It's weird to me that this game would get overlooked for such a long time when discussing the evolution of Zelda. A sequel from the same team as Link to the Past, bearing so many new ideas, both mechanically and story-wise.
So much of Link's Awakening is up my alley. A large chunk of the items are focused on upgrading the movement: the jump, the pegasus boots improving the jump further while also making you faster, the returning hookshot stretches through the entire screen. All these items find use in exploration and in combat.
Exploration is so smooth thanks to the map being once more split into squares, with hints being saved on it, but there are also the hint houses, working much, much, much better than the ones in LttP. The game relies a bit too much on recognizing stuff from previous games: puzzle types, ways in which items are used or even enemy names play a part in this adventure.
But this amalgamation of the three previous Zelda games with, uh, Mario, is a product of a beautiful, timeless story. Another reason why this title feels tailor made for me is how strange encountering this mish-mash is. The main path has you fight the coolest designed enemies in the series so far, no doubt. The bosses look phenomenal and super unique, and they tend to utilize the upgrades you get in their dungeon extremely well, showcasing the possible depths of combat. None of them ever really require you to combine two, which would be pretty fun I think, but maybe switching between items too much during a fight would be annoying.
The game is generally very easy, but I wouldn't say it's much easier than Link to the Past, playing which I died a LOT. I would simply say this game doesn't have any major flaw, there are no hitboxes that are off, and controlling is as snappy as it was back on the NES.
But perhaps the key to my enjoyment was the art and animations. So many phenomenal sprites and so many clever ways of utilizing the minimalistic beeps and bops of the Gameboy's soundtrack possibilities. So many secrets are elevated by, for example, finding a big, funny fish inside a cave who does a little dance, and the perspective switches between side-scrolling and top-down add so much to the world design. I adore the variety of not just the actual ways of hiding things, but, for the first time in the series, their contents. There are some caves that just have a heart piece of course, but those are usually the most fun when it comes to the process of discovering them, while most of the simpler secrets have very fun contents.
Also just the humor of the game. Zelda was always pretty funny, Link to the Past leaned into it, but this is so lighthearted. It uses sound, animations, everything it has to add to it. Oh, and the pictures are a phenomenal addition. They are so pretty that they make me question how pretty could the Gameboy Color truly be at its best.
Love this game, love that it got its second wind in the form of a remake, love the direction it took the series in, love the weirdness, love every emotional and tonal whiplash, love the story so much, love the ending, love the dungeons, love the items, love the mechanics, love the art, love the humor, love the Mario, love the Link, love the little moments of peace and quiet, the ones of joy and laughter as well as the melancholy sinking in as you move along. Gameboy's masterpiece.
So much of Link's Awakening is up my alley. A large chunk of the items are focused on upgrading the movement: the jump, the pegasus boots improving the jump further while also making you faster, the returning hookshot stretches through the entire screen. All these items find use in exploration and in combat.
Exploration is so smooth thanks to the map being once more split into squares, with hints being saved on it, but there are also the hint houses, working much, much, much better than the ones in LttP. The game relies a bit too much on recognizing stuff from previous games: puzzle types, ways in which items are used or even enemy names play a part in this adventure.
But this amalgamation of the three previous Zelda games with, uh, Mario, is a product of a beautiful, timeless story. Another reason why this title feels tailor made for me is how strange encountering this mish-mash is. The main path has you fight the coolest designed enemies in the series so far, no doubt. The bosses look phenomenal and super unique, and they tend to utilize the upgrades you get in their dungeon extremely well, showcasing the possible depths of combat. None of them ever really require you to combine two, which would be pretty fun I think, but maybe switching between items too much during a fight would be annoying.
The game is generally very easy, but I wouldn't say it's much easier than Link to the Past, playing which I died a LOT. I would simply say this game doesn't have any major flaw, there are no hitboxes that are off, and controlling is as snappy as it was back on the NES.
But perhaps the key to my enjoyment was the art and animations. So many phenomenal sprites and so many clever ways of utilizing the minimalistic beeps and bops of the Gameboy's soundtrack possibilities. So many secrets are elevated by, for example, finding a big, funny fish inside a cave who does a little dance, and the perspective switches between side-scrolling and top-down add so much to the world design. I adore the variety of not just the actual ways of hiding things, but, for the first time in the series, their contents. There are some caves that just have a heart piece of course, but those are usually the most fun when it comes to the process of discovering them, while most of the simpler secrets have very fun contents.
Also just the humor of the game. Zelda was always pretty funny, Link to the Past leaned into it, but this is so lighthearted. It uses sound, animations, everything it has to add to it. Oh, and the pictures are a phenomenal addition. They are so pretty that they make me question how pretty could the Gameboy Color truly be at its best.
Love this game, love that it got its second wind in the form of a remake, love the direction it took the series in, love the weirdness, love every emotional and tonal whiplash, love the story so much, love the ending, love the dungeons, love the items, love the mechanics, love the art, love the humor, love the Mario, love the Link, love the little moments of peace and quiet, the ones of joy and laughter as well as the melancholy sinking in as you move along. Gameboy's masterpiece.