“…Nostalgia…unchanged…boo hoo…”
These simple lines are uttered by a wistful spirit in The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening after Link helps them return to their former home. It’s a simple moment with no larger bearing on the overall narrative and that yields no significant physical reward, but for some reason this small moment, one of many mysterious little oddities in the game, has always resonated strongly with me. In the new remake of Link’s Awakening for Nintendo Switch, the ghost’s decrepit abode has been recreated in painstaking detail. A wiry, overgrown potted plant stands next to a tired old bed. A tattered map lies abandoned on a small table next to a compass. Old photographs lie about, empty coat hangers dangle from the wall, and a discarded pair of spectacles sits atop a crumbling bureau. The unforgettable melody that haunts this “House by the Bay” has been layered and expanded upon with beautiful orchestration. …Nostalgia…unchanged…
Except something has been changed. Or more like lovingly rebuilt in this wonderful new version of a video game that is far more than a video game for me. Zelda is my favorite series. I have played and replayed and obsessed over every single adventure in this thirty plus year old franchise, but there is no Zelda game, or game in general for that matter, more special to me than Link’s Awakening. This strange game took up residence in my soul long ago and never left. Its mark was perhaps more indelible on me than that of any other piece of art, be it a film, book, song, or other game. Probably coming as no surprise, yes, it was my first Zelda experience, but it’s far more than just nostalgia. Its themes speak deeply to me and in its own subtle way it contains some of the most poignant and profoundly emotional moments in the entire series…in any game period. This is a game where every inch of its handcrafted world and its thoughtful story is special and memorable. And yet it puts up no airs, it makes no lofty promises; it just lures you in with its charm and its quirk and then slowly sings its way into your heart. By the end, you will want to turn back the clock…to spend even just one more moment exploring the lovely Koholint Island.
But it is also nostalgia. So. Much. Nostalgia. Beginning this new remake, waking up in Marin and Tarin’s house once again, examining their dresser to the adorable shocked faces of its owners, strolling around a beautifully recreated, living, breathing Mabe Village, Toronbo Shores, and Mysterious Forest filled me with such warmth, such wistful yearning mixed with pure, simple joy, of the like I have never felt playing any kind of video game remake, remaster, or the like. Yes, nostalgia is the word. Not in the sense of “oh haha I remember this! I used to love this game!” but in the truest sense of the word. From Dictionary.com: “a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time”…yes, that. All of that.
This is much more than a simple visual retouch. Koholint Island has been meticulously recrafted piece by piece. I detailed the abandoned House by the Bay above, but the actually populated homes of the island’s eccentric natives are an even greater example of how much new life this remake breathes into a world I’ve held so close to my heart for so long. These snug abodes are filled with mementos, photographs, baskets of food, stacks of books, cups of warm tea, and all manner of ephemera that suggests that people truly live there. Venturing outside into the island’s diverse locales finds them brimming with natural beauty: flowers bloom from cracks in cliffsides beside pristine waterfalls and ocean surf tosses around rocky crags at the island’s edges. The game’s visual appearance may have a diorama-like quality to it, but the world is imbued with a realism that makes you believe in it. Taking a page from Breath of the Wild, the sound design incorporates the chirps of birds and the hum of insects when traversing the island’s inland regions and the rushing of wind and sea when on the beach. The redone and very eclectic soundtrack arranged by Ryo Nagamatsu (who did the fantastic score for A Link Between Worlds) is particularly special.
There was always going to be something lost when redoing Link’s Awakening’s music, as the distinct Game Boy sound chip and the relative simplicity of many of the original compositions are a large part of what gives the original game its signature haunting atmosphere. The score of the remake, however, manages the very difficult task of making this new version feel unique while also staying true to the soul of the original. Some of the music is strictly faithful such as the bombastic and brilliant orchestrated rendition of Tal Tal Heights, while creative liberties were taken with some of the game’s smaller compositions, such as adding a tropical flavor to the house theme and one especially amusing arrangement that appears a bit later on that I won’t spoil, but put a huge smile on my face.
Special care seemed to be taken to choose when to be true to the original compositions and when to transform or add to them, and this is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the consistently excellent dungeon themes. Whereas the intense theme of Bottle Grotto is about as perfect of a faithful modern arrangement as I could have ever hoped for, the repetitive theme of Angler’s Tunnel was given a series of welcome and beautiful new layers to the base melody. Where the soundtrack truly goes above and beyond though is when it strives to enhance the emotional impact of the narrative by adding new layers to some of the game’s most important themes or when songs dynamically evolve in key scenes. I don’t want to spoil some of the surprising and moving tricks the new soundtrack pulls off, which are especially effective if you are familiar with the original game, but suffice to say tears were shed. Nagamatsu really went above and beyond here paying tribute to and elaborating upon the original two versions’ scores by Kazumi Totaka, Minako Hamano, Kozue Ishikawa, and Yuichi Ozaki (who worked on the DX version), with some tracks lasting for minutes on end and incorporating multiple stages and instruments. No piece of music from the original was too small to not be treated with care, even if it only plays in one tiny area.
You may have noticed that I haven’t said a word about the remake’s mechanics and that’s because there’s really not much to discuss. They’re perfect. All the right tweaks and modifications that smooth out the few quirks with the original’s controls and design are present and accounted for. It’s top-down Zelda at its finest and it feels fantastic.
The purist in me does have some quibbles. As much effort and care as there seems to have been put into preserving the uniqueness of the original game, it’s unfortunate that a large portion of the monster designs are not based on the sprites of Link’s Awakening at all but instead seem ripped right from A Link Between Worlds (which in turn is based on the A Link to the Past designs). While the monsters in Link’s Awakening that do not appear in the former two games in any form have been translated faithfully, there is just a small part of the game’s identity lost by using more homogenized appearances for the remainder of the foes. For this same reason, I also think the contemporary Hylian Shield design sort of stands out like a sore thumb here. I’m also not a fan of the way the game handles the overworld map, which is more useful but unfortunately trades a sense of mystery for convenience, completely filling in new regions as soon as players dip one toe in them. Then there are other assorted aspects that just sort of alter the atmosphere and overall experience in general in ways, such as some text and sound effect changes here and there, as well as the world now being rendered in 3D and being able to see more of it at all times somewhat making it feel smaller and once again taking away the mystery just a bit. These things aren’t super detrimental, but they do occasionally detract from the original’s personality.
The remake’s weakest link (*groan*) is ironically its biggest new feature: its heavily advertised “dungeon maker”, which in reality is actually a very limited tool for remixing pre-designed rooms from the game’s main dungeons. There are also some tedious “dungeon designing” challenges to complete, but besides maybe being a bit of tame fun to share with friends, it all just feels like a waste of time and its overall presentation is also uncharacteristically bland coming from Nintendo. It’s disappointing and I would have preferred the return of the photo album feature from Link’s Awakening DX instead, but I still think there’s a ton of potential for a true top-down Zelda dungeon maker a la Super Mario Maker and this mode at least hints at that potential.
Ok, if you’ve never played Link’s Awakening, and honestly even if you have played the original but not this remake, I’d strongly advise you to skip the next two paragraphs down to the conclusion. MAJOR SPOILER WARNING here for both the game’s narrative but also for aspects of the remake you might not want spoiled before experiencing it yourself (I also flanked this section with two screenshots to make it easier to avoid).
This may sound surprising if you’ve read this far, but after the credits rolled, I was more conflicted about this remake than I thought I would be for pretty much the entirely of my playthrough. I do love this new version, but in the end I began to ask myself a troublesome question: is it too faithful? See, as much as I adore the original Link’s Awakening (particularly the DX version) and the timeless story it tells, I can’t help but imagine what could be. I’ve long dreamed of what a true remake of Link’s Awakening would look like, especially after reading a blog post years ago titled “The Greatest Zelda: Why Link’s Awakening Desperately Demands a Remake” written by a user on IGN.com who went by the name, “danders16” (I would link the post but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to exist anymore). If I recall correctly, the gist of the piece was basically that the high concept narrative of Link’s Awakening is bursting with potential and a full-fledged remake that fleshes out the characters and the world and fully explores the game’s heady concepts could truly be something unprecedented. There would be a lot of conditions in such a huge undertaking of course, such as Yoshiaki Koizumi (the main creator of the original’s narrative) being a must to return to lead the writing effort, and who knows if it would ever truly be realistic or feasible. But moments in the remake that seek to amplify the emotion of the original such as the devastatingly haunting new rendition of the Face Shrine’s theme, which brilliantly adds new layers over the unaltered original chiptune music, almost feel out of place in such a faithful remake and hint at just how powerful this story can really be.
A few tweaks were made to the ending as well, such as altering a very important piece of the Wind Fish’s dialogue (changing “That memory must be the real dream world” to “That memory makes the dream world real”). I spent minutes on end just pondering this rearranged text before advancing, and don’t even get me started on how much more subtle they made the secret Marin ending. I have mixed feelings on both of these changes, but the fact that they were made at all makes me wish that perhaps a few more tweaks were made. Maybe a few more scenes of the island and its people disappearing (such as of the Animal Village) and an overall more pensive tone during the ending scenes with Link and during the credits, whose theme has always felt just a little too upbeat and tonally jarring in the context of the ending to me, might have gone a long way in more effectively cementing the emotional gravity of the conclusion. …There’s just a lot to unpack here. I love Link’s Awakening just as it is and this new version is about as good as a faithful remake could be, but the story of this game is just so damn good and ambitious and I can’t help but wonder what it would look like if somebody really went all the way in amplifying its impact, especially when we have a remake now that flirts with this notion at times.
END OF SPOILERS
I want to end by reiterating that this remake really is a wonderful tribute to a timelessly special game. In the sea of remakes, remasters, and nostalgia cash-ins happening in the video game sphere these days, I can’t implore you enough to set aside some time for this particular link to the past (you know I had to), especially if you’ve never experienced the black and white original or DX color version and don’t have access to them (and if you have experienced either or both of the original versions, Koholint Island is more than worth a revisit). While Link’s Awakening DX will always be “my” Link’s Awakening, I can easily see myself returning to this new version again and again as well, and I’m very happy to say that it stands aside its original counterparts as a very worthy option.
Now Grezzo and Nintendo…how ‘bout those Oracles?
*The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (2019) was developed by Grezzo and published by Nintendo
*Header image and all screenshots by me
Art Imitates Nature 