Echoes of Wisdom, Part One
Sep. 27th, 2024 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingMy initial impression of Echoes of Wisdom is that it's extremely cumbersome. It's lovely in its own way, but I'm not sure I'm having a good time playing it.
One of my main problems with Tears of the Kingdom is that the gameplay gets very complicated very quickly, and that you have to pay a substantial menu tax (ie, spend unnecessary time in a menu) to upgrade Link's weapons before you start fighting or exploring.
Echoes of Wisdom exacerbates the menu tax, making it so that you have to access a menu in order to do anything. This would be less annoying if Zelda's wand could only summon a limited selection of objects, but the selection quickly becomes unmanageably large. Most items that Zelda can summon have a highly specific use in a highly specific circumstance, meaning that most of the items you have to scroll through are dross.
Given that the emphasis of the game seems to be on using menu-based strategy to solve spatial puzzles, you'd think there would be fewer enemies in the game, right? Unfortunately, there's a higher density of enemies in Echoes of Wisdom than I've ever seen in a Zelda game, and Zelda has no sword or shield to defend herself. In addition, there are no recovery hearts dropped by enemies or found in pots or bushes. You can summon a bed to rest, but heart recovery is unbearably slow, and obviously this doesn't work when you're being swarmed by enemies. I don't think I'm bad at Zelda games, but I died a truly embarrassing number of times in the opening area.
You can summon defeated enemies to fight for you, but their AI is abysmal; mostly they just stand there. Although you can Z-target, summoned enemies can't really aim (nor can Zelda, for that matter), and they don't do any damage even if they do attack and their attack does land. Summoned enemies mostly just get in your way, and they go down so quickly that they're not even useful as meat shields. Most of the summoned enemies are meant to be used to solve puzzles, so it makes sense that they're not useful in battle, but it's frustrating that Zelda can't otherwise defend herself.
I don't actually dislike the summoning mechanic as a way of solving puzzles. Some of the puzzles are extremely fun and clever! Still, I think Echoes of Wisdom needs to make a choice: Either put far fewer enemies in the game, or just give the girl a fucking sword already.
In addition, I wish the game were a bit more intentional about what Zelda can summon, and I wish its pace of item discovery were more carefully managed. Having a large menu of items to scroll through should feel like a reward at the end of the game, not a chore at the beginning.
My frustration regarding the gameplay of Echoes of Wisdom mirrors my frustration with Tears of the Kingdom. Namely, I don't appreciate how the elements of gameplay that could be interesting and special (such as Zelda being able to summon objects) are deliberately transformed into annoyances by quality-of-life issues (such as endless menus). Honestly, the gameplay is so troublesome that it's difficult to understand how Echoes of Wisdom is meant to be fun for its ostensible target audience of younger children.
And you can't even pet the dogs smh.
One of my main problems with Tears of the Kingdom is that the gameplay gets very complicated very quickly, and that you have to pay a substantial menu tax (ie, spend unnecessary time in a menu) to upgrade Link's weapons before you start fighting or exploring.
Echoes of Wisdom exacerbates the menu tax, making it so that you have to access a menu in order to do anything. This would be less annoying if Zelda's wand could only summon a limited selection of objects, but the selection quickly becomes unmanageably large. Most items that Zelda can summon have a highly specific use in a highly specific circumstance, meaning that most of the items you have to scroll through are dross.
Given that the emphasis of the game seems to be on using menu-based strategy to solve spatial puzzles, you'd think there would be fewer enemies in the game, right? Unfortunately, there's a higher density of enemies in Echoes of Wisdom than I've ever seen in a Zelda game, and Zelda has no sword or shield to defend herself. In addition, there are no recovery hearts dropped by enemies or found in pots or bushes. You can summon a bed to rest, but heart recovery is unbearably slow, and obviously this doesn't work when you're being swarmed by enemies. I don't think I'm bad at Zelda games, but I died a truly embarrassing number of times in the opening area.
You can summon defeated enemies to fight for you, but their AI is abysmal; mostly they just stand there. Although you can Z-target, summoned enemies can't really aim (nor can Zelda, for that matter), and they don't do any damage even if they do attack and their attack does land. Summoned enemies mostly just get in your way, and they go down so quickly that they're not even useful as meat shields. Most of the summoned enemies are meant to be used to solve puzzles, so it makes sense that they're not useful in battle, but it's frustrating that Zelda can't otherwise defend herself.
I don't actually dislike the summoning mechanic as a way of solving puzzles. Some of the puzzles are extremely fun and clever! Still, I think Echoes of Wisdom needs to make a choice: Either put far fewer enemies in the game, or just give the girl a fucking sword already.
In addition, I wish the game were a bit more intentional about what Zelda can summon, and I wish its pace of item discovery were more carefully managed. Having a large menu of items to scroll through should feel like a reward at the end of the game, not a chore at the beginning.
My frustration regarding the gameplay of Echoes of Wisdom mirrors my frustration with Tears of the Kingdom. Namely, I don't appreciate how the elements of gameplay that could be interesting and special (such as Zelda being able to summon objects) are deliberately transformed into annoyances by quality-of-life issues (such as endless menus). Honestly, the gameplay is so troublesome that it's difficult to understand how Echoes of Wisdom is meant to be fun for its ostensible target audience of younger children.
And you can't even pet the dogs smh.
