In a recent interview with BBC Newsbeat, Echoes of Wisdom directors Tomomi Sano and Satoshi Terada joined series producer Eiji Aonuma to discuss players’ reception to the latest Zelda installment.
A playable Princess Zelda wasn’t the only massive departure from the other games in the series. Introducing an entirely new system of traversal and combat has secured Echoes of Wisdom as one of the most innovative Zelda games to date, but that doesn’t come without some criticisms both internally and externally.
Anouma even admitted that he had struggled with the new system during his first playthrough. “…I think that realization that you can do various things and there are various ways to overcome and solve these puzzles is sort of a turning point of whether you become used to using the echoes in the new game system,” he explained.
The echo selection menus in Echoes of Wisdom have faced some of the most criticism with an overall consensus that the side scrolling menus were not ideal. These menus were featured in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but those titles utilized a different game system. While you can filter them with multiple options such as last used and last learned, 127 echoes to choose from become overwhelming very fast. Some fans have suggested implementing a favoriting option or even autobuild feature for frequently used set ups like the infamous bed bridges not unlike Tears of the Kingdom. Terada pointed out that there is a notebook view where you can access all of your echoes more quickly, but this isn’t always ideal in the heat of battle.
Terada stated that offering multiple ways to sort in the side scrolling menus would help “players to fall upon and see the echoes that they may not have noticed or have been using while they’re sorting through all the echoes that they have”. It was a familiar way to encourage players to get creative and experiment with different ways to solve a problem or defeat enemies.
Another common criticism that Echoes of Wisdom faced was its performance on the Nintendo Switch system. Some players experienced less than ideal performance with unstable frame rates. Sano confirmed that they used a variable frame rate which was the best option for a system that released back in 2017. This performance is normal for any game that implements variable frame rates and isn’t unique to the Switch.
Despite some criticisms, Echoes of Wisdom released with overwhelmingly positive reviews and has solidified itself as a classic entry into the Zelda series. You can read our review and see our thoughts about the game here.
