It's strange to think about the fact that the titular character of The Legends of Zelda has never actually been the main character. She's followed Link as a suit of armor, battled alongside him in massive war battles, and teamed up with him in various disguises, but she's never actually starred in a game before – beyond one infamous game for the ill-fated CD-i. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom marks the princess's first foray into the leading role, and it's a darn good first impression.

Echoes of Wisdom begins as you might expect. Princess Zelda has been kidnapped by a blue pig man, and a young boy in green wielding a magic sword shows up to save her. Just after the monster's defeat, a void opens up and swallows Link. Forced to escape herself, Zelda returns home only to discover her friends and family have also been sucked into the void and replaced by bizarre doppelgangers. Framed by the false king, Zelda is forced to go into hiding. Aided by a fairy called Tri, Zelda sets out to close the rifts and figure out a way to save her homeland.

Echoes of Wisdom follows the basic old-school Zelda formula. You're thrust into the open world and must explore various dungeons to collect the trinkets you need to stop the bad guys. This is far more akin to the 2D games, with a number of sectioned-off dungeons (located in the rifts) in addition to hidden paths and obstacles on the main world map. It's a true throwback to the pre-Breath of the Wilds era of the franchise, and everything from silly minigames to collectible heart pieces are present.

Unlike Link, Zelda isn't running around with a Master Sword and Shield. Instead, her gameplay is focused on the titular echoes. By finding certain glowing objects in the environment or by defeating enemies, she can register an "echo" of them. These echoes can then be summoned at will, limited only by Tri's ability to keep multiple ones running at once. The echoes can be almost anything. Pots? You bet. Beds? Absolutely. A small army of incredibly deadly snakes? Go for it. There are over a hundred different echoes available, and each one has their own distinct attributes.

Both combat and puzzle-solving revolves around using these echoes creatively. Need to get across a gap? Maybe you can summon a flying plank and ride it to the other side. Perhaps you can create a bridge made of beds. Need to get to an object beneath you? In the correct areas, you can summon a mole and dig through the ground. If you're in a freezing cold area and don't have any potions to warm you up, you can summon a lit torch for a brief bit of warmth or summon a swarm of burning monsters to attack enemies and keep you toasty at the same time.

You can also bind enemies and objects. When you bind something, you can manipulate and move it around, regardless of size or shape. This can be used to move boxes or throw enemies off cliffs, but it also has other advantages. You can reverse the bind, which binds Zelda to whatever she had been binding before. If you bind yourself to a moving platform, then it will drag you along as it moves. If you summon a wall-crawling spider, then you can bind yourself to it and climb up walls. One of my favorite tricks is to summon an echo of a piece of meat and an echo of a crow, pick up the meat, bind myself to the crow, and like the proverbial donkey and carrot, the crow would chase the meat forever while its movement allowed me to fly across the map.

That is functionally the core fun of Echoes of Wisdom. You're given an absolutely phenomenally huge toolbox to play around with, and the puzzles ask you to solve them however you like. There are clearly intended solutions to the puzzles, but if an idea feels like it should work, it usually will. Even the act of exploring Hyrule feels as much like you're cheating the system as doing things intentionally. Being able to climb up any wall feels like you shouldn't be able to do it, but the game encourages it.

That's the core strength but possibly also the core weakness of the game. Echoes of Wisdom gives you such incredibly powerful tools that it can sometimes feel too easy to do things. I really enjoyed it, and I loved experimenting with the different echoes and their interactions, but some players may find it to be too freeform. I'm hesitant to call this a flaw because it is the way the game is designed, but it's worth keeping in mind for players who preferred the stricter, older Zelda titles.

Combat is probably the weakest part of the game. Most of your fighting is done by summoning echoes and allowing their AI to do the damage for you. This can be fun, but it also feels slow, as echoes seem to have the same AI regardless of whether they're your allies or enemies. They may be slow or cautious to attack. I stuck to the handful of echoes that I knew reliably attacked. It's fun to spew moblins at foes like you're Ganondorf instead of Zelda, but it does make the pacing slower.

This is somewhat alleviated by the Swordfighter form. Early in the game, Zelda finds Link's sword. Rather than being able to use it normally, she has to adopt a special Swordfighter form, during which she plays … well, like Link. She starts with the sword and can later get upgrades like a bow and arrow, making her feel ever more classic. However, the Swordfighter form has a limited duration and needs to recharge between uses, making it something you save for when you need Link's more direct combat prowess. It's a neat feature, but I avoided using it because this is Zelda's game, and it is more fun to fight bosses through clever use of echoes than the standard style of slashing at enemy weak points.

Most of my criticisms about Echoes of Wisdom are minor. It looks, feels and plays exactly like a creative and engaging return to the old Zelda formula, and it meshes with some of the flexibility and freedom of a title like Breath of the Wild. It's an excellent midpoint between the two eras of the franchise, and it shows that having a ton of freedom and variety isn't exclusive to the 3D adventures. It also manages to do good by Zelda and feels distinctly like a game about her strengths and weaknesses. The Swordfighter form shows a little lack of confidence in making her fun on her own merits, but it's a huge win that Zelda is so fun that I never wanted to play as Link.

Echoes of Wisdom uses the same doll-like art style as the Link's Awakening remake, and it basically has the same strengths and weaknesses. It's a cute and colorful game with a lot of super adorable artwork, and I adore how it looks. The various characters and environments are a delight, and there are tons of cute details. However, it does have a notable frame rate problem. Like Link's Awakening, it isn't something that gets in the way of the game, but it's noticeable and distracting considering how relatively basic the graphics are. The soundtrack is excellent, containing some great new songs and remixes of classics as well.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a wonderful first (no, CD-i doesn't count) outing for the titular princess. It's at once nostalgic and brand new, combining classic Zelda gameplay with the flexibility and freedom of the modern styles. It's a genuine delight from start to finish, with the only real complaints revolving around the fact that the performance hasn't improved from the last game that was developed on the same game engine. If you're a fan of Zelda, Echoes of Wisdom is a must-play.

Score: 9.0/10