Replaying Link's Awakening in Hero Mode

Link's Awakening is one of the shortest Zelda games, given that you know your way around Koholint, which makes it a good choice if you're looking for some nostalgia with little commitment. As I've said many times on this blog before, the original version on the GameBoy was my first Zelda game, which I've gotten for Christmas 1997, 25 years ago. And it became a bit of a tradition to replay this game once per year, ideally during Christmas.

This time I already started on my birthday, however, right at the beginning of June. This was after Mysplaced had made the news, a game that copied the artstyle of the Link's Awakening remake, which made me want to play it once more. And since I haven't cleared it in Hero Mode on my own Nintendo Switch yet (I did so before on someone else's system), there were multiple incentives to replay Link's Awakening on the Nintendo Switch.

I didn't get all too far at the time, where I've only played for a couple of hours in one evening. It was enough to have beaten the Bottle Grotto and the Color Dungeon, which is by far the hardest part in Hero Mode. But once you've obtained the Secret Medicine, a filled Fairy Bottle, and finally the Blue Mail, there is little to worry about, unless you're doing lots of mistakes.

So, I basically had the hard work already done half a year ago, but I ran into a bit of a roadblock with the Chamber Dungeon at the time. As much as I have loved this feature in the past, doing it all for the fourth time gets a bit stale. As a result I went with the most simplistic and efficient solutions this time...

You still want to play the Challenges as early as possible, especially in Hero Mode, because it gives you some valuable goodies, like a Piece of Heart or a Fairy Bottle. And if you don't start with the Chamber Dungeon until later in the game, it will get a bit much all at once. It's better to do the new Challenges once they become available to have some more variety in activities.

However, this also may cause certain habits or patterns. For example, I prefer to use the new tiles I got from the most recent dungeon. And because of this the solutions tend to become somewhat similar to my previous playthroughs, where I've done the same thing.

Things get more interesting with the twelve golden challenges in the post game, which is where you have everything available, including the +Monsters effect from the Trendy Game. But I'm saving this for later right now and I also plan on building more difficult versions of all eight main dungeons (I already have one of the Color Dungeon stored to an amiibo).

As for Hero Mode, I'm still thinking that its implementation here wasn't a good idea. I would have preferred something that made use of the +Monsters effect during the entire game, while you are still able to find Fairies and maybe apples normally. Every damage taken accumulates, because you won't find anything to heal inside dungeons, so you might end up in a situation where you feel inclined to leave the dungeon, heal somewhere, and return. It's not more difficult, it's just less convenient.

I've also struggled a bit in the beginning, because the controls are so different from all the other games that I have been playing this years, which includes Death's Door, Hollow Knight, and Metroid Dread. They all have in common that you attack with Y (on a Nintendo controller) and jump or roll with B. In Link's Awakening it's the other way around, where the sword is set to B and I usually keep the Roc's Feather equipped to Y.

It's not really a complaint, because they simply stuck to traditional Zelda button controls, which haven't really changed up until Breath of the Wild. The controls also make sense the way they are with the two item buttons. But it's a factor where I have been making some mistakes at first...

There was also a surprise situation in the Key Cavern for me, in the room with the three Green Bombites. I wanted to take them out with bombs, as I always do, because it's safer than attacking them with your sword. But one of the Zols then jumped against my bomb and kicked it towards me... I didn't know that they could do that in the remake! It's such a crazy detail and a fun enemy interaction.

The Secret Seashells will always be one of my favorite collectibles, simply because they can be found anywhere. I've said this before, but it's well done how they game let's you obtain the Koholint Sword after getting the Flippers, which also used to be the case in the original GameBoy version, only that this time you need twice as many shells. There are 41 Secret Seashells accessible at this point, so you need to find all but one available.

I always turn the Seashell Sensor off right away and go by memory alone, but this time I completely forgot the seashell hidden at the beach where Marin waits for you. I guess, it's just not as obvious as the other ones below the ground. The one from Christine also usually eludes me, but otherwise the seashell additions in the remake are all very memorable and that's fun.

But I'm disappointed that it doesn't refill your hearts when obtaining the Koholint Sword. That's a bit of an oversight, because you want to feel the power of sword beams right after exiting the Seashell Mansion with your shiny new sword...

As for Pieces of Heart, this time I've forgotten about the one in the cave that leads back up to the Raft Shop. Since you can just restart the mini-game at the end of a ride, using this "shortcut" wasn't necessary and therefore I didn't pass by this piece at all. And I didn't notice this until I've reached Turtle Rock, where only one Piece of Heart should be left.

Anyway, this was fun, I greatly enjoy the visuals and the overall quality of the remake, save for the issues with the frame rate on the overworld. But nonetheless I really hope that we will be getting remakes of Oracle of Ages & Seasons in the same style after Tears of the Kingdom.

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