The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening - Nintendo Switch

PostWoke · 30-10-2019 6:30pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

What can I say, it's just fun. I enjoyed the original game immensely and the remake is just as fun. That's all a game really needs to be. And that ending is genuinely moving and it's the best Zelda game narratively other than Majora's Mask.

But how is it more fun than most of them?

And.. LA has a narrative? Because three instruments in and I've yet to come across it.

CiDeRmAn · 30-10-2019 6:51pm

Lots of shade for Links Awakening, not sure it deserves it.
I'd rather have a high quality 20 hours than a miserable 50 hours of generic questing.
Yes, the price point is about €20 too high, but it is, in my opinion, a lovely game regardless.
I wonder if many have used the dungeon creator thingy, what's it like?

sligeach · 30-10-2019 7:12pm

It's a terrific game. It's my favourite handheld game ever. My only issue is its price. I've no criticism of the game itself, well, maybe besides going with a different graphical style for the remake. It's a bit plasticy.

nedd · 30-10-2019 9:05pm

I'm just playing this for the first time. I finished Link to the Past on the SNES before starting. This is like a homage to Link to the Past. The map is similar, the enemies are similar.

I have to admit I am really enjoying it. I never had a SNES or N64 or Game Boy growing up (we were a Sega and Sony house) so this is my first real exposure to these games.

Ace Attorney · 31-10-2019 4:08am

People gotta remember this game was meant to fit on gameboy hense the shortness, new additions would be welcome, but didint happen, so at its essence it was a remake of a gameboy game

sligeach · 31-10-2019 9:22am

From Nintendo's latest quarterly earnings PR, Link's Awakening has sold 3.13 million copies since release on 20th September.

Retr0gamer · 31-10-2019 11:08am

PostWoke wrote: »

But how is it more fun than most of them?

And.. LA has a narrative? Because three instruments in and I've yet to come across it.

Mostly because it never wastes your time. You're straight into the action and that action and exploration never lets up. There's not a dull moment and the game never slows down for pointless exposition.

The game could be longer but it would end up like Okami and outstay its welcome. Sometimes a game is as long as it needs to be and LA is a great example of that. Too many modern games have a gameplay loop that's only good for 6 hours and stretch it thin over a massive open world and 80+ hours of gameplay and fail miserably.

And narratively, it's simple but effective.

Morally grey considering the world will be destroyed if link does the right thing and completes the tasks to finish the game.

Reminds me of Mother 3 or Secret of Mana but it's simple and effective here. I'd take LA over the more bloated 3D zeldas.

WeleaseWoderick · 31-10-2019 11:36am

I never really played the Gameboy original (apart from maybe a few minutes on a friend's copy) but I really enjoyed the remake.

Fully agreed though that it probably should have been a €40 game (I paid €50 for it) as I don't see much replayability and it is the only Switch game that I am considering trading in post-completion.

I'd love a new game made in that graphic style and wouldn't be surprised if that was something in the works.

sligeach · 31-10-2019 12:41pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The game could be longer but it would end up like Okami and outstay its welcome. Sometimes a game is as long as it needs to be and LA is a great example of that.

I think, though not completely sure, that the game might have been limited in size by having to fit on a 256KB cartridge at the time. That could be why it's so short.

PostWoke · 31-10-2019 12:50pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Mostly because it never wastes your time.

Except at the raccoon.

Except at the platform with the face.

Except with the crow.

Except getting into Yarna Desert, which I'm now having to look up a guide for. I have to say I LOVE all the obstacles in the world, the holes and the immovable rocks in the way. Yup, none of my time being wasted!

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You're straight into the action and that action and exploration never lets up. There's not a dull moment and the game never slows down for pointless exposition.

You JUST said the game has a great narrative a few days ago, which it doesn't. Which is it?

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The game could be longer but it would end up like Okami and outstay its welcome.

Please don't let this go on any longer than it has to, I want to trade it in asap and play LM3 instead.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

And narratively, it's simple but effective.

Here you are saying it again lmao.

There is practically no narrative here. 'Wake the Wind Fish' is it.

sligeach · 31-10-2019 12:54pm

Nintendo don't do great stories really, it's more about the gameplay. The "plots" for Mario games are especially awful. And I didn't think Okami outstayed its welcome. That was another brilliant game.

Star Lord · 31-10-2019 1:21pm

PostWoke wrote: »

Except at the raccoon.

Except at the platform with the face.

Except with the crow.

Except getting into Yarna Desert, which I'm now having to look up a guide for. I have to say I LOVE all the obstacles in the world, the holes and the immovable rocks in the way. Yup, none of my time being wasted!

If you can't get past something, you're either not equipped for it yet, or are going the wrong way. If you're resorting to guides, then the problem is you're not being spoon fed enough for your liking.

PostWoke wrote: »

You JUST said the game has a great narrative a few days ago, which it doesn't. Which is it?

These things are not mutually exclusive. Games can have great narrative and no pointless exposition.

PostWoke · 31-10-2019 1:22pm

sligeach wrote: »

Nintendo don't do great stories really, it's more about the gameplay.

OoT, Wind Waker, Majora's Mask, even Skyward Sword disagree with you. No they're not dense like a Final Fantasy or Metal Gear game, but those stories are very memorable. Metroid and Mario, yes, there's certainly less of that, maybe with the exception of Sunshine and the Metroid game that shall not be named.

Then of course you have the Mario RPG games, but I believe most if not all of those are not in-house productions? Not sure, never played them, keep meaning to.

Retr0gamer · 31-10-2019 5:34pm

PostWoke wrote: »

Except at the raccoon.

Except at the platform with the face.

Except with the crow.

Except getting into Yarna Desert, which I'm now having to look up a guide for. I have to say I LOVE all the obstacles in the world, the holes and the immovable rocks in the way. Yup, none of my time being wasted! .

I meant with annoying exposition which takes control away from the player. Not minor gameplay sequences that might have annoyed you. I think I made that very obvious so don't twist my words.

PostWoke wrote: »

You JUST said the game has a great narrative a few days ago, which it doesn't. Which is it?;

What are you talking about? Games can have great narrative without resorting to mountains of exposition. Super Metroid, ICO, Braid, Dark Souls and Shadow of The Colossus are other examples. Simple but effective is far more preferable than never ending cutscenes and lore codex.

PostWoke wrote: »

There is practically no narrative here. 'Wake the Wind Fish' is it.

I'm not wrong, just my definition of good narrative isn't as narrow as yours. Good narrative doesn't need mountains of text and exposition. Tell your story through gameplay and the environment. If you need too much exposition then you've either failed as a game designer or you're treating your audience as stupid.

sligeach wrote: »

Nintendo don't do great stories really, it's more about the gameplay.

The same company brought us Fire Emblem Genealogy of War, Earthbound, Mother 3 and Super Metroid to name a few. All narrative masterpeices.

PostWoke · 31-10-2019 7:43pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'm not wrong

You are, and you're just confusing yourself now too.

~~

I think the thing I hate most about the game is how constricting the overworld is. Trees, blocks and holes everywhere, too many to jump over, can't use the pegasus boots to run over them either. Picked up Marin to take her to the walrus, there was a transport platform just to the right, but no, ten holes between us and that, had to circle around to the village. So annoying. Far more constricting overworld than ALttP, and slightly more than Minish; there really is no excuse. Going for the fourth dungeon now, doing the rest with a guide so I can get rid of this disappointment asap. Really haven't disliked a Zelda apart from Twilight Princess, and maybe Phantom Hourglass because of the annoying tower.

Mr.Saturn · 31-10-2019 10:38pm

PostWoke wrote: »

Really haven't disliked a Zelda apart from Twilight Princess, and maybe Phantom Hourglass because of the annoying tower.

Actually been playing Twilight Princess and think I'm roughly halfway, not been super digging it. I'm guessing it doesn't get much better?

PostWoke · 31-10-2019 11:24pm

Nope. Not even a good game never mind a good Zelda. But I still recommend pushing through regardless, some worthwhile moments and dungeons.

sligeach · 01-11-2019 12:00am

Stop, please! There's no bad Zelda games, except one. Skyward Sword.

"Not even a good game never mind a good Zelda."

That's what you must have meant to say. It is simply...Awful! Awful! Awful!

Twilight Princess was and is a good game. The thing is, people were expecting the Second Coming, after OOT. Majora's Mask was great too, but that was different.

PostWoke · 01-11-2019 12:48am

sligeach wrote: »

Stop, please! There's no bad Zelda games, except one. Skyward Sword.

That's what you must have meant to say. It is simply...Awful! Awful! Awful!

Twilight Princess was and is a good game. The thing is, people were expecting the Second Coming, after OOT. Majora's Mask was great too, but that was different.

Skyward Sword is a beautiful game with great characters and Retro's favourite, narrative. It does have serious flaws, namely the late game backtracking the game absolutely didn't need (a WW length game would've been fine here) and the horrendously frustrating swordfighting boss fights. Also having to endure an item description for everything upon reset, I believe it was? Some people complain about the overworld, I don't see the difference between rolling around Termina Field and flying to points of interest myself.

Gorgeous gouache/ watercolour aesthetic, the second prettiest Zelda after WW, neither will ever age, great dungeons, including one that is pretty essential to understanding overarching Zelda lore, far superior collectathon sections compared to the awful bug hunting in TP, nice sidequests, fantastic music that is also contextual, and even a hint at the Zelda universe we know being a massive reset from another one that was completely destroyed, which I hope we see one day (Fi being much older than Skyward Sword but talking in percentages suggests an advanced, possibly Sci-Fi civilization).

Very much hope we see a straight remaster for Switch soon. I'm jonezing for SS, Metroid Trilogy, Mario Sunshine and Wind Waker HD on Switch.

sligeach · 01-11-2019 1:14am

Skyward Sword, being more honest is nearly trash in my view. If I was to list it's criticisms, it would take a long, long time. I was so hyped for it and loved every Zelda game, bought the Gold Wii remote Collectors Edition with soundtrack and, words, fail to describe the awfulness of it.

Fi, empty sky, poor mini-games, repeated boss battles, disjointed world, P1$$ poor instrument playing, muted nonexistent soundtrack, brutal final boss, areas of the game rehashed for several purposes, dowsing, sidequests were muck. I'm not exaggerating, I was glad and looking forward to the game ending, long before it happened, I was that disappointed.

I love Zelda to bits, but I have no idea how people and sites gave it a free pass. There were sites that gave it perfect scores, seriously, WTF? I would gladly see it removed from the timeline. BOTW was a monumental return to form.

PostWoke · 01-11-2019 1:36am

sligeach wrote: »

empty sky

Lots of islands in the sky. Less so than WW for sure.

sligeach wrote: »

repeated boss battles

Let's not pretend SS is Halo 5 here eh, there's plenty of unique bosses.

sligeach wrote: »

muted nonexistent soundtrack

Skyward Sword is by far the largest Zelda soundtrack, at well over a hundred tracks. This argument is also unfair in BoTW.

sligeach wrote: »

I love Zelda to bits, but I have no idea how people and sites gave it a free pass. There were sites that gave it perfect scores, seriously, WTF? I would gladly see it removed from the timeline. BOTW was a monumental return to form.

I feel this way about LA. BoTW is near flawless but also has its' flaws, namely very samey shrines, dungeons, dungeon bosses and the final boss having no character. Of course, we know why now, it wasn't so much Ganondorf as a pure manifestation of his malice. Very much hoping they get BoTW2 out for Christmas next year with a Switch Pro of some description, special Zelda edition wouldn't go amiss either.

CiDeRmAn · 01-11-2019 8:21am

I get that there appear to be strong opinions but can we remember that they are all just that, opinions?
Everyone has their favourite and least favourite LoZ title, and they often differ, from person to person.
Everyone is convinced too at the truth of their claim.

But, let's not let things get heated, please.

Rhyme · 01-11-2019 10:01am

Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, Princess.

#squadala

PostWoke · 01-11-2019 2:17pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

But, let's not let things get heated, please.

? I see no heat whatsoever tbh. Just ideas being clearly communicated and shared, the whole point of message boards.

manual_man · 01-11-2019 2:28pm

Has this been patched yet?

sligeach · 01-11-2019 2:28pm

PostWoke wrote: »

? I see no heat whatsoever tbh. Just ideas being clearly communicated and shared, the whole point of message boards.

I don't think he's saying things are heated, just to be careful not to let it happen. I too didn't have a problem with anyone's opinion, no matter how clearly wrong they are.

Corholio · 01-11-2019 3:12pm

PostWoke wrote: »

? I see no heat whatsoever tbh. Just ideas being clearly communicated and shared, the whole point of message boards.

I think it's just that opinions about Skyward Sword seem to pop up quite often, often in unrelated threads, and it ends up being the same tired things dragged back and forth.

PostWoke · 01-11-2019 3:31pm

manual_man wrote: »

Has this been patched yet?

Also it's a disgrace how long it took for even one patch, and it didn't help performance at all from what I can see, no idea what it did, but yes, there was a small one.

sligeach wrote: »

I don't think he's saying things are heated, just to be careful not to let it happen. I too didn't have a problem with anyone's opinion, no matter how clearly wrong they are.

I know, imagine someone saying SS has no soundtrack when the soundtrack has 243 separate tracks! ;P

chrislad · 01-11-2019 3:57pm

PostWoke wrote: »

Also it's a disgrace how long it took for even one patch, and it didn't help performance at all from what I can see, no idea what it did, but yes, there was a small one.

I know, imagine someone saying SS has no soundtrack when the soundtrack has 243 separate tracks! ;P

I've actually never played Skyward Sword, bar the opening area, just couldn't get into it, and at the time, other things took precedence. That said, Breath of the Wild has a massive soundtrack too, and for the life of me, I can't recall one of the tunes, whereas the Great Sea theme from Wind Waker, as well as its opening theme, has lingered far longer.

PostWoke · 01-11-2019 5:50pm

chrislad wrote: »

I've actually never played Skyward Sword, bar the opening area, just couldn't get into it, and at the time, other things took precedence. That said, Breath of the Wild has a massive soundtrack too, and for the life of me, I can't recall one of the tunes, whereas the Great Sea theme from Wind Waker, as well as its opening theme, has lingered far longer.

Yeah I also didn't finish SS at the time, not until years later. Life got in the way, had to start again too, but ran a rip through Dolphin for it the second time, with a Mayflash remote sensor. Looked incredible at 1080p.

BoTW does indeed get the same criticism soundtrack wise. The two that stick out to me is the grassland region and especially the snowy region and theme, as well as the one that plays when you're following the torches to get to the master sword, that one is very memorable and atmospheric, made the whole scene. Love me some bamboo windchimes :P

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening - Nintendo Switch

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