The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - now in stop-motion!

Oh this just looks chuffing adorable. Way to make me want a twenty-year-old game!

The art style will take a bit of getting used to - christ, I feel like a Zelda fan when Wind Waker released! - but Link's Awakening is my second favourite 2D Zelda behind ALBW, so this is 100% worth playing. And that goes double if you've not played the original!

I've started Links Awakening many a time but always bounced off it- I don't have a great track record with pre-DS 2D Zelda games - so hopefully this will be the ticket. I thought it looked cute enough.

Loved the art style for this & like Jay this is one of my favourite 2d Zelda games, though I did see some say they weren't keen on how it looked but I think it's just a bit of disconnect because of the amazing animated intro.

It's my own fault because as soon as the rumours started dropping for a 2D Zelda to be announced I instantly imagined something like ALBW's art style but with a cleaner look due to the Switch's extra oomph. I imagine Link's Awakening will grow on me visually over time.

Not feeling it so far as I’ve bounced off Awakening but I’m sure I’ll love it when I play it

Sent from Topic'it App

I've been raving about this on GRcade already, but basically it looks perfect and I am so damn excited

Link's Awakening is not only the best Zelda game, it's my favourite game of all time

I was thinking the same as Jay, ALBW but HD'd not this. I reckon when I'm playing it, it will be cool and it's Zelda I always buy Zelda even the rubbish ones.

Y'know what? I really like that they can take risks with the visuals of a series that is this big, you can't really imagine any other dev other than Nintendo doing that & still having the majority of the fans on board/excited.

I get what they're going for with the art style (especially with what Link's Awakening is), but only time and experience with the game will tell if it suits it or not. Will the photo-realistic stopmotion graphics be able to convey a proper Zelda feel? Time will tell.

Jay mentioned it, but I'm getting serious Wind Waker vibes from all you moaners. Athrun's stance is perhaps the correct one, but I think it looks wonderful. Like I could reach into the Switch screen and pick Link up!

Link's Awakening wasn't my favourite - I played it a bit too late in the day to be nostalgic. But in my mind that's exactly what a "2D" Zelda game should look like in this era - chuck awesome lighting at stylised models. I'm on board for this one. Hoot indeed

Drunkalilly wrote:

I've started Links Awakening many a time but always bounced off it- I don't have a great track record with pre-DS 2D Zelda games - so hopefully this will be the ticket. I thought it looked cute enough.

Same, this looks like the perfect excuse to go for it.

If this remake gets some of you to appreciate the true majesty of Link's Awakening then I am very happy

This is going to be a day one purchase for me. What I would quite like to see is the option to have the old music from the GameBoy game. It was a nice feature that they put into HG/SS on the DS.
I do hope the camera can be moved up a bit though, more to the angle that they used in A Link Between Worlds.

A music option would be cool, although I'm certainly going to be playing with the new music first time round regardless. I'm interested if they keep the alternate music easter egg when you enter your name as ZELDA, or if Totaka's song still plays if you wait around in Richard's Villa

Would you be able to draw the entire Koholint map from memory OR? Just curious.

Hah, I probably could do a worryingly decent attempt

I restarted the game on 3DS a couple of nights ago but I almost immediately started messing about with the kennel world glitch. I have vague hopes of them deliberately including an easter egg related to it in the remake...

Kudos to Nintendo for what might be their riskiest remake yet. Link's Awakening is already essentially perfect and it's the epitome of minimalist Game Boy design, with gorgeous black and white visuals (arguably not enhanced by colour in the DX remake) and not a single map square wasted.

I'll probably be skipping this as I revisited the game on Game Boy Pocket earlier in the year (never played the black and white original before), but it will be interesting to see if Nintendo will let the original stand on its own or whether they won't be able to resist adding stuff in to justify a full price release.

The new art direction makes a lot of sense, but at the same time it doesn't:

- Yes, the character models have to be chibi. Despite the overall melancholic tone, LA also plays a lot within its limitations. There's that moment where Link holds Marin above his head when they go on a date 'You got Marin!', and the trading quest is full of quick, funny exchanges. This just wouldn't work if they made the proportions more realistic, and the simpler overworld design could look comically bare as it does in Let's Go.

- But I'm not sure why all the models look a bit like windup toys. The materials aren't great either - with the HD resolution it's also very easy to see every object for what it is (these plastic-y objects) instead of let your imagination fill in the gaps. With the Game Boy original and it's puny 160 x 160 resolution screen, those sprites and backgrounds appeared extremely rich and detailed while still being a representation of something else - your imagination fills in the gaps. I think that has been lost here, and it's not that fitting of the dream-like setting either.

As somebody who didn't play it back in the day, I have to admit that I bounced off the original LA when it came to DS VC, and part of that was the GB hardware. Sue me, I'm shallow and you're not.

You've just got to give it some time I think. But really, I'm the same - there's something about GB games on 3DS which doesn't do them justice. I tried Mole Mania back when it came out on 3DS virtual console and didn't get absorbed by it, but when played on an actual GB it really does feel at home.

Maybe it's just our shorter attention spans, and how old consoles force you to focus solely on the one game in the cartridge slot.

It's probably that the 3DS has loads of buttons but the game only lets you use two. That's going to be such a big quality of life change.

fronkhead wrote:

Maybe it's just our shorter attention spans, and how old consoles force you to focus solely on the one game in the cartridge slot.

I think it's probably that to be honest. Also I'm less inclined to fill in gaps with my imagination when so many games do a great job of painting in those gaps.

fronkhead wrote:

With the Game Boy original and it's puny 160 x 160 resolution screen, those sprites and backgrounds appeared extremely rich and detailed while still being a representation of something else - your imagination fills in the gaps. I think that has been lost here, and it's not that fitting of the dream-like setting either.

That's a concern I've got as well - there was something very cosy, for want of a better word, about playing through Link's Awakening which I reckon might be lost in the visual upgrade on Switch. It'll be cute, but it might not have that same wondrous feel about it.

That's always hard to capture again with any game that is remade though, nothing will ever beat that first playthrough of a game you loved.