The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening REMAKE — 20th September 2019

[Julius]

6 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

snip

11 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

It's hardly intended for you to lodge Bow-Wow in the doorway to a phone booth and go to the next screen, but if you do, he'll catch up. Simples.

12 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

Have you played Scarlet/Violet? 

I haven't, but yeah, as @Ike says, not first-party.

As he also said: 

8 minutes ago, Ike said:

and technically neither is the Link's Awakening remake.

Sure, it's developed by Grezzo, I'm still playing the game and don't think I've seen their name mentioned yet 

Still, though, there's plenty more incentive for a Zelda game - and the first Zelda game released following Breath of the Wild - to run well than the is for a Pokémon game, though, not to mention that it's a remake of a Game Boy game. I'm just surprised that this release will turn 5 years old later this year and that it still has these performance issues 

[darksnowman]

9 minutes ago, Julius said:

I'm just surprised that this release will turn 5 years old later this year and that it still has these performance issues 

It hits a bottleneck on what, six out of 256 island screens...? Disappointing, yes. Should they have optimised it before launch or after with an update? Yes. Does it bring the game down? I'd venture it doesn't.

[Glen-i]

Is that the sound of someone confused about what The Pokémon Company is?

So @Ike is the more accurate of the two, but even he's overstating how much influence Nintendo have over the development of a mainline Pokémon game. Nintendo publish and distribute the mainline games, while also providing stuff like dev kits, and some funding. But they barely participate in actual development these days. We are far away from the days of Iwata coming in and shoving an entire second region into a Game Boy cartridge.

With something like Link's Awakening, Nintendo will have someone closely overseeing the project, because Zelda is an IP that is entirely under their ownership, so they have incentive to make sure it meets their guidelines.

As far as Nintendo is concerned, Scarlet/Violet's atrocious performance is nothing to do with them. They published and distributed the game. People were able to buy it, so they did their job. And it sold gangbusters, so why should they care?

Have you ever wondered why we got Pokémon Stadium and Puzzle League on NSO, but not a single mainline game? It's because Nintendo developed those games, so they don't have to get the go-ahead of The Pokémon Company to put them up.

Long story short, Cadence of Hyrule is more of a first party game then Pokémon.

Edited February 5 by Glen-i

[Julius]

1 minute ago, darksnowman said:

It hits a bottleneck on what, six out of 256 island screens...?

I've definitely seen bottlenecks on more than six screens and I'm less than halfway through the game, so that's definitely not true. 

2 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Should they have optimised it before launch or after with an update? Yes.

So we agree. 

2 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Does it bring the game down? I'd venture it doesn't.

Don't recall saying it does, just saying that it doesn't leave a great first impression and that it's a shame that the performance problems persist to this day. Pretty objective performance issues, by the way. 

It's also, I think, the only slight negative in my very first post about the game, besides the depth of field perhaps being turned up a bit too high and being disappointed by the lack of options in the settings to tone this down? I've mentioned performance issues when they're noticeable in pretty much every other game I've posted about on here for years, typically in first impressions posts, so, sorry, this is a first for me. The rest of my post is filled with praise, and I'm having a great time with it. I definitely can't say that for every game I've made first impressions posts for. 

Goodness knows what the reaction is going to be if I talk about something more subjective, like not enjoying a dungeon, some boss fight, or some other aspect of the game  maybe I'll just keep my thoughts to myself until I'm done with the game rather than leave impressions as I go through as I normally like to do. 

[Glen-i]

47 minutes ago, Julius said:

maybe I'll just keep my thoughts to myself until I'm done with the game rather than leave impressions as I go through as I normally like to do. 

Nope, nuh-uh, I'm not standing for that.

Do give your impressions! If you can't give thoughts about a playthrough of a game in a thread dedicated to said game, then what's the bloody point of this forum!?

You're not declaring the game irredeemable rubbish because of some frame rate hiccups like a lot of internet discourse, so your opinion has some value. I wanna know!

Edited February 5 by Glen-i

[EEVILMURRAY]

53 minutes ago, Julius said:

Goodness knows what the reaction is going to be if I talk about something more subjective, like not enjoying a dungeon, some boss fight, or some other aspect of the game  maybe I'll just keep my thoughts to myself until I'm done with the game rather than leave impressions as I go through as I normally like to do. 

Mention how shit the dungeon maker thing is. I'll back you 100%

[darksnowman]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

I've definitely seen bottlenecks on more than six screens and I'm less than halfway through the game, so that's definitely not true. 

So we agree. 

Don't recall saying it does, just saying that it doesn't leave a great first impression and that it's a shame that the performance problems persist to this day. Pretty objective performance issues, by the way. 

It's also, I think, the only slight negative in my very first post about the game, besides the depth of field perhaps being turned up a bit too high and being disappointed by the lack of options in the settings to tone this down? I've mentioned performance issues when they're noticeable in pretty much every other game I've posted about on here for years, typically in first impressions posts, so, sorry, this is a first for me. The rest of my post is filled with praise, and I'm having a great time with it. I definitely can't say that for every game I've made first impressions posts for. 

Goodness knows what the reaction is going to be if I talk about something more subjective, like not enjoying a dungeon, some boss fight, or some other aspect of the game  maybe I'll just keep my thoughts to myself until I'm done with the game rather than leave impressions as I go through as I normally like to do. 

Thought it was just the swamp is dogged () with slowdown. Granted, the last time I played this remake was 18 months ago so I'll have to try to go over it with a fine tooth comb this summer but I already know it's a long, long way from showing any semblance of falling apart at the seams. So when you say it's "a bit of a mess from a technical POV", "a bit" is doing a lot of work, imo. 

I suppose observations such as "pretty noticeably the jankiest Nintendo first-party game" shows the high bar they've set? 

Like, if you get too close to a hole you'll start to slip in. If you try to land on the sliver of ground between two holes, you won't have any footing and you'll slip in. Is this jank, poor technical performance or just how the game works? I always thought it was the latter.

Blog the rest of your playthrough.  If you don't know the game, you're likely going to get stuck at one point and by the end you'll be a weeping, quivering wreck.

32 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

Mention how shit the dungeon maker thing is. I'll back you 100%

Traitor!

[Jonnas]

On 03/02/2024 at 10:22 PM, Julius said:

Not to get caught up on it too much, as I'm having a great time with the game, but I'd be surprised if their intention was for him to get caught on a tree off-screen and snap to you like this

Depends on whether their intention was to replicate the glitch. If so, they successfully replicated Bow-Wow getting stuck in a tree. In the original, he'd snap back to you as soon as you moved into another screen (typical GB behaviour, really), so this brute-forced "fix" looked natural. Looking at the video you posted, it looks like replicating the original "fix" makes it look like he teleported, more unnatural than ever Even considering their intention, I do think they should've at least made it so Bow-Wow runs back to you when he's off-screen: replicating the "feeling" of that glitch is more important than replicating the exact behaviour.

Regarding getting stuck in gaps between holes... I haven't played the remake. In the original, it was common for those in-between holes to feel like quicksand that just maaaaybe escape if you were quick enough. I hear this is actually something they changed in the remake, as Link snaps into the hole far more definitely (Michael Damiani in particular lamented that this lead to the loss of certain unintended shortcuts from the original game). I'm not sure if what you experienced is a by-product of that change.

Finally, I love hearing your impressions, and I do hope you'll keep posting them. When you dive into a game, you go all the way, and I love reading about it.

[Ashley]

9 hours ago, Glen-i said:

We are far away from the days of Iwata coming in and shoving an entire second region into a Game Boy cartridge.

For ummm... Many reasons

[Julius]

Finally got back to this today, completed the fifth dungeon. I'll admit I think that's probably the weakest dungeon I've completed so far; it's not bad, by any means, it just felt like so much of a chore to traverse compared to the four earlier dungeons because it felt like each room had an obstacle which was placed there purely to slow you down, which is fine the first time through, but not so much when you're backtracking as much as you (rightly) end up doing in some of these dungeons. 

Yeah, some of the stuff they seemingly decided to keep in the transition from 2D to 3D continues to be pretty odd, I agree with the idea @Jonnas that they've perhaps chosen to be too faithful to the original game in some regards, so it feels a bit weird when the GB-ness of it all comes to the fore when there are so many QoL improvements made, like how a certain enemy which looks like a Bidoof with a rock tied to its head needs to be hit from behind, so you hit it from behind, but you go for another hit when it still hasn't turned around and – suddenly, it has turned around, and it's rock tied to its head has protected it  also encountered a bug where the music from the overworld followed me into a cave and both tracks decided to duke it out in a cacophany of confusion, only happened once, but again, it just jumps out purely because its Zelda and this feels below the level of polish I've come to expect from these games. And yes, the frame rate issues have persisted; no, it's not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying. 

Elsewhere, the overworld exploration just keeps getting these layers added to it with every new item unlocked, and while it's not my first Zelda rodeo, it being my first 2D Zelda, I feel like you have a much more explicit sense of when and where to start using these new tools after getting them, purely because the game is, obviously, smaller than, say, Ocarina of Time. It's the condensed nature of the game that I'm liking quite a lot, actually, because it just helps to keep pushing you forwards – in fact I think it's because of this that the fifth dungeon feels comparatively weaker than the ones before it, it just doesn't feel as well paced. 

Anyways, game is great. But the real highlight for me so far has been the soundtrack. 

Oh. 

My. 

Word.

(that picture he got sent has me dying btw)

What a soundtrack. It just feels so intimate and diverse in how silly it allows itself to get, which is very different to the subtlety of the music in BotW and TotK, and the very delineated OoT score, which has plenty of nuance but is much more traditionally bombastic, heroic, and, well, legend-evoking. 

I realise I've still got a good bit of the game left but, well, I know thanks to placing a phone call that the Face Shrine is next up, which I have heard before and am very much looking forward to experiencing in the game, and with the game mentioning it so much, I'm expecting a nice payoff when I finally get to hear the Ballad of the Wind Fish in all its glory. 

Feels obvious where this is all going and has been for some while, but to put pen to paper (pixels to screen?)...

Spoiler

So, this is all a dream, everyone's going to disappear when we wake up (now, is this Link's dream or this Wind Fish's dream?) and it's going to get all melancholic and weird. 

Part of that is having heard the Face Shrine track when I commented before and stitching my interpretation of that onto this, but there are also all the little things.

The existence of the Dream Shrine that I encountered in my last session, and the Magnifying Glass making enemies I saw there now turn up. Marin saying that it's weird that they have palm trees because Tarin says that there's nothing beyond the sea. The weirdness of other Nintendo IP creeping in. A trade sequence which is completely nonsensical in a way which would only make perfect sense in a dream. The Nightmare Keys. And so on. 

Heading towards the Face Shrine now, even bosses seem to be hinting pretty heavily that something is amiss. 

No-one confirm that, obviously, I don't want to be spoiled but I would also like to be wrong and have it noted for all eternity if I am  

Edited February 11 by Julius

[Dcubed]

@Julius, you can alleviate some of the performance issues by installing the game onto the Switch's internal storage, rather than the SD Card; assuming that you have the digital version here.  Seems that most of the hitching is caused by the game trying to stream new data in on the fly.

Glad you're enjoying it though.  Link's Awakening is probably the most condensed game in the series, it's small-scale by design and it's all the better for it

Edited February 11 by Dcubed

[Julius]

6 hours ago, Dcubed said:

@Julius, you can alleviate some of the performance issues by installing the game onto the Switch's internal storage, rather than the SD Card; assuming that you have the digital version here.  Seems that most of the hitching is caused by the game trying to stream new data in on the fly.

Unfortunately I've got the game physically I say unfortunately, but I did get the game for free through a work rewards programme, so it's hard to complain too much 

That's kind of crazy to hear about it potentially being a data streaming issue, I guess it's still a drawback with physical media in the modern age but it seems like such a rare occurrence that, man, it just sucks and is kind of unfortunate if that is the issue here! 

[EEVILMURRAY]

Maybe I've been lucky, but I didn't notice much in the way of bugs/glitches at all. Except for a knight boss near the face shrine

[Julius]

32 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

Maybe I've been lucky, but I didn't notice much in the way of bugs/glitches at all. Except for a knight boss near the face shrine

Probably a bit of luck and, as others have suggested, some things I perceived as "glitches" may just be really awkward-looking solutions or much too faithful carry-overs from the original game which for whatever weren't revisited when remaking the game. I think the reason it's flagging for me perhaps more than others, too, is simply because this is my first time playing Link's Awakening in any form; the BowWow weirdness I thought was a glitch seems like it might be just a faithful solution used in the remake.  

Besides that, I am pretty sensitive to frame rate drops and inconsistencies, as they can sometimes even make me feel a bit sick if it's inconsistent enough (often coupled with some visual design decisions which don't help, but this generally applies to third-person games and mostly to first-person, not so much top-down), and bugs/glitches/visual and audio weirdness I just tend to take quick notice of generally, too. It's actually a bit of a pain because, especially when playing new releases fresh off the production line (on the Switch or elsewhere), they're buggy as hell most of the time these days, and generally speaking are much worse from third-party developers.

Nintendo-published games are generally fine, besides the last couple of remakes I've played developed by third parties (Grezzo for this and ILCA for the Diamond & Pearl remakes). Even in instances like Breath of the Wild, which has terrible drops in certain forested areas, it doesn't feel too bad for me because of the camera perspective generally being pushed so far back and wide, as well as the art style, whereas I remember wanting to hurl after my first session with Dragon Quest XI when running through tall grass didn't exactly help the frame rate, before a patch was released which fixed it. 

The Unfinished Swan was the absolute worst for this, though. You're surrounded by white nothingness early on and very little (or no) colour in first-person. Just, no thanks. I only played the first hour and though I'm sure I'd like it based on how much I enjoyed their other game, What Remains of Edith Finch, I'm never touching that game again. 

Maybe there's a further discussion to be had here about sensitivities when it comes to bugs/glitches, frame rate and visual design, because if nothing else it's interesting to see how others process these same things. I wish it was a case of me nitpicking (and it kind of is), but these things basically barge their way into my enjoyment of a game in some way because they're so apparent to me, which is often why they get mentioned at least once early on if I play a game with those sorts of issues. 

[Julius]

Completed the Face Shrine  which means I can now say I've heard this masterpiece in-game! 

Little creepy how accurate a lot of this was. Yet another win for Dies Irae I guess  

Anyways, think that's my favourite dungeon so far. Sure, remembering where the crystals are to flick between orange and blue was a little annoying (by the time I got skimmed to marking them on the map I had them memorised!) but otherwise the atmosphere with the music, the dungeon layout, the bosses, and purposeful backtracking made it a fun one, albeit it a little long. 

Ventured around the island some more, finally dropped back into the Dream Shrine and cleared that out...so yeah. I know Zelda games are known for traditionally having eight dungeons and the map is almost completely uncovered, so I imagine I'm heading into the tailend of things now. 

Been a blast so far, hoping for a couple more awesome tracks to see the journey off! 

Edited February 12 by Julius

[Julius]

Polished this off the other night. 

I'll pay the game a bit more attentive lip service when I get around to updating my Gaming Diary, but for now:

• I loved the ending.

• I really, really enjoyed the penultimate dungeon (or what I'm counting as the penultimate dungeon), Eagle's Tower. Did get a little lost once or twice, and not leaving the heavy ball in the right spot only added to a little bit of confusion, but I think it's incredibly well designed and forward thinking. Crazy how many ideas - and well executed ones at that - were packed into a GB game. 

• what I'm calling the final dungeon (the one after Eagle's Tower)...eh. It was pretty good, but felt like a step down for me from Eagle's Tower, and also just wasn't as interesting mechanically. 

• final boss fight was awesome. 

Lastly, this has to be one of the best credits medleys I've heard in a minute:

Hit me hard, surprisingly so for a game as short as this, and made me nostalgic for the original game – which I've never played. 

Wonderful and charming little game  

[Jonnas]

12 hours ago, Julius said:

I really, really enjoyed the penultimate dungeon (or what I'm counting as the penultimate dungeon), Eagle's Tower.

Hell yeah, another true believer That dungeon slaps

Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much This is the sort of game that sticks with a person. Well, I'm thinking the original, at the very least.

[WackerJr]

Glad to hear someone else enjoying this game.  Link’s Awakening DX was my first GameBoy Color game (the first handheld game I ever owned), having bought the console to play this game alone, and I was not disappointed.

I’ve finally gotten around to playing the Switch version, having put it off due to how close to the original I heard it was, and so offering very little actually new.  I’m entering my 6th dungeon right now, and I agree with what’s been said in this thread, it plays it a little to safe and close to the original.  The frame rate really does stutter in a lot of areas.  I’m thankfully not too bothered by the drops and it hasn’t affected my enjoyment though.

I’ve been a little disappointed in the dungeon maker, but I’m not sure what I was expecting.  Part of the joy of Zelda dungeons is in solving its various puzzles and the mystery of what’s coming next.  With the dungeon maker you use rooms you’ve already solved or explored, and there’s no mystery because you’ve designed it yourself.

Overall though, I still love the game.  The world design and how everything ties together and the new items/abilities allow you access to new areas is great.  All while keeping the world small enough so that you’re never too far away from the next area, or if you fancy exploring then you won’t have to wander around for hours.

Ok, onto the next dungeon.  Spoiler-free question for those who have completed it - is it still worth finishing it without dying? 

[BowserBasher]

8 hours ago, WackerJr said:

is it still worth finishing it without dying?

You won’t miss much if you don’t, but it’s nice to see it. 

[Glen-i]

8 hours ago, WackerJr said:

Ok, onto the next dungeon.  Spoiler-free question for those who have completed it - is it still worth finishing it without dying? 

If you haven't died already, yeah, it's worth going for. Just make sure you're always carrying a potion, just in case.

If you have already died, it's not worth starting again at this point.

[Dcubed]

I assume that means you've already died at least once before?

It's only a small thing extra that you get added to the ending sequence if you manage to get there without carking it, but it is a satisfying little thing.  I probably wouldn't start the whole game over for it though.

[WackerJr]

Thanks all.  6 dungeons in now and no deaths (not bragging as I did play a lot of the DX version, and Crazy Tracey’s potion has been reapplied on occasion!).  It’s mainly to know whether it’s worth reloading should I die in the latter stages.  From the consensus I’ll persevere to finish death-less, but good to know that if I hadn’t already up to this point then I wouldn’t have worried.  Cheers!

[darksnowman]

@WackerJr did you see it out?

I did the NSO GBC version last summer to wander back among the animated flowers. Now that was playing with portable power. You can reaccustom yourself to using A and B rightly. Was both unsure about starting another file this year and looking forward to it in equal measure. There's a part in TOEM where a ghost follows you and I think that's what pushed me over.

Pity they kept it to three save files in the remake as I had to kiss goodbye to yet another one, this time from 2022, before I could wash up on Koholint once again. 

It starts out so quaintly. Shipwrecked in a storm (okay, that's not so ideal... maybe has something to do with why Link doesn't leave Hyrule too often). Get your shield. Sword on the beach. Play the trendy game, get terrorised by the physics of it. A spot of fishing. Embed yourself in the community, why not? Get the trade sequence underway. Catch up with the inhabitants. 

May as well get on with a few levels, start seeing the island with a view to getting back on the high seas. There's my new mate from For the Frog the Bell Tolls. Out and about with Marin, a dinky rendition of the overworld tune plays as I try to show off to her on the way to Animal Village. Delightful. Fall down the quicksand three or four times in Yarna Desert. Oops. 

It's cool to see characters crop up in different places except when it's Papahl in the mountains in need of vittles, as he promised he would be. This is going the same way again, isn't it?

Into Angler's Tunnel where the music is pensive with a sinister Game Boy undertone. Starts you wondering. Those eerie conversations with the islanders, cryptic messages from the owl statues, the owl's role in egging you on...

My old mate Mr. Write's getting catfished and I'm getting into Catfish's Maw. Eat some apples. You can put off noseying around those ancient ruins that speak of the Wind Fish no longer. Much you learn there and it's a one-two sucker-punch as you head across into the Face Shrine knowing full well this isn't right, will never be right. The music puts it beyond doubt. Chills. The hairs on your arms and back of your neck are up. Even on your legs. Goosebumps.

The final stretch is numbing. It gets more puzzly in an attempt to engage and distract you. Bosses warn you, are helpless to stop you from relentlessly mastering the island. Not enough secret seashells this time for the L2 sword.

The Wind Fish wakes, but at what cost. 

Special game. 

Could do with:
- infinite files
- animated flowers
- d-pad movement
- harder-hitting soundtrack?
- SimCity on SNES NSO
- a Marin Zelda game instead of a Zelda Zelda game