Echoes of Wisdom opens like any other Zelda game ends. Link, wearing a brand new cape, traverses through a typical dungeon. An enemy here, a puzzle there… basic stuff. Then, he enters the boss chamber and faces… Ganon. Princess Zelda is trapped in a crystal, watching the fight unfold. Link triumphs, the Princess escapes, but something strange happens. A wave of darkness floods into the dungeon.
You take control of Zelda and run for safety. She escapes by the skin of her teeth, leading out to Hyrule proper. What a way to start a game! It was a fun, self-contained tutorial dungeon with a really cool boss fight. However, that’s not the end of it. There’s more to come when you revisit Suthorn Ruins during the game proper.
Suthorn Ruins is located, surprisingly, in the southern region of Hyrule. Zelda and Tri are tasked to remove the Stillness from the forest which will free some of Tri’s friends. In order to do that, they must enter the Stilled Suthorn Ruins.
This dungeon acts as a larger tutorial to Tri’s powers and what Zelda can do with the Tri Rod. It focuses on movement puzzles, gathering new Echoes, and using those Echoes in different situations. Not only that, you eventually traverse the same path that you did as Link at the beginning of the game.
The path you trod is not the only thing leftover from that opening sequence. We see what happens to Link after he was absorbed by the Stillness. Link himself has become an Echo. After a short battle, Zelda acquires the mysterious sword which grants her Link’s abilities for a short time. This offers players who are used to a more action based combat system more time to adapt to the Tri Rod’s echoes. Can’t quite figure out how to beat an enemy? Swap into Swordfighter Mode and hack away!
The boss of the dungeon is the Seismic Talus. Most Zelda bosses are used to put all the of the things you have earned or learned in the dungeon together in one big battle. In my opinion, this battle does that perfectly. Princess Zelda has to use the Bind ability to pull out a rock and use her Swordfighter Form to attack the weakpoint, or utilize the Echoes she found in the dungeon to do that work for her.
After the fight, Zelda and Tri release Tri’s friends from captivity and restore the Suthorn Forest to its normal state.
The Suthorn Ruins doesn’t really have a distinctive style to it, but it’s one of the most memorable dungeons of the game. That first battle with Link is definitely one of the highlights of any playthrough. The way the dungeon is used to subtly teach you how to use your Tri Rod is so well done, I’d daresay this is a masterwork of a first dungeon.
