Back in my day, we read the manual etc. I get it, though, how are you supposed to figure that out? All the same, nowadays you can just use save states.
My mother used to work in a hotel and one day brought me this game that had been lying around the lost items basket of the reception. The game was in German and I'm Spanish. I also was 8 or 9 and I'm amazed that I managed to somehow brute force my way through the whole game without understanding a word. Well, I did learn that _zurück_ means "go back".
It was a thing in the original game, too. Mambo's Mambo took you to a specific pond, and what are now those little pedestal things were these holes you would fall into and they would warp you to each other in sequence.
@@PowerPandaMods yeah but that was big when the N64 dropped, rumble sensors we're new to the gaming scene. this is about a remake of a GBC game, where that feature did not exist to begin with in the original. has nothing to do with being nostalgia biased
I'm surprised there was no mention about how the remake lessens the item-swapping tedium by setting the sword & shield to their own respective buttons, or the fact the remake removed the best subquest in the DX version: the photo mouse. Personally, I decided to stick with the item-swapping tedium so I could have my photo mouse quest.
It should've been a quick swap menu since the items were balanced around the button limit, like being able to block everything while moving by holding the shield.
Im not sure If I agree with the fast travel being a bad addition to the remake. You claim that it discourages exploration but wouldn't the player still have to explore to find the warp pads anyway? To me that dose not sound like it discourages exploration but compliments it. I agree with all of your other points though. Good video overall.
The thing is... You get manbo's mambo pretty early on. By the face shrine you're probably gonna be playing the tune and warping away at the end of the dungeon instead of backtracking through the route to the dungeon, picking up things you missed, playing with your new uh, lv2 power bracelet. It's a generalization that won't apply to all players, but it's a pretty solid argument.
Yeah I just finished replaying the remake a few weeks ago, and I barely used fast travel. I only really used it if I had been through a certain area multiple times recently.
@@Xurikk Well if the player misses something they will probably go back to get the thing they missed eventually. As I said, I really don't see why the fast travel would hinder exploration as I think players would be curious enough to explore the areas around the travel points anyway. All the fast travel points allow you to do is get back to the areas you already explored quicker to get to new areas that actually have new stuff to explore.
Not to mention the game having somewhat cryptic moments. Having the ability the fast travel makes things better. Who wants to run around lost for an hour+ without the ability to fast travel
Fun fact, it's possible to beat the game without a guide. I finished the DX version without looking at a guide. My dad drove me to a bookstore as a kid and on the way i played the game on the drive up. By that point i had reached the inside of the Wind Fish's egg and i had no idea how to navigate the maze so i then went back and found the book in the library that revealed the order of the pattern of rooms. I then quickly went back and beat the final boss in all it's stages. By the time i beat it, i had arrived at the store. There was a cheat book on the magazine rack and it had a guide for the game but by then i beat it. :p I felt like a goddang champ.
I feel you! I was like 7 years old when I sent a letter to Santa in the mail, telling him I wanted the DX version for the Gameboy color. I beat the living shit out of that game, before Google was even a thing. My child brain really thought Santa had fullfilled my wish...until I called my dad out for having the same wrapping paper as "Santa" lol! I lost my innocence that day, but discovered my favorite Zelda game, even to this day.
@@MacUser2-il2cx kutos to you. I couldnt beat links awakening with no guide thanks to the mandatory trading quest you'll need to finish the game. I also couldn't beat oracle of ages and seasons without help because those games are just cryptic as hell. ESPECIALLY ages. the dungeons are no cake walk either. ages has some of the most complex ones I've seen in a zelda game
I think what he means is, nobody is going to go "ah, the seashell sensor went off, I'll remember the location for later and keep an eye out for hints or clues!". In reality, the shell is probably just under some grass so the player cuts it all, and if not they dig up everything. which results in braindead gameplay. So his solution is remove the bs shells, or just give better hints via dialogue or better visual hints, then remove the sensor so people stop excavating all of hyrule because their metal detector went off. Cunk cost fallacky, when you KNOW youre missing a shell it feels worse than just not seeing it, and you gotta keep looking cause you're so close. All that being said, this video was poorly put together. It has the bones of a good argument, but none of them are organized enough to form a skeleton.
By far the best point in DX's favor is the photo sidequest. It adds tons of charm and character development, and there is absolutely no justification for the Switch version removing it (the Switch even has a screenshot feature).
Really interesting how opinions can differ so much, even on seemingly uncontroversial topics. For example, I personally love the implementation of the seashell sensor and I didn't really find any of the hiding spots very obscure. Loved the video though!
Nah, I first played the original on the 3DS around 5 years ago and also prefer DX to the switch version, the sprites have more Charme and while some additions like the hard mode are awesome I’d still rather revisit DX on the Game & Watch instead of replaying the switch game
Apparently you never played a Link to the Past, because the bombable walls are very apparent in that game and that’s an older game than Link’s awakening!
In the original/DC, SOME walls had cracks, some didn't. But you could figure out how to check walls by sword-tapping. However, the original instructions said you could also demolish some with the Pegasus Boots. Nope! (in Link to the Past, indeed some walls were weak enough, but not here!)
LA was more of a balance with how cracks in bombable walls were placed. most bombable spots in Z3 did have cracks and in fact some cracked walls were not bombable. so while it could be seen as an overcorrection from Z1 having none, LA included them when it was necessary. for example in eagle's tower, you can see cracks in the 4th pillar room and you have to line up the wall to the next room. I remember I got stuck here until i learned that you can push the block and bomb the wall (although tile and collision oversights are to blame here which the remake made them unpushable). also some spots that did not have cracks had markers on the floor as a hint like in key cavern and face shrine. rarely did LA have cryptic bombable walls, the most notable in yarna desert. turtle rock also did this but you used the map and poke at the wall to find where it is. the weak wall feature really helped save bombs, which was a problem in Z1 especially when they were far more valuable. in the remake, key cavern is the only place where cracks were left alone if i remember correctly.
Gosh I love this game so much. As a 6 year old kid I was always so confused on what to do. I was stuck for like 5 years before I figured out how to get into the 2nd dungeon in the swamp. Not to mention not being able to figure out the pols voice enemy puzzle. Damn those were good times.
actually, im pretty sure the kids with the ball near the beach mention something about how to save. And theres more info on the hut next to them i think. Its been a while but i think thats where it explains stuff like charged attacks and shields.
The remake is prettier, has lots os quality of life improvements, is easy to save and has and orchestrated soundtrack. The old ones don't ever compare. No nostalgia can match that.
Nah, the cutesy artstyle does not match the themes of the original. Same thing with the soundtrack, they didn't do Ballad of the Wind Fish justice. Also, it's easy to save in the original as well.
The remake make is vastly worth it for the reduced tedium alone. Item swapping is painful, sword and shield take an item slot, you can’t change the text speed (which is slow) in the setting or speed it up with button presses, the text box can only hold 6 words at most, in combination to pre power bracelet upgrade is horrific, the dungeon is full of pots you can’t pick up and EVERY SINGLE TIME you accidentally try to pick it up when you were trying to do something else a very long text prompt will tell you uh oh looks like it’s too heavy, which will happen often as you try to fumble and change your items on the menu. Pick up and play the DX version again, you’re blind to nostalgia. It’s a fantastic game, but unfortunately I spend 30-40% of my time (not an exaggeration) not playing and being stuck in the menu. The only criticisms of the remake I have compared to the original is the missing photo mouse quest, why no D-pad support, framerate issues and the fact you can’t swap between OC music.
To me, this is also Link’s dream and not just the wind fish. When Link got struck by lightning, he fell into a coma and his coma dream combined with the wind fish. One of the reasons I think this is bc so many of the characters look like Mario characters and other characters Link met. When you beat the game, the wind fish waking up is what helps Link get out of his coma and wake up himself. Every character in the dream are just dream characters so technically are not real, but it is hard when waking up from a dream and seeing your dream along with those said characters fading away.
@@oaf-77 Link’s dream you mean as in mutual dreaming which has been shown to be a supernatural ability many times. Link is in a coma pretty much the whole time and that isn’t hard to believe bc if Link in BOTW gets struck by lightning without protection, yellow Game Over. It is also not hard to believe maybe the wind fish’s dream behaved similarly to the shine of resurrection.
@@kevinfromsales9445Actually both Link and the wind fish are in the same dream. That is what mutual dreaming is. Lightning in BOTW does a huge amount of damage to Link so it isn’t surprising Link takes enough damage to fall into a coma. It is also Link’s dream bc so many of the characters and enemies that are seen are based off characters he knows in his waking world.
@@lucideirune1635 That would make sense the problem is that Link is already awake and he and the Nightmare enemies realize that they are in the dream of the Wind Fish and can only end the dream when the Wind Fish wakes up which the Nightmare tried to prevent Link from doing.
I've only played the remake, so I can't say if I think the fast travel is worse than the original, but I never really saw it as a problem. The most I used fast travel for was just to go to the seashell mansion, deposit my shells, and then fast travel close to where I was before. I definitely still felt attached to the island by the the end.
5:02 Especially this bush? This particularly suspicious bush with a big road leading straight to it? Also a sign that says "➡ Animal Village" with an arrow pointing to that bush? _That's_ "obscure" for you? And yet you understood the intended way to find out about the rooster without a guide... you're totally messing with me.
I feel like you are definitely just biased to the original. When defending the original at 6:20 you say that people should be talking to every NPC, but then at 27:30 you say people aren’t going to be talking to every NPC. So which is it? Not only that, but in another part of the video you said that people should be picking up every single rock, cutting every single blade of grass, and talking to everyone they see, and then later on you say that people aren’t going to be doing that. Overall this video just sounded very hypocritical.
I can't imagine the hours I put into this game completing it as a child. My biggest memory from the game is still collecting seashells, and you described how I felt about searching for them perfectly. This was before google searches for locations was even a thought, and the excitement I had from that exploration likely will never be replicated for myself.
the kids in the village do tell you how to save. but i know kid me didnt know how to save either. its just so weird how they go from the save system in alttp to holding down 4 buttons. im not a fan of the remakes artstyle and gameplay though. feels a bit sluggish. wouldve loved a full on reimagine rather than just remaking it tile for tile.
This game is the first Zelda game I ever played. Sadly I don’t know where my original cartridge went. 😢 it holds a special place for me. I played the game at around 10-12 years old and for the life of me could not get past the second dungeon. It gave me the chance to explore the map. I had to look up a guide for the rest of my play through. I am playing the oracle games and have the same issue. Only now I can look up other people’s play throughs.
@@lovenydogg16 I remember not getting very far in the oracle games but managed to beat minish cap. I would have been a bit older by then though as I got minish at launch. That’s my favourite portable Zelda game actually.
@@sandman8920 I actually played minish cap recently and i have a photo of it. I was so proud to beat it but this time i asked my bf to help and he played for me. Mostly the last dungeon was hard. I do try to do all my own boss fights.
19:14 Kind of interesting to compare this to the earlier point of people not knowing how to obtain the rooster. Teleporting around is a good way to miss content and hints if you don’t take the time to explore without doing so. The rooster part also reminds me of Ocarina of Time, where I’ve seen a lot of people ask how they are supposed to know how to get the Lens of Truth. And the answer is much the same: talk to NPCs.
People complained about not knowing how to get the lens of truth in OoT before they complained about the biggoron sword quest? Did we play the same game?
@@swagmiredoesall The biggoron sword quest is at least optional, so your progress won’t be blocked if you didn’t know how to do it or even didn’t know it existed. Plus most of the steps are specifically told to you upon getting the next item. The Lens of Truth, meanwhile, is mandatory. And the fact that you need it and the process to obtain it (mainly the song of storms sequence) aren’t specifically told to you, and have to be figured out by piecing together information. I saw all these complaints back when I used to use Reddit and hung around r/Zelda, by the way.
i hate to break it to you bud, the mini bosses and bosses in the original were just as easy as the remake's versions. the only thing i will say is moldorm should have been just as fast the first time you fight him rather than only in the nightmare fight in the egg. The shells issue is because of game data in the original/dx (the walrus gave a shell in the dx version btw), in the original/dx version the game boy could barely handle the music they made for it, with making the game more open with better cpu power they added more sea shells, its not a bad thing and neither is the sensor (especially for younger kids who might be playing this as their first zelda game). i do agree with you about the roc's feather though, its aggravating how nerfed it became in the switch version. i genuinely think you're being too critical/nit picky about it. its a phenomenal 10/10 game.
"the walrus gave a shell in the dx version"? Really? I was not aware of that change. Is there a video of that somewhere? I thought the DX version had the same number of shells.
@@Kwyjor i was wrong? apparently in the original and the dx version the walrus just pops his head out when you play marin's song and then goes back underwater after he hops into the ocean. so they just incorporated it to give a sea shell. nice little easter egg though!
1. Bosses move slower. 2. Your sword hits wider/more squares. How could those two things possibly be true and that not make the fights easier?? Not to mention specific boss changes he mentions in the vid
@28:12 Interesting.. I stopped playing the game after buying because I felt like was bigger than the GB sprite (while retaining the world size), and moved SO MUCH slower as well that it made it impossible for me to want to continue playing. Anyway, love it when someone "dunks" and critiques something with facts.
The controls of the gameboy made the original unbearable to me, I'm so glad to be able to use a sword and shield at the same time as my items and the pegasus boots. Also, I strongly disagree with the "hand-holdy" argument you make. The game is more streamlined, but doesn't change much regarding its progression. The sense of adventure, mystery, and getting lost are all still there, fully intact. It's just way less tedious of an experience.
I'm surprised that you didn't bring up the tripled Heart Piece count. I think that, on top of the added seashells and warp points make the world feel a little over-crowded compared to the original.
I appreciate this video. I played through the remake and then the DX version on NSO after. I enjoy both of them. This game in general is amazing. I like the style of the original even though it can be a bit tedious if you're not used to it, with the constant item swapping and the exploration moving screen to screen instead of one continuous camera view. I love both, I'll keep continuing to play both every now and then, this is one of my favorite Zelda games.
The remake is probably better for first time players but I'd definitely go back to the original, especially in the HD PC port, for the added challenge, like some sort of Hero Mode but even better. Most of the issues that you pointed out with the remake I didn't really mind (I played the original first), other than the difficulty. It boggles my mind why they'd go as far as removing all of the challenge from dungeons but not doing anything about some of the most obscure overworld puzzles, almost as if there was some internal conflict during development. At least this remake isn't even nearly as bad as MM3D. Good video.
7:25 in the original Gameboy game if you talk to one of the kids tossing the ball around they will tell you how to save the game that's how I found out to save the game.
The most important advantage the switch version has is more buttons, and my biggest gripe is that they didn't make full use of them: multiple shoulder buttons just raise your shield, for example. If the biggest weakness of the original is how few items you could equip at a time, the ability to equip as many items as possible at once would have been a simple, still faithful, fix.
A hot swap button would have made more skill expression than just assigning every item to a different button. The game was balanced around having two items and having the sword stowed sometimes.
The sensor partnis really nice, it explains well how seemengly small convinent additions can change howna player approaches a mechanic. Giving the sensor so early especially will make it ao much into q chore nore than anything
I think my biggest nitpick with the original is that the white space used on the sword sprite, capitalizing on your HUD and menu being white, means that when you're picking it up on the map the blade is partly invisible with ocean waves underneath it. Is this a glass sword rather than a steel one?
For me, it comes down to the question: do you prefer the modern conveniences of later games, or do you hate loading screens with a *seething passion* That's why I'll never bother with the Switch remake after watching gameplay comparisons of it. It does obvious things right, but drops the ball in the most unexpected places. Ultimately, the DX version for GB/GBC is the ideal way to play.
I agree that the remake is very easy compared to the original. Reduced difficulty isn't bad in itself (good for my kids!), but FORCED reduced difficulty is bad, like the added cracks to the walls. DX was also much easier than the original though. Some things are forced, like the added owl statue hints, but luckily the tunics are optional.
I always felt Awakening was easy enough to brute force it. but the remake its just Tedius. For all the improvements made and QOL added it added grindy stuff and dumbed down everything. The PCport made just before this remake was anounced and that got C&Ded was way better. its the AM2R situation all over again.
I know i'm like 30 years late to the point. But I just figured out how they could have managed the items better with the gameboy's limited buttons. The Select button. Yes it's that simple. They could have simply put the map inside the same menu when you press Start, and free up the select button for use during normal play. Use the Select Button to Toggle between sets of A/B, simply let the player have 4 item assigned, to A1, B1, and A2, B2, allowing you to quickly keep up to 4 items at use without having to pause the game and set it on the menu every single time.
I can 100% agree with the seashell thing, as a new player, at first it was cool to try to find them and then it turned into me digging every spot and while I was very interested at first in what I would get I eventually just couldn’t be bothered and gave up on them entirely
The only thing I don’t like in the original is the occasional frame drops when doing the charge attack and that you can miss seashell rewards if you don’t get the rewards when you have the exact number. Atleast to me the Gameboy version has way more Charme than the Switch version. The video sequences are cool and the hard mode was a great addition but I come back almost every year to links awakening on the special edition game & watch while only having played the switch version once
One thing I really loved about the remake was it showed us Link's mental state. While the people of Hyrule see monsters and enemies. Link sees a toy-like world full of fun puzzles.
Link’s Awakening DX was one of my first games and I am extremely nostalgic for it. I got it from my father before he passed and I spent many hours wandering around struggling at progressing. I bring up all this to say that despite how much I love DX, the remake is objectively better and I loved it just as much. I struggle with sitting down and completing games due to ADHD and a struggle with focus, yet I played through this game over a few days with little struggle in that aspect. I feel that the remake fully captured my love of DX, removed some of the more clunky and annoying features due to it being a Gameboy game, and managed to successfully keep my attention and enjoyment. In my opinion this is what a good remake looks like.
I am an 80s baby I grew up with the original Zelda. I had Link's Awakening on the Gameboy. Not the DX version mind you the original. I like a lot of old archaic games. In this case I like most of the quality of lie improvements. Not getting a message screaming at me that a boulder looks heavy every time I even look at one is quite nice. The only complaint is the extra heart pieces and bottles make the game too easy. Even on hero mode only the first couple of dungeons are a threat.
I enjoyed it. I liked having more buttons for items, the extra collectables, the dampe game, and the hero mode. Also fast travel is an odd thing to criticize since even the very first Zelda had it, as well as the original versions of Link's Awakening via the warp pads and Mambo song.
The remake is the test for the new Zelda game. They worked out the engine in the remake and now we're going to see a wild Zelda with Zelda herself. Its been in the pipeline for 5 years now, and its here in a few weeks.
(10:05) Actually it's more then that it was supposed to be Link to the Past on the Gameboy from GB version in development till changed to Link's Awakening. Hard4Games talks about that information.
in the original, there were more seashells but some disappeared if you went back and traded every 5 you got. i hate that the triforce of power time is limited now instead if you get hit
7:15 at the beginning of the game one of the kids outside the library tells you to press all the buttons at once to save. It's still way too obtuse, but 9 year old me managed to figure it out
I completely agree with the heart pieces, seashells, and bombable walls. I disagree with fast travel though, as I think there is nothing wrong with it and all it does it cut down on retracing steps. Also, highlighting the map isn't really adding extra handholding. The original literally had a map in the library that showed the locations of all the dungeons. The puzzle is in figuring out how to get to the dungeons, not finding them. I definitely agree that the original/DX is better because of the atmosphere and gameplay/mechanics.
Dampé mode is bad, too. You can only use a few specific pre-designed rooms taken from existing dungeons, so every dungeon you can design is just a reshuffle, the possibilities are too limited.
Yes I always use the same rooms over and over again for the most efficiency. It sucks that heart pieces and containers are locked behind it because I don’t wanna replay this mode for 100%.
What's most disappointing to me is that there's little to no potential for self-expression and creativity. Why would I wanna show my friends the cool dungeon I designed when it's bsically something that a random number generator could have popped out on its own?
@@megaman37456 Not from Nintendo, but there are indies that have made games for doing just that. 1 of which has even been available on the Switch for over a year at this point. It clearly isn't _that_ difficult to create/setup, Nintendo is just being stupid again.
My girl and I are just done with the eagle tower, and not knowing you need to push the statue to get the blue rooster was.... yeah, we did play the crocodile song but didn't know we needed to open the stairs and eventually wasted half a day before googling it lmao
dx literary have arrows draw on the floor of dungeons to where have a wall you should explode, the compass tells where have keys but most of times it will be obvius by the fact it have a tile with another oclor where the key will fall into.
You're wrong on this one both the original and DX are unnecessarily flawed in terms of dungeon design and not even knowing how to save the game. The fast travel is also a very welcome improvement in the remake.
Agree on some points like the difficulty being too dumbed down, but strongly disagree with others like the teleportation & cracks in the walls being a bad thing. The bombable walls were far too cryptic imo & thus I think it's a REALLY good thing that they made them more apparent. The player still has to be paying attention to their surroundings to spot them.
@hist150project5 What does the map have to do with anything? You can't see them on the map either in the original GB version. That isn't the way the old Map works... rooms are just blank squares in the original. It was absolutely too cryptic. It maybe wouldn't have been so bad if the game constantly reminded players that you can use the sword to spot bombable walls as it makes a different metallic sound on the bombable spots. Even then, it's pretty cryptic. Nobody wants to spend tens of hours tapping on every spot of every wall looking for bombable spots...
Links Awakening (OG) holds the merit of being the first videogame to achieve making me shed tears of utter sadness upon watching the ending. Especially after finishing the game with zero deaths, which unlocks the true ending--Marin's dream becomes true. What's her dream? Play the game.
I got this along with a dmg gameboy sometime in 94 or 95 from my uncle. I have always loved this game and it might be my fave game of all time. I have it in a handful of physical and digital versions lol I think ive beat this game several times now and never get tired of seeing the windfish at the end 💜
The music is so much better in the remake, both the fact it's real music with instruments and not gameboy sounds (that get annoying to listen to very quickly) and the way some songs were improved from their original form (level 4 dungeon didn't even had a real theme in the original game)
I actually really like the toy aesthetic of the remake. I think the dx version is amazing with its pixel art, one of the best gbc games of all time, and it for the most part has better music, or at least I think it has better rhythm But idk I really like the remake too, and man the face shrine remix, it’s easily better than the original, the remake face shrine is probably one of the best zelda dungeon themes of all time. There is merit to preferring the original in many ways, but I think the switch remake has many merits of its own. My only complaint is the price, it probably should have only been $30-$40 given how long the game is
while the added cracks in the dungeons i see as a downgrade and the control scheme i see as a step backwards, eagle's tower overall in the remake is better from a program and collision perspective. the iron ball had a potential bug where you could not lift it if it was sitting on the rails or near a screen transition border. in the remake, a fails safe mechanic was added where the ball resets to its starting position if you leave the dungeon. also it can no longer be transported through the rotating door which strengthens the navigational puzzle and the blocks on the left side of the 4th pillar room are no longer pushable. also another big improvement were the horse heads which are now a real puzzle instead of being luck dependent.
While there is a lot of nostalgia in this video, saying the remake is "highly superior" is an overstatement. It's the same game with redone graphics, qol improvements and a few minor changes, nothing I would call "highly superior."
The remake was the second Zelda game I finished and it is what got me hooked to the Legend of Zelda properly. I shall not hear any disrespect towards it. I’m sure it spawned a brand new fan base for Zelda.
I mean aside from it disrespecting the original’s artstyle, ruining the continuity of the original by adding a shield that never existed in the original nor in that timeline, and making the game look like a phone game. Long time Zelda fans have every right to criticize it.
@@Aelvir114the creator of the video sounds like he's 15 Also the Hylian Shield first appeared in Skyward Sword chronologically so literally every subsequent timeline can have it.
@@hypotheticaltapeworm Hylian knights didn’t even exist in Skyward and you get it from a dragon. I would also like to point out that Hylian Shield was never a shield used by ALTTP link whatsoever. He always used the Hero’s Shield. The only 2D link before LA remake that did, was ALBW Link, which made even less sense because you get it in LORULE
@@hypotheticaltapeworm Maybe because Skyward Sword came decades after LA and retconned a lot of stuff, like idk, the origin of the Master Sword? Goddess Sword was never a thing before or after SS, let alone acknowledged and prior to SS it was explicitly stated that it was forged AS the Master Sword. So call me crazy if I’m not exactly trusting SS as being the origin of everything in the series when it doesn’t even acknowledge previously established origins. Also Hylian Shield was probably only in Skyward because like LA remake, it’s iconic and people would whine endlessly when it’s not shoehorned in there. Saying it being on there means it’s canon is the same logic as saying because Biggoron’s Sword breaking in BotW is canon. Hylian Shield was always established as the shield the Hylian Knights use, which is a bit weird to have in a game that predates the existence of Hylian Knights. Logically it didn’t exist lorewise until OoT.
Personally, i think both the remake and the og are great in their own right. OG: It is a pretty engaging game, that gave you it's all, despite the limited hardware it came out on. Even after all these years, it's still a fun and charming game. It may have aged in a few aspects, but it doesn't really lessen the game in any way. Remake: It's a very beautiful looking remake, with an artstyle that's both unique and faithful to the original, not to mention the quality of life improvements, which makes the game even more enjoyable. It may not hold the same magic to the original and the Dampe Dungeon Maker isn't much to talk about, but it's still a great adventure all the same. (But man, this does NOT deserve a full retail price.) Saying one is better than the other, is a pretty big disservice to both of these games.
Personal opinions. I didn't really like the aesthetics of the remake. Be it the visual style or the reimagining of the soundtrack (for the most part -- there were a few really good songs at least). Quality of life improvements that you believe are a detriment were just about universally good for me, as was making it more forgiving of a game (though at times it went a bit overboard). So I pretty much have the opposite opinion of what to criticize vs. what to praise. Overall, the game is quite commendable and the remake is an experience worth playing to new or old players. Your overall score is probably something I'd agree with. Just for polar opposite reasons.
To me, the remake is the perfect remake. It improves and modernizes everything that needs it, while still perfectly preserving the feel and atmosphere of the original
I got the original for my 6th birthday, I am now 37. It has long been one of my all time favorite games. It holds so much sentimental value to me. That said you really down play a couple of the major problems of the original. You mention the item management takes a few seconds to switch back and forth, but there are points in the game where you move a couple paces and need to switch and then a couple more and switch again. Also the text boxes every time you accidentally touch something are so horribly bad. Both of these things can quickly make the original feel like a chore. I often find nowadays that it's hard to have a 30 minute window to play and these unnecessary things like this in older games suck the fun out so quickly. You also mention the lack of difficulty but I don't remember you mentioning the hero mode in the video. Playing hero mode without losing a life brought back a lot of the challenging fun and stress of the original in a good way. Again I love the game and I love the remake, but I feel like you are wearing rose colored glasses when you gloss over the shortcomings of the original.
Those changes you are unsatisfied with, are due to how developers now try to appeal to non gamers, and the fix should have been simple, a lot of games already have a system in place to prevent such issues, and that is that for a lot of new games mostly indie games, when you make a new save file it asks you if you want to play on casual mode or in retro/veteran mode, and this is how games should be made going forward, because both kinds of plays are needed in the industry, since a gamer wouldn't want to play a game that doesn't challenge them, and a casual player wouldn't want to have to face an obstacle that they can't overcome, but I guess that not everyone in the industry agrees to this, because of how they are still making their games, and honestly I kind of miss how older games encouraged replayability by letting you unlock harder difficulties, while modern games are not worth paying full price for them, since a lot of them have absolutely no replay value at all.
Ok turned the video off after the fast travel comment, I played the original on my GBC in the early 2000s and let me tell you now wandering around the same exact patch of woods 300 times was not necessary then and added nothing to the game, it just wastes the player's time, fast travel is a good thing, the idea that being forced to walk through the same areas over and over somehow adds something to the experience is laughably stupid.
Never played the original & decided Link's Awakening (Remake) to be my starting point to play LoZ Games for the 1st time. I personally don't see Fast Travel as an issue because, judging by the Big Map of the island, new players like myself still need to explore to find those Warp Pads & considering there are those Sea Shells that we can bring into the Shell Mansion by getting other items to help us out I think those Warp Pads are pretty handy to Fast Travel to that specific location to claim our items. Lastly, we also need to trade in Special Items to advance so that still allow players to explore before even finishing the game, I doubt I can finish the game early or that soon without that much of exploration & to only use Fast Travel. Again, I definitely don't see this Fast Travel as an issue at all since we have all of that to take into account, by not acknowledging those aspects that are part of the gameplay your argument seems flawed in hindsight.
This is literally untrue. Not only can you go through them without the spin momentum even in the original but you also do get a momentum increase from spinning like in the original, the ridiculous distance increase (which was not intended to be as far as it was in the original) is just reduced to what was intended originally. MM3D also is not a remake, it is a remaster. The remake has some problems but it’s not unplayable and the Deku skipping is not one of those major problems. The Zora swimming is far worse is a change. And censoring the Garos bombing themselves I was not a fan of.
I personally think the DX remake is a LITTLE bit better than the original. It wouldn't be a LITTLE if its graphics were more in the style of Link Between Worlds.
Did you ever try Link's Awakening DX HD? It was just a fan remake but I still believe it's the definitive way to play honestly, it's all over on different forums and internet archive, I think a comparison of DX to DX HD would be cool if you're ok with poking the wasp nest that is nintendo
i feel like not knowing how to save is a bit more than a minor inconvenience
Back in my day, we read the manual etc.
I get it, though, how are you supposed to figure that out? All the same, nowadays you can just use save states.
Yeah I get that there was a manual back then but the feature was really was not future proof.
@@ProjectionProjects2.7182 Weren't there two kids in the village telling you how to save?
@@morushroom Was there? If there was then I stand corrected.
The first pokemon i played was pokemon sun and i played until the yellow flower area, but didnt know how to save and had to play everything again
My mother used to work in a hotel and one day brought me this game that had been lying around the lost items basket of the reception. The game was in German and I'm Spanish. I also was 8 or 9 and I'm amazed that I managed to somehow brute force my way through the whole game without understanding a word.
Well, I did learn that _zurück_ means "go back".
lol
Well I live in Denmark where we never translate kids games, and somehow I brute forced my way through Pokémon Red in English at the age of 7.
Dude, i can't imagine brute forcing everything that way. You must have been so proud to finish it.
Starting criticism by complaining about the option of fast travel missed the mark. That was the least strong argument.
It was a thing in the original game, too. Mambo's Mambo took you to a specific pond, and what are now those little pedestal things were these holes you would fall into and they would warp you to each other in sequence.
@@hypotheticaltapeworm fast travel has been around since the very first Zelda
I rarely used fast travel because the map isnt that big and most of the time, it would take less time to just walk.
bros trying to do mental gymnastics just to pretend he’s not inherently nostalgia biased
Nothing will be better than a time that won’t go back
oddly enough, my first exposure to the word "nostalgia" was in the original Link's Awakening (between the 4th and 5th dungeons)
Seriously. Knocking on fast travel and seashell sensor. As if Ocarina of Time didn't have a rumble sensor near secrets.
@@PowerPandaMods yeah but that was big when the N64 dropped, rumble sensors we're new to the gaming scene. this is about a remake of a GBC game, where that feature did not exist to begin with in the original. has nothing to do with being nostalgia biased
@@JoaoOliveira-ph8mkwrong. Nostalgia is an illusion
I'm surprised there was no mention about how the remake lessens the item-swapping tedium by setting the sword & shield to their own respective buttons, or the fact the remake removed the best subquest in the DX version: the photo mouse.
Personally, I decided to stick with the item-swapping tedium so I could have my photo mouse quest.
I agree with you about the photo mouse!
I loved the item swapping because of the jingle that played when you selected the item.
It should've been a quick swap menu since the items were balanced around the button limit, like being able to block everything while moving by holding the shield.
I've never played the switch remake. Did they really remove the cute mouse picture cut scenes? Why?
The world may never know.
Im not sure If I agree with the fast travel being a bad addition to the remake. You claim that it discourages exploration but wouldn't the player still have to explore to find the warp pads anyway? To me that dose not sound like it discourages exploration but compliments it. I agree with all of your other points though. Good video overall.
The thing is... You get manbo's mambo pretty early on. By the face shrine you're probably gonna be playing the tune and warping away at the end of the dungeon instead of backtracking through the route to the dungeon, picking up things you missed, playing with your new uh, lv2 power bracelet. It's a generalization that won't apply to all players, but it's a pretty solid argument.
Yeah I just finished replaying the remake a few weeks ago, and I barely used fast travel. I only really used it if I had been through a certain area multiple times recently.
@@Xurikk Well if the player misses something they will probably go back to get the thing they missed eventually. As I said, I really don't see why the fast travel would hinder exploration as I think players would be curious enough to explore the areas around the travel points anyway. All the fast travel points allow you to do is get back to the areas you already explored quicker to get to new areas that actually have new stuff to explore.
@@rewskiem5700 Yeah I agree. I only really used it to avoid backtracking through areas I had already fully explored.
Not to mention the game having somewhat cryptic moments. Having the ability the fast travel makes things better. Who wants to run around lost for an hour+ without the ability to fast travel
Fun fact, it's possible to beat the game without a guide. I finished the DX version without looking at a guide. My dad drove me to a bookstore as a kid and on the way i played the game on the drive up. By that point i had reached the inside of the Wind Fish's egg and i had no idea how to navigate the maze so i then went back and found the book in the library that revealed the order of the pattern of rooms. I then quickly went back and beat the final boss in all it's stages. By the time i beat it, i had arrived at the store. There was a cheat book on the magazine rack and it had a guide for the game but by then i beat it. :p I felt like a goddang champ.
We believe you
I feel you! I was like 7 years old when I sent a letter to Santa in the mail, telling him I wanted the DX version for the Gameboy color. I beat the living shit out of that game, before Google was even a thing. My child brain really thought Santa had fullfilled my wish...until I called my dad out for having the same wrapping paper as "Santa" lol! I lost my innocence that day, but discovered my favorite Zelda game, even to this day.
@@MacUser2-il2cx kutos to you. I couldnt beat links awakening with no guide thanks to the mandatory trading quest you'll need to finish the game. I also couldn't beat oracle of ages and seasons without help because those games are just cryptic as hell. ESPECIALLY ages. the dungeons are no cake walk either. ages has some of the most complex ones I've seen in a zelda game
@@emerylsg never seen anyone spell it "kutos" lol
"Nobody is gonna talk to every NPC"
Solution, "add more NPC dialog"
What?
I think what he means is, nobody is going to go "ah, the seashell sensor went off, I'll remember the location for later and keep an eye out for hints or clues!". In reality, the shell is probably just under some grass so the player cuts it all, and if not they dig up everything. which results in braindead gameplay. So his solution is remove the bs shells, or just give better hints via dialogue or better visual hints, then remove the sensor so people stop excavating all of hyrule because their metal detector went off. Cunk cost fallacky, when you KNOW youre missing a shell it feels worse than just not seeing it, and you gotta keep looking cause you're so close.
All that being said, this video was poorly put together. It has the bones of a good argument, but none of them are organized enough to form a skeleton.
By far the best point in DX's favor is the photo sidequest. It adds tons of charm and character development, and there is absolutely no justification for the Switch version removing it (the Switch even has a screenshot feature).
The photo sidequest is much better than the crappy "dungeon maker"
Really interesting how opinions can differ so much, even on seemingly uncontroversial topics. For example, I personally love the implementation of the seashell sensor and I didn't really find any of the hiding spots very obscure.
Loved the video though!
Yeah and if you want the challenge you can choose to disable it too.
Nostalgia bias.
Nah, I first played the original on the 3DS around 5 years ago and also prefer DX to the switch version, the sprites have more Charme and while some additions like the hard mode are awesome I’d still rather revisit DX on the Game & Watch instead of replaying the switch game
Og has better artstyle don't wanna be playing as a bobblehead thanks
@@AL-nv4gkYou are literally playing as a pixelated bobblehead in the original.
Apparently you never played a Link to the Past, because the bombable walls are very apparent in that game and that’s an older game than Link’s awakening!
In the original/DC, SOME walls had cracks, some didn't. But you could figure out how to check walls by sword-tapping. However, the original instructions said you could also demolish some with the Pegasus Boots. Nope! (in Link to the Past, indeed some walls were weak enough, but not here!)
the walls he pointed out here were part of a "puzzle" which the Remake made obsolete by pointing out where to bomb.
LA was more of a balance with how cracks in bombable walls were placed. most bombable spots in Z3 did have cracks and in fact some cracked walls were not bombable. so while it could be seen as an overcorrection from Z1 having none, LA included them when it was necessary. for example in eagle's tower, you can see cracks in the 4th pillar room and you have to line up the wall to the next room. I remember I got stuck here until i learned that you can push the block and bomb the wall (although tile and collision oversights are to blame here which the remake made them unpushable). also some spots that did not have cracks had markers on the floor as a hint like in key cavern and face shrine. rarely did LA have cryptic bombable walls, the most notable in yarna desert. turtle rock also did this but you used the map and poke at the wall to find where it is. the weak wall feature really helped save bombs, which was a problem in Z1 especially when they were far more valuable. in the remake, key cavern is the only place where cracks were left alone if i remember correctly.
Gosh I love this game so much. As a 6 year old kid I was always so confused on what to do. I was stuck for like 5 years before I figured out how to get into the 2nd dungeon in the swamp. Not to mention not being able to figure out the pols voice enemy puzzle. Damn those were good times.
actually, im pretty sure the kids with the ball near the beach mention something about how to save. And theres more info on the hut next to them i think. Its been a while but i think thats where it explains stuff like charged attacks and shields.
The remake is prettier, has lots os quality of life improvements, is easy to save and has and orchestrated soundtrack. The old ones don't ever compare. No nostalgia can match that.
It's not prettier it's ugly as fuck and it looks like Funko Pops just like the new one
it really isnt prettier. you mean shinier.
And also much easier
Nah, the cutesy artstyle does not match the themes of the original. Same thing with the soundtrack, they didn't do Ballad of the Wind Fish justice.
Also, it's easy to save in the original as well.
The remake make is vastly worth it for the reduced tedium alone. Item swapping is painful, sword and shield take an item slot, you can’t change the text speed (which is slow) in the setting or speed it up with button presses, the text box can only hold 6 words at most, in combination to pre power bracelet upgrade is horrific, the dungeon is full of pots you can’t pick up and EVERY SINGLE TIME you accidentally try to pick it up when you were trying to do something else a very long text prompt will tell you uh oh looks like it’s too heavy, which will happen often as you try to fumble and change your items on the menu. Pick up and play the DX version again, you’re blind to nostalgia.
It’s a fantastic game, but unfortunately I spend 30-40% of my time (not an exaggeration) not playing and being stuck in the menu. The only criticisms of the remake I have compared to the original is the missing photo mouse quest, why no D-pad support, framerate issues and the fact you can’t swap between OC music.
the DX version was the worst when it came to text speed. unlike the 1993 version where you could skip it, DX did not allow this.
To me, this is also Link’s dream and not just the wind fish. When Link got struck by lightning, he fell into a coma and his coma dream combined with the wind fish. One of the reasons I think this is bc so many of the characters look like Mario characters and other characters Link met.
When you beat the game, the wind fish waking up is what helps Link get out of his coma and wake up himself. Every character in the dream are just dream characters so technically are not real, but it is hard when waking up from a dream and seeing your dream along with those said characters fading away.
The wind fish dream is so powerful it pulls link into it
@@oaf-77 Link’s dream you mean as in mutual dreaming which has been shown to be a supernatural ability many times. Link is in a coma pretty much the whole time and that isn’t hard to believe bc if Link in BOTW gets struck by lightning without protection, yellow Game Over. It is also not hard to believe maybe the wind fish’s dream behaved similarly to the shine of resurrection.
Link does awaken but not from his own dream but from the Wind Fish's dream.
@@kevinfromsales9445Actually both Link and the wind fish are in the same dream. That is what mutual dreaming is. Lightning in BOTW does a huge amount of damage to Link so it isn’t surprising Link takes enough damage to fall into a coma. It is also Link’s dream bc so many of the characters and enemies that are seen are based off characters he knows in his waking world.
@@lucideirune1635 That would make sense the problem is that Link is already awake and he and the Nightmare enemies realize that they are in the dream of the Wind Fish and can only end the dream when the Wind Fish wakes up which the Nightmare tried to prevent Link from doing.
I've only played the remake, so I can't say if I think the fast travel is worse than the original, but I never really saw it as a problem. The most I used fast travel for was just to go to the seashell mansion, deposit my shells, and then fast travel close to where I was before. I definitely still felt attached to the island by the the end.
this has to genuinely be one of the most crybaby/nitpicky videos i have seen in a long time, like holy shit
I think it tells you how to save in the starter town library. Among other tips for starting out the adventure
5:02 Especially this bush? This particularly suspicious bush with a big road leading straight to it? Also a sign that says "➡ Animal Village" with an arrow pointing to that bush? _That's_ "obscure" for you? And yet you understood the intended way to find out about the rooster without a guide... you're totally messing with me.
I feel like you are definitely just biased to the original. When defending the original at 6:20 you say that people should be talking to every NPC, but then at 27:30 you say people aren’t going to be talking to every NPC. So which is it?
Not only that, but in another part of the video you said that people should be picking up every single rock, cutting every single blade of grass, and talking to everyone they see, and then later on you say that people aren’t going to be doing that. Overall this video just sounded very hypocritical.
I can't imagine the hours I put into this game completing it as a child. My biggest memory from the game is still collecting seashells, and you described how I felt about searching for them perfectly. This was before google searches for locations was even a thought, and the excitement I had from that exploration likely will never be replicated for myself.
the kids in the village do tell you how to save. but i know kid me didnt know how to save either. its just so weird how they go from the save system in alttp to holding down 4 buttons.
im not a fan of the remakes artstyle and gameplay though. feels a bit sluggish. wouldve loved a full on reimagine rather than just remaking it tile for tile.
This game is the first Zelda game I ever played. Sadly I don’t know where my original cartridge went. 😢 it holds a special place for me. I played the game at around 10-12 years old and for the life of me could not get past the second dungeon. It gave me the chance to explore the map. I had to look up a guide for the rest of my play through. I am playing the oracle games and have the same issue. Only now I can look up other people’s play throughs.
@@lovenydogg16 I remember not getting very far in the oracle games but managed to beat minish cap. I would have been a bit older by then though as I got minish at launch. That’s my favourite portable Zelda game actually.
@@sandman8920 I actually played minish cap recently and i have a photo of it. I was so proud to beat it but this time i asked my bf to help and he played for me. Mostly the last dungeon was hard. I do try to do all my own boss fights.
@@lovenydogg16 it’s a beautiful game well done 👍
19:14 Kind of interesting to compare this to the earlier point of people not knowing how to obtain the rooster. Teleporting around is a good way to miss content and hints if you don’t take the time to explore without doing so.
The rooster part also reminds me of Ocarina of Time, where I’ve seen a lot of people ask how they are supposed to know how to get the Lens of Truth. And the answer is much the same: talk to NPCs.
People complained about not knowing how to get the lens of truth in OoT before they complained about the biggoron sword quest? Did we play the same game?
@@swagmiredoesall The biggoron sword quest is at least optional, so your progress won’t be blocked if you didn’t know how to do it or even didn’t know it existed. Plus most of the steps are specifically told to you upon getting the next item.
The Lens of Truth, meanwhile, is mandatory. And the fact that you need it and the process to obtain it (mainly the song of storms sequence) aren’t specifically told to you, and have to be figured out by piecing together information.
I saw all these complaints back when I used to use Reddit and hung around r/Zelda, by the way.
i hate to break it to you bud, the mini bosses and bosses in the original were just as easy as the remake's versions. the only thing i will say is moldorm should have been just as fast the first time you fight him rather than only in the nightmare fight in the egg. The shells issue is because of game data in the original/dx (the walrus gave a shell in the dx version btw), in the original/dx version the game boy could barely handle the music they made for it, with making the game more open with better cpu power they added more sea shells, its not a bad thing and neither is the sensor (especially for younger kids who might be playing this as their first zelda game). i do agree with you about the roc's feather though, its aggravating how nerfed it became in the switch version. i genuinely think you're being too critical/nit picky about it. its a phenomenal 10/10 game.
"the walrus gave a shell in the dx version"? Really? I was not aware of that change. Is there a video of that somewhere? I thought the DX version had the same number of shells.
@@Kwyjor i was wrong? apparently in the original and the dx version the walrus just pops his head out when you play marin's song and then goes back underwater after he hops into the ocean. so they just incorporated it to give a sea shell. nice little easter egg though!
1. Bosses move slower.
2. Your sword hits wider/more squares.
How could those two things possibly be true and that not make the fights easier?? Not to mention specific boss changes he mentions in the vid
this was super great! looking forward to seeing more in the future 😸
thank you for enjoying my video!
not you again, let me guess: link's awakening sucks too? lol
@@GenMars i literally released a video about how much i love links awakening two hours after making this comment
@@skittybitty oh I didn't see that, but will
Have you played the remake in Hero mode? I promise that challenge is definitely in there.
you can also get that challenge on a no damage run as well. that reminds me, 3 heart challenge is also possible in the remake unlike the original.
where'd the silly DX pictures go😭
@28:12 Interesting.. I stopped playing the game after buying because I felt like was bigger than the GB sprite (while retaining the world size), and moved SO MUCH slower as well that it made it impossible for me to want to continue playing.
Anyway, love it when someone "dunks" and critiques something with facts.
The controls of the gameboy made the original unbearable to me, I'm so glad to be able to use a sword and shield at the same time as my items and the pegasus boots.
Also, I strongly disagree with the "hand-holdy" argument you make. The game is more streamlined, but doesn't change much regarding its progression. The sense of adventure, mystery, and getting lost are all still there, fully intact. It's just way less tedious of an experience.
I'm surprised that you didn't bring up the tripled Heart Piece count. I think that, on top of the added seashells and warp points make the world feel a little over-crowded compared to the original.
The only thing I didn't like about the HD remake was how much they nerfed the Boomerang
The item management kills the game boy versions. And the constant pop ups when not equipping the glove
I appreciate this video. I played through the remake and then the DX version on NSO after. I enjoy both of them. This game in general is amazing. I like the style of the original even though it can be a bit tedious if you're not used to it, with the constant item swapping and the exploration moving screen to screen instead of one continuous camera view. I love both, I'll keep continuing to play both every now and then, this is one of my favorite Zelda games.
The remake is probably better for first time players but I'd definitely go back to the original, especially in the HD PC port, for the added challenge, like some sort of Hero Mode but even better. Most of the issues that you pointed out with the remake I didn't really mind (I played the original first), other than the difficulty. It boggles my mind why they'd go as far as removing all of the challenge from dungeons but not doing anything about some of the most obscure overworld puzzles, almost as if there was some internal conflict during development. At least this remake isn't even nearly as bad as MM3D. Good video.
Very nice video. You are going places my guy.
7:25 in the original Gameboy game if you talk to one of the kids tossing the ball around they will tell you how to save the game that's how I found out to save the game.
The most important advantage the switch version has is more buttons, and my biggest gripe is that they didn't make full use of them: multiple shoulder buttons just raise your shield, for example. If the biggest weakness of the original is how few items you could equip at a time, the ability to equip as many items as possible at once would have been a simple, still faithful, fix.
A hot swap button would have made more skill expression than just assigning every item to a different button. The game was balanced around having two items and having the sword stowed sometimes.
@0:00 Wait.. when did Socrates say this!?
Do you have a reference for that quote?
The sensor partnis really nice, it explains well how seemengly small convinent additions can change howna player approaches a mechanic. Giving the sensor so early especially will make it ao much into q chore nore than anything
wat
wat
I grew up playing the Gameboy version. Wish I still had the map I drew. That’s it. Making another one now. Peace!-)
I think my biggest nitpick with the original is that the white space used on the sword sprite, capitalizing on your HUD and menu being white, means that when you're picking it up on the map the blade is partly invisible with ocean waves underneath it. Is this a glass sword rather than a steel one?
lol was not expecting to see clint at the dampe part XD i miss that guy
For me, it comes down to the question:
do you prefer the modern conveniences of later games, or do you hate loading screens with a *seething passion*
That's why I'll never bother with the Switch remake after watching gameplay comparisons of it. It does obvious things right, but drops the ball in the most unexpected places.
Ultimately, the DX version for GB/GBC is the ideal way to play.
I agree that the remake is very easy compared to the original. Reduced difficulty isn't bad in itself (good for my kids!), but FORCED reduced difficulty is bad, like the added cracks to the walls. DX was also much easier than the original though. Some things are forced, like the added owl statue hints, but luckily the tunics are optional.
I always felt Awakening was easy enough to brute force it. but the remake its just Tedius. For all the improvements made and QOL added it added grindy stuff and dumbed down everything. The PCport made just before this remake was anounced and that got C&Ded was way better. its the AM2R situation all over again.
I know i'm like 30 years late to the point. But I just figured out how they could have managed the items better with the gameboy's limited buttons. The Select button. Yes it's that simple. They could have simply put the map inside the same menu when you press Start, and free up the select button for use during normal play.
Use the Select Button to Toggle between sets of A/B, simply let the player have 4 item assigned, to A1, B1, and A2, B2, allowing you to quickly keep up to 4 items at use without having to pause the game and set it on the menu every single time.
I was stuck at that kill-the-enemies-in-the-right-order in bottle grotto for days!
I can 100% agree with the seashell thing, as a new player, at first it was cool to try to find them and then it turned into me digging every spot and while I was very interested at first in what I would get I eventually just couldn’t be bothered and gave up on them entirely
The only thing I don’t like in the original is the occasional frame drops when doing the charge attack and that you can miss seashell rewards if you don’t get the rewards when you have the exact number.
Atleast to me the Gameboy version has way more Charme than the Switch version. The video sequences are cool and the hard mode was a great addition but I come back almost every year to links awakening on the special edition game & watch while only having played the switch version once
The one new game is better in everyway but it shows how special the OG is if Nintendo took the time to revisit.
One thing I really loved about the remake was it showed us Link's mental state. While the people of Hyrule see monsters and enemies. Link sees a toy-like world full of fun puzzles.
Link’s Awakening DX was one of my first games and I am extremely nostalgic for it. I got it from my father before he passed and I spent many hours wandering around struggling at progressing. I bring up all this to say that despite how much I love DX, the remake is objectively better and I loved it just as much. I struggle with sitting down and completing games due to ADHD and a struggle with focus, yet I played through this game over a few days with little struggle in that aspect. I feel that the remake fully captured my love of DX, removed some of the more clunky and annoying features due to it being a Gameboy game, and managed to successfully keep my attention and enjoyment. In my opinion this is what a good remake looks like.
I am an 80s baby I grew up with the original Zelda. I had Link's Awakening on the Gameboy. Not the DX version mind you the original. I like a lot of old archaic games. In this case I like most of the quality of lie improvements. Not getting a message screaming at me that a boulder looks heavy every time I even look at one is quite nice. The only complaint is the extra heart pieces and bottles make the game too easy. Even on hero mode only the first couple of dungeons are a threat.
I enjoyed it. I liked having more buttons for items, the extra collectables, the dampe game, and the hero mode.
Also fast travel is an odd thing to criticize since even the very first Zelda had it, as well as the original versions of Link's Awakening via the warp pads and Mambo song.
The remake is the test for the new Zelda game. They worked out the engine in the remake and now we're going to see a wild Zelda with Zelda herself. Its been in the pipeline for 5 years now, and its here in a few weeks.
And it's absolute trash
@@siralexander3359I heard it’s fun but drops frames like they’re hot
@@rethardotv5874 its not fun its a tedius grind.
(10:05) Actually it's more then that it was supposed to be Link to the Past on the Gameboy from GB version in development till changed to Link's Awakening.
Hard4Games talks about that information.
in the original, there were more seashells but some disappeared if you went back and traded every 5 you got. i hate that the triforce of power time is limited now instead if you get hit
7:15 at the beginning of the game one of the kids outside the library tells you to press all the buttons at once to save. It's still way too obtuse, but 9 year old me managed to figure it out
Links awakening is a very special game for me, it was probably my first videogame but for sure my first Zelda. This is what I know as "Zelda".
I completely agree with the heart pieces, seashells, and bombable walls. I disagree with fast travel though, as I think there is nothing wrong with it and all it does it cut down on retracing steps. Also, highlighting the map isn't really adding extra handholding. The original literally had a map in the library that showed the locations of all the dungeons. The puzzle is in figuring out how to get to the dungeons, not finding them.
I definitely agree that the original/DX is better because of the atmosphere and gameplay/mechanics.
Dampé mode is bad, too. You can only use a few specific pre-designed rooms taken from existing dungeons, so every dungeon you can design is just a reshuffle, the possibilities are too limited.
It really isn't that bad. Could it be better? Absolutely, but it's not bad.
Yes I always use the same rooms over and over again for the most efficiency. It sucks that heart pieces and containers are locked behind it because I don’t wanna replay this mode for 100%.
What's most disappointing to me is that there's little to no potential for self-expression and creativity. Why would I wanna show my friends the cool dungeon I designed when it's bsically something that a random number generator could have popped out on its own?
@@Xurikk Fair but you gotta understand there's no proper level editors for 2D Zelda games, so this is the best we have for the time being.
@@megaman37456 Not from Nintendo, but there are indies that have made games for doing just that.
1 of which has even been available on the Switch for over a year at this point.
It clearly isn't _that_ difficult to create/setup, Nintendo is just being stupid again.
All your points were right
I just completed the Switch port, never played the original but i kinda disliked the Switch port
My girl and I are just done with the eagle tower, and not knowing you need to push the statue to get the blue rooster was.... yeah, we did play the crocodile song but didn't know we needed to open the stairs and eventually wasted half a day before googling it lmao
Great video, this channel deserves more subscribers
dx literary have arrows draw on the floor of dungeons to where have a wall you should explode, the compass tells where have keys but most of times it will be obvius by the fact it have a tile with another oclor where the key will fall into.
You're wrong on this one both the original and DX are unnecessarily flawed in terms of dungeon design and not even knowing how to save the game. The fast travel is also a very welcome improvement in the remake.
The two kids in front of the library in Mabe town that are playing ball tell you how to save. No need for the manual or google.
Agree on some points like the difficulty being too dumbed down, but strongly disagree with others like the teleportation & cracks in the walls being a bad thing.
The bombable walls were far too cryptic imo & thus I think it's a REALLY good thing that they made them more apparent. The player still has to be paying attention to their surroundings to spot them.
They're not cryptic if you look at the map. What's good about it is that it forces you to look at the map.
@hist150project5 What does the map have to do with anything? You can't see them on the map either in the original GB version. That isn't the way the old Map works... rooms are just blank squares in the original. It was absolutely too cryptic.
It maybe wouldn't have been so bad if the game constantly reminded players that you can use the sword to spot bombable walls as it makes a different metallic sound on the bombable spots. Even then, it's pretty cryptic. Nobody wants to spend tens of hours tapping on every spot of every wall looking for bombable spots...
Links Awakening (OG) holds the merit of being the first videogame to achieve making me shed tears of utter sadness upon watching the ending. Especially after finishing the game with zero deaths, which unlocks the true ending--Marin's dream becomes true.
What's her dream? Play the game.
I got this along with a dmg gameboy sometime in 94 or 95 from my uncle. I have always loved this game and it might be my fave game of all time.
I have it in a handful of physical and digital versions lol
I think ive beat this game several times now and never get tired of seeing the windfish at the end 💜
The music is so much better in the remake, both the fact it's real music with instruments and not gameboy sounds (that get annoying to listen to very quickly) and the way some songs were improved from their original form (level 4 dungeon didn't even had a real theme in the original game)
I actually really like the toy aesthetic of the remake. I think the dx version is amazing with its pixel art, one of the best gbc games of all time, and it for the most part has better music, or at least I think it has better rhythm
But idk I really like the remake too, and man the face shrine remix, it’s easily better than the original, the remake face shrine is probably one of the best zelda dungeon themes of all time. There is merit to preferring the original in many ways, but I think the switch remake has many merits of its own. My only complaint is the price, it probably should have only been $30-$40 given how long the game is
Fun fact: When Nintendo was at E3 for OOT they used puppets like Zelda to promote the new game. Nintendo does have a puppet fetish 😅
I feel like one of very few that hated the "plastic" look of the remake.
2 mins in, first vid was a banger so let's see this one
while the added cracks in the dungeons i see as a downgrade and the control scheme i see as a step backwards, eagle's tower overall in the remake is better from a program and collision perspective. the iron ball had a potential bug where you could not lift it if it was sitting on the rails or near a screen transition border. in the remake, a fails safe mechanic was added where the ball resets to its starting position if you leave the dungeon. also it can no longer be transported through the rotating door which strengthens the navigational puzzle and the blocks on the left side of the 4th pillar room are no longer pushable. also another big improvement were the horse heads which are now a real puzzle instead of being luck dependent.
Mad Scary you can't remember something that happened a year ago.
How does that even happen?
Nostalgia vs a highly superior product
While there is a lot of nostalgia in this video, saying the remake is "highly superior" is an overstatement. It's the same game with redone graphics, qol improvements and a few minor changes, nothing I would call "highly superior."
It's always disappointing when they get too carried away with quality of life improvements, that they inadvertently remove all the challenge.
The remake was the second Zelda game I finished and it is what got me hooked to the Legend of Zelda properly. I shall not hear any disrespect towards it. I’m sure it spawned a brand new fan base for Zelda.
I mean aside from it disrespecting the original’s artstyle, ruining the continuity of the original by adding a shield that never existed in the original nor in that timeline, and making the game look like a phone game. Long time Zelda fans have every right to criticize it.
@@Aelvir114the creator of the video sounds like he's 15
Also the Hylian Shield first appeared in Skyward Sword chronologically so literally every subsequent timeline can have it.
@@hypotheticaltapeworm Hylian knights didn’t even exist in Skyward and you get it from a dragon. I would also like to point out that Hylian Shield was never a shield used by ALTTP link whatsoever. He always used the Hero’s Shield. The only 2D link before LA remake that did, was ALBW Link, which made even less sense because you get it in LORULE
@@Aelvir114 Yeah but you said there's no precedent but the first game has one so Hylian Shields do, in fact, exist as of the genesis of the series
@@hypotheticaltapeworm Maybe because Skyward Sword came decades after LA and retconned a lot of stuff, like idk, the origin of the Master Sword? Goddess Sword was never a thing before or after SS, let alone acknowledged and prior to SS it was explicitly stated that it was forged AS the Master Sword. So call me crazy if I’m not exactly trusting SS as being the origin of everything in the series when it doesn’t even acknowledge previously established origins.
Also Hylian Shield was probably only in Skyward because like LA remake, it’s iconic and people would whine endlessly when it’s not shoehorned in there. Saying it being on there means it’s canon is the same logic as saying because Biggoron’s Sword breaking in BotW is canon.
Hylian Shield was always established as the shield the Hylian Knights use, which is a bit weird to have in a game that predates the existence of Hylian Knights. Logically it didn’t exist lorewise until OoT.
Clint Stevens jumpscares
Personally, i think both the remake and the og are great in their own right.
OG: It is a pretty engaging game, that gave you it's all, despite the limited hardware it came out on. Even after all these years, it's still a fun and charming game. It may have aged in a few aspects, but it doesn't really lessen the game in any way.
Remake: It's a very beautiful looking remake, with an artstyle that's both unique and faithful to the original, not to mention the quality of life improvements, which makes the game even more enjoyable. It may not hold the same magic to the original and the Dampe Dungeon Maker isn't much to talk about, but it's still a great adventure all the same. (But man, this does NOT deserve a full retail price.)
Saying one is better than the other, is a pretty big disservice to both of these games.
Personal opinions.
I didn't really like the aesthetics of the remake. Be it the visual style or the reimagining of the soundtrack (for the most part -- there were a few really good songs at least). Quality of life improvements that you believe are a detriment were just about universally good for me, as was making it more forgiving of a game (though at times it went a bit overboard). So I pretty much have the opposite opinion of what to criticize vs. what to praise.
Overall, the game is quite commendable and the remake is an experience worth playing to new or old players. Your overall score is probably something I'd agree with. Just for polar opposite reasons.
I was stuck on that damn blue rooster forever.
I find this video fairly well argued. I am especially baffled by the changes to the shell. Really, they should've had 900 shells. 😏
To me, the remake is the perfect remake. It improves and modernizes everything that needs it, while still perfectly preserving the feel and atmosphere of the original
i thought the box art was just signifying it as a sequel growing up i never understood why people hated that
I got the original for my 6th birthday, I am now 37. It has long been one of my all time favorite games. It holds so much sentimental value to me. That said you really down play a couple of the major problems of the original. You mention the item management takes a few seconds to switch back and forth, but there are points in the game where you move a couple paces and need to switch and then a couple more and switch again. Also the text boxes every time you accidentally touch something are so horribly bad. Both of these things can quickly make the original feel like a chore. I often find nowadays that it's hard to have a 30 minute window to play and these unnecessary things like this in older games suck the fun out so quickly. You also mention the lack of difficulty but I don't remember you mentioning the hero mode in the video. Playing hero mode without losing a life brought back a lot of the challenging fun and stress of the original in a good way. Again I love the game and I love the remake, but I feel like you are wearing rose colored glasses when you gloss over the shortcomings of the original.
taking a hit for u lil bro
Never liked how the jump mechanic is slower in the remake
Those changes you are unsatisfied with, are due to how developers now try to appeal to non gamers, and the fix should have been simple, a lot of games already have a system in place to prevent such issues, and that is that for a lot of new games mostly indie games, when you make a new save file it asks you if you want to play on casual mode or in retro/veteran mode, and this is how games should be made going forward, because both kinds of plays are needed in the industry, since a gamer wouldn't want to play a game that doesn't challenge them, and a casual player wouldn't want to have to face an obstacle that they can't overcome, but I guess that not everyone in the industry agrees to this, because of how they are still making their games, and honestly I kind of miss how older games encouraged replayability by letting you unlock harder difficulties, while modern games are not worth paying full price for them, since a lot of them have absolutely no replay value at all.
Ok turned the video off after the fast travel comment, I played the original on my GBC in the early 2000s and let me tell you now wandering around the same exact patch of woods 300 times was not necessary then and added nothing to the game, it just wastes the player's time, fast travel is a good thing, the idea that being forced to walk through the same areas over and over somehow adds something to the experience is laughably stupid.
Clint Stevens reference. Pog.
Difficulty setting would fix most problems. I feel this way about Nintendos pokemon aswell
Never played the original & decided Link's Awakening (Remake) to be my starting point to play LoZ Games for the 1st time. I personally don't see Fast Travel as an issue because, judging by the Big Map of the island, new players like myself still need to explore to find those Warp Pads & considering there are those Sea Shells that we can bring into the Shell Mansion by getting other items to help us out I think those Warp Pads are pretty handy to Fast Travel to that specific location to claim our items. Lastly, we also need to trade in Special Items to advance so that still allow players to explore before even finishing the game, I doubt I can finish the game early or that soon without that much of exploration & to only use Fast Travel. Again, I definitely don't see this Fast Travel as an issue at all since we have all of that to take into account, by not acknowledging those aspects that are part of the gameplay your argument seems flawed in hindsight.
MM remake was literally unplayable, I couldn't get past any of the deku scrub lillypad sections without the proper momentum.
This is literally untrue. Not only can you go through them without the spin momentum even in the original but you also do get a momentum increase from spinning like in the original, the ridiculous distance increase (which was not intended to be as far as it was in the original) is just reduced to what was intended originally.
MM3D also is not a remake, it is a remaster. The remake has some problems but it’s not unplayable and the Deku skipping is not one of those major problems. The Zora swimming is far worse is a change. And censoring the Garos bombing themselves I was not a fan of.
I personally think the DX remake is a LITTLE bit better than the original. It wouldn't be a LITTLE if its graphics were more in the style of Link Between Worlds.
Did you ever try Link's Awakening DX HD? It was just a fan remake but I still believe it's the definitive way to play honestly, it's all over on different forums and internet archive, I think a comparison of DX to DX HD would be cool if you're ok with poking the wasp nest that is nintendo