Let's Update the Link's Awakening Remake

The remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is really great, but no game is ever perfect. So, in this post we will go through some things that probably should be improved via an upcoming update to enhance the experience for everybody. However, this will focus entirely on the main game, where Chamber Dungeon will be subject to its own post later.

Performance

Link's Awakening looks great on Nintendo Switch and might even be considered as one of its prettiest games. However, on the overworld this came at the cost of a stable 60FPS, mainly due to the seamless scrolling, where you can now go from one area to the next without any screen transitions at all. It's all just one big area, but the game still needs to load things and this is when it can come to drops in the frame rate. Certain effects like cutting grass or waterfalls also can have an impact.

It's not in a state, where the game is unplayable. If you've grown up with a Nintendo 64, then you most likely won't be bothered by it that much. But this shouldn't stop Nintendo from sending some of their optimization wizards over to GREZZO to see what they can do.

Updated Controls

The game only supports input for eight directions and while this might feel weird at first, it becomes perfectly natural after a short time. It even feels good to play like this with an analog stick, as long as you're using a Pro Controller. The Analog Sticks on the Joy-cons are not as great, however, and in general it would be good, if you could play this game with a D-Pad alone. More control options certainly won't hurt.

Also, while it's great that Sword, Shield, Pegasus Boots and Power Bracelets have fixed buttons now in addition to two item buttons, the Roc's Feather is equally important and it will stay on one of the two item slots most of the time. With this update you should be able to assign a third item on the ZR/ZL buttons for even more convenience.

Fix Marin's Glitches

There have been reports about a game-breaking glitch, where Marin doesn't leave her early game state, telling you about the sword at the beach. She doesn't leave the house and you can't finish the game later on for multiple reasons. Luckily, this glitch is easily avoided by simply checking, if she has made it to the weather vane after you found your sword. If not, then it's time to start another save file...

Also, the kid at the weather vane got his texts jumbled. When Marin is still singing there, he tells you about her hanging out at the beach. And when Marin is off to the beach, he asks where you have left her. He's supposed to give a hint in this moment, which is currently lost in the remake and might confuse new players.

Central Tal Tal Mountains Warp Point

If Nintendo patches only one thing into the game, it has to be one more warp point. Overall the new warp system is great and saves you from lots of running all over the island just to get back to certain places. However, there is one place still in desperate need of a warp point of its own, after you've left that cave leading up to the mountains with the Pegasus Boots. Right there when you first discover the lost Papahl:

They could simply put it under a rock right next to the exit, similar to how they have done it in the Western Tal Tal Mountains. But the way it is now you will have to walk through this cave every time you want to get back up to the mountains. And this can happen more often than you might think, because there are always reasons to return back up there, even if it's just for some more Secret Seashells.

It also wouldn't hurt to have another warp point somewhere near the waterfall by the Ancient Ruins, but quick access to the mountains is certainly more important.

Trendy Game Trophy

This is a new item in the Trendy Game that you can get after completing the figurine collection and becoming a "champ". Unlike the figurines this one will stay in your inventory as a sign that you have mastered the mini-game.

Minor User Interface Improvements

These are just some minor improvements to the UI that should make things more convenient:

• Whenever you are about to overwrite a save file, it should show you the file's number in the confirmation screen. Just to be sure that you're not accidentally deleting your old 100% file.
• Whenever you find a Secret Seashell or a Piece of Heart, it should display the current total. Right now you have to open the menu afterwards to know how many you still need for the next reward / the next Heart Container.
• You can now use warp points directly from the map, as long as you have learned Manbo's Mambo. Link will play the song afterwards.

Swift Guardian Acorn and Piece of Power Pick-Ups

Similar to apples, the Guardian Acorn and Piece of Power power-ups should only be explained the first time you get them. Afterwards you will pick them up on the fly without any text interruptions.

Boomerang Trick Returns

In the original GameBoy version there was a trick, where you throw the Boomerang and then pick up the Flying Rooster. The Boomerang would now circle around you, acting like an offensive shield that cuts through anything getting close to you. Sadly, this trick doesn't work in the remake any longer. While this isn't a big deal, it still would be nice to have it back eventually.

Secret Medicine Prompt

One of the more annoying changes takes the players back to leaving behind treasure chests like in Twilight Princess, where in this case this is caused by the Secret Medicine:

The last three dungeons all have a chest with a Secret Medicine inside, but when you already have one, you can't open it, until you use up your current Secret Medicine by getting damaged on purpose. This is somewhat annoying for people, who would like to cross off all chests from their dungeon maps, where a simple prompt would have solved the issue. Just ask the player whether he wants to put it back or not.

Fix the Face Shrine

It might be too late to fix this, but it should be mentioned anyway. The original Face Shrine had a puzzle, where there are two secret rooms, which can't be found on the map, and where there are no visible cracks in the walls leading to these rooms. Not so in the remake...

Interestingly, the dungeon's owl statue still gives you a cryptic puzzle about this ("Enter the space where the eyes have walls..."), but this riddle now has no purpose at all, because you can now see where you need to be going right away. This even gives away the dungeons' main item way too easily, where there is no challenge for first timers to figure out this dungeon now and Nintendo should restore its mysteries in the remake.

Nightmare Mode

This will be a third difficulty option on top of Hero Mode. It works similar, but changes things up even more for a different experience.

• You will take triple damage.
• Unlike Hero Mode, hearts, apples, and fairies will appear normally in the environment.
• Enemy occurrences inside dungeons have been doubled. (In the Chamber Dungeon the enemies will be the same as in Normal or Hero Mode, unless the "+Monsters Effect" has been applied to the chambers.)
• The contents of chests inside the dungeons have been shuffled for a bigger challenge.