The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019)

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JaySevenZero
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019)

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019) for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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andthenweplay
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Re: 486 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by andthenweplay »

Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening was my first video game ever back in 1998 when I would receive my first gaming console ever; my Gameboy Pocket. But there is a deeper story behind this game. I would receive the GameBoy and Link's Awakening after finding out the news my mother passed away at the age of six. I have played Link's Awakening on that GameBoy countless times but never reached it conclusion ever. And much like you said all the way back in issue 212, I never listened to the podcast to avoid spoilers because I knew it was a game I wanted to finish on my own.

Countless years later on September 20, 2019 I would buy a Switch Lite and a copy on Link's Awakening Remake. What I was treated to is one of the most beautiful, colourful and vibrant worlds I have seen in a video game in recent years. The toy-like aesthetic really brought the world to life. Each dungeon created a forbidding contrast compared to the green prairies or the sandy beaches of the over world. The music, much like the original game is forever ingrained in my soul, the Sword-Search song being a highlight.

What shocked me most about this Zelda game, compared to any other Zelda game I have played was the themes of the story. Character's appeared nearly once dimensional which felt by design as much as the limited hardware of the GameBoy and learning the truth about the Windfish, and realising all the characters I have seen dancing, singing and going about life would ceases to exist and vanish without a trace I felt a shiver go down my spine. I superseded to then ending collecting all the items in the world to see that ending sequence and finally, closure.

This might sound hyperbolic but Link's Awakening might be among one of the most important games I have played in my life, since it's release I have played through it 4 times, and probably do a fifth after writing this. This game might not be for everyone, it can be simple, combat although fun lacks the depth of the 3D Zelda games and puzzles can feel obtuse, but I love this game, and recommend it to any Zelda fan or fan of games in general who wants a cozy beautiful game on the Nintendo Switch.
bixer

Re: 486 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by bixer »

Having never played it as a kid, Link's Awakening to me felt like a game that would be best experienced with nostalgia goggles firmly in place, as I just couldn't get it to click with me in the way that I've heard it did for so many others.

While at first I did actually appreciate a trip back to the more traditional Zelda gameplay again after Breath of the Wild has since possibly redefined what the series is, I couldn't shake the feeling that this was a game very much stuck in 1993. Many of the games puzzles and secrets are so obtuse that I'm not sure if many other people playing for the first time today could be expected to solve them without the help of a guide. In 1993 when many of us were likely kids with oodles of free time to explore every nook and cranny of a game that was fine and almost part of the fun, but playing a game like that today at times felt more frustrating than anything.

It doesn't seem to be spoken about very much, but the frame rate drops in the 2019 remake are unforgivable for a first party Nintendo title. As someone who doesn't typically care about frames per second nor would I be able to tell you what they are from one game to the next, the frame rate drops in Link's Awakening are so jarring and happen with such consistency that I'm still surprised that Nintendo haven't since released a patch to fix it, and seemingly at this point never will.

A game that I can appreciate for its place in history, but ultimately not for me.
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KissMammal
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Re: 486 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by KissMammal »

Very much agree that a lot of the game's design feels very dated in a lot of ways, especially the obtuse and obscure puzzles.

It was the one mainline Zelda game I'd never played until the Switch remaster, and I found that it didn't live up to its glowing reputation.

The world map is extremely compact - out of necessity given the limitations of the original hardware it was designed for - and in many ways its ingeniously constructed, but as a result also feels very cramped and claustrophobic. Simply getting from A to B felt like trying to work my way through a maze at times.

I also really detested the Eagle Tower dungeon. Something about it's layout made it completely impossible for me to commit to memory and after hours of fruitlessly banging my head against it I had to resort to using a step by step guide.

No doubt that it was an astonishing achievement back on the Game Boy, but I frequently found myself wishing that the remaster was a more substantial update that smoothed off some of its rougher edges.

For me it feels a bit like the Yoshi's Island of the Zelda series - a quirky offshoot that while clever and well crafted is is just a little too esoteric and frustrating for me to really embrace.
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Re: 486 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Having never played the original or any of the early Zelda games (my first being Phantom Hourglass) I was looking forward to giving Links Awakening a go after hearing so much about it over the years.

First off, I really liked the graphical style and music, but that is about as far as my praise goes for the game. I just found it a very frustrating experience. This was primarily due to the puzzle design and lack of signposting as to where or what I was supposed to do next, this led me to resorting to a guide more than perhaps I have ever done for any game, which meant that I never had any satisfaction when completing the game. I would blame myself for this if upon looking at the solutions actually thinking I could have figured it out myself, but in the majority of cases I just thought I would have never figured that out ever.

I play all Switch games in handheld and the performance of this game was pretty awful with the frame rate, I'm not normally someone who is too bothered about frame rates but in this game it was noticeably choppy to the point where it harmed the experience. Overall a disappointing experience.
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Re: 486 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I rented this one hoping for a quick nostalgia hit while on a business trip... Didn't really get that. It seems to run at a sub-30 frame rate, and I honestly find it visually garish. Strangely, the game somehow feels slower than the GB original. Is it? I'm not 100% sure. But sometimes two objects can move at the same velocity, and one appears slower - the remake *feels* slower. Hard to explain.

Overall, my impression of this game isn't really positive. It definitely doesn't feel like a premium $80 CDN game, and to me, this one's really emblematic of what's wrong with Nintendo's Switch releases: It's a remake of a GB game with little added content, poor technical performance, unappealing art design, and an unjustifiably high price.

Three Word Review: Link's Lacklustre Look-Alike
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Gadget8Bit
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Re: 486 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by Gadget8Bit »

I never had a Game Boy when I was a kid, so I missed out on Link’s Awakening. In fact, until Breath Of The Wild I hadn’t even played a Zelda game, so I was quite excited for Link’s Awakening when it was announced.

I ADORE the art style. The game looks amazing. And the soundtrack remix is wonderful, featuring my favourite rendition of the Overworld theme ever made, but I’m afraid that’s where my praise ends.

I really struggled with Link’s Awakening. The poor gameplay performance on the Switch at launch was a huge barrier to overcome. It’s hard to enjoy such a sumptuously gorgeous game when the frame rate chugs down to single digits at times.

But more than anything, the game’s early 90s design ruined it for me. Some of the puzzles (especially the item swapping puzzle) seemed to be completely unexplained and designed to be as vague as possible. It got to the point where I had to look up a guide to see who wanted which item and in what order to do it.

I realise this was done in the original to pad out the runtime in a short handheld game, but by sticking so rigidly to the format of the original design, it makes for an uneven experience for those who don’t hold any nostalgia for it.

Thinking to the Tony Hawk’s remasters from 2020, I realise that a good remake doesn’t need to be completely rigid to the original, but instead it needs to live up to the rose tinted view we have of the original. Quality of life improvements are fine and I can’t help but think it wouldn’t have been too odious a task for Nintendo to add a few helpful features to Link’s Awakening for people who were new to the game.
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JadePhoenix
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Re: 486 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by JadePhoenix »

I enjoy the original GameBoy Link's Awakening/DX, but it's never been one of my favorites in the series. I feel the remake didn't really add enough to justify it's existence. The new graphical style is not my cup of tea, but most people seem to like it, and the dungeon editor is a cool idea, but the implementation was terrible. Beyond that, it's the same game from 1993, which I still like and still don't love, but this time I payed $60 for it in 2019, and I'm left wondering why.

I'm honestly not sure what they *could* have done, the game feels as complete as ever, and the core mechanics are still perfectly solid, so where do you go? Other than the possibility of bundling it with similar remakes of the Oracle games (which I DO love), more that tripling the workload, not realistic, I really don't know. More than anything, the games to me just feels unnecessary. Just give us a GameBoy Virtual Console on the Switch already!

TWR: Fun, but unnecessary.
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Pidi
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Re: 486 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by Pidi »

I remember Link's Awakening being one of my first Game Boy games and also my introduction to the Zelda series.

I adored this game, even though the young me really didn't fully understand what I was doing during the course of the game. When I had a Game Boy Color the DX version was one of the first games I picked up. The additional 'colour' dungeon was a nice addition along with the the photo's you could print out if you owned a Game Boy Printer which fortunately I did.

The size of the game fit the Game Boy perfectly, I loved the exploration and having to really work hard at figuring out what I had to do next to move onto the next dungeon or how to even complete some dungeons. This was before the easy access to guides etc although I did receive a copy of an old Game Boy magazine which had a full colour map and mini guide after I had completed the game.

Moving onto the 2019 remake. This was the main reason I bought a Nintendo Switch, I just had to play this new version after seeing so many images and videos; it looked amazing. My love and and memories came flooding back when I started playing again. Even though muscle memory kind of kicked in and I knew where to go and what to do, I really took my time to make sure I took in all the new details of the characters and world around. The music was just sublime and I loved playing the game in docked mode and having the soundtrack playing away for hours on the TV whilst enjoying the game (I don't think the wife enjoyed it so much). Even watching the ending really gave me a huge burst of nostalgia, so much so I was thinking I need to give myself 10 minutes to 'pull myself together'.

No doubt I'll replay this again, much like I did with the previous two versions and still love every minute of it. I still have my original Link's Awakening tucked away, possibly I won't play this version again, but as the game has had such an impact on me and also bringing me into gaming I could in no way part with it. This game is up there as one of the most important games I have played throughout my 30+ years of gaming and this remake is everything I would have wanted for Link's Awakening. I just have to reiterate how much I loved this game, even though this was just another re-telling of the same story I've played countless times, the way in which they recreated the feel for the game like it was still the original is just brilliant.

TWR: Gut Hitting Nostalgia
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Re: 462 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by Toon Scottoon »

I think the most interesting thing about this remake is the art style, which I could not properly describe until I read Matt Alt's excellent book, Pure Imagination about the export of Japanese pop culture to the West. In a chapter about San Rio's Hello Kitty character Alt explains the Kawaii aesthetic. Pronounced kah-vy-ee like Hawaii (hah-vy-ee). As I understand it, Kawaii is a performative sort of cuteness that is so demonstrably soft and adorable that it makes it easy to use as a tool for subversion when put in the right hands and Nintendo and Grezzo show their sure handedness in this remake.

In world where Blue Point is reimagining games like Shadow of the Colossus and Demon Souls as photo realistically as possible, and with a piece of hardware that can certainly do more realistic looking human forms than the Game Boy could, this aesthetic choice services the story about building a dream world to avoid trauma, and then pumping yourself up enough to wake and, as it were, face the music.

Of course I'd be remiss if I didn't highlight the development teams failure to bevel out some of the game's friction points, like the unnecessary powerup descriptions many people complain about, and although I happen to like most of the puzzles, the final maze, the pillar toppling dungeon, and the trading sequence always feel a little obtuse. Still, despite these flaws, I'm happy to have any top down entry in my favorite franchise looking cute on my favorite system; reminding me what once was, and what could be on the way in the years to come.

Three word review: Art Style Sings
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Re: 462 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by Quiet Paul »

3WR - Remake done right
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Re: 462 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by Marlew »

Despite being an enormous fan of Zelda, I've never finished one of the 2D entries. I love the idea of a pocket-sized Zelda but in practice, I tend to drop off them quite quickly. On reflection, it's the grand sense of adventure of the 3D games which provides my enduring memories of the series.

In the top-down titles, the combat feels simplistic and the puzzles veer between unsatisfying and obtuse, but most of all, I find that these games lack the sweeping sense of scale which captures my imagination. I really wish I could appreciate this concise puzzle box design because there's something economically beautiful about the concept, but it just doesn't excite me. Link's Awakening didn't change that opinion, unfortunately.

I think the soundtrack is gorgeous, lovely rich strings and woodwind tooting away, but that's about it for the positives. The chunky plasticine diorama looks beautiful in screenshots but the lurching framerate and tilt shift focus make me feel genuinely nauseated. It's slightly less of an issue in handheld but on the big screen, I honestly can't play it. I managed a few hours, got halfway through the item trading section and then uninstalled it. Without the performance issues, I probably would have slogged away and enjoyed some elements of the game, but my only enduring regret is that I gave Nintendo fifty quid for it.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (27.3.21): 462 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by BlueWeaselBreath »

I love the updated look and feel on this one. To give you an idea of how much more accessible the update makes this game to modern audiences: one of the kids I work with, an eight-year-old, told me he had this game on the Switch, so I showed him a screenshot of the old Gameboy color version, which I still thinks looks very nice. His reaction was incredulous laughter. “Oh, my God, those are such bad graphics! Oh, God, it looks so bad!” I hope they give the Oracle games this same treatment.
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Re: Our next podcast recording (27.3.21): 462 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Post by DeadbeatpunK »

Link’s Awakening is my favourite Zelda entry. It took me months to finish it; as I was without a guide and very young. I loved Koholint Island, never knowing what you were going to find after opening up a new area. The sights and sounds are burned into the meaty hard drive acting as my brain. Animal Village being my favourite location. I think I could probably navigate the island blindfolded by now. The ending made me cry; a lot. Elevating games up to a form of media that could conjure strong emotions and not just an empty button mashing pastime.

I was ecstatic after it was revealed as the ‘one last thing’ at E3. I pre-ordered the Special Edition and Amiibo as soon as they became available. I just want to convey how excited I was to revisit this game on the Switch. Just hearing the vocalised version for Ballad of the Wind Fish kick started my nostalgia gland into overdrive.

So when I did revisit the game, I quickly realised how cheeky Nintendo could be. For anyone raising an eye-brow at WiiU ports being fully priced retail releases, this should have acted as a warning sign for things to come. I love the Soundtrack, it stood out as the strongest point of the remake. The visual style is very charming; even if I noticed the slowdown between screens right up until the end. There just wasn’t enough game to justify the price of entry.

I wanted to love this remake, but it didn’t measure up to the original. The lack of quality of life improvements really seemed to deter newcomers to the game. Many people trying it for the first time seemed to fall off quite quickly. It must have been a real shock to the system for people who had come from Breath of the Wild as their first foray into the franchise. I enjoyed my return to this adventure, but found it hard to disagree with some of the sincere gripes people had with the title.

I would still recommend the Gameboy Colour version to anyone who wanted to revisit this classic. Still on the 3DS eshop for those inclined. The Camera Side Quest was a much better addition than Dante’s Dungeon Creator. Sometimes it’s just better to let sleeping Wind Fish lie.
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