Link's Awakening: Two big tips to avoid frustration

I have really been enjoying this game which is a revisit to a classic game that was originally released exclusively on Game Boy. Honestly, because I never got a Wii and only recently got a Switch there were a lot of Zelda games that managed to slip me by. This was one of them.

The game is great for fans of old-school games that weren't too complicated but because the remastered the graphics it looks really crisp and is a lot of fun, even if it is probably too easy by many modern standards. I would say that there have only been a couple of truly challenging areas and if it was a boss it was merely because you were using the wrong weapon on them, not that you weren't fast enough.

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Mostly the game is what you would expect from a 90's Zelda game but there are a couple of things that are a bit different and depending on who you are, you might find them annoying.

For starters, the game doesn't always give you terribly accurate information about where you are supposed to go next. Many times I was just wandering and wondering about what the fuck I am supposed to be doing now. It isn't always very clear. This is ok because the world isn't very big and it is easy to walk from one end to the other. The downside of this is that just like in other Zelda games (all of them, I would say) there is no incentive for fighting a bunch as in there isn't any leveling or XP or anything like that. So after you walk and walk and walk you get frustrated and probably start to look on the net about what you are supposed to be doing.

One of these things that they never actually tell you about is that you are supposed to, and eventually forced to, go and get an ocarina .... but you are never told WHERE you would get such a thing.

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If it was ever stated to me that the ocarina was located in this building by any NPC in the game it must have been subtle, because I had no idea. I had been in here before but was wiped out very quickly by these strange enemies that don't appear anywhere else in the game that take something crazy like half of your life away anytime you so much as touch them.

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The ocarina makes fast travel from anywhere possible and that is a nice touch, but it becomes essential for progression about 80% of the way through the game. They don't do a good job of indicating where it might be and perhaps this was because this game is actually quite small for a full-price release and they needed you to eat up some time running around endlessly.

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_{original graphics of the same room, crazy difference huh?}

I must have been pretty intensely involved in attempting to dodge these creatures the few times I had tried this area in the past because I had managed to not even notice that the ocarina was sitting the middle there, so I wouldn't have even known had I not looked online about this. This is called the Dream Shrine and before I tried something it seemed as though I was never going to get through this. You can jump most of them but some of them end up being spaced just perfectly so you can't jump over 2 at a time. Then there is the falling floor to contend with so you can't fight them. Stand there too long and you will fall and have to start the whole thing over again with enemies replaced.

As it turns out the solution is actually quite easy. Just hold down R1 and charge at them using your Pegasus Boots. There is no need to equip anything, once you have the boots it is automatic. I felt a bit stupid after realizing that charging them with the pegasus boots equipped makes this area really easy. I would imagine it actually IS possible without them but man, it would be very unlikely. Once you realize "charge!" is the way to go you feel silly for ever considering this part of the game difficult.

I think this is a good lesson for the rest of the game as well. There were certain bosses that I was losing to and later on I tried equipping something else and attacking with that only to realize that this was likely what you were meant to use all along.

Which brings me to one other thing and that is the creative bosses in this game.

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This particular boss is called "Facade" and while it was extremely easy, I appreciated the fact that it wasn't a monster in a room attacking you... it was the entire room that was doing so. That's just really creative in my mind.

If you can borrow this game from a friend I say you are doing a disservice to yourself by not going down the fun lane that is retro-games-made-better-with-modern-graphics-and-sound. That being said, I do not think this game is worth what they are charging for it, which ranges from $25 to $50.