Games I Played In 2024 - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

 

Console: Switch

Developer: Grezzo

Release Date: September 20th 2019

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a top-down action-adventure game that centers around exploration, puzzle-solving, and combat. A remake of the Game Boy original of the same name, Link's Awakening is a pretty faithful remake, adding quality of life updates but keeping the essence of the original essentially intact. I wasn't too familiar with Link's Awakening; I am far more familiar with the two Game Boy games of the same vein that came nearly ten years later: Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. In fact, I had never even come close to finishing Link's Awakening, so this was a rare occasion for me to play a Zelda game I had ostensibly never played.

As is to be expected from a faithful remake of an early Game Boy game, Link's Awakening is a basic game with not much in terms of narrative or in-depth mechanics. The game itself is rather short, and I doubt a normal playthrough of the game would ever take over 15 hours for a reasonably seasoned player. As a result, no matter your opinion on the original, there's no way anyone should pay full price for this game. It's simply too basic and too short to really warrant paying as much as you'd pay for a AAA title.

When the game was first revealed (and still to this day for some), there was controversy over the game's art style, visible in the header picture of this review. While keeping the original's top-down view, the 2D sprites are replaced with a diorama-like aesthetic, with character models that look like little clay toys. It's vibrant and really nice; I personally love when Zelda gets creative with its art style, and Link's Awakening is very memorable because of this. However, while the game's updated visuals are really adorable to look at, there were some times where I found it lacking in visibility, whether it be for seeing cracks in a bombable wall or depth perception in some cases. Specifically, anything displayed on the lower wall of dungeons and caves is harder to see than in the original since the bottom wall is less angled than the others, unlike in the Game Boy version.

But while the game's visuals are both unique and pleasant, the biggest downside of this remake has to be the framerate. Unlike the original game, Link's Awakening's overworld is one giant field rather than using the tilt-shift system that was common in the older Zelda games of that era, and is still used in the game's interiors. However, whenever you enter a new area, whether it's from leaving a house or scrolling far enough along, the framerate will dip quite a bit as the game struggles to process what's going on. While it's never enough to affect gameplay, it's nonetheless very distracting and consistently there. I never really got used to it. And it doesn't really feel acceptable that a game with such outwardly simple graphics to struggle that much with its performance.

On the positive side, however, Link's Awakening has a massive quality of life addition that, though I know little of the original, almost makes it obsolete in my eyes. As is the case for the Game Boy Zelda games, there are two item slots. In the original, anything usable counts as an item, including the sword and the shield. As a result, it's possible to unequip either of them, which can get pretty annoying with the constant menuing. In this remake, multiple items are simply a part of Link's moveset when acquired, including the sword, shield, and the boots that allow him to run. As a result, gameplay feels much smoother and you have to pause to switch equipment around far less.

One thing I noticed, though, is that one of the first items you acquire, the Roc's Feather that allows Link to jump, is so important throughout the entire game that I found myself leaving it equipped permanently for the entire playthrough. It really feels like it could've been a part of Link's moveset like the others, especially since a few buttons go unused. In a way, though, it makes this game feel pretty unique for pre-Breath of the Wild games in the series since jumping is such a core part of the game.

Though the game is generally fun, if not a little basic, I found myself occasionally frustrated by the game's odd logic or cryptic mechanics. An early one was the fact that while you can't hit an enemy diagonally through blocks, you need to hit a switch in that way to proceed in a dungeon. There is also a boss that, though made of fire, needs to be cooled down by using fireballs. I had multiple little nitpicks like this throughout my playthrough, with some that required me to get a walkthrough really quickly because I was simply not understanding the game's logic.

An example of this is how a walrus needs to be woken up by Marin's voice. I may have misread dialogue, but I read that it goes crazy for Marin's song, which I conveniently learned on the Ocarina item before this event. As a result, I found myself at a loss, thinking I needed to play Marin's song on the Ocarina for it rather than having to fetch Marin herself to the walrus. Another example, more focused on level design, is how an area is clearly indicated as being accessible with the Hookshot and signposted as such. However, you need to go there before acquiring it, and there is a secret staircase hidden under a seemingly inconspicuous patch of grass that reveals itself when cut. While hidden passages are nothing special for the series, having one right next to the obvious way to proceed was very confusing for me.

Generally, I found the game's open world pretty dry and tedious to explore. It's somehow both a little boring and a little too small, but that's understandable due to the game's origins on the Game Boy. The characters aren't very memorable and have little dialogue in general, which is something I had hoped a remake would touch on and improve, and there just wasn't much for me to latch onto. It's cute and a little goofy, but it lacks staying power.

The story is understandably very simple, which is fine, but it's also not told in a very interesting way. Link's Awakening is based around dreams and nightmares, with the bosses being called Nightmares, but it doesn't feel as whimsical and weird as it should. Instead, it's a bit goofy and mostly cute, while also including some out of place enemies from the Mario series, like Goombas and Cheep Cheeps. Most damningly for the way the threadbare story is told, though, is by being told by an owl where to go and what to do, or having no clues and needing to go to a telephone hut, where you get a hint on where to go or what to do. Nothing ever feels like a natural point of progression, it just feels like I'm going where I'm told to.

A lot of the game's playtime is spent in its dungeons; they're quite plentiful and, unfortunately, a bit hit-and-miss in terms of quality. The later ones are generally better than the early ones, but they're nothing special overall as they lack a defining feature to make them stand out, save for one of them. There are some fun ideas here, but nothing developed enough to leave a lasting impression. Minibosses are far too easy, to the point of me defeating them in less than 10 seconds on a first, blind playthrough on the first try. Bosses are not much harder in general, should you figure out their sometimes cryptic weaknesses. Often I found myself thinking "that's it?" after beating them. Again, while I expect a pretty early Game Boy game to be like this, I also expect a remake to modernize and improve at least some of this.

Part of the game's odd mechanics extend to its damage system. Some enemies are immune to some forms of damage, but their vulnerabilities aren't made clear to the player and require trial-and-error. For example, Wizzrobes, which use magic, are (seemingly?) only vulnerable to arrows for no discernible reason. There's also a weird thing where a handful of bosses are immune to sword swings, but not spin attacks and dash attacks. It, again, led to me being confused as to what was going on. 

While I didn't indulge in it very much since I lacked interest in it, I would be remiss not to mention the big new feature for the remake: the Chamber Dungeons. Simply, this is a somewhat barebones way to have a "Zelda Dungeon Maker" in some fashion. There are challenges included, having to create dungeons from a starting template to fulfill some criterias, which is quite neat. However, the rooms in the Chamber Dungeons aren't really customizable: they are set in stone and cannot be modified or rotated. And they're all taken from the game's actual dungeons, making it difficult to create something thematically coherent. The game also includes the bonus dungeon that was added with the Game Boy Color Link's Awakening DX version of the original, which is a really nice touch.

There are very few sidequests in the game, as the one that I would normally consider a sidequest (a long trading sequence reminiscent of Ocarina of Time's) is actually mandatory to finish the game. There's collectibles to get a stronger sword, but other than that, there's not much in terms of side content. It's a bit of a shame, as I'd expect a remake of such a simple game to try and spice up and expand upon its predecessor instead of just retreading the same waters it did. The movement even feels a little worse than it did back then; while it's using 8 direction movement like it did on Game Boy, that version felt better to control because Link would slowly adjust to going diagonally instead of snapping to a diagonal direction. The game in general feels a little unpolished, as I often found small bugs that wouldn't normally be in a big Nintendo game.

The original's soundtrack was mainly composed by Minako Hamano, Kozue Ishikawa, and Kazumi Totaka. The remake's soundtrack is remade by Ryo Nagamatsu, a prolific Nintendo composer. I unfortunately don't think this remake's soundtrack is that good, but I also think the same of the original's soundtrack. Ambient, shrill Game Boy sounds are remade into atmospheric, cutesy soundscapes that usually match the toy-like visuals of the game, but too much of it is drowned in reverb and faithfully minimalistic to be memorable for me. Sometimes, the original sounds are reused, layered under or over the atmospheric, slow melodies, which clashes in a way I don't really enjoy. In general, the original's whimsical, peppy energy isn't really enhanced or even reproduced in the remake's soundtrack, making it a rare miss for me both in terms of Zelda and Nagamatsu's general catalog. Either it's too minimalistic to make an impact, or clashes too much with what's going on to be memorable.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Adorable art style that is perfect to recreate the original.

• The later half of the dungeons are quite good.

• Fun gameplay overall, especially using Roc's Feather.

• Great quality of life improvements make the game far more fun to play.

• The addition of Chamber Dungeons is a good idea.

• Includes the DX bonus content, making it feel like a definitive version of Link's Awakening.

CONS

• Short and pretty easy in an unsatisfying way.

• Brief, yet persistent and distracting frame drops throughout the whole game.

• Lack of meaningful side content.

• Chamber Dungeons lack a ton of customization options to make them truly intriguing.

• Lackluster soundtrack.

• Some oddly cryptic level design for the Zelda series.

• Unclear weaknesses for some enemies and bosses, especially when it comes to certain ones with only one weakness.

• Minibosses are far too easy.

• Threadbare and ultimately uninteresting story despite its potential.

• Lack of design and narrative improvements over the original.

• Some small visibility issues in rare cases due to the art style.

• Movement feels marginally better in the original.

• Slight lack of polish makes the game feel a little cheap.

• WAY too expensive for what it is.

WORTH PLAYING?

Here's the thing: I'm not attached to the original Link's Awakening, so its faults are more glaring to me, especially since I subconsciously cannot stop myself from comparing it to its much later counterparts Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Despite all my issues with the game, how I wish it would've been improved from the Game Boy, and the fact that I didn't really end up feeling much while playing even though I had fun, I still think Link's Awakening is a pretty good remake all things considered. 

I see now why I never stuck with the original, and I really just am not a big fan of Link's Awakening in general. However, even with some of its odd design quirks, both in terms of level design and game design, I still think this is a good Zelda game, especially as potentially a first "retro-style" Zelda. It's simple, short, not too complicated, and doesn't ask much from the player. It's the first main handheld Zelda game, and that's just pretty neat, right? Just don't pay full price for it. It's not worth the full $80 CAD.

For fans of Link's Awakening, I can imagine it being quite fulfilling to see Koholint Island and its denizens redone in this adorable diorama-style in full 3D. I see no reason not to get it if you're already a fan of the original, even with its technical issues. I just wouldn't expect anything groundbreaking either way. It's ultimately just a fun little game that now shows its age, even after being remade on modern hardware.

I'm interested in seeing how the upcoming Echoes of Wisdom will be, as it uses the same art style as Link's Awakening and seems poised to be better designed and more fulfilling to play than this for me. I'm also still clinging on to the hope of seeing the two Oracle games being remade, especially if they somehow add the unreleased third Oracle of Secrets game's content into them. A man can dream.