Link's Awakening was always a curious, little game, which inspired you to turn every stone on the island Koholint, just in case there might be something hidden underneath, mainly one of the Secret Seashells. Some of them, as well as some of the Pieces of Heart, were hidden rather devilishly in the GameBoy original, where you never really could be sure that there's nothing for you to find, unless you checked or you had one of those beautiful game guides.
Now, the 2019 remake of Link's Awakening for Nintendo Switch added on top of those collectibles quite strongly, where GREZZO did a really good job of satisfying some of those over 20 year old suspicions. If you thought in the GameBoy original that there should have been a Secret Seashell under that conspicuously placed rock near the waterfall, then chances are that you might finally find something there in the remake. Plus, the remake also added its fair share of ridiculous hiding spots, which are rather hard to find, if you keep the new Seashell Sensor deactivated, like a true hero (otherwise most of it is a no-brainer anyway).
But nothing is ever perfect and while replaying the remake just recently, there were a series of locations that still struck me as empty and with that as a missed opportunity for another Secret Seashell or as an alternative for some of the rather obscure additions. So, here is a list of the top 10 locations for even more Secret Seashells, more or less in chronological order.
Mysterious Woods
If you get tricked by the ominous racoon, it will place you in a similar looking area of the forest. There's a tree surrounded by bushes, just like the one near the racoon, and then there's a single bush surrounded by holes.
Both of these spots look rather suspicious, but there is nothing to find here and absolutely no reason to ever return to this place. Or even go there in the first place, since you can just avoid the racoon's magic.
Behind Mr. Write's House
In the northwest corner of the Goponga Swamp area you can find this interesting rock formation behind the house of the pen pal enthusiast. But while it looks interesting, there is nothing underneath... Curiously, there is a new Secret Seashell slightly to the east of this area, which feels a lot more random and is probably quite tough to find, unless you use the Seashell Sensor or go there with BowWow.
Koholint Prairie
Below Manbo's Pond there is this small section of a forest closed off by rocks, where there's a suspicious, little corner in the trees. But nothing is there...
On the GameBoy this was a spot crossed quite often, because of its simpler teleportation system. You could only use Manbo's Mambo to go to Manbo's Pond and then the nearest teleporter was the one to the south, in the Ukuku Prairie. So, you ended up going through this small area of woods quite often. In the remake however, you might not even look at it once, since there is no reason to ever go there.
Cemetery
This used to be a very curious, but surprisingly unrewarding place on the GameBoy. Well, there is a Piece of Heart under one of the tombstones, but you could also access this one from the cave entrance at the Koholint Prairie to the west and thus avoid the graveyard completely.
And that's probably why they've put the Color Dungeon there in Link's Awakening DX for the GameBoy Color, but the remake didn't really touch this place at all. An interesting hiding spot would certainly have been the tombstone that spawns the one and only Giant Ghini in the entire game. This always was such a curious find in the game, which didn't really lead to anything...
The Monkey
Another weird one-time "enemy" occurrence in the game is the monkey at the Toronbo Shores, who keeps throwing coconuts and even bombs at you. You can scare him off by dashing into the palm tree he sits on, where this would have been the perfect opportunity to unveil another Secret Seashell.
The Spider Hole
Last, but not least of the weird spots with enemies that are nowhere else to be found in the entire game is the hole south of Kanalet Castle, where one-eyes spiders, so called "Beetles", keep coming out of it. Why? Just why? Well, the remake could have offered some resolution by letting you drop a bomb in there for a Secret Seashell, but it didn't... Instead it's just a creepy hole forever.
Town Tool Shop
Okay, this doesn't really count as a hiding spot and might seem like a "cheap" addition to this list, but every other main attraction on Koholint Island – the Trendy Game, the Fishing Pond, the Rapid Race and the Chamber Dungeon – all offer you at least one Piece of Heart, Secret Seashell and Chamber Stone. Except for the Town Tool Shop, which doesn't have a Secret Seashell. And it kind of makes sense to offer one there after the Piece of Heart for 400 Rupees.
Level 5
There are simply not many Secret Seashells hidden in dungeons and the ones that are got put in treasure chests. One new feature of some of the dungeons on Koholint is that you can now dig inside them, which would have been a possibility to hide some stuff there as well. There are variety of spots that could have worked for this, but the most obvious one is probably the one dead end inside the Catfish's Maw, as seen above.
Well, a problem would have been that this requires the player to search through all the dungeons again, in case he or she still misses a Secret Seashell somewhere. So, that's probably why GREZZO didn't went with this, despite making some of the dungeons compatible with your shovel.
Ancient Ruins
While there already is a Secret Seashell hidden in this area, it couldn't have hurt to add another, like in this suspicious dead end next to the pillar, which is blocking the way to the Southern Face Shrine. That's really it, but there are probably a number of player who have dug there at least once in the hopes of finding something, both on the GameBoy and the Nintendo Switch.
Path to the Eagle's Tower
On your way through the east-most part of the Tal Tal Mountain Range, there is this weird little part outside of the caves, where you can go down a set of staircases for no real reason. It's just there. Nothing to see or find. So, maybe burying a Secret Seashell here would have been a good idea as well.
The Reward
Well, this brings us to a total of 60 Secret Seashells and naturally this needs to be rewarded somehow, ideally not by another Chamber Stone... But a possibility would have been upgrading your sword once more by adding the "Great Spin (Attack)", similar to A Link Between Worlds, but maybe not as overpowered.
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