Gage Dardeen

I grew up on LoZ, with my first experience being A Link to the Past. Since then, I’ve always made it a point to play and beat every Zelda title that is released, and I believe wholeheartedly that even a BAD ZELDA game is still a GOOD game. That being said, Echoes of Wisdom is a GREAT Zelda game. I view the LoZ franchise like a large group of siblings. They’re all very different, but you can still tell what family they belong to. Throughout the many LoZ titles, Nintendo consistently gives each one its own unique spin (some good, some not so good), but it always feels like a Zelda game. Although I was excited to finally be able to play as my girl Zelda, I was skeptical at first when I saw the different combat system, and worried that it would fall too far from the LoZ formula. But, to my surprise, I had more fun playing EoW than even Breath of the Wild. The combat, though different, was EXCELLENT. There were of course a few echoes for combat that were more well rounded than others, but every echo proved to be useful from the beginning, to the end. The puzzles were fantastic. Not too difficult, but still making you think, as there are multiple solutions to most of them. There were plenty of times when I would solve a cave in a specific way, then I would talk to my brother (who started playing the same day I did) and he would tell me about a completely different way to solve the same cave. As far as the story: PHENOMENAL. I was 100% invested in the story from the moment I walked into Ganon’s room (this was seen in the teaser trailer, shut up about spoilers). It kept me captivated throughout the adventure, with new and old faces, familiar towns and areas, and quick but satisfying side quests. All in all, I have to give this game 5 stars. Definitely a top 5 LoZ title (which is saying a lot because there’s so many).