Extremely ambitious in terms of size, storytelling and aesthetics. It is indeed a significant achievement in software development and game design that something like that even existed on the Game Boy so early in its lifespan. The black and white graphics are absolutely gorgeous--they fit the "dream" aesthetic wonderfully and leave a lot to be imagined by the player. Dungeons get extremely complex and labyrinthine near the end of the game, and the final boss fight is one of the coolest and most difficult I've ever experienced in retro gaming. Really well encapsulates the quintessential "frustrating and confusing, but satisfying and engaging"

Some of its structure frustrated me a bit; the overworld is filled with random cul-de-sacs and can be extremely frustrating to navigate even w/ the map and warps. Imagine Dark World in ALTTP but twice as difficult to navigate. At times this made me disconnect from the game and brought me significant frustration as there is so much backtracking and getting lost. Some puzzles in the dungeons are pretty dumb too, i.e. there is some Zelda 1-esque "go bomb this random wall that has no cracks" bullshit in some dungeons, which is unforgiveable in my mind for a game released after ALTTP.

Yet, Link's Awakening is indeed a statement in story telling for Zelda, it's difficult, and it's one of the most beautiful Game Boy games I've seen. It's a great game in many regards, and I definitlely want to try playing the remaster in the future.