Link's Awakening for Switch

[jefflomacy]

Didn't see a thread / couldn't find a thread via search. This game hits store shelves and the eShop in 33 days (September 20th).

Anyone else pretty excited for this one? Did you play the original GameBoy game? I never did actually despite playing a ton of other GameBoy titles as a kid.

I noticed there is an amiibo in the new Link's Awakening art style also available on September 20th. Do we know what it is supposed to do in game?

Nintendo's latest tweet about the game: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1162076635035660288

 

[Rusolando-Kun]

I am excited!
The game looks adorable and seems to be a lot of fun to play.

I'm going to try to get it day one, but will see - I might postpone it to next month or something. September is absolutely packed with great games. XD

 

[TSquared]

Super excited for this one! Link's Awakening is the only Zelda game I failed to play as a child (I'm actually not even sure why I never did!) so I'm considering this the chance to make up for lost time.

 

[Psydye]

CAN. NOT. ****ING. WAIT!! Played the original and loved it. Will be fun visiting Koholint again!

 

[LaBelleFleur]

I'm super excited! I actually first head the music at the Symphony of the Goddesses, and completely fell in love. I downloaded the game on the 3DS eShop right after that, and it quickly became one of my favourites. I'm ready to replay it, and the graphics are so cute!

 

[Antonio]

I'm hyped for it. Debating if I should get this or fire emblem.

 

[jefflomacy]

The OST we have access to so far really tells me everything I need to know about the kind of remake we will be receiving. Even portions of the 8-bit music are re-used carefully:

 

[jefflomacy]

This game launches on Friday. Will YOU be playing it this coming weekend? I have cleared my schedule to give it some time.

 

[EpicGamer12]

My fiancee is receiving it from her brother for her birthday, so I may be playing it after she is done with it! The game looks so cute and well done.

 

[Sweetley]

Looks actually pretty good, may buy it one day once I'm finished with Breath of the Wild.

 

[Stalfos]

Only two more days before it drops! I can't wait. Link's Awakening is one of my favorite games in the series. From what Nintendo has shown so far, from updated graphics and music to QOL-improvements, I could see this topping A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time for me. Hype!

 

[Noctis]

Super excited for this game! Best buy already shipped my copy this morning. Just waiting for the amiibo to ship. In the meantime I've been watching some walkthroughs on youtube already.

 

[Soot Sprite]

It comes out tomorrow, which also happens to be my birthday so I have a whole weekend planned to play it. I'm going to pick it up and then I'm heading to the beach so I have about three hours to play it uninterrupted. Best part is it ended up being a gift so I didn't have to spend $60 on it so I got splatoon finally instead!

 

[jefflomacy]

Played this a lot today. Really enjoying it. My only criticisms of the game are entirely centered around the actual engine of the game and not the gameplay itself.

This game has some real framerate stability problems. When assets are being loaded, the framerate can drop to half of what it was for a second or two. It does not appear to be related to entities on screen, as the framerate drops happen in moments where you would expect the game to be loading new assets, like entering a new region of the map, exiting a house, etc. This is a particularly bad problem early in the game before you complete the second dungeon. Since getting through this part, it has not been as noticeable but it was very off putting for the first few hours of gameplay. It would be great if this received a patch, but I don't know that it will.

The other thing that bothers me is the depth-of-field blurring at the top and bottom of the screen. It seems unnecessary, and looks quite tacky to me. I've seen this in New Horizons screenshots as well. Based on the way it is done in this game, it is not a feature I will like and I hope future revisions of their engine allow it to be disabled.

The only thing I can think of that's odd is the directional pad is not supported for moving. Not a big deal, but a strange choice.

Positive notes: The sound track is great. It is a small orchestral group for all of the tracks, which retains much of the atmosphere of the GameBoy sound track. The orchestration is very tight and not "big" or "airy," which makes everything very memorable. The gameplay is what you would expect for a top-down Zelda game and I have no complaints about it.

 

[MelloDimensions]

I think it looks so cute and even real pretty with its design aesthetics, however the price being 60 I don't really favor. The frame rate problem isn't an issue for me personally. I find that to be first world problems at its finest that should really be a main concern for when the mechanics are dependent on it, such as fighting games. I love Zelda, so I'll more than likely still get it if not to at least expose such a great game to my little brother.

 

[G0DFlesh_88]

Played this a lot today. Really enjoying it. My only criticisms of the game are entirely centered around the actual engine of the game and not the gameplay itself.

This game has some real framerate stability problems. When assets are being loaded, the framerate can drop to half of what it was for a second or two. It does not appear to be related to entities on screen, as the framerate drops happen in moments where you would expect the game to be loading new assets, like entering a new region of the map, exiting a house, etc. This is a particularly bad problem early in the game before you complete the second dungeon. Since getting through this part, it has not been as noticeable but it was very off putting for the first few hours of gameplay. It would be great if this received a patch, but I don't know that it will.

The other thing that bothers me is the depth-of-field blurring at the top and bottom of the screen. It seems unnecessary, and looks quite tacky to me. I've seen this in New Horizons screenshots as well. Based on the way it is done in this game, it is not a feature I will like and I hope future revisions of their engine allow it to be disabled.

The only thing I can think of that's odd is the directional pad is not supported for moving. Not a big deal, but a strange choice.

Positive notes: The sound track is great. It is a small orchestral group for all of the tracks, which retains much of the atmosphere of the GameBoy sound track. The orchestration is very tight and not "big" or "airy," which makes everything very memorable. The gameplay is what you would expect for a top-down Zelda game and I have no complaints about it.

The way the graphics gloss coats everything reminds me of the Unreal Engine 4. It could be that...or maybe unity

 

[jefflomacy]

Still having lots of fun with this. I didn't play this game before so it's looking like a complete playthrough of the story is going to clock in around 20-25 hours, and this is before all of the side content is close to completed. After I finish the story I would like to complete all of the side content and then do a hero mode, zero-death run as I have read there was a surprise in the original game if you did this.

Unless you have played the game before, claims of a run through only taking ten hours or less without looking up any hints are pretty unrealistic in my opinion.

 

[Stalfos]

Played this a lot today. Really enjoying it. My only criticisms of the game are entirely centered around the actual engine of the game and not the gameplay itself.

This game has some real framerate stability problems. When assets are being loaded, the framerate can drop to half of what it was for a second or two. It does not appear to be related to entities on screen, as the framerate drops happen in moments where you would expect the game to be loading new assets, like entering a new region of the map, exiting a house, etc. This is a particularly bad problem early in the game before you complete the second dungeon. Since getting through this part, it has not been as noticeable but it was very off putting for the first few hours of gameplay. It would be great if this received a patch, but I don't know that it will.

I was a bit shocked at how bad it would get. Not something you would expect from a first party title.

The only thing I can think of that's odd is the directional pad is not supported for moving. Not a big deal, but a strange choice.

It's kind of a big deal to me though. I always pick a d-pad over an analogue stick for 2D games if I have the option. Metroid: Samus Returns for the 3DS had the same issue. I've played through Metroid twice and I'm still not comfortable using the analogue controls. Well, at least it made some sense in Metroid with the free aiming, but in Zelda you can only move in 8 directions even with the analogue stick. What were they thinking?

Still having lots of fun with this. I didn't play this game before so it's looking like a complete playthrough of the story is going to clock in around 20-25 hours, and this is before all of the side content is close to completed. After I finish the story I would like to complete all of the side content and then do a hero mode, zero-death run as I have read there was a surprise in the original game if you did this.

Unless you have played the game before, claims of a run through only taking ten hours or less without looking up any hints are pretty unrealistic in my opinion.

Yeah, Link's Awakening has a lot of content. I think some people expect it to be very short since it's originally a Game Boy game. I'd actually say that the original Link's Awakening takes longer to complete than A Link to the Past for the SNES, and I've never heard any complaints over that game being short.

 

[jefflomacy]

Just finished this game. Very much enjoyed it. I did not finish the seashell collect-a-thon (45 / 50) or get all the heart containers, but if you play the game this far in and get through all of the dungeons, it will probably make sense why I didn't complete either of these.

This was a very fun game. I am going to replay it again in hero mode at some point soon. It also makes me want to revisit some of the other GameBoy Color Zelda games, in particular Oracle of Seasons.

I'm not sure how long my play time was. If I had to guess, it was about 25-30 hours. The Switch won't tell play times until 10 days have passed since initially playing the game. I did not see play time listed on the end credits but I may have just missed it.

 

[Sweetley]

I have some little questions for those who already played it. I'm planning to may get the game
sometime because it looks really nice, but first I wanted to know some things about it:

- How is the game play?
- How long does it take (approximately) to complete the main story?
- Are there also side quests you can do? If so, how many?
- Is the game more easy or difficult (or in general how's the degree of difficulty)?

(Note: I never played the original GameBoy version of the game)