The 21st game in the Legend of Zelda series, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is a first in the series where it's a full-on Zelda experience... where you finally take control of the titular Princess Zelda! We've had Zelda playable in short sections or in 'larger roster' fighting games like Smash Bros and Hyrule Warriors, but Echoes of Wisdom opens up with you being a full-powered Link going through a final dungeon to fight Ganon and rescue Princess Zelda trapped in a crystal. Pretty common stuff...
Up until the story gets reversed, strange rifts open and Link falls inside... but not before freeing Zelda, who goes through the adventure to save Hyrule from the ever-expanding threat of the rifts! The gameplay is a wonderful mix of assets and the engine from Link's Awakening with the open-world, minimap quality-of-life improvements from the Breath of the Wild series of games, and it's probably one of my favourite unexpected Zelda experiences. The game is crisp, and brings in a brand-new innovation in that Zelda plays very differently than Link.
Zelda doesn't solve most of her problems with sword-and-shield combat (she can, as a super-mode, but it's not going to be your go-to solution) but rather as a spellcaster. Specifically, a summoner. Zelda's obligatory fairy companion Tri allows her to gather 'echoes' of monsters and objects, and summon them to solve puzzles. This brings in a rather unique gameplay where Zelda goes around defeating monsters, 'scanning' them, and summoning them as her own minions. It's pretty fun, even if it was a bit slower-paced in the beginning.
Again, this review is more concerned about the monsters than the gameplay or story, but suffice to say that I enjoyed Echoes of Wisdom quite a bit.
The game also features a lot of 'variant' monsters, some of which are stronger or tied to a specific element, but for the sake of not repeating myself too much, I'll group each monster based on the 'families'. I'll also be referring a lot to the older 2D Zelda games, so refer to my reviews of A Link to the Past (part 1, part 2) and Link's Awakening (here) if you need a refresher. Those reviews are a bit older, but should still hold up.
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Zols: Zol, Ignizol, Hydrozol
There's upwards to around 100 monsters that are able to be turned into echoes in this game, but not all of them are created equal. Many of them are 'reskins' of each other, which is quite typical for a Zelda game... but it gets a bit more obvious when you are actively scrolling through the 'echo select' screen and seeing a hundred of them.
A lot of the monsters are also based on their appearances in the 2D Zelda games, particularly Link's Awakening and A Link to the Past, but we do get a lot of new ones or variations of older ones. The classic Zol takes the role of the weakest enemy, lacking the body-splitting ability of its previous counterparts. The Zol is just there, blobbing around, happy to be around instead of the Chuchu.
Two 'elemental' variants appear in later areas. The Ignizol is themed on a candle, with a white body and a little wick on fire on top of it. The Ignizol is one of the most essential echoes in the game, particularly in the icy Hebra Mountain regions, as it serves to keep you warm and to solve torch-themed puzzles. Lastly, the Hydrozol appears in the water-themed Zora areas, with the unexpected ability to expand double its size if it comes into contact with water.
Sea Urchin
As with its previous incarnations, the Sea Urchin is more of an obstacle than an actual monster -- a little orb with metal-looking spikes and two unblinking eyes. As an enemy, it's a bit more annoying to deal with since Zelda doesn't have access to a sword all the time... but the Sea Urchin, at least early on, actually serves well as being a cheap little spiky buddy you can summon and use as a wall to block enemies, or to drop on stunned foes in front of you. A nice little boring enemy that becomes a bit more interesting due to the mechanics and engine of the game.
Rope
The classic Rope also makes a return, these happy green snakes that move in a single line. Again, one of the weaker enemies in the game, and I just find it cute that Zelda can summon a little horde of snakes to sic at her enemies.
No variants for the poor Rope... not even the classic ALTTP Stalrope! In fact, there's a dearth of skeleton enemies in this game, no Stalfoses or whatnot! I'm not sure why, all recent Zelda games have shown skeletal enemies with no problem, and even undead enemies show up later down below. But oh well.
Keese: Keese, Fire Keese, Ice Keese, Electric Keese
The Keese, the classic bat enemy, also shows up here. Much later in the game, the far more annoying Fire Keese, Ice Keese and Electric Keese show up in the volcanic Eldin Mountain, the frosty Lanayru/Hebra Mountains and the stormy Faron Wetlands respectively. They each carry their elements as expected.
Perhaps this is a good time to note how the game balances on the Echoes that Zelda can summon. Her fairy companion Tri has a set number of 'triangles', and each Echo costs one of those triangles (which can be upgraded, of course, as the game goes on). The cheap, weak Keese costs one, so if Tri has a maximum of three triangles Zelda can summon three Keese to attack her enemies. The three elemental Keese are a bit more powerful due to being flying and possessing an element, and they cost a whooping four triangles each to summon. It's an interesting little balance, I feel, since the Fire and Ice Keese are particularly useful against each other.
Darknut: Darknut, Darknut LV 2, LV 3
The classic 'evil knight in dark armour' enemy, the regular Darknut is the first heavy-duty Echoes that Zelda gets early in the game, and depending on the combat, you sometimes want like a swarm of Keeses and Ropes to rapid-fire your enemy from different directions... and sometimes you want a slow, durable and hard-hitting tank like the Darknut.
As the game progresses, you encounter stronger and stronger versions of the Darknut, often as minibosses in castles, with the Darknut LV 2 having blue armour, horns and a two-bladed axe, and Darknut LV 3 being beigger, having a white and gold armour. Again, I get why we needed stronger enemies as the game goes on, but I kinda feel like they could've gone and named these guys more interesting names.
The Moblins: Sword Moblin, Spear Moblin, LV 2, LV 3
Yeah, I'm going to group all the Moblins together. The Moblins are the more bulldog-headed ones, and they come in three levels. Weaker ones are brown-skinned, LV 2 ones are green-skinned (very orcy!) and the one lone LV 3 Sword Moblin is a dark blue and a bit bigger than the rest of his minions.
Moblins come in 'sword' and 'spear' variations, and the stronger ones get more ornate shields and blades. We see a bunch of their camps all around the overworld... I like these guys, always had, since my ALTTP/LA days and it's fun to have a group of them flank Zelda as she ventures around looking for treasure.
There is a cute little gimmick that I never really used a lot, but I like that it exists -- all Moblins are instantly distracted by chunks of meat or fish that you throw around, running to chow down on them and getting distracted from the army of Ropes that you are summoning on the side.
The Boarblins: Club Boarblin, Boomerang Boarblin, LV 2
The 'Butablins' are now properly called Boarblins, and they have a much more 'piggier' face. Again, they come in two variants -- the melee one uses clubs, and the ranged one uses boomerangs. That's neat. The weaker Boarblins are orange, but the LV 2 ones are a sick shade of red with yellow hair. The LV 2 Boomerang Boarblin even has the wacky three-bladed boomerang that the Lizalfos use in Breath of the Wild! I like that.
Peahat
The Peahat has gone through many iterations, but this Peahat is based more from the giant bulbs seen in Ocarina of Time. Another one that's likely to be your early-game 'big guy' if you manage to stumble upon the cave early, the Peahat is a giant bulb with a helicoptering set of leaves... and when it moves to attack, it sprouts a ring of spikes on its lower end. The Peahat being a flying enemy makes it quite awesome in the early game when there are a lot less flying enemies, but its vulnerability to fire and faster fliers (like birds) makes it a bit less useful later on.
I don't care, though. I love my big murder helicopter bulb friend.
Strandtula / Crawltula
Spiritual successors to the iconic Skulltula enemy are the Strandtula and Crawltula. Like Link's Awakening, the game has some fully 2D platforming segments, and the Strandtula is used there. When summoned, it creates a string right up to the ceiling of the dungeons/caves, allowing you to climb up. If there is a ceiling, anyway.
Crawltulas reside in the '2.5D' overworld, scuttling around like regular spiders. They're absurdly weak as enemies, but are extremely useful as tools once you've gotten them, since they will instinctively crawl any surface they see in front of them, and you can latch yourself onto a Crawltula and get brought up pillars and mountains.
Caromadillo: Lv 1, Lv 2
A brand-new face to the Legend of Zelda monster family are the Caromadillos. They are... they are just armadillos. Not the most exciting, but a lot of these early enemies are just 'animal monsters'. The Caromadillo's gimmick is they, of course, curl up into a ball and launch themselves forwards immediately, really great for destroying rows of boxes or whatnot. They also bounce around erratically, ending up making the battlefield feel like a pinball machine. Particularly when you get the stronger LV 2 variant, a nice shade of metallic gold and black.
Not much to really say here, otherwise.
Octoroks: Octorok, Fire Octo, Ice Octo
It is a 2D Zelda game, so of course the Octoroks show up basically unchanged. They can be on land, they can be in the waters, they shoot rocks at you. Cute! Volcanic Fire Octo and frosty Ice Octo show up in the Eldin and Lanayru regions respectively, lurking in lava pools and freezing waters. I don't have much to say about the Octorok that I haven't said in the other dozen times that they've shown up in the series, but I sure am happy to see them here.
Needlefly
Another brand-new enemy, and a bit more exciting than the Caromadillo! Somewhat similar to the 'Dragon Fly' from Majora's Mask, the Needlefly is a dragonfly-looking monster with a stinger-tail that it curls forwards like a reverse scorpion, and it's got a nifty elongated head with eyes that look like a bandit mask. The Needlefly is noted to be 'highly intelligent' and 'finds the perfect moment to attack'. In practice, though, this just means that the Needlefly takes a long time to charge up its attack, making it probably one of the weakest airborne echoes in the game.
That's okay, though. We appreciate you, Needlefly. You hang out in the ponds and forests and look nice.
Wolfos / White Wolfos
The Wolfos don't really make a lot of appearances out of the 3D games, but here they are now as... as just wolves instead of vaguely werewolf-looking monsters. The Wolfos are a bit different from other costly echoes like the Peahat or Darknut in that it's blindingly fast, hits hard, but runs around so much that it can be a bit more unpredictable. If they zero in on your enemy, though, I find that the Wolfos does quite a bit of damage.
The White Wolfos actually acts as a mini-mini-boss in the Lanayru Temple, being faced in a singular room and being much tougher than the average enemy there. The White Wolfos actually summons two Wolfos to its side with howls, which is cool -- I actually am surprised that there aren't more monsters in this game with a summoning/splitting gimmick! Although I guess it's so we don't get too many monsters on screen at any one time.
I don't think we've seen the Wolfos show up in quite a while (the White Wolfos at least made some appearances in Twilight Princess and Spirit Tracks), so while I am a bit disappointed that they are just 'regular wolves', I'm happy to see them back.
Deku Babas: Deku Baba, Bio Deku Baba, Deku Baba LV 2
Good ol' Deku Babas make a reappearance here! The weakest variant is a surprising shade of yellow that I don't think I've ever seen before in Zelda? The regular Deku Baba just stays rooted in the spot and tries to chomp you, but otherwise is quite unremarkable. All Deku Babas can be ripped off the ground in a surprisingly brutal manner by Zelda's "Bind" ability.
The Bio Deku Baba has the traditional purple colours and the fangs that subsequent iterations like to give the Deku Baba, and is completely underwater! The original Bio Deku Baba from Majora's Mask was also an aquatic variant, though that one transformed into a weird scuttling plant-alien. This one is just a flytrap monster that hangs out underwater.
And finally, in the Faron Wetlands the thicker-armoured Deku Baba LV 2 shows up. The Bio and LV 2 Deku Babas actually swallow Zelda and keep her immobilized in their huge jaws... before spitting her out after dealing damage. This is a bit more deadly against smaller enemies, as the Deku Baba just eats them and digests the enemy. If only they had longer reach!
Crow / Albatrawl / Beakon
These three birds are essentially just reskins of each other, and they attack by flying and pecking you. All three actually have a bit of a nice gimmick to them, though. The Crow is my favourite, coming from a lot of classic 2D Zelda games, as it knocks off rupees from enemies when they peck them. You do have to scrabble to grab those rupees before the Crow nicks them for itself.
The Albatrawl appears in the Zora regions, being a seagull that can also divebomb deep into the waters and peck you underwater. Most other non-aquatic monsters drown if they get submerged, but not the Albatrawl! And finally the Beakon, appearing in the Faron Wetlands (surprisingly a bit more late-game) just... screams a lot and acts as a beacon to call other monsters over. This makes the Beakon probably completely useless as a minion summoned by Zelda.
Sand Crab
Another one from ALTTP/LA, we've got the cute Sand Crab! Not much to say here, it sure is a crab with oversized, mean-looking pincers that go sideways. We don't get all the classic enemies from ALTTP, but I do like that some of the ones that I count as 'essential' do show up. And the Sand Crab was such an important part of Link's Awakening's opening that I'm happy they're here!
Biri
Using their more 'realistic jellyfish' appearance from Ocarina of Time instead of 'flying glossy UFO domes with angry eyes' 2D appearances, the Biri mostly appear in underwater areas, although they are still able to float above the ground as they traditionally do. The Biri are slow-moving and are not the most threatening... on land. In the water, their electrical field attacks are a much wider range compared to how they are on land, and can be quite annoying to get through in some of the platforming sections -- particularly since Zelda has to hold her breath underwater!
Tangler: LV 1, LV 2
Based vaguely on the 'Angler Fish' boss from Link's Awakening is the Tangler. The Tangler is just an angry fish enemy. Not much to say about that, underwater combat is a major part of the Zora segment of the game, and the Tanglers infest a lot of the ocean and rivers while other creatures fly or jump over the surface. It's an angry fish that wants to bite you.
Tangler LV 2 has angry orc fangs and most importantly, an anglerfish lure. There are a couple of sections of darkened underwater labyrinths and the Tangler LV 2 is practically the only way you can really both light up and defend yourself in these locations. Pretty neat little puzzle-solver.
Chompfin
It's a big bad shark! The Chompfin is a brand-new addition to the Zelda bestiary, and it's... well, it's just a shark. Not much to say about it, but it sure costs quite a lot to summon, but having one in the ocean fighting for you has it absolutely annihilate almost anything in the watery Zora areas with minimal effort. Other than enemy Chompfins, of course.
I don't have much to say about it, it sure is a shark. All the fish enemies like the Tangler, Chompfin and Bombfish kind of flop around if they are summoned on land, which I thought was sad but a nice little detail.
Bombfish
Returning from Twilight Princess, the Bombfish essentially replaces your 'Bomb' item for this monster-summoning game. It sure is shaped like a giant goofy piranha chomping down on a spherical bomb! The Bombfish costs quite a bit to summon which really marks how it's meant more for puzzle-solving instead of having Zelda be a bomb-slinging pyromaniac.
Being a monster instead of an item does make the Bombfish sometimes swim around or flop around out of the way of the exact tile you want it to blow up on, which was equal parts frustrating and funny whenever I have to run after the ticking, flopping sentient explosive sashimi. (It took me... longer than I should to realize that the Bombfish's explosions do not actually harm Zelda).
Tektite: LV 1, LV 2
Love the Tektites! As with how they usually show up in the games, Tektites are bouncing water strider monsters with gigantic eyeballs. with the '2.5D' nature of the game, the Tektites' altitude actually matters, and you can actually drown the Tektites by dragging them underwater the ponds and rivers they hang out in. They're quite cheap and quite fun to summon against enemies on high elevations. I just like them!
The Tektite LV 2, instead of being a simple red reskin like most Tektites in other games, gets a black-and-red carapace, a red pupil, and tiny spikes on the tips of its legs.
Poe
There aren't a whole ton of 'ghosts', and there's only a small dedicated graveyard area, but we do get some of the classic ghostly spirits. The Poe takes on an appearance that's a cross between its ALTTP and Ocarina of Time incarnation, being a mischievous-looking hooded purple figure with a flaming lantern. It can pass through walls, too, which would be useful if the Poe had better attacks -- instead of damaging the enemy traditionally, the Poe spots an enemy and then moves away from it, leaving behind little patches of ghostly flame that the enemies get damaged if they run into. Not the most intuitive echo to use as a minion, but a fun one nonetheless.
Aruroda
We go now to the Gerudo Desert, and into a monster that I thought was original to this game... but it's actually from Zelda II! All the way back from the side-scrolling game! Wow-wee! The Aruroda is a tiny little cute desert scorpion, minus pincers. It pokes you in the back, digs into the sand, and resurfaces next to you. It's quite a fun enemy to look at, even if it's not particularly threatening both as a foe or as a minion. I do like that similar to the Tektite and traditional Gohma, the Aruroda continues the trend of 'giant oversized bugwith one huge eyeball'.
Sand Piranha / Piranha
No, instead, the really annoying creature in the Gerudo Desert are the faster Sand Piranhas. Which, as their name implies, are fishies that can swim through sand, leap out and bite you. The description of this strange creature is clear that it cannot survive in the water. It's a sand fish! It dives out of your grasp in the sandy dunes, and leaps up to bite you. There's a lot of these guys. They're annoying! But they're also somewhat useful as the fastest and cheapest sand-dwelling minions that are immune to quicksand.
Much later, in the Faron Wetlands, you'll encounter the regular Piranha, which behave like the other fishy enemies in the game. And only in the Faron Wetlands. The regular Piranha honestly is so forgettable that I didn't remember it existed and had to come back and edit this article to put it in!
ReDead
Ah, the classic masked zombie enemy. The ReDead is much cuter than its Ocarina of Time inspiration, with the chibi proportion and a much, much cuter death-mask. It's even got the earrings of its Wind Waker incarnation! The ReDead is one of those enemies that are much more threatening when it's facing you and not the most useful as your minion -- its gimmick is a paralyzing scream... which normally isn't what you want when you're fighting enemies. Bosses are immune to the ReDead's screams anyway, and with the shambling slowness of the ReDead, you're normally much better-served summoning a Darknut or a Moblin instead. But it's the thought that counts!
Gibdo: LV 1, LV 2
Gibdos come in two variations, both of which appear back-to-back in the Gerudo Desert. I would normally bemoan this, but there's an actual nice difference between the two! The regular Gibdo is just a mummy that runs away if it gets set on fire. The Level 2 Gibdo with the dark bandages and the red 'skull' beneath... instead transforms into a ReDead if it gets set on fire! Both Gibdos are insanely slow but very tanky. Tanking enemy attacks isn't exactly super important in this game, and so the Gibdos aren't super useful as minions, but I do enjoy that they're here.
Tornando
This one is new. The Tornando (not Tornado!) is a weird... tadpole creature? It's not obvious from the front, where he just looks like a spherical dude, but from the back he's got a tadpole tail, making his general look feel like the Pokemon Poliwag. The Tornando doesn't actually hurt you so much as it just zips around the battlefield and knocks you into the sky and disorients you. Not the most threatening enemy, but a weird one for sure. I've used Tornandos to launch enemies off of ledges and into the void for sure.
Some parts of the Gerudo Desert are perpetually covered with sandstorms unless you kill a certain miniboss, and the Tornando appear to be designed to tie in to that particular weather phenomenon specifically.
Mothula: LV1, LV 2
Normally some kind of a boss in most Zelda games, the Mothula has been reinvented into a less 'giant kaiju' monster, and more like... a Bug-type Pokemon. The Mothula's still a moth for sure, and one with a less monstrous boss look like its ALTTP or Wind Waker predecessors. That face wouldn't look too out of place next to moth/butterfly Pokemon like Venomoth and Butterfree, would it? Unlike regular moths, however, a Mothula's abdomen is actually... a propulsion engine.
No, really. Instead of stinging the enemy or biting them or dropping dust scales or something like what moth monsters usually do in these games, Echoes of Wisdom's Mothula instead just... charges at the enemy, leaving behind a line of exploding flames from its little 'exhaust abdomen'. That's so random, but quite cool to watch. The downside is that the Mothula often knocks its silly little head and gets stunned, at the price of being one of the harder-hitting flying enemies. That's pretty creative. I like it.
Holmill
This one could have been 'just a mole' to match a lot of the less-interesting animal enemies, but the Holmill does manage to be a bit cuter by only having two legs. So it waddles around with a full mole body-and-head, but two legs. The artstyle makes it cute, but I'm trying to imagine it with a more realistic mammalian furry body and it would look so strange, would it?
The Holmill is found in the desert regions, and helps you dig tunnels in the side-scrollers, or to create passages through soft soil. It's more of a puzzle aid than an actual monster -- as a combatant, it digs a hole and periodically pops up to lob rocks at people.
Flying Tile
THE best Echo in the game, the Flying Tile graduated from being a one-off hazard in a couple of rooms in ALTTP to basically being one of my go-to transport Echoes. "Scanning" the Flying Tile isn't the easiest since it moves around so fast before breaking, but once you do so, you get to summon a floating, hovering board that shoots you in a direction for quite some time before disappearing. In a pinch, the Flying Tile also works as a projectile to be launched at the enemy, too. This one was quite fun, and I love how what's otherwise a rather cute-but-one-note trap ended up being so useful here.
Platboom
The other best echo is the Platboom, which counts more as a monster on account of it having a single eye. You know it's a Zelda monster when it's got a single big eyeball! Initially encountered in the side-scrolling sections, Platbooms resemble the 'Whomps' from Mario, being sentient platforms that slam down with spikes on its bottom to hurt people, and slowly float back up. Which means that they are literal elevator-platforms that you can summon on demand! I honestly kind of wish they were a bit damaging as enemies as well -- particularly since Platbooms you summon take some time to 'wind up' and rise into the air.
Beetle / Beetle Mound
The 'Beetle' isn't really a beetle, but a weird bug with a single eyeball and four legs. It's called the far less specific Zuruzuru in the original Japanese, and it's another one that came from A Link to the Past! instead of 'just' being another creepy bug enemy, however, the Beetle in Echoes of Wisdom comes with a fun little gimmick and additional echo -- they are initially encountered in a mini-dungeon filled with these Beetle Mounds that endlessly gorge out Beetles like a spawning ground.
That is a neat, if not the most inspiring, gimmick for an insect monster. Far cooler, however, is that Zelda can scan the Beetle Mounds as well, and sic her own constantly-regenerating Beetle swarm on the enemy. At least until they figure out to destroy the very fragile mound, anyway. But it's the style that counts! This does help elevate the Beetle from being forgettable to having a memorable gimmick for sure.
Ball and Chain Trooper
After the first couple of areas, the story goes back to Hyrule Castle which has mostly been overtaken by soldier-type enemies like Darknuts. The classic miniboss-turned-elite-enemy Ball and Chain Trooper also starts showing up here, and I like the huge underbite of this incarnation's helmet. The Ball and Chain Trooper, as you expect, slowly spins the flail around before launching it at the enemy, and sometimes it gets stuck.
Due to the '2.5D' physics, the Ball and Chain trooper doesn't actually swing his ball and chain in a proper horizontal 'spin attack', but spins it more realistically -- which actually makes him a lot less deadly in this game because he now has a much more abusable blind spot. At least he's still quite tanky, and looks quite cool too.
Lizalfos: Lizalfos, LV 2, LV 3
Huh! The Lizalfos actually get a bit of a redesign, with a slender, almost snake-like head. Other Lizalfoses tend to look like geckos (Ocarina of Time, Skyward Sword), dinosaurs (Twilight Princess) or chameleons (Breath of the Wild), and the Lizalfos here is one of the few returning monsters to be given a makeover. I like it!
The regular Lizalfos is green and they jump around with spears, and are found in the lower parts of Eldin Volcano. Lizalfos Lv. 2 are orange, have fancier tridents, and a little horde is encountered as like a miniboss in one of the plot-mandated Eldin Volcano mini-dungeons. And finally, Lizalfos Lv. 3 is a particularly large one that you fight underwater in the Faron Wetlands, which is a bit of a surprise considering the game otherwise populates the Lizalfos-es in the volcanic regions, but I guess it makes sense that they can swim?
I like them. They're fast, they jump around, and they're cute lizard-people! I am pretty sure I used them more than the Darknuts and Moblins once I got access to them as my go-to melee troopers.
Torch Slug / Freeze Slug
The Torch Slugs! With their new eyestalks, they look a lot cuter than their more 'monster slug' or 'elemental slug' incarnations in Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess. The Torch Slugs are found in Eldin Mountains and Freeze Slugs in the Lanayru Mountains, and they both behave similarly -- they crawl around walls and ground and leave behind little specks of either flame or ice, which are really annoying if you're climbing and trying to get through a maze and end up getting blocked or knocked off.
Notably, the slugs are one of the few Echoes who do 'friendly fire' to Zelda and can hurt her with the little trails they leave behind. Pretty cute, otherwise.
Zirro / Ghirro
The Zirro is a classic ALTTP enemy, and it's still a weirdo as its original appearance. A mushroom-headed thing with a face, feet and angel wings, the Zirro does look like it comes from a Kirby game, doesn't it? The Zirro still goes around vomiting bombs all over, making it an alternate bomber to the Bombfish (although much less consistent, even if you're holding the Zirro above your head and try to use it as a cannon).
Far more useful in this game is the Zirro's purple cousin, the Ghirro, who shoots out bursts of wind instead. Zelda can hold Ghirros on top of her head, and use it as like a jetpack to navigate the hot vents in Eldin Volcano. It's surprisingly fun, and the summoned Ghirro is smart enough to hop in Zelda's grasp and point its mouth backwards. I thought that was quite cute.
Mini-Moldorm
The big, regular Moldorm doesn't actually show up in this game, so the 'Mini-Moldorm' is a bit of a non-sequitur if this is your first Zelda game. But these hamburger-worms with googly eyes are still one of my favourite 2D monsters from these games, and I am happy to be able to summon them.
The Mini-Moldorm are encountered in the Eldin Mountains, and can be found crawling on the walls or on the ground, and they just move so randomly, pinballing around whatever is in their way. It does make them particularly useless as an allied echo since you can't direct them towards fighting the enemy. But they're cute, and they're just vibing! That's cute.
Wizzrobe: Fire, Ice, Electric
Another classic enemy! You find a Wizzrobe as like an overworld miniboss in each of the three late-game areas -- the Fire Wizzrobe in the Eldin Mountains, the Ice Wizzrobe in the Hebra/Lanayru Mountains, and the Electric Wizzrobe in the Faron Wetlands. They all cost quite a fair bit to cast, but they're probably the best flying ranged enemies in the game. They teleport around the battlefield, charge magical spells and launch them. The only real problem is that they're expensive and take some time to charge their attacks, but I find them to be particularly useful particularly in minibosses and boses!
I just really like them. I think this game doesn't do the best in terms of 'balancing' the Echoes, but your first Wizzrobe really does feel hard to obtain, and feel like such a huge power boost once you get it.
Tweelus / Temper Tweelus
We've got rock golems! Equivalent to the Pebblits and Talus-es from Breath of the Wild, the Tweelus are just tiny little rock dudes that wander around. An understated use for them is that you can use them as platforms in lava, instead of summoning the very expensive Lava-Rock.
They've got adorable animations, too. The Temper Tweelus is a magma-themed version that's not found in volcano, but rather the icy Hebra Mountains. The Temper Tweelus moves slowly until you damage it, at which point it heats up and becomes volcanic and starts charging and spinning its adorable little hands and whack you at rapid speed.
Pathblade
An adaptation of the classic 'Blade Trap' enemy, the Pathblade counts as a monster because it's got an eye, I guess! While Pathblades still bug you in the dungeons as usual, the summonable Pathblade isn't the most useful against enemies. It does zip forwards very quickly, so you can hop on to it like a Flying Tile which I found to be cute.
Gustmaster
Another trap with an eyeball, the Gustmaster just periodically creates a blast of powerful air around you. I kind of forgot it existed, really -- both as an obstacle or as something to aid you, the Gustmaster never really mattered, I feel. It has an eyeball so technically it counts as a little monster.
Spark
Another classic hazard, the Spark looks particularly cheeky in this engine! Look at that grinning face. The Spark is tied to two specific puzzle dungeons led by Smog (who's a recurring miniboss we'll discuss later when we cover bosses). The Sparks move around walls and always stick to whatever wall in front of them -- and obstacle you summon. They serve for some of the more fun, challenging puzzles in this game for sure.
The Sparks are also quite neat to launch rapid-fire at the enemy, making Zelda feel like a bit of a 'blasting' sorcerer instead of just a monster summoner. Unfortunately, the Spark doesn't actually damage -- it doesn't even damage Zelda as an enemy -- but just paralyzes you for a moment. I suppose that's more for the sanity of the players as they go through the Spark dungeons, but it does make the summonable echo a lot less useful than it would've been.
The Sparks are also quite neat to launch rapid-fire at the enemy, making Zelda feel like a bit of a 'blasting' sorcerer instead of just a monster summoner. Unfortunately, the Spark doesn't actually damage -- it doesn't even damage Zelda as an enemy -- but just paralyzes you for a moment. I suppose that's more for the sanity of the players as they go through the Spark dungeons, but it does make the summonable echo a lot less useful than it would've been.
Ghini: LV 1, LV 2
A little 'mini-dungeon' (which Echoes of Wisdom has a couple of) is a graveyard on the North of Hyrule City, populated by Ghinis. The boss is a larger Ghini LV 2, which is a Ghostbusters puke-green, double the size, and has little cute orc fangs. The Ghinis, like the Poes, can pass through walls to lick you.
A very strange -- and honestly inconsequential -- detail is that Ghinis will swarm around teddy bears and lick it. It's a distraction method similar to Moblins and meat... except Ghinis only show up in this one dungeon and isn't particularly hard to beat either. It would be something if the Ghinis naturally hide away by passing through walls or something, but it's just a strange little non-sequitur handwaved by 'Ghinis are dead spirits of loneliness, so they like teddy bears'. It's just weird!
Snomaul
We're in the snowy mountains of Hebra / Lanayru now, and one of the more common monsters here (other than the icy versions of the Keese, Octorok and Slugs) are the Snomaul. Based on the 'Pokey' monster from Mario, the Snomaul is a totem pole of snowballs with a grinning evil snowman head on top. That head is the core of the creature and instantly dies if you deal enough damage with it with like a bird or arrow; otherwise the Snomaul just launches its snowballs to pinball around the battlefield, and regenerates them. A neat little 'snowman elemental' monster for sure.
Leever
It's a bit surprising that they essentially transplanted the Leevers from its traditional desert habitat to the icy mountains, but I suppose they do want to make it so that we get a bit more variety in the snowy peaks instead of just ice monsters. Leevers still hide under the ground -- snowbanks now instead of desert sand -- and rise up and spin slowly towards you. Always love these rotating plant monsters.
Since these are presumably a variant that has adapted to the arctic cold, the Leevers are white with red highlights, which I thought was a nice little touch. They could've just copied the appearances of previous Leevers, but they went the extra mile to make it feel more appropriate to the location.
Freezard
Yeah, giant angry ice elemental face monster! Taking the look of Ocarina of Time Freezards, these guys hang out mostly in dungeons, and constantly spew a cloudy mist that freezes you. They can be melted like many of the overworld ice pillars with Ignizols or torches. If they weren't so unwieldy and move so slowly, they would probably be the ideal 'freezer' enemy, but there's otherwise they are one of those enemies that feel more like an obstacle than anything else.
Moa
The Moa is another one that I thought was original to this game, but actually appeared in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link! It's a floating eyeball with prominent eyelashes, and are cute little guys that fly around. Interestingly, the Moa is given a cute little gimmick. Whatever these floating eyeballs are, Moas are 'fiercely protective of its allies' and 'with no one to protect, it calms down'. When a Moa has an ally around it, it just rapid-fire laser beams at its opponents, and being tiny and airborne it makes the Moa surprisingly useful in a lot of situations!
Hostile Moas actually will leave the battlefield and disappear if they're the last enemy on the screen. It's such a cute little behaviour, and I'm delighted that this otherwise 'random enemy' has such a personality. There's no sub-dungeon, no miniboss, no NPC-related quest, no callback to a previous game... it's just programmed in as a little thing that the Moa does, just because. I love that!
Drippitune / Ribbitune
We're going to the Faron Wetlands now, represented by a massive rainforest with electric monsters, spiders, plants and constant rain. Except the rain is actually given to us by Drippitune, a happy fanged blue frog with a little topknot that sings. And when Drippitune sings, rain falls. It's just a Politoed doing Rain Dance, isn't it? From Pokemon? Drippitune itself doesn't actually attack you, but the rain powers up a lot of the monsters in Faron Wetlands and prevents your Fire Keese and Ignizols from burning plant monsters or solving fire puzzles, so it's an interesting mechanic if nothing else.
The much rarer Ribbitune is a orange, and more boring-looking version of the Drippitune. It just sings with no power to summon rain, and instead attracts monsters to it? It's a bit pointless, honestly, practically, but I do welcome a brand-new monster!
Buzz Blob
The Faron Wetlands has a bit of an electric theme to it, and the Buzz Blobs are quite numerous in this area! It's cute to see such an otherwise early-game enemy show up so late in the game. The Buzz Blob's lightning aura is a lot deadlier in ponds or in the rain, and also quite useful to solve some of the electric puzzles in the area.
No Cukemans in this game, tragically. "It can display millions of polygons!"
Baby Gohma
Baby Gohma! The Gohma in this game interestingly takes a combination of various different Gohma incarnations over the years, notably the four chonky legs. But interestingly enough, unlike most traditional Gohma, this one has a spidery face instead of a giant eyeball. I get that there's a lot of giant eyeball monsters in the game, but it does make the Gohma a bit too mundane, especially in a game with Strandtulas and Walltulas already.
The Gohmas are actually important in the Faron Wetlands storyline. The creation of the rifts are implied to have created more monsters, but particularly the Gohmas -- who has been covering the Faron Wetlands with massive amounts of webs that the local Deku Scrubs treat as tasty 'cotton candy' and are actually hostile towards Zelda for closing the rifts and denying them of tasty tasty cottton candy! Oh no!
Hoarder
This is the evolution of the original enemy that has been translated as 'Spiny Beetle' or 'Hoarder' in A Link to the Past, and I love that they've given it a much more insectoid look. This was a carry-over from the Link's Awakening remake, but I do really love the buggier look. It looks a bit like a fantastically pink-and-orange assassin bug or something.
The Hoarders in Faron Wetlands uniquely only ever have glow-in-the-dark mushrooms on their tops, disguising themselves as local plantlife... which also gives the Hoarder an additional use of being a light-up monster in the darker caves in the Faron Temple! I like this little additional usage of the Hoarder.
Goo Specter
Coming from some of the newer incarnations of Link's Awakening are the Goo Specters! I love them. Look at them, they're so fun with that bandit-mask eyes and the hands raised into the air. Goo Specters blorb down into the ground where they're completely flat and move around mostly invulnerable to attacks, before popping up to attack you by contact. What jerks! I love these guys. They've got such over-the-top expressions. I like it.
Giant Goponga Flower
Populating the Faron Wetlands are the massive Giant Goponga Flowers from Link's Awakening, and they are huge immobile enemies that launch globs of poisonous spores that stick around for a brief while after the projectiles impact. Like all plant enemies, Goponga Flowers are more vulnerable to fire. I don't have much to say about this one, although as a Link's Awakening fan I'm happy to see them around.
Armos
Taking the classic look of the 2D enemy, the Armos is used to solve puzzles more than anything in this game. It disguises itself as statues in the Faron Wetlands temples, and when it activates, an Armos will always just go forwards and backwards. This incarnation of the Armos itself has a very weak back, so you need to figure out how to get behind the Armos to strike it there (or to flip it around). Due to its rigid, uncompromising patrol behaviour, it also makes the Armos useful if you need an echo to hit a switch at the same time as you do. Rather unremarkable otherwise, but I do find it neat that the Armos is given a little puzzle or gimmick to do instead of just being another 'hop and attack' enemy.
Beamos
It sure is a Beamos that shoots lasers out of its eyes! The Beamos spins around and shoots lasers, as usual. There's an interesting property where a Beamos that gets destroyed and damaged goes inert and gray... but you can actually kill a Beamos with a bomb to gain it as an echo, and to prevent it respawning if you exit the room. I didn't realize this until I was almost done with the Faron area!
Lynel
The final (and frankly, slightly disappointing compared to the rest of the game) area of the game is the Eternal Forest. And as a bit of an easter egg enemy, you need to follow a bunch of hoofprints around the winding forest to get the Lynel to spawn in a clearing that it otherwise wouldn't appear in. The Lynel is essentially a chibi version of its now-iconic Breath of the Wild lion-centaur incarnation, and it looks so cute for something so threatening!
The Lynel makes the already easy final dungeon a cakewalk, which is a bit of a shame that you get it so late. That's not the Lynel's fault, though, but more on a game design end! The Lynel's cool, it's tanky, it's fast, it hits hard, and costs more than the other powerful monsters (the 'LV 3' creatures) that you would've encountered and been using as your finishers.
