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LTTP: Link's Awakening. It's...fine? (spoilers)
- Thread starter Deleted member 5322
- Start date
I think this is basically why I like it more than all the other 2D Zeldas, and I didn't even grow up with it, played it for the first time just a few years ago.
The design is just really tight, it doesn't get tedious, and it's plain fun.
I agree with everything OP said. It's an okay game with ultimately forgettable characters and gameplay. The only thing that's every really stood out for me was the (albeit brief) opening cinematic. Looking forward to the remake, however.
Que? Before Link's Awakening there were few memorable characters. My memory of playing this game in 1993 was the trading sequence, all the interesting weird people in town and the dungeons. Which are just amazingly designed in how they needed to be solved, introducing only a few key accessories with the puzzles requiring the combination of multiple unique items to solve, very similar to BOTW's puzzle system but applied to dungeons rather than shrines. Later Zelda games tended to have one off accessories, usually the one you colleect in the same dungeon dictate how most of the puzzles in said dungeon are solved.
Several of LA's elements that were also borrow into Ocarina of Time, like the strangely characterized towns people, the trading sequence, fishing game. Modern Zelda owes a lot to LA. Also because it's a portable game, it doesn't have time to waste on fluff, everything is compact and it's probably one of the best paced Zelda games because of it.
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Link's Awakening (DX) is great. The Oracle games are even greater. Best Zelda games ever (maybe tied with BotW).
I... I don't get this statement. Care to elaborate?
I... I don't get this statement. Care to elaborate?
I agree with OP. The game is ok, but not exceptional. Like, I'm sure there was the sentiment of "Wow! A complete Zelda game on a handheld!" back in 93. But it doesn't compare favorably to LttP, which is better in pretty much every way. It's like comparing SML to SMW, they were pretty cool to play on handhelds but they're kind of shitty compared to their console contemporaries.
A dreamlike atmosphere with foreboding menace underneath, and a plot about a bunch of weirdos in small towns hiding secrets. People have called it Lynchian for years.
This was confirmed explicitly recently, where the director cited Twin Peaks as a reference:
https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/3kz4x9/the-zelda-twin-peaks-connection-is-real
Yeah I played every Zelda in order of release, and I realised at the time it was further evolved than LTTP, despite being on less capable hardware. Which was an amazing achievement.
It was a the first gameboy Zelda and it did a phenomenal job of bringing a the large adventures of the console to the tiny emerald screen. It was Zelda in the car! I can see why people preferred the other Gameboy Zeldas or LTTP as they're all fantastic, but LA did it well straight out of the gate.
Now this I can't get behind. Link's Awakening has some of the best music on the gameboy and even some of the best in the franchise.
I know music is subjective but music is a theme to the game as a whole and it has the soundtrack to back that up.
Tal Tal Heights is still a classic and has already been posted here but even the first music tracks you hear are incredible for the gameboy sound chip:
Now this I can't get behind. Link's Awakening has some of the best music on the gameboy and even some of the best in the franchise.
I know music is subjective but music is a theme to the game as a whole and it has the soundtrack to back that up.
Tal Tal Heights is still a classic and has already been posted here but even the first music tracks you hear are incredible for the gameboy sound chip:
LA does literally everything better than LTTP. Narrative? What a weird complaint. It's zelda. Its narrative barely exists in the first place. Even BOTW barely has a story.
The only flaw with the original is the controls, which weren't flawed so mjuch as limited by the hardware, which presumably will be fixed in the re-release.
The only flaw with the original is the controls, which weren't flawed so mjuch as limited by the hardware, which presumably will be fixed in the re-release.
Possibly my favourite Zelda game. Due to the limitations of its hardware, this entry ended up cementing the direction of the series going forward. The fact that your sword was made optional, made the developers increase the times you had to use your items, which lead to more puzzle-centric dungeon design. This is one of the prime reasons why I play Zelda games. The other thing it really ramped up is the personality of everything. More characters have names than ever before, you're given more scripted scenes and activities that take a break from the main gameplay loop. Music is also starting to get more and more important as a theme, which the series would also embrace for later entries. The dungeons themselves are also nicely done. While previous Zelda dungeons didn't always bother making you use your items, the Link's Awakening really integrates the dungeon-item into the dungeon's DNA and forces you to use it all the time. It also does a great job at using previous items as well, sometimes in conjunction with the new one. Then we also have the trading quest which motivates you to interact with the NPCs, which is another thing the series would embrace for a long time. The story itself is a little understated, but I still think it works quite well. Just great stuff from top to bottom.
The only thing I don't like about it, is the controls, and the message pop-ups. They're kind of related, since most of the repetitive messages that appear when it thinks you want to do a contextual action, but don't have the right item equipped. The controls have to do a lot for the amount of buttons a gameboy had, so it's nothing short of impressive what they've accomplished. It's just very easy to see this game being made better if they had more available buttons. Makes me wonder if the game would be the way it is if they had access to more buttons though. It's very likely it would have been more closer to aLttP, which can be on the flavourless side, in spite of its solid ideas.
The only thing I don't like about it, is the controls, and the message pop-ups. They're kind of related, since most of the repetitive messages that appear when it thinks you want to do a contextual action, but don't have the right item equipped. The controls have to do a lot for the amount of buttons a gameboy had, so it's nothing short of impressive what they've accomplished. It's just very easy to see this game being made better if they had more available buttons. Makes me wonder if the game would be the way it is if they had access to more buttons though. It's very likely it would have been more closer to aLttP, which can be on the flavourless side, in spite of its solid ideas.
While I agree partly, I think the Oracle games were too hard. Played through Awakening and both Oracle games for the first time last year and Awakening had a prefect balance.
Reading this thread, I realized that the Switch has enough buttons to map every single item to. Imagine that in the remake! (Of course that number includes the D-pad so it'll never work)
Great summary. Yes hard to say how it would have evolved without the button situation, but even that had direct influence going forward, with ocarina having three buttons for item equips in basically the exact same system, just with Sword and shield always available. LTTP only had one 'item' button, downplaying their integration.
Link's Awakening is the best 2D Zelda game and my favorite Zelda game in the entire series. It's bold enough to just be weird, it's not weird enough to not feel like Zelda, there's a constant sense of mystery in the air, and there's this strange forced commune feel about the entire setting. The dungeons are great, the bosses are great, Link can jump, and Eagle Tower. Anyone who doesn't love Link's Awakening, I am convinced does not have a soul.
I've always loved Link's Awakening and despite trying over and over I just can't enjoy Link the the Past. The fat-free design has always been something I've aspired to capture in my own work. It's just a shame it's so obtuse at times.
Relatedly, I played through For Whom the Frog Bell Tolls recently and it's really great!! I would love to see more games in this tightly designed format.
Link's Awakening, just like LTTP, has lots of flaws. I hope the remake does what it can to compensate for them.
Relatedly, I played through For Whom the Frog Bell Tolls recently and it's really great!! I would love to see more games in this tightly designed format.
Link's Awakening, just like LTTP, has lots of flaws. I hope the remake does what it can to compensate for them.
I feel as a scaled down version of the ALTTP formula onto a Game Boy it's amazing what they managed to achieve. There's more depth there than you'd expect ultimately, though I feel like I'm at the inverse of most here where I find the Oracles games rather disjointed and railroaded in comparison. Lead-in to other dungeons in Oracles felt prescriptive in the early stages, where as in Link's Awakening discovery feels like a natural process.
It's an entry I have a great deal of fondness for in general I will admit, but as some same the dreamy off-by-one feeling of the game is something in the Zelda series I enjoy, and I mean no shock that Majora is also another favourite of mine for that reason.
It's an entry I have a great deal of fondness for in general I will admit, but as some same the dreamy off-by-one feeling of the game is something in the Zelda series I enjoy, and I mean no shock that Majora is also another favourite of mine for that reason.
Mechanically I remember liking being able to combine two items together with the A and B buttons, but I don't remember if there was more to it than Bomb Arrows.
Edit: yeah, Pegasus Boots + Roc's Feather was also sort of an A+B combination. I wonder if they'll add more to it in the remaster, or if they'll remove the concept. :(
In term of world, I liked how it felt like a Bizarro-world Zelda game, with everything in place mechanically, even introducing future staple mechanics, and yet very detached from the main games lore-wise. The deformed Main Zelda Theme (compared to how it usually flows) is a perfect representation of that idea.
Story-wise, all the missable photos, optional seashells and varied characters gave me the impression that there was more to it if you looked for it under the surface. It's probably more a trick than a reality, but that feeling of mystery stuck with me until now.
The dungeons were top.
Here's Mark Brown's appreciative video analysing the game design of Link's Awakening Dungeons to give some perspective:
They felt like origami, if that make sense. Minimalist but dense, folds on itself. Elegant design fitting the handheld platform.
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The only problems I have with LA are the cumbersome item switching which does interrupt the flow of some areas, along with the horrible unavoidable text boxes saying something is too heavy to lift when you so much glance at a heavy pot.
Other than that, it's one of my favourite games and a top 3 Zelda. Soundtrack is also exceptional.
Other than that, it's one of my favourite games and a top 3 Zelda. Soundtrack is also exceptional.
Good shout. I love me some Froggy Bells too. The mixture of puzzle platforming and light RPG mechanics results in a cute, well-paced game with a lot of "moments".
For those that are wondering, this is the game where Richard in Link's Awakening is from. It's just another Nintendo reference, like Goombas, Kirby, Yoshi, and Wart. His house frog-filled because the original game has a frog-theme, as you can deduce from its name.
I got it when it came out and I've never been able to finish it. It has too many annoying issues like the constant item switching and repeated unskippable text when you touch a powerup or a rock. Hopefully the remake turns out well because I think it looks really cool and the problems I have with the original will probably be fixed.
"It's...fine?" Really? Link's Awakening has always been a fantastic episode. Many even preferred it to "A Link to the past". Too much intellectualization in our time, this game had everything to please, even beyond nostalgia. I obviously respect the opinion not to like the episode but it seems to me that it is quite recent this reconsideration of a cult game.
The game gives a bit more leeway than that. You need 20 of the 26 seashells in the game to get the upgrade.
You've just highlighted my only two irritations with the game as well - the item switching is unavoidable of course due to the GB's very limited button count, but the repeating text boxes were also an irritation at times.
Nevertheless, it's still the best Zelda game (alongside BotW). LttP is a very close second.
Having basically a portable Link to the Past blew me away at the time. LA was so far beyond the regular type of games you got on the GB. Also, the intro music is freaking amazing.
I was never a fan of it, I think it ranks low on the Zelda list, just better than WW, MM, SS and ST. The Oracle games are much better.
But the thing they LA did really well was define the structure of future Zelda games, for better or worse. The whole item in big chest that you use to defeat boss in dungeon and allows you to go to the next comes from LA. The huge trading sidequest comes from LA. Zelda games used LA structure until SS.
It's a good game, but I don't see where the praise comes from, unless it's just nostalgia.
But the thing they LA did really well was define the structure of future Zelda games, for better or worse. The whole item in big chest that you use to defeat boss in dungeon and allows you to go to the next comes from LA. The huge trading sidequest comes from LA. Zelda games used LA structure until SS.
It's a good game, but I don't see where the praise comes from, unless it's just nostalgia.
Fair enough, I forgot of those 6 extra shells. But you're still almost rehires a guide if you want your lvl 2 sword. Still easily my least favorite part of the game, bar none.
I can accept not being impressed with the game, but what the hell is this?
The music of this game is AWESOME. It has the best overworld music, the main theme and Tal Tal Heigth is among the best Zelda tracks, and all that with the freaking Game Boy restrictions. I can't wait to hear these songs remade.
It's a handheld game from 1993... It has no business being so good. It was better than any game that came after it on a platform that went on to live for another 5 years. It's insane. I guess you had to be there?
I feel like every complaint in the OP comes down to "it's the best they could do with the tech at the time". Might as well complain about the original Doom not having real-time ray tracing or Pitfall not having voice-acted cut scenes.
I feel like every complaint in the OP comes down to "it's the best they could do with the tech at the time". Might as well complain about the original Doom not having real-time ray tracing or Pitfall not having voice-acted cut scenes.
Ah yes, the good ol' nerd notion that girl affection is something that must somehow be earned. Classic. 👌
It's literally a lot of people's first Zelda so of course it's going to be riding nostalgia goggles. Those people will hype it up forever and downplaying the many other Zeldas which took its concepts further and refined the gameplay. Minish Cap and LBW are better.
it's on par with zelda lttp i would say.
Both have there strengths and both have good music.
I player both zelda's when they came out.
But players who player those 2 zelda's on a different time, it's hard to define a honest opinion about this imo.
For instance, someone can already be famlier with the zelda lttp music, because he played it multiple times or heard those songs multiple times (even with link between worlds). BUT only played zelda link awaking once...
Both have memorable music and art/leveldesign.
Both have there strengths and both have good music.
I player both zelda's when they came out.
But players who player those 2 zelda's on a different time, it's hard to define a honest opinion about this imo.
For instance, someone can already be famlier with the zelda lttp music, because he played it multiple times or heard those songs multiple times (even with link between worlds). BUT only played zelda link awaking once...
Both have memorable music and art/leveldesign.
I think the Oracle games are better. The items introduced in those games make for some more interesting dungeon layouts.
This is crazy. LttP wishes it had an overworld or dungeons as good as LA (or Minish Cap).
