“Link’s Awak­en­ing” for the Third Time

“The Leg­end of Zelda: Link’s Awak­en­ing,” the 26-year-old ac­tion, ad­ven­ture RPG from every­one’s fa­vorite, fam­ily-friendly game com­pany, Nin­tendo, has got­ten a brand-new look. The old ti­tle’s re­mas­ter re­leased on Sept. 20, 2019 for the Nin­tendo Switch, fea­tur­ing en­hanced graph­ics, remixed mu­sic, and new func­tion­al­ity on top of the old dun­geon-crawl­ing, top-down Zelda of yes­ter­year. The lo­ca­tions, plot, and en­e­mies have not changed much since their ap­pear­ance in the first it­er­a­tion, but the 2019 re­lease adds new non-player char­ac­ters, en­e­mies, and puz­zle el­e­ments. The game wel­comes old play­ers into a won­der­ful em­brace of nos­tal­gia and child-like won­der, and new play­ers into an ex­cit­ing story, an un­rav­el­ing mys­tery, and a pan­theon of dan­ger­ous foes. 

The story of the game sees lit­tle change: se­ries pro­tag­o­nist, Link, ends up on the shore of Ko­holint Is­land, af­ter his ship meets an un­timely fate at the harsh wa­ters of a rag­ing storm. Upon wak­ing up, the player is in­tro­duced to the denizens of Mabe Vil­lage, func­tion­ing as the start­ing area. Af­ter a quick con­ver­sa­tion with the kind souls who res­cued him and some of his equip­ment, Link trav­els down to the beach to find his miss­ing sword. When the green-garbed hero goes to col­lect his weapon, a kindly owl de­scends to in­form Link of his task: if he wants to get home, he’ll need to wake the Wind Fish, an enig­matic crea­ture that slum­bers in an egg at the top of the game’s high­est peak. The owl tells Link to meet him in the Mys­te­ri­ous For­est for more in­for­ma­tion. This be­ing a video game, Link fol­lows the in­struc­tions of the wiz­ened, talk­ing owl he only just met be­cause he asked so nicely. This is not to say there is noth­ing bet­ter to do, though. In true RPG fash­ion, Link can choose to bury his nose in other peo­ple’s busi­ness from the mo­ment he steps out­side. There are fetch-quests, trade-quests, and plenty of dun­geons to dis­tract the player from their crit­i­cal mis­sion of re­turn­ing home. 

Newer fea­tures in­clude the ob­vi­ous graph­i­cal and mu­si­cal up­grades, as well as qual­ity-of-life changes in the form of new but­ton lay­outs. One change that has fans elated, how­ever, is the new Cham­ber Dun­geon mode. This mode al­lows play­ers to con­struct dun­geons with any cham­ber they have come across in their own game, and then share it with oth­ers. An­other fea­ture is com­pat­i­bil­ity with Nin­ten­do’s pop­u­lar col­lectible line: ami­ibo. Scan­ning in cer­tain Zelda ami­ibo will grant ac­cess to five spe­cial Cham­bers in a ran­dom or­der. Still more fun in­clu­sions are the new puz­zle and en­emy el­e­ments: some that play­ers might rec­og­nize from an­other pop­u­lar Nin­tendo fran­chise, star­ring a mus­ta­chioed Ital­ian plumber. 

“The Leg­end of Zelda: Link’s Awak­en­ing” is an ex­cel­lent ex­am­ple of a stroll down mem­ory lane, if the lane was seen through a cutesy, col­or­ful, high-de­f­i­n­i­tion fil­ter. A pol­ished retelling of a clas­sic story with new bits and pieces, and a much larger screen, this two-and-a-half-decade-old ad­ven­ture will bring joy to fans and new­com­ers alike. 

Story sum­mary cour­tesy of of­fi­cial “Link’s Awak­en­ing” Web­site: https://​www.zelda.com/​links-awak­en­ing/ and Out­side Xtra. (2019, Sep­tem­ber 20). Link's Awak­en­ing Switch Game­play: Link's Awak­en­ing with Pro­ducer Jon – Yoshi Toy Claw Grab [Video File]. https://​www.youtube.com/​watch?v=Hx­TqH­w9CfGw.