Zelda Speedrunners Are Already Beating Echoes Of Wisdom In Under An Hour

With the help of some glitches, of course

by · Nintendo Life
Image: Nintendo

Less than a week after its launch, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom speedruns are already popping up and putting our playtimes to shame.

While many of us are still fiddling about in the overworld as we tick off the first few dungeons, select speedrunners have started posting completion times of under an hour. Naturally, these speedruns showcase the game's final dungeon and boss, so we'd only recommend watching if you don't mind some pretty intense spoilers.

gymnast86 posted a 59-minute run yesterday, which was swiftly topped by Twitch streamer OnakuTV , who polished off the grand finale in an eye-watering 52 minutes and 51 seconds. What's more, in the latter run, the streamer confessed that a sub-50-minute time is very much on the cards — just look at what's been achieved in under a week!

This is all thanks to a sequence-breaking warp glitch that was recently shared on the r/speedrun Reddit. By summoning a Sign Echo in a specific area after completing the first dungeon, runners are able to manipulate the warp mechanic to send Zelda straight to the final chapter. Hey, it might not be the cleanest way of completing the game, but you've got to respect how quickly it has been uncovered.

OnakuTV shared their 52-minute run on YouTube — remember, only give it a watch if you're all okay with beefy spoilers.

Even without sub-one-hour completion times, we're having a great time with Echoes of Wisdom. In our 9/10 review, we called it "one of the best top-down adventures in the series," praising just about everything that it had to offer (bar an inconsistent frame rate). You can find our full thoughts below.

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Linking to the past

Have you polished off Echoes of Wisdom yet? What do you make of these speedrun times? Dash down to the comments and let us know.

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[source youtube.com]

Related Games
   •  The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)
See Also
   •  Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Walkthrough
   •  The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

About Jim Norman

Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since.

Comments 24

Unsurprising but still, pretty cool even though I'll be more interested in glitchless (or at least without glitches that warp you to the end or close to it) runs personally... after finishing the game myself that is so not anytime soon!

Ahh, I love Zelda speedruns. I have been taking my time with the game (only done the first three dungeons so far) so I won't be watching them until I'm done, but I'm glad to see this game has the same Zelda speedrunning shenanigans we all know and love.

I remember the previous Zelda game of this style, Link's Awakening, had some cool tech where you could manipulate the orange foxes in Mabe Village to knock you on top of the trees. But now in Echoes of Wisdom, walking on top of the trees is a natural part of the game! So the crazy stuff can only escalate from there.

Good on them. I watched speedruns of Link's Awakening and it was so entertaining, especially the GDQ one where the runner died 3 times in-a-row because of falling boulders.

No spoilers, but the final boss music goes hard. I got to it a couple days ago, and honestly almost started getting emotional by it, lol. That orchestra was COOKING.

  • 5
  • mlt
  • Yesterday, 1:22pm

I'd love to see glitchless categories to see how much people are going to come up with ways to break the game using only legit tools from the game.

I haven't even had a chance to buy the game

Its a goal I could never have in a game, it'll take me a month atleast to finish this - good targets to aim for the speed runners!

serious question: is there anywhere on the internet for people that prefer thinking of videogames in pre-internet era terms? before speedruns and glitches were part of daily conversation, for example.

I'm not complaining I just wonder if there's somewhere out there like this ✌️

@-wc- Facebook? Honest suggestion. Old schoolfriends who still enjoy games like we do, and that one other person in the family who plays games. .. As a bonus, you get to confuse and frustrate all the other people who follow you just for the cat photos.

@Axecon

I think there's a fatiguing effect of all this coverage. Most 1st party games I literally feel tired of before i get the money together.

(to be fair i check this site too often ✌️ but I dont even look at other game sites or use social media 😵‍💫)

As expected, the game is broken by speedrunners

I expect a Terminalmontage video on this game within the next six months. Cucuí Ganon included.

Beating a game in less than an hour strangely not a selling point to me.

So if Nintendo patches the glitch out will these times still count? Surely there must be a separate speed run category for people who actually play the entire game and don’t glitch past 80% of it. More curious of those times.

@-wc- Agreed, there's a massive over-coverage on this game, but mostly because it's the first new major 1st party title from the big 3 in several months that's been successful. I mostly come to NL because the site is pretty good at avoiding spoilers, but elsewhere on the internet I have to be pretty careful.

I just can’t get into speedeunning, great for anyone that does it or enjoys watching it, but it’s not for me. I won’t pretend it’s not impressive when they do it without glitches and just power through it, but using glitches completely underwhelms me, even if it takes precision.

I'm not a speedrunner, I'm a game explorer. I can't count myself as truly beating the game unless I had fulfill everything that the game had to offered.

@Serpenterror

the two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, it's very very rare that someone decides to do a speedrun of a game that they haven't already fully explored before. They are not skipping content, they are actually creating new things to do in an otherwise already finished game.

@Axecon

"I mostly come to NL because the site is pretty good at avoiding spoilers, but elsewhere on the internet I have to be pretty careful."

one hundred percent. 👍👍

@batmanbud2 TERMINALMONTAGE MENTIONED RAAAAAAAAAA

I don't want to know the glitches.😆 I already watched a phillybeatzu EOW tips video on youtube, and some of the tips for echoes seemed almost too OP. Although, maybe that stuff might be needed in harder sections. I'm staying ignorant for now.😁

@-wc-
This is a shameless plug but I write this cause I always ask myself the same thing and could relate to your question so.
I have a show which is on YouTube and my intend is to create exactly something like that. It's still is a work in progress though.

@Jayenkai

this is a pretty good suggestion, actually. if you have old school friends that you can still get with to talk (and hopyfully play 🤓) videogames then we are both very lucky in this way ✌️

unfortunately i dont use facebook but i think your suggestion is bigger than that. I should talk to my friends more! ☺️ cheers

@ManaOwls

hey cool I will check it out! it might be a plug but I dont think it's at all shameless, since I'm asking ☺️✌️ thanks!

EDIT - just became your 800th subscriber! 😎👍

@-wc-
Hey, thanks a million! I appreciate it a lot. 🙏
Hope you'll be entertained the old-fashioned way, haha. 😊

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