Link’s Awakening Second Opinion

Prior to Breath of the Wild being released in 2017, the Zelda series was following a similar pattern of gameplay which was structured, and narrative-driven in games such as Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. Link's Awakening allowed players to explore and follow the story in whatever order the player chose to play, and I felt the game didn’t guide the player as to where or what they were supposed to be doing (although there were ways to get hints from the game) which gave far more freedom when playing. However, the dungeons were slightly complex as some dungeons only unlocked specific areas if you followed a really specific path or sequence of events which became confusing.

Adventure Of Link

The gameplay of Link's Awakening game is the classic Zelda using a combination of your sword, shield and tools (which classic Zelda were unlocked in different dungeons which focused around these tools) to defeat enemies and explore the world by finding dungeons and secrets to progress further. The fun part was figuring out which enemies are best blocked with the shield whilst others would be better to defeat using a tool (being out of range) or just avoiding them altogether! Overall, it wasn’t very complex but with some enemies, it would take is a few attacks and it would be game over, making the combat require more thought.

Puzzles are a huge part of the experience, ranging from simple puzzles to a complex, multiple stage item trading quest using hints given to you which you only figure out when exploring the world further. The part where I would usually get stuck is when trying to find or unlock the next dungeon which thankfully the game did think about and has these little hint houses that were sometimes useful at giving hints (and sometimes was not helpful) which meant I didn’t have to consult a guide as much.

The freedom of the game means it’s very easy to miss items for example I missed items required to open later dungeons and missed some shells which would later allow me to upgrade my tools. This back-tracking would disrupt the gameplay but was not bad and meant that I took my time more often when in a dungeon.

Mabe Village

The main village is a mini hub and is where our hero’s adventure begins. There are several side quests that are started in this village and once you unlock fast traveling, there is a portal not far away to make moving around easier. Unfortunately, the village isn’t centrally located which means you have to manually backtrack a few times especially when you find yourself in an area where there’s no fast travel portal. This village does, however, have a shop where you can buy shields, bombs and other useful items. This becomes a problem as some of the items feel overpriced considering how hard rupees are to get in this game (especially in the beginning.) However, the minigames in this game are truly fun for example there’s a fishing spot that you get rewards from and there’s also a crane game that allows you to unlock little Nintendo themed figures and rupees (although this minigame is like real crane games where they are intentionally hard to win prizes.)

Another feature added to the game was Dampe’s Chamber Dungeon Creator that unlocks a few hours into the game where you can create your own dungeons which I didn’t play as I felt it was not something I personally enjoyed but I think for those that enjoy this type of feature, would have enjoyed this feature. The way to play this feature is unlocking tiles which can be done through dungeons and also the crane game which you then unlock further tiles when completing your created dungeons.

Summary

I had never played the original Link’s Awakening which meant I felt no nostalgia when playing this remake, however I enjoyed the freedom of being able to explore the land and playing the game in whichever order I wanted to without following a linear story which made me think far more about what or where I was supposed to go next (unlike Skyward Sword.) I found the minigames fun and they reminded me very much of Skyward Sword (which also had minigames) which were challenging, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game overall.