I have a frustrated love for the Zelda series. Perhaps I love what it COULD be rather than what it is, and the gulf between the two creates discontent.
Unfair? Maybe. In any case, this remake is a mostly enjoyable return to the first portable Zelda title, but each tweak to the original is a two-edged sword, e.g.:
- The plasticine environment successfully demarcates the dream world from the “real” world of the animated cutscenes, yet its misleading veneer of cuteness clashes with its existential theme. "But the original Gameboy graphics were cute too!" you might protest. A little, yes, but more by limitation than design. The dot eyes and simple shapes were necessary due to tiny screens and monochrome palettes, but in the remake they're retained out of unthinking reverence, not with a mind toward the story's dark heart.
- Permanent buttons for sword and shield improve convenience, but they also destroy Awakening's unique mechanical voice among the Zelda pantheon; in the original GB release, no tool was so sacrosanct that it couldn't be tucked away. You could let the shield gather cobwebs in your pouch if you wished, and could even make a challenge of using the sword as little as possible. But now? On the Switch? They're permanently a button tap away. And there aren't enough additions to the sword-and-shield play (besides stunning the blade-brandishing rushers) to warrant its new front-and-center presence on the gamepad.
But back to undue reverence -- if the remakers were willing to tinker with the above elements, why didn't they add more to the plot as well? The existential story of LA demands a sidequest or two, enough to give players some agency (at least the possibility if not the actuality), some room to react to the dreadful truth of the island. This unwillingness to build on the legacy, to treat flaws as sacred as virtues, is the most frustrating aspect of Nintendo's remakes.
Unfair? Maybe. In any case, this remake is a mostly enjoyable return to the first portable Zelda title, but each tweak to the original is a two-edged sword, e.g.:
- The plasticine environment successfully demarcates the dream world from the “real” world of the animated cutscenes, yet its misleading veneer of cuteness clashes with its existential theme. "But the original Gameboy graphics were cute too!" you might protest. A little, yes, but more by limitation than design. The dot eyes and simple shapes were necessary due to tiny screens and monochrome palettes, but in the remake they're retained out of unthinking reverence, not with a mind toward the story's dark heart.
- Permanent buttons for sword and shield improve convenience, but they also destroy Awakening's unique mechanical voice among the Zelda pantheon; in the original GB release, no tool was so sacrosanct that it couldn't be tucked away. You could let the shield gather cobwebs in your pouch if you wished, and could even make a challenge of using the sword as little as possible. But now? On the Switch? They're permanently a button tap away. And there aren't enough additions to the sword-and-shield play (besides stunning the blade-brandishing rushers) to warrant its new front-and-center presence on the gamepad.
But back to undue reverence -- if the remakers were willing to tinker with the above elements, why didn't they add more to the plot as well? The existential story of LA demands a sidequest or two, enough to give players some agency (at least the possibility if not the actuality), some room to react to the dreadful truth of the island. This unwillingness to build on the legacy, to treat flaws as sacred as virtues, is the most frustrating aspect of Nintendo's remakes.