I finished Echoes of Wisdom, with completion of pretty much every side content, except I forgot to cross-reference my list of echoes with a complete list. I don’t think I missed anything, but who knows? My final verdict is neither positive nor negative, just a resounding ‘meh’. I’m always glad when they try something new, but I don’t think open world works for a 2D Zelda. A game with a top-down perspective needs more barriers or the map just becomes a square. Height just isn’t as much of a factor compared to a 3D environment.
spoiler
I wish the final dungeon actually let you play as both Zelda and Link, solving puzzles together. I was kinda bummed out Link is entirely AI-controlled.
In its place, I have started Mario and Luigi: Brothership! I was very worried about the game, since I generally don’t like it when an RPG segments its world too much. It’s been a long time since I played Partners in Time, but I remember that one being very guilty of that, where each segment felt like a ‘level’ instead of a piece of a larger world. But I’m actually very happy with Brothership so far, it’s cohesive! I’m trying to knock out the ‘Beat 300 enemies without any equipment’ challenge early and I’m getting so used to it, that I worry the game will feel too easy once my plumbers wear ties, so to speak.
I made a lot more progress in Lightning Returns. I’m past Day 7 now, which means all enemies are starting to grow stronger over time. I ran into a superboss in the Dead Dunes at some point… I didn’t know an enemy like that would just roam around like that! I got scared thinking this is what Day 7 Plus was going to be!
I did say I was going to do a second playthrough of the game to cover all side quests, but as it turns out, I have almost all of them finished already. When the game said you don’t have enough time to save everyone, they must have been lying. The 13 days you get are plenty. I might not be able to do the quest that asks you to exterminate every single enemy in the world though, but I’ll definitely try!
I finished Echoes of Wisdom, with completion of pretty much every side content, except I forgot to cross-reference my list of echoes with a complete list. I don’t think I missed anything, but who knows? My final verdict is neither positive nor negative, just a resounding ‘meh’. I’m always glad when they try something new, but I don’t think open world works for a 2D Zelda. A game with a top-down perspective needs more barriers or the map just becomes a square. Height just isn’t as much of a factor compared to a 3D environment.
spoiler
I wish the final dungeon actually let you play as both Zelda and Link, solving puzzles together. I was kinda bummed out Link is entirely AI-controlled.
In its place, I have started Mario and Luigi: Brothership! I was very worried about the game, since I generally don’t like it when an RPG segments its world too much. It’s been a long time since I played Partners in Time, but I remember that one being very guilty of that, where each segment felt like a ‘level’ instead of a piece of a larger world. But I’m actually very happy with Brothership so far, it’s cohesive! I’m trying to knock out the ‘Beat 300 enemies without any equipment’ challenge early and I’m getting so used to it, that I worry the game will feel too easy once my plumbers wear ties, so to speak.
I made a lot more progress in Lightning Returns. I’m past Day 7 now, which means all enemies are starting to grow stronger over time. I ran into a superboss in the Dead Dunes at some point… I didn’t know an enemy like that would just roam around like that! I got scared thinking this is what Day 7 Plus was going to be!
I did say I was going to do a second playthrough of the game to cover all side quests, but as it turns out, I have almost all of them finished already. When the game said you don’t have enough time to save everyone, they must have been lying. The 13 days you get are plenty. I might not be able to do the quest that asks you to exterminate every single enemy in the world though, but I’ll definitely try!