Eurogamer revisits some of its favourite games from 2024, and what makes them great. Here, we look the transformative water block in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom.
It’s somewhat useful, but it’s not my favourite way to overcome obstacles because swimming is very slow and kinda janky.
The thing is, in theory, you’ve got several echoes and strategies that would let you cross a ravine or climb up a cliff. For example there’s several floating monsters that can carry you, one that you can grab as it climbs walls, and those flying tiles from aLttP that you can ride (that one’s kinda cool. I wanted more like that).
Water cube is just the one that works in almost all situations. And a big problem in this game is that it’s a pain to switch echoes all the time, so water cube is one of the few you’ll have in speed dial most of the time.
flying tiles from aLttP that you can ride (that one’s kinda cool. I wanted more like that)
Same. Pretty soon after I got it, I was able to largely skip a stupid stealth section by flying across bookcases. I also use it when I’m too lazy to go the long way and just want to cross a gap for a chest or something.
And a big problem in this game is that it’s a pain to switch echoes all the time
Agreed. I wish I could tag 10 or so for quick access and assign to a ring switcher thing. I ended up using about that many over and over, because it’s such a pain to go find the one in the middle I want to mess with.
Or maybe they could group them or something? Like mobs, scenery, furniture, etc? Having some way to get to other echoes might encourage me to experiment a bit more.
And a big problem in this game is that it’s a pain to switch echoes all the time
It really really is. It’s one of the things I noticed in the trailer and just hoped they would have a solution for once I got to play the game.
The game has a hundred or so echoes, and you can solve puzzles in different ways, but some require a very specific echo and some require any, so you basically just use the same half dozen echoes. When you have to switch, it sucks, and so when you don’t have to switch you just spam water block or whatever.
It seems like the devs just implemented the echo switching as is and assumed they’d fix it later… But they never did.
It’s a fun game but the chances of me replaying it are near zero. Skyward Sword had a similar problem with Fi, although I understand they’ve mostly fix that in the remaster.
It’s somewhat useful, but it’s not my favourite way to overcome obstacles because swimming is very slow and kinda janky.
The thing is, in theory, you’ve got several echoes and strategies that would let you cross a ravine or climb up a cliff. For example there’s several floating monsters that can carry you, one that you can grab as it climbs walls, and those flying tiles from aLttP that you can ride (that one’s kinda cool. I wanted more like that).
Water cube is just the one that works in almost all situations. And a big problem in this game is that it’s a pain to switch echoes all the time, so water cube is one of the few you’ll have in speed dial most of the time.
Same. Pretty soon after I got it, I was able to largely skip a stupid stealth section by flying across bookcases. I also use it when I’m too lazy to go the long way and just want to cross a gap for a chest or something.
Agreed. I wish I could tag 10 or so for quick access and assign to a ring switcher thing. I ended up using about that many over and over, because it’s such a pain to go find the one in the middle I want to mess with.
Or maybe they could group them or something? Like mobs, scenery, furniture, etc? Having some way to get to other echoes might encourage me to experiment a bit more.
It really really is. It’s one of the things I noticed in the trailer and just hoped they would have a solution for once I got to play the game.
The game has a hundred or so echoes, and you can solve puzzles in different ways, but some require a very specific echo and some require any, so you basically just use the same half dozen echoes. When you have to switch, it sucks, and so when you don’t have to switch you just spam water block or whatever.
It seems like the devs just implemented the echo switching as is and assumed they’d fix it later… But they never did.
It’s a fun game but the chances of me replaying it are near zero. Skyward Sword had a similar problem with Fi, although I understand they’ve mostly fix that in the remaster.