This is the second game in my big Zelda marathon that I’m doing with a bunch of other users (including @NOWITSREYNTIME17, @Steinco, @NovaNiles, @QuentTheSlayer, @Ptcremisi, @zeusdeegoose, and more).

So, I’ve done a pretty in-depth review of Link’s Awakening already (specifically for the remake), which you can read here. So instead of re-reviewing this entire game that I still love, I decided to do something a little different.

See, many people consider A Link to the Past to be superior to Link’s Awakening, and it’s easy to see why. ALttP revolutionizes the action-adventure genre and established the Zelda formula that the series would— for better or worse— follow for decades until it was tampered with by A Link Between Worlds and completely shattered by Breath of the Wild. Yet, I’ve always liked Link’s Awakening more. Why is that?

Well, the biggest and most noticeable advantage that Link’s Awakening possesses is its story. The plot of ALttP, while definitely an improvement over the first two games, is still very generic and barebones: You are the Chosen One, and you have to rescue some maidens and stop a Dark Lord from taking over the world. It’s the most by-the-numbers fantasy story you could imagine. Link is a piece of cardboard with no personality, Zelda gets kidnapped before we even get to know her, Sahasrahla is a goat but he mainly just exists to serve as a guide, and the other Maidens are literally just plot devices that spit exposition. The closest thing to an actual “character” is Ganon, who gets quite a bit of backstory, but his appearances in Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker still do a better job delving into his origins and motives.

By contrast, the characters of Link’s Awakening, while simple, are far more charming and memorable. Link has an actual arc about learning to face reality and his fear of change. Zelda is replaced by Marin, who is an actual person with hopes and desires, as well as an adorable personality and great chemistry with Link. Tarin is her bumbling, but likable dad. The rest of Koholint’s inhabitants are very strange and quirky (it’s not every day you see a guy getting catfished by a goat using a picture of Princess Peach), but that just makes them all even more endearing. The Nightmares, while not as compelling as Ganon, still have distinct personalities, and their motives start to become more sympathetic as the story unfolds. This is all topped off by the Owl, Link’s guide and the most underrated character in the game. At first, he seems to be just be another Sahasrahla, but he has this mysterious, somewhat shady aura about him, and as helpful as he is, it becomes clear that he’s a lot more important and— most glaringly— manipulative than he lets on.

Rather than having the game’s story be dumped on the player in a series of boring text boxes provided by the yapping Maidens like in ALttP, Link’s Awakening is a mystery that naturally unfolds as you explore the island. There’s foreshadowing, context clues, and loads of environmental hints that point towards something being off about Koholint Island. It’s not hard to piece together that it’s all just a dream of Link and the Wind Fish, but the reason the twist works so well isn’t because of the twist itself, but rather how it impacts the rest of the journey. The big dream reveal occurs only about halfway through the game, at which point it becomes a legitimate moral dilemma: should Link save himself and the Wind Fish, or stay asleep and continue the dream? The people of Koholint seem real enough— especially Marin and Tarin— but we know they aren’t real… or are they? Do we really have the right to awaken the Wind Fish and end the existences of all these people? But if you don’t, the Wind Fish will be ravaged by Nightmares, Hyrule will lose its Hero, and Link himself may even die (“THE WIND FISH SLUMBERS LONG… THE HERO’S LIFE… GONE…”). Of course, in order to beat the game, you have to face these fears (as well as Link’s own) head-on and awaken the Wind Fish, which makes for quite possibly the most heartbreaking ending in the entire franchise.

Another thing that’s been vastly improved over A Link to the Past is the dungeons, which were already vast improvements over the first two games’ levels. ALttP had good dungeons, but they were still largely focused on combat, and actual puzzles beyond “push this block” and “find this key” were few and far between. On top of that, they sometimes had rooms that solely existed for the purpose of trapping the player inside to fight enemies with no reward, thus wasting their time. By contrast, Link’s Awakening’s dungeons are a never ending stream of brilliant puzzles and complex level layouts that will test your wisdom just as much as your courage and power. No room is a waste, as they all either contain a useful item or lead to other rooms with useful items. No more trapping players in with pointless enemy encounters.

On top of that, each dungeon in Link’s Awakening has its own music track, which would go on to be a staple for the series. They all sound surprisingly good, too, despite the hardware limitations. It’s a definite improvement over the exact same fucking repetitive ahh track droning on in the background of every single Dark World dungeon in ALttP.

I also want to highlight how Link’s Awakening marks the first appearance of a “puzzle box” dungeon in a Zelda game. These are dungeons that require you to change the physical properties of the entire dungeon to proceed (such as raising and lowering the water level in the Water Temple, flipping the Stone Tower Temple upside-down, or sending the Sandship back and forth through time). Eagle’s Tower sees you using a giant metal ball to destroy some pillars, causing the dungeon to collapse and bringing the fourth floor crashing down into the third. It’s not the most complex puzzle box dungeon, but it’s a strong start.

So yeah. Better story and better dungeons are why I prefer Link’s Awakening over A Link to the Past, even though they’re both great games. I think Link’s Awakening is a brilliant handheld debut for the franchise that successfully captures the scope of its predecessor on a tiny screen, while still improving upon it in many ways. Eiji Aonuma once called Link’s Awakening “the quintessential isometric Zelda game”, and I’m inclined to agree.

Reyn’s review of DX: here