The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Players Warned About Major Downside of Switch Game

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom finally released on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite, and Nintendo Switch OLED this week. And judging by reviews, it is one of this year’s best Nintendo Switch games. To this end, it boasts an 86 on Metacritic. However, Legend of Zelda fans interested in checking out the latest Nintendo release should know about one fairly substantial downside that is negatively impacting the enjoyment of the game for many early adopters. 

While The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is undeniably a good-looking game, it doesn’t always run well. In fact, it has some considerable frame rate issues that are frustrating players. And this is apparent by one quick look at the Nintendo Switch Reddit page. While there are posts gushing about the game, one of the top posts is also one criticizing the game’s frame rate. 

“Echoes of Wisdom is a fantastic game that runs like garbage,” reads one of the top posts on the Switch Reddit page. “I’m disappointed, because the game is such a delightful experience… It feels so good to play when it is running at 60fps, which is the target frame rate. Inside dungeons and buildings, controls feel so responsive and tight. Exploration is a dream.”

The post continues: “But walking anywhere in the overworld is a s**t show. You cannot move 10 seconds in any direction without hitting abrupt, jarring framerate dips and ridiculous frame pacing. The game jumps off a cliff from a fluid 60 down to 30 (which is … fine?) and then claws its way back up to 60 over 2-3 seconds…only to chug back down to 30 again as you move 5 more steps. This results in a constant yo-yo effect that makes it feel like you’re sprinting through the forest and constantly stepping in potholes filled with ankle-deep mud. As the game ‘recovers’ or anticipates these slowdowns, it also hitches constantly. So even when you’re not in the “mud,” you’re getting jarring fps dips that make traversal feel awful. In a game that’s about exploration and discovery, this is a bad experience.”

The post adds that they expect more from a premium $60 product from Nintendo. And judging by the popularity of the post, and many of the comments, others feel the same way. That said, performance issues are not new on the Switch, which is very underpowered. Meanwhile, it seems like this issue is not a major deterrent for the vast majority of players so far.