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chuckroAfter the events of Link’s Awakening, the hero of Hyrule is once again drawn to another world…except this time, there are two worlds with similar problems of kidnapped goddesses. This is the story of one of them, where the Goddess of Seasons is kidnapped and Link must deal with weather gone wild to get her back.
I had completely forgotten about the intro, with Link being warped to Holdrum and Onyx kidnapping Din. It’s clear that this is a sequel to Link’s Awakening intended for people who played that, as there’s much less tutorial and you need to go through a short dungeon to get your sword. The puzzles and dodging are also a bit trickier right off the bat. Honestly, it’s even more of an “expansion pack” to Link’s Awakening, given that it uses the same systems and many of the same assets.
Also of note: It’s incredibly linear. You can go farting around in previous areas to uncover a few rings or heart pieces, but you need to not only do the dungeons in a specific order, but all of the plot events leading up to each one in the correct order. The best Zelda games allow you to do dungeons out of order, or at the very least, leave one after getting the treasure and come back later. There is no such wiggle room here: It’s not just that you need each tool to reach the next dungeon, but you need to trigger plot events by beating the boss. Which means that any one puzzle can completely stymie your forward progress, as there are no work-arounds or alternate paths.
And I think that’s what eventually made me lose interest by the sixth dungeon: There’s no value to exploration. There is one correct place to go at any point in the game, and maybe a few bonuses that unlock after each dungeon, but it doesn’t matter when you find the entrance to any given area, because the guy blocking it is only moved by plot events, not a puzzle. This is most evident by the fact that one of your animal companions can float over holes and can be summoned with a flute…but you can only summon him in the designated small area where you’re “supposed” to use him to cross the holes.
Overall: I’m glad I came back to this to remind myself where it sat in the Zelda hierarchy. I’m looking forward to the Link’s Awakening remake more than ever, now.
I had completely forgotten about the intro, with Link being warped to Holdrum and Onyx kidnapping Din. It’s clear that this is a sequel to Link’s Awakening intended for people who played that, as there’s much less tutorial and you need to go through a short dungeon to get your sword. The puzzles and dodging are also a bit trickier right off the bat. Honestly, it’s even more of an “expansion pack” to Link’s Awakening, given that it uses the same systems and many of the same assets.
Also of note: It’s incredibly linear. You can go farting around in previous areas to uncover a few rings or heart pieces, but you need to not only do the dungeons in a specific order, but all of the plot events leading up to each one in the correct order. The best Zelda games allow you to do dungeons out of order, or at the very least, leave one after getting the treasure and come back later. There is no such wiggle room here: It’s not just that you need each tool to reach the next dungeon, but you need to trigger plot events by beating the boss. Which means that any one puzzle can completely stymie your forward progress, as there are no work-arounds or alternate paths.
And I think that’s what eventually made me lose interest by the sixth dungeon: There’s no value to exploration. There is one correct place to go at any point in the game, and maybe a few bonuses that unlock after each dungeon, but it doesn’t matter when you find the entrance to any given area, because the guy blocking it is only moved by plot events, not a puzzle. This is most evident by the fact that one of your animal companions can float over holes and can be summoned with a flute…but you can only summon him in the designated small area where you’re “supposed” to use him to cross the holes.
Overall: I’m glad I came back to this to remind myself where it sat in the Zelda hierarchy. I’m looking forward to the Link’s Awakening remake more than ever, now.
