Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Link's Awakening Remake: Modern Title Logo

The new remake of Link's Awakening also comes with a fancy new logo for the game:


What's interesting about this new logo is that it follows the same white flat design of the logo from Breath of the Wild has. Instead of the Silent Princess on the "Z" it has palm trees on a tiny island with seagulls above them next to the "A", but it's overall the same style. Both logos also got introduced against a landscape:


Well, the Breath of the Wild logo isn't entirely flat, because it still has the Master Sword going through the "Z", but there is a variant where the Master Sword is in the flat style as well.

These similarities also exist in the Japanese version, where they've moved completely away from the stylized "ZELDA" for their newest games:


It still translates to "The Legend of Zelda: The Dreaming Island" and it's very similar to what they've done with the first four games in Japan, including the original Link's Awakening, but also the recent Breath of the Wild:


What does this mean, exactly? Usually, when two Zelda games appear on the same system or use the same art style in some form, they often come with a similar logo. This could be the case for Link's Awakening and Breath of the Wild, but so far the only thing these two Zelda games have the common is the same system: the Nintendo Switch.

Let's first take a look at the history of Zelda game logos over the years:


It really follows the paradigm of Zelda games appearing in pairs. It's most notable in the first four generations up to the Oracle games. But even later on there are clear pairs like Four Swords and The Minish Cap, The Wind Waker and Four Swords Adventures, and of course the two Nintendo DS Zelda games.

It starts to divert somewhat with games that are drastically different like Twilight Princess, but another quite quite interesting exception are A Link Between Worlds and Tri Force Heroes. Both games appeared on the same system with the same engine, but they have different art styles, which even shows in the logos, where the latter is more similar to the style of the Nintendo DS games.

But despite the differences in various places, there has been a clear logo design ever since A Link to the Past. The new Link's Awakening and Breath of the Wild logos, however, set themselves really apart from the rest of the series. Their modern look feels almost as different as the ones for the NES games.

It really feels like Breath of the Wild started a new era for the Zelda series and the flat design is standing for this new era. And every new Zelda game might be using it from now on, which even includes the remake of an old Zelda game. In a way this goes hand in hand with the title of the remake, which is the exact same title as the original instead of "Link's Reawakening" or "Link's Awakening HD". This is the Link's Awakening of the new era. (I would not expect remasters to use it as well, so the logo for Skyward Sword HD will probably look similar to the one for Twilight Princess HD).

It could also be a thing just for the Nintendo Switch era, we won't know for sure until it's over. But it's certainly a fresh new look for the Zelda brand.

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