This is such a great all-around Zelda game and isn’t a huge time commitment either. It’s very linear but there’s plenty of random mini games and shops to explore. It also is a very special and unique Nintendo game and incorporates an early looking version of Kirby and has chain chomps from Mario. The art direction is “toy style” and it’s incredibly polished. It’s really one of those remakes where they didn’t cut any corners.
It’s a great game, but it’s also “baby’s first Zelda” in terms of game mechanics. It’s the first Zelda game my kid managed to play through on their own, and then when I had them try out LoZ, AoL, LttP, etc. they couldn’t believe that you couldn’t just bump into enemies without getting hurt by raising your shield.
It’s far easier than even the Gameboy original, because back in the original you only had two buttons to assign items/equipment to, including the sword and shield, and the run boots weren’t an inherent ability but rather were just another item to assign to one of your two buttons.
In the remake you can simultaneously use your sword, shield, jump feather, run boots, and I believe one more item to boot. It makes it literal child’s play compared to other Zelda games.
That said… I wish they would remake more of them like that, because it is a great looking and fun to play game.
I would love remakes of Oracle of Ages/Seasons in the art style of the Link’s Awakening remake.
I swear I just watched a trailer for that tonight… may want to do a quick search on your preferred video platform!
I see that they are coming to Switch Online, but I don’t see remakes. :(
You say “it’s linear” like it’s some disadvantage. I would gladly play a new linear Zelda again with huge dungeons and plenty of related puzzles. I loved botw and botw2 but it’s just missing something, every mechanic, every puzzle is a one-off. Nothing depends on anything else.
I played the original to dead and loved the remake.
Easily my #2 of my favorite LoZ of all time.
Especially the music in this game is just so awesome. I still get goosebumps when I hear the end credits roll or ballad of the windfish. The 8 bit version just blew me away when I first heard it, it’s so freaking awesome. The remake was fanatically done, even the end credits scene paid homage to the 8 bit version. Also imho the best version of the LoZ main theme still to this day
Also we see Link’s true dream girl, Marin. The first girl in the series we see that showed interest in Link. My headcanon is that, when link ever will meet his demise, he will go and be with Marin forever. In seagull form or whatever they choose.
The music in the credits was unbelievable (and the music throughout of course)
I didn’t know the story going on and found it very poignant. It made me cry. Whenever I hear the music I tear up a little. It’s a gut punch of music that already sounds very somber yet hopeful combined with the characters embracing their obliteration because they know they’ll still exist in your memories. Then when it’s all said and done you just see Link on a boat and you realize the reason the art style is different in the intro and outro.
I would LOVE to see a feature film in that art style (at the end).
Definitely one of the best remakes. They should remake the Oracles games in this style.
I just finished BotW and wanted to give it some time to breathe before picking up TotK. I totally forgot about this one and will be picking it up soon
I wish they would remake the Oracle games in the same way.
I’m still not 100% sure if I like the art style. I do think it looks cute and it is very polished (in more ways than one). I would’ve liked to see something perhaps a little bit closer to the photographs taken throughout the game. Other than the visuals, there was just a lot of expression in Link’s face in those photographs, and the style we got makes the characters feel a little bit rigid.
That said, the game will always be quite special to me, so no matter what the graphics, just visiting Koholint island is such a good vibe. A fun and concise game, no more and no less than is necessary to make for a memorable adventure and a perfect setting.
I hope we get new 2D adventures that share this kind of spirit of Zelda that the 3D games are just too big to capture.
How did you feel about Links Awakening HD’s art compared to Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl’s seeing as they’re both remakes of games from a (somewhat) similar art style.
I honestly did not like BDSP’s art style. It somewhat had that same “toyish” vibe, but I feel like it didn’t suit that game anywhere near as much as it did Link’s Awakening, nevermind that it lacked a lot of the visual polish LA HD had. I get that it was meant to be the proportions of the original sprites but in 3D, but if they wanted to remain faithful to the original pixel art, I think an octopath-like visual style could have been an interesting route to take.
I remember as a kid the tower dungeon towards the end frustrated the hell out of me. There was one puzzle with dropping stone (?) down holes and I could never get it right. Finally had to get my friend’s Nintendo Power to show me the way.
Currently playing the original on a GBC emulator and it holds up incredibly well. Love the game!
must have been a fun 45 minutes!
