Every Dungeon in Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom RANKED

After escaping from Hyrule at the start and meeting Link’s neighbors, Zelda makes her way to the first dungeon, the Suthorn Ruins. This serves as your tutorial dungeon and, as such, doesn’t have nearly as much personality in its design as all the rest. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad dungeon; it’s just the least impressive. There are still some great intro echoes to learn, like the hardy Darknut and the Strandula, useful for climbing. There’s also a mini-boss fight against a Link echo, which is a fun, early challenge. The dungeon’s main purpose, though, is to get you comfortable with the Bind ability. There are some neat puzzles where Zelda must move objects on the other side of bars, as well as side-scrolling obstacle courses with enemies and objects blocking your path. Still, the dungeon and its boss, the Seismic Talus, aren’t as memorable as everything that would come later.

In terms of size and potential, the final dungeon is a bit of a let down. Its aesthetic is great; taking place inside the villain gives it a very “fleshy” appearance, and there are broken chunks of Hyrule littered around the rooms. However, it’s much shorter than all the other dungeons. It’s nice to see Zelda and Link fight alongside each other, and it’s pretty fun making your way through with an extra companion. However, it’s mostly combat, with barely any puzzling. Helping Link traverse environments with echoes could’ve been a wonderful twist on what we’d grown used to. But there’s only one room of that, and Link’s AI isn’t even that good, before it’s time to head to the boss. Null, while not very difficult, is a ton of fun. The fight uses Link as the main hitter with Zelda’s echoes and Bind ability to assist, and the villain summons echoes of previous bosses to keep things fresh. All in all, Null’s Body just left us wanting more.

The water-themed dungeon of “Echoes of Wisdom” thankfully doesn’t bring the headache of past installments. It mostly revolves around a central geyser mechanism that Zelda must use to reach the boss. In order for it to be at the proper level, you have to go through several individual trials with their own hurdles and puzzles. Because mostly everything is neatly divided, there isn’t much room for exploration or sussing out what you’re meant to do next. This makes the dungeon a fair bit easier and more quick-paced than most others. Don’t get us wrong, each room is still quite fun to overcome. The section of moving platforms on a quick current, followed by a room of scattered switches, makes for a great 1-2 obstacle course. But something is lost when a dungeon is broken up so succinctly. Additionally, its underwater boss fight against Vocavor is one of the weaker in the game, as it severely limits your echoes and doesn’t have a very unique moveset.

At the midway point of “Echoes of Wisdom,” Zelda returns home to free the castle and her people from a massive void. Inside Hyrule Castle, it feels like danger lies around every corner. That’s primarily thanks to the use of stealth sections, where Zelda must sneak past echoes of Guards. While stealth can be annoying in some action adventure games, it isn’t here. Because Zelda has so many options on how to tackle any situation, you’ve got a lot of variety to choose from. This dungeon doesn’t offer many puzzles, which loses it a few points for balancing. But it does have some tense obstacles and enemies to challenge you, which of course leads to very useful echoes, like the Gustmaster and the Ball-and-Chain trooper. The final boss is a great refresh on Ganon’s classic appearances, and is the longest fight up to this point in the story, making it feel appropriately climactic.

If we were ranking dungeon themes, Eldin Temple would come out on top. Those strings burrowed into my brain and stayed there for the rest of my playthrough, which certainly adds to its personality. The fire dungeon uses a lot of rising lava pools and hot spots across the floor that deal damage, which prioritize patience and can be a tad annoying when faced with enemies. But for puzzle-solving and obstacle-navigating, the rising and lowering lava gives each room a nice layer of tension. This is especially the case in the room where you earn the Big Key, and must make a harrowing climb as lava begins rising beneath you. In other traversal feats, there are several fun sections where Zelda has to use a flyable echo with gusts of air to get through dangerous rooms. Eldin Temple ends with the welcome return of Volvagia as the boss, which is one of most fun fights in the game and, dare I say it, even better than his fight in “Ocarina of Time.”

When encountering an ice dungeon in “The Legend of Zelda,” better be prepared to slide all over the place. This is still true in Lanayru Temple, yet the dungeon manages to not be hindered by it through fantastic puzzles. Many of these revolve around using Bind to move fire orbs to different spots, powering heated fans to thaw ice that’s stopping your progression, or use icy gusts to cleverly freeze the orbs, and therefore other rooms. The final one of these is a long stretch of powering different fans across several rooms in order to get the boss room key. And there’s a distinct feeling of satisfaction when it all comes together. The dungeon also has some pretty stellar climbing sections with icy traps, where Zelda must properly time her movement or use something to block the damage. The boss, Skorchill, doesn’t do too much different from other element-swapping bosses in the series, but is still undeniably fun.

Although it’s one of the first dungeons you’ll come across in “Echoes of Wisdom,” the Gerudo Sanctum is still one of its strongest. The atmosphere is well-defined, and you can feel the importance of this ancient place to the Gerudo in every room. There are classic adventure traps to be found throughout, like quick sand, flame pillars, and conveyor belts leading to the abyss. There’s a central puzzle that involves choosing two correct statues out of four to make it to the boss, tasking you with hunting each down. It also makes great use of the space outside the dungeon, being a part of the overall design rather than just the path leading up to it. Mogryph, the dungeon’s boss, was also enjoyable thanks to dodging his mighty wind attacks, and using the statues you had hunted down as part of his pattern. The Gerudo Sanctum was a great puzzle box to piece together.

The Faron Temple feels like an ancient, historic place, one that’s been reclaimed by nature and is more complex than the other dungeons in the game, and therefore, more treacherous. With multiple entrances, and several rooms clouded in shadow, it is the peak of exploration that “Echoes of Wisdom” has to offer. Yes, its atmosphere is superb, along with its music. But it has more than that going for it. Puzzles are delightful brainteasers, whether they revolve around crystals you must electrify, sunken pathways with different-flowing currents, weighted platforms, or switches that require being pressed together, necessitating proper timing. Since the dungeon is so big and features a wide variety of puzzles, it feels like a proper challenge and is all the more fulfilling to conquer. Both the mini-boss, Manhandla, and the actual boss, Gohma, also add new layers to fights we’ve faced numerous times, and are just plain fun. Simply put, Faron Temple is “Echoes of Wisdom” at its best.

Do you think the dungeons of “Echoes of Wisdom” were a return to form? Which was your favorite and least favorite? Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great gaming videos every day!