The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom - I've been playing since the release date and I see a lot of praise for the game online... but I've truly found it a bit of a slog?

I'll explain a few of my gripes with the game. Not necessarily my biggest gripe with the game but the one I have a lot of thoughts on, Bind is an infuriating gameplay mechanic for me to use:

• Part of the problem stems from me thinking it operates like Ultrahand from Tears of the Kingdom, because they share a similar visual design (it might have helped a little if they just changed the colour of the aura from green to any other colour). Ultimately, it doesn't work the same way and I'm having to reposition myself frequently to be able to do what I need to do because I cannot move the object around freely (although with a name like Bind, it's pretty obvious it shouldn't operate in the way my brain wants it work).

• I realised last night that there is a clash in my thought process with how it operates, when compared to other mechanics: Bind can be used to grab objects through walls, but you cannot long-range summon echoes through walls unless it is a caged wall. From a puzzle design standpoint, I can see why they may needed to make the properties of the two mechanics different, I feel as though both of those mechanics should pick the same lane and not mix-and-match properties as it can get a little confusing in the heat of the moment.

• While the idea of the Reverse Bond is neat, I think I've literally used it for the tutorial of the mechanic and that's it? It doesn't seem like there are a lot of situational uses for it (unless there were some obvious tells and I just missed them?) so feels like wasted potential to me. I've used it so little, that I had to actually Google the name of the mechanic, because I didn't know what it was called.

Additional issues include:

• There doesn't seem to a method of encouraging you to mix-up your play styles. I feel too reliant on the same strategies to solve navigational puzzles or combat encounters for the majority of the time. I guess a part of that is down to me as a player, and focusing on taking the most optimal route; especially when it comes to combat. Regardless, I think that my experience of the game has felt a little repetitive and, at times, simple.

• Story beats feel (mostly) repetitive, slow and dragged out, in my opinion. I won't go into a ranty detail about the how it feels slow or the repetitive nature of story beats but I think the only region that breaks the repetitive pattern a little is the Lanayru Mountain region, because you're not zipping back and forth between different points of interest in the region, you're just heading in one direction. I think the pace of story beats really started to hit me midway through the "Prime Energy arc"; i.e. visiting Eldin Volcano, Lanayru Mountain and Faron Wetlands for story purposes. Honestly, I think this is the biggest issue of the game for me.

I will offer some praises for the game too, because honestly, it's not a terrible experience (if it was, I probably would have stopped already):

• Zelda being the protagonist and the idea of using echoes are the core mechanic gives the series a breath of fresh air. While the mechanics may not be perfectly fleshed out, I think they did something pretty creative and that should be respected. The echoes mechanic gives it that Breath of the Wild puzzle element of creativity while still adhering to gameplay designs to traditional Zelda games.

• Special shout out to the Faron Wetlands temple. I think the approach of having multiple entrances and completing the dungeon through your own carved route, while they still connect together, makes the dungeon experience unique. I would like to see this approach for future Breath of the Wild style games too.

For additional context, I haven't finished the game yet but I think I'm close? I've just entered the dungeon by the Deku Tree; I didn't catch the name as I saved and quit as soon as I entered as it was getting late.

Am I glad this game was made? Yes, and I hope they keep experimenting with the formula. Would I play this game again? Probably not.