, which is great for a casual gamer like me but I am just playing normal mode rather than, the more difficult, hero mode.
This game is great! I just beat it this morning (100%) and started a second file on Hero Mode. Great job, Grezzo & Nintendo!
Zelda actually has her own solo game that is long overdue and is awesome. Now both the top 2 iconic princesses Peach and Zelda have modern solo games.
6:13 you say targeting is bad but use a clip where whoever is playing seems like they have no clue what a controller is, either that or they just have 1 hand and only 3 fingers no thumb
Maybe they will have a day one patch to fix the performance issue
2:47 I wasn’t expecting Arbok to show up in Echoes of Wisdom.
You know... people keep mentioning this so-called frame dip... I've finished all of the Gerudo Desert section, even with the sandstorms, and if there was any dipping, I haven't noticed. We'll see if I feel the same when I get to Hebra, but so far I've had no issues at all.
People are too picky
I took a quick break from playing to tell you guys, this game is fun AF. Defeating enemies then being able to use them to do your bidding? I'm not the biggest Zelda fan, but damn this game is dope
ah i cannot wait!
My question is, is it the biggest map of any top down zelda game made? Also second question, is there a dedicated jump button or do you run off a cliff and it autojumps like ocarina
Apparently you can jump at any time so there must be a dedicated button.
it definitely LOOKS like the biggest 2d zelda map ever, but im no expert
There is a bug near the end that may prevent you entering the Fire Temple but Nintendo are aware of it.
Definitely worth it , it doesnt need graphics for great relaxing gameplay entertaiment
12:39 it's such a breath of fresh wild
Started watching IGN review of this and there just wasn't enough "waffling"!!!! Great review...looking forward to grabbing this
I've been playing this game earlier than most and I have several issues with the game this review failed to mention.
The UI is horrific in this game. Tears of the Kingdom's """quick menu""" is back with a vengeance. Scrolling through 100+ echoes to find the one you need is not fun and this game requires possibly more menu surfing than the aforementioned. Not being able to favorite summons is a huge issue. Being able to completely unselect certain summons from the quick menu would be nice as well (as there are a lot of the same enemies but +2 in power, leaving many to feel redundant and worthless later). There is more menu surfing in this game than in any other Zelda before it.
It's crazy NL played in hero mode (so did I) and didn't mention the bonkers healing system which returns again from BotW and TotK. The healing is done in a pause menu and you can stuff 1000 peppers down your face to cheese healing at any time, defeating the purpose of hero mode by quite a bit. You'd think this would be disabled in favor of a more limited smoothie mixing option. Smoothies, btw, are just cooking from BotW simplified -- if you had a problem with hoarding dozens of broken food items, it's back. In hero mode the enemies are *very* spongey too and it's borderline not fun especially when you have the combat system.
The combat relies a lot on dumb af AI. There are several times AI summons got caught on objects or wouldn't perform and action it would otherwise (like attack). It's a bit ridiculous how little agency you do have in combat and the Link transformation mode is absolutely a band-aid solution to this issue. Relying on AI as much as this game does leads to frustration after frustration and I think it was a complete misfire to approach the combat this way as opposed to taking on abilities from enemies instead via Kirby or something adjacent to that. Not allowing players agency just becomes a dodge-the-enemy game while praying your companion does what it needs to.
The sidequests and rewards for them are often bad, either providing rupees or fruit for smoothies or one of the many useless bottles (which only allows you to hold fairies now). In general, like Tears and Breath, the progression of your character isn't really felt as strongly in this game.
Anyway, as someone who mildly enjoyed Breath and didn't like Tears, this is *not* a return to classic Zelda. It's fundamentally 2D Tears of the Kingdom with all the flaws that carries with it. If you're like me and miss old-school Zelda, maybe pass on this one. This review was not real or upfront whatsoever.
I really, really cannot believe the 1-dimensional scrolling gigamenu is back. It's such a stupid problem to bring back a second time.
@@liam_iam I don't get why they hate good UI now.
Hearing Alex gush over this game after already giving the final score is oddly satisfying.
this will be available to play / stream at midnight correct??
So excited to play this this weekend!
Is it just me or does Zelda look like Bridgit Mendler regardless of her design (either way, this is a major step-up from Tears of the Kingdom; power to those that love it more than me, with the graphics of Link's Awakening HD and the title of a Zelda game finally living up to its name because besides being actually really fun to play in Smash, she's also playable in a mainline game for the first time; it's like Nintendo took a note from Princess Peach: Showtime even though it's far from the first time Peach was playable... and while fun to play as, she can have her outdated weaknesses, probably because of her long history of either taking care of herself or forcing the Mario Bros. to save her more times than even they feel like they should. Adventuring through worlds can be a lot of fun, but then it turns into hell when it gets arduous and you don't get the most extraordinary of rewards which feels less like gratitude and more like a way to promote stereotypes of women, like take for instance, in Paper Mario: Sticker Star which is much less amazing than all its predecessors. But I digress, and I apologize if I offended anyone who likes Peach, and over the years, I started to appreciate her more... depending on what Nintendo makes.)
Will buy. Not now, but eventually, definitely.
I am mostly excited for the return of Deku, Gerudo's and Gorons, and their habitats.
Both types of Zora's are in this game too, there's the one's we've seen a million times since N64 but they brought back the classic NES style "River Zoras" from the NES game too.
Love that art style. I guess no demo?
No,sadly theres no demo. But if you like the gameplay you see, i’d HIGHLY suggest buying it, its as fun as it looks
@@aidencook5524 Not in the budget right now. Maybe next month
That catalogue looks a bit much; it'd be good if you could order them in rows & columns rather than a horizontal line but I doubt that's possible
I got a question. So the hero mode, is recommended for people who have experience with zelda game or is just like a super hard mode for extremely challenge. i'm all for a challenge just it sounds like an overdrive of a challenge
I would assume it's the same exact thing as hero mode in any other Zelda game.
When did a Link Between Worlds come out? That was by Grezzo right & a top down original Zelda game
LBW was developed in-house at nintendo EPD when the zelda team had a seperate 2D division (which has since been dissolved and merged into the 3D team which is why Grezzo has developed the last 2D releases).
I will play straight hero mode. I know this will be one of favorite games.
Any post game available! ?
I’m actually really okay with Nintendo shining the spotlight on their side characters (especially Peach and Zelda). Mario’s been doing it for years with Luigi, Yoshi and Wario. I’m glad Princess Peach Showtime exists and Zelda DEFINITELY deserved her own full length adventure game. A nice way to get new fans without losing the fun Nintendo charm. It makes me wonder who else will get their own game?
Off-topic, but an animal crossing game with similar graohics to this, with more to do, would literally be the perfect game in my eyes!
100% agree!
You said 15-20h. Is that for the general game or does it include finding everything?
25ish when doing all.
I love link and zelda games i definitely think i will probably buy this Saturday looks like fun. Been playing them since Nintendo days lol.
Handholding fi 2.0, 3 echoes onscreen at a time, slower minion response when they are summoned to battle, fi 2.0 speech bubbles are very distracting, echoes are irritating to search for once one has acquired more than five. I hated it and felt that Link's Awakening was far superior to this. Needless to say i took mine back and put the money towards two pre-orders to retro realms Ash vs Evil Dead. One physical copy for me and the other for my friend for his birthday
Tri did not feel like Fi at all, and I say this as someone who actually likes Fi. And while I do think Links Awakening is better, tbh that would've been hard to top, seeing how it's my #1 favorite Zelda. Echoes is still a good game imo.
When is twilight princess 2???
This might be a great game but I have a major concern: How often do you need to navigate a menu? When I played Tears of the Kingdom, all of the menu navigation like literally every 30 seconds or so really took me out of it. I honestly thought that dropped it from being an amazing game down to just ok. BOTW was so much better from the immersion standpoint because you could go for hours without messing with the menus if you wanted to. Echoes of Wisdom looks like it might carry over the TOTK menu issues and if so, it is unforgivable.
i’d say it’s worse. while at least in TOTK you can argue the scrolling (while annoying) is quickly used for select materials and fusing arrows and stuff.
with this game it’s THE main mechanic and it’s tied to combat, progression, traversal, puzzle solving.
and there’s 120 echoes to sort through. you can’t favourite or put into a grid or sections, it’s just sort the long list into most used, common types etc.
so if TOTK’s UI annoyed you, this probably will be worsens
5:06 Can't wait for those Sidon sections! 💙🦈
Hopefully this looks good on my switch lite.
Blue permanent Sword bar. Ready to burn into my Oled
Wolfden moment
You planning to play this without turning it off for 6 months? I like the commitment
my switch oled doesn’t have any burn in from any of the various switch zelda games with three fixed hearts
Burn in on modern oled screens is virtually nonexistent for any realistic scenario.
@@ninetailedfox579121 It's a reference to a test Wolfden did, where he left a switch oled screen on for 2 years on a BOTW screenshot of a shrine (which has a lot of blue light on the roof)
I can’t wait to play it tomorrow! I’m so excited!
I’m not the biggest fan of plastic funky pop art style….BUT despite that, I had fun with links awakening so I honestly can’t wait to get my grubby mits on this game
Sooo just like with Links Awakening force handheld mode + overclock to get constant 60fps?
Noted.
Does this game have rain and a weather system?
Wish these review titles didn't all have to contain "Is it worth it?" I feel like that casts doubt on a brand new release, where something could (and often should!) be an exciting experience! Like... Please let the positive emotions flow-or whatever people are feeling-without tainting their perspective from the get-go.
I'm getting the echoes of wisdom game tommorow!
It always feels borderline surreal to me when a new Zelda game actually comes out. HYPE
I hope there isn't any major spoilers in this video.
Has preforming been shown here? I don't see it...
I can't wait. So glad this reviewed well.
Should this have been held back as a launch title for the successor to the Nintendo Switch? I say that as this last hurrah of games makes me wonder what will be coming out with the next console.
Nah it’s an alright sendoff but hopefully this means twilight or wind waker next 😅.
Probably metroid prime 4
Inconsistent framerate could be an indicator that they're willing to sacrifice the performance of OG switch for games that run perfectly on the new switch that they're inevitably going to announce soon
or they just didn't care that much about the framerate
@@Aktedya1-jt7vw just as good if not a better theory xD