The gameplay of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a great mix of old and new

An hour later, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom looks to deliver everything that made the last two Zelda games great, reinterpreting decades of tried-and-true game mechanics through a new lens. It takes the player’s creativity from Breath of the Wilderness And Tears of the Kingdom and turns it into a classic Legend of Zelda adventure with a top-down perspective, featuring a huge world and tons of old-school dungeons to explore.

Polygon viewed Echoes of Wisdom this August at a Nintendo event in New York City. Based on the short time we’ve had the game, it’s easily one of our most anticipated games of the fall.

Our practical time with Echoes of Wisdom began at the beginning of the game, when Princess Zelda was arrested and imprisoned(!) due to suspicions that she was responsible for a catastrophic event that was ravaging Hyrule. Strange cracks have appeared in the kingdom, and the king and his frequent protector Link have disappeared. And so have many of Hyrule’s citizens.

In her cell we learn that Zelda’s primary way of interacting with Echoes of Wisdom‘s game world is equipped with her Tri Rod, a magic wand she receives from a spirit named Tri. With the Tri Rod, Zelda can create copies of objects such as tables, beds, and boulders, or monsters, and then summon recreations of them called Echoes. Inanimate objects such as pots and rocks can be copied by simply using the Tri Rod near them. However, in order to copy an enemy monster, players must first defeat one. Once you do, all of those Echoes go into an ever-expanding notebook.

Objects that Zelda copies can serve multiple purposes. Tables, boxes, and decorative shrubs are useful for building steps or temporary bridges to overcome obstacles. A wooden box also serves as a flotation device, and shrubs can be set on fire and then dragged onto other objects to set them alight. A bed can serve as a makeshift bridge and as a place for Zelda to sleep and regain some health. Even a monster echo can serve multiple purposes; a spider named Strandula can create a rope out of silk that Zelda can climb. That silk is also flammable, which can lead to creative (and destructive) solutions to puzzles.

The things Zelda can summon as echoes are controlled by the power of her Tri Rod. In the early hours of the game, it has three charges. Summoning a simple object like a rock or a Keese—the franchise’s version of a bat—uses just one charge. Something more powerful, like a spear-wielding Moblin, uses up two charges. A powerful Darknut Knight will eat up three. Zelda’s Tri Rod gets more powerful over time, but it wasn’t clear how she earns more charges based on our hands-on time.

Zelda has only a few attack options at the start of the game. I fought a lot of monsters early on by creating rocks and throwing them at my enemies. I then copied a Zol (a slime) and a Rope (a snake) and sent Echoes of them onto the battlefield to fight for me. At one point I learned how to create an Echo from a spiky sea urchin, which I then grabbed and stabbed a Darknut in the back while he was distracted by another monster I had summoned. My monster force grew quickly, giving me a diverse set of objects and creatures at my disposal.

In addition to the Tri Rod’s copy-and-paste abilities, Zelda’s wand can also bond her to objects. When Zelda bonds to something, it moves with her. Bonding is useful for creating makeshift shields or pushing objects and monsters around. Conversely, Zelda can also use a power called Reverse Bond, which makes Zelda move in alignment with an object, such as a floating platform or a spider climbing a wall.

Bond can also be used in battle. One of Echoes of Wisdom‘s early boss battles involve confronting what appears to be a possessed Link—or a magical recreation of Link. (An Echo, perhaps?) Zelda must use Bond to strap himself to Link’s Hylian Shield and rip it from his hands, leaving him vulnerable to attack. Once Link’s shield is gone, however, Zelda can summon all sorts of monsters to take him down.

Once Zelda defeats this dark Link, she gains a powerful new ability: the Swordfighter form, which effectively changes her inside Link for a short time. In Swordfighter form, Zelda can swing a sword to destroy obstacles or use a spin slash to fight off a group of enemies. Swordfighter form also allows Zelda to jump higher, an ability that will undoubtedly come in handy during platforming challenges. The option to power up Zelda’s Swordfighter form is determined by a resource simply called energy, which doesn’t seem to be overly plentiful based on what we played.

Zelda can enhance her abilities with consumable smoothies—a mechanic we didn’t get to try out during our hands-on time but was teased in trailers—and pins and accessories that she can wear. One such accessory is a heart pin; wearing one would cause more hearts to spawn when you break objects or cut through tall weeds.

All of the abilities, accessories, and her notebook full of objects and creatures she can copy add up to a huge amount of gameplay possibilities. Hyrule (and its alternate reality, Still World) is full of little puzzles to solve and bits of treasure that require creative solutions to obtain. There are also underground dungeons to explore: the ones we saw during our hands-on time were classic Legend of Zelda puzzle boxes, full of locked rooms, hidden keys, and environmental challenges, some of which could be solved in more than one way.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom may not have the gigantic scale of recent 3D Zelda games, but it looks to have similar creative gameplay and flexibility for the player. It plays like a classic Legend of Zelda game, combining old-school puzzle solving and dungeon crawling with ingenuity in a magical combination of styles. Zelda’s first solo adventure already feels like a winner.

Nintendo will release The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom for the Switch on September 26.