Sunday, October 6, 2019

Link's Awakening Remake: Small New Discoveries

While I'm already finished 100% with the new Link's Awakening remake, there are still new things for me to discover. Most of these new discoveries were made as I've been watching someone else play the game, who has never played the GameBoy or GameBoy Color versions. And this can be interesting, because it's a completely different perspective from someone like me, who knows the original in and out. And this can lead to some new things, which I've wanted to share...


Secret Waterfall Tunnel


This one had me surprised quite a bit. If you go west by Manbo's cave, you won't actually hit a dead end any longer. There is now a small, hidden tunnel, where you can dive below the land above:

west end of the river area of the Tal Tal Heights... Link isn't visible on the screenshot

Link appears on top of the waterfall that leads into the castle moat

You'll end up on top of the new waterfall at the northwest of the Kanalet Castle moat. This might even be nice route for whenever you're done with the Angler's Tunnel and want to collect the sunken goodies in the moat


Tal Tal Mountains Five Treasure Chests Puzzle


I've already noticed during my playthroughs that they've changed the weird treasure chest puzzle in the Eastern Tal Tal Mountain Range, so that you will get Zols from the chest until you manage to open all five of them... I can now confirm that the puzzle will reset in the remake, if you screw it up, which you likely will do on your first visit to the room.

cave with five chests and many blocks in the way

On the GameBoy this puzzle worked quite differently. You would get 20 Rupees from every chest that you open, but if you leave the room, all the other chests will be empty on your next visit. So, there was only one chance to open all five chests per playthrough, unless you saved your game right before it and kept trying.

cave room with five treasure chests blocked off by rocks and Link at the lower exit

In the original this had me puzzled for years. I didn't figure out the solution before replaying the game in 2011 and this was mainly because I always thought I had to open all five chests when entering the room for the first time. But this is impossible to do...

In the remake you will find the solution naturally, because you can keep trying until you get the 100 Rupees from the last chest. And eventually you will move on, if you keep trying from above.


Dungeon Map Details


When I played through the remake, I rarely ever paid much attention to the dungeon maps, because I remember these places like the back of my hand. But the dungeon maps now also offer some new details, where in case of the Catfish's Maw the colored tiles in the Master Stalfos rooms are visible on the map as well:

part of the Level 5 dungeon map, the Master Stalfos rooms have visible tiles in them

This should give you a nice hint for whenever you're looking for the last room.

And remember the inaccessible bridge room in the Eagle's Tower?


Well, it turns out that the remake does in fact tell whether that is still in the game or not. If you look at the map of the hollow 3F, there is no bridge visible:

the Level 7 map on 3F before the pillars got destroyed

So, this "room" was removed from this version and if you somehow were to get there you would just be standing in front of a massive abyss. Not that getting that Secret Medicine early would do you any good...

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