Review for The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 20/09/2019
Please remember this song, and remember me too. A short sentence full of meaning that embodies all the essence of a romantic adventure, full of twists, full of meaning and with the ability to involve the player in depth as only the titles of the past can do. We are talking about The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening or better than the remastering for Nintendo Switch of that small masterpiece released in the summer of '93 on the Game Boy and later in 1998 on the Game Boy Color (for the occasion, a colorful themed dungeon was also added to enhance the experience on the then futuristic portable color console of Nintendo).
Today you will be able to relive the adventures of our beloved Link on Koholint Island together with his friend Marin and a thousand other fantastic creatures.
After the 1991 NES hit of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, art director Takashi Tezuka longed for a spiritual following for the Japanese handheld console that was currently experiencing its moment of glory. However, he did not want to belittle the series: the well-known art director wanted a complete, full and rich title. Thus was born The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. The story continues exactly after the departure of Link, who has just emerged victorious from the battle with Ganon at a time of a sort of spiritual journey aimed at increasing his experience and his ability to fight. Returning from this little pilgrimage our hero finds himself battling an unprecedented storm and we know that when Mother Nature is raging, defeat is inevitable. Link is doomed, nothing can save him: death is inevitable.
Fortunately, fate comes to his aid and deposits his battered remains on Koholint beach, where a sweet and carefree girl named Marin is strolling. Having met our hero, her heart leaps in her chest: all her life she has been told that beyond the sea there is nothing and now, finally, she has living proof that this is not true. In helping the boy she will give life to a series of events that will see her discover the secrets of the island, thanks above all to our little Link who will have the task of exploring the new land from top to bottom.
The adventure of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening takes place entirely on the island of Koholint and sees our hero relentlessly looking for a way to wake the Windfish from its long sleep which - according to the inhabitants - others not the protagonist of an ancient legend and the only true being able to allow our young hero to continue his journey to Hyrule. It sounds easy, but it isn't. Link will have to recover the Eight Magic Instruments of the Sirens hidden in as many dungeons: they are in fact the only sure way to wake the ancient and sacred Wind Fish from its lethargy. Armed only with his sword and his trusty shield, Link must get busy.
As the adventure progresses, objects will be found that can give us access to previously closed areas, and the recovery of these objects is closely linked both to the secondary requests of the various NPCs and to the solution of the eight dungeons (plus some surprises) in which, of course, eight guardians are in charge of defending the enchanted instruments. Will our hero succeed in his enterprise? This is up to you.
The structure of the island, its exploration and fighting are the classics of this type of game. The shield, if raised, will defend us from most frontal attacks, while the sword will allow us to counterattack. A long press of the attack button will create the classic spin attack that series aficionados are used to. But don't worry, you will also find all the other weapons typical of the other chapters of the series such as bombs, arrows, and even the inevitable boomerang. Of course there will be many obstacles that, at least at the beginning, will prevent our hero from accessing entire sections of the game: many of these will be overcome only after having satisfied certain requirements or after having acquired some objects.
Roc's feather will allow you to jump, Pegasus's boots to run and the Power Bracelet to lift and throw objects. Obviously these are just a few examples of the objects you will encounter along the way, and which will become trusted allies throughout the history of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
Each dungeon you will face will be excellently characterized and typical, made with obsessive care (as only the products of the time could do, Ed) and composed of environmental puzzles and typical monsters. It will therefore be necessary to have patience and to study the playing field well in order to be able to bring our hero to fight the mini boss and then the boss placed to protect the magical tool of the moment.
The structure of the path while varying from time to time remains constant: face a series of environmental puzzles and enemies, face the mini boss by recovering the Great Key or the object that will allow you to continue, go to the boss and kill him.
Each boss has its own attack pattern, easily identifiable and with its own weak point to hit; the difficulty is never too high and paying a minimum of attention you can at least die once or twice: in this case you will be brought back to the beginning of the dungeon with half of the hearts and in your pocket everything you had collected before the departure. You just have to go back to where you died and pay more attention.
Furthermore, many of our opponents fish with both hands from the Mario Bros basin: we will therefore find the enemies and friends typical of the series and even homages in the form of levels in two-dimensional view that strongly wink at the levels of our dear friend the plumber . Seeing Link take on them will make even the toughest gamer smile.
But how does The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening differ from the original 1993 product and its '98 color version? In little and nothing to tell the truth, but certainly this cannot be defined as a defect. The whole adventure will be basically the same (including the colorful themed dungeon born for the DX version), apart from a balance of difficulty and the possibility of creating our own customizable dungeons. Thanks to a chance encounter with a caveman with obvious language difficulties, we will have the opportunity to build our levels. Just go to his cave and tell him about our adventures: each solved dungeon will correspond to his creation of new tiles. These can be combined to create new routes in a fictional map, which will be automatically filled with enemies and treasures. By facing these maps we will therefore be able to accumulate rupees and secret items that will facilitate us during the adventure and that will increase the replayability of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
Even if it doesn't seem like a revolutionary feature, the possibility of combining different screens of the various dungeons allows you to create exciting and engaging ones as much as the original ones.
Let's now take a look at what has often been called a remastering but which is actually a completely new production, albeit identical to the original. Everything has been redesigned with incredible love and care. The game map sparks color and movement in every pixel giving a feeling of absolute new, thanks also to the fact that there are no more transitions between one screen and another (except for the inside of the dungeons).
To give an example, once to regrow the grass that often hides hearts and rupees you had to switch from one screen to the adjacent one and then retrace your steps. In the new version of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening this no longer happens and the grass grows back as soon as the shot makes it go out. Everything is fluid and elegant thus giving a cartoon sensation that involves and pleases, also thanks to a soundtrack faithful to the original and beautifully adapted.
Going then to analyze the framerate drops that are being discussed on the web in recent days we must admit that the rumors in this regard correspond to the truth. Having the entire game map available with almost no transitions and with an active camera that changes its angle to allow the player not to have moments in which the protagonist disappears, the drops are there and they can be seen. In dungeons, however, thanks to transitions, this almost never appears. Does this undermine the gaming experience by invalidating movements or creating annoying situations? Absolutely not.
After playing the entire adventure, whose duration settles on 15 - 18 hours without counting the dungeons you created and if you don't ruin the experience by reading guides, we can say that the problem of framerate drops is completely irrelevant. We understand that in a world where stable 60 FPS and photorealistic graphics are the heights to aspire to a title like The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening can make us turn up our noses, but the ability to excite and involve are not subject to framerates or details. graphics and this title is the confirmation. In the evaluation phase, the player can take into account today's videogame context by subtracting ten points from our final judgment, or he can decide to consider the title for its ability to transport the player on a dream adventure that still touches the soul today. deep.
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is the new, remastered, adventure for Nintendo Switch of that masterpiece that came out in '93 for the Game Boy. Keeping all its magic intact, linked in part to history and in part to the way of creating titles typical of the time, this adventure enchants and amazes today as yesterday. Reliving the adventures of link in search of the way to awaken the Windfish from its sleep accompanies the player in an incredible way along an exciting and mature story able to excite and entertain. Highly recommended to fans of the saga and not, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is a rare gem, which comes from a distant era to refresh today's landscape with courage and sweetness as only Link can do.
► The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is an Adventure type game developed and published by Nintendo for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 20/09/2019
