The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: Difference between revisions

[[File:Links Awakening box.jpg|framed]]

 

 

Following his defeat of Ganon in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|A Link To The Past]]'', the young hero Link left Hyrule to go on a [[Journey to Find Oneself|Journey to Find Himself]] and to train himself to prepare for future threats to Hyrule. After completing his travels, he sails homewards towards Hyrule when his boat is suddenly caught in a violent storm and struck by lightning. When he awakes, he finds himself shipwrecked on the shores of Koholint Island.

 

Interestingly, according to [[Word of God|Takashi Tezuka and Eiji Aonuma]], David Lynch's ''[[Twin Peaks]]'' [http://kotaku.com/5457701/which-legend-of-zelda-game-was-inspired-by-twin-peaks was apparently the main inspiration for this game.]

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* [[One Hundred Percent Completion]]: If you want to get all of the pictures in the DX version you must steal from the shopkeeper, despite how much of a bad idea that is.

* [[All Just a Dream]]: But whose dream? That's the real question.

** And thanks to the very last scene {{spoiler|after Link wakes up we see the Windfish in the sky}}, so was it ''all'' really a dream?

* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: If you managed to complete the [[Fetch Quest]] and get the Boomerang, the final boss's final form goes down in '''one hit.'''

** But provided that you don't get/use the Boomerang, it is most likely the hardest battle in the game, and one of the most fun.

** The long, multi-part final battle has its own unique music, but when the actual final boss appears, the music downgrades to the mini-boss theme.

** The Facade of the Face Shrine is rather easily beaten...and even got a [[Degraded Boss|downgrade to a mini-boss]] in ''[[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|Oracle of Seasons]]''.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Link is finally free, but defeating the final boss and awakening the Wind Fish means destroying all the people you've met along the way (at least in the default ending). Alternatively....

** [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|Beat the game, and Link causes a [[Dream Apocalypse]]... oh, and he's also ''lost at sea'' (though it is likely he makes it home offscreen; there are seagulls flying about, after all...)}}

*** It is, however, implied in the secret ending animation (unlocked by completing the game without dying) that Marin survived in some fashion and that her wish to be a seabird was granted.

**** Even worse in the manga since Link {{spoiler|[[Did Not Get the Girl]] after inviting Marin to return to Hyrule with him and he even tried to leave the island early with her.}}

* [[Bonus Dungeon]]: The DX version has a color-themed dungeon. Completing it allows you to choose a colored tunic to increase either your '''{{color|red|offensive}}''' or '''{{color|blue|defensive}}''' power.

** And another is the model Hippo in Animal Village who tells you to go away so the artist can paint her. Originally, she was a nude model (with visible breasts) with a towel which she pulls up when Link enters the studio.

* [[Cardboard Obstacle]]: The game ''loves'' throwing these at you, like blocking paths with stones... in areas that you can only get to if you can lift stones. And unlike in [[A Link to The Past]], you have to actively equip a different inventory item for every bit of lifting, jumping, or dashing you do.

* [[Chain of Deals]]: Starts with the Yoshi doll in the Trendy Game (which you need 10 rupees to play). A few places, it's actually required to proceed further in the game.

* [[Comic Book Adaptation]]: By Ataru Cagiva, who later did a manga adaptation of ''[[A Link to The Past]]''.

** Entering "ZELDA" as the player's name on the file selection screen changes the music for that screen until it is exited (and only once unless it is entered again).

** Kazumi Totaka worked on the soundtrack, and this time there are three versions programmed into the game, though one never plays in-game and the other required entering "Totakeke" (Totaka's nickname) as the player's name in the Japanese version using kana, after which it would play in the same manner as the other file selection screen [[Easter Egg]]; due to the writing system change this was [[Dummied Out]] in most international versions [[Regional Bonus|except for the German translation]], whose script writer, Claude Moyse, added it back by making it play when his last name is entered in all caps as the player's name in that version.

* [[Escort Mission]]: A large steel ball in the seventh dungeon. It's entirely possible to get the thing stuck in such a way that the game becomes [[Unwinnable]]. Also used when Link escorts Marin around the island, although she's invulnerable to damage.

* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: It's a game {{spoiler|about Link waking up}}

* [[Exposition Fairy]]: The owl.

* [[Expy]]: Tarin, the mushroom-obsessed man with a fabulous mustache? [[Super Mario Bros.|Sounds familiar, doesn't it?]]

* [[Fishing Minigame]]: First one of the series!

* [[Friend to All Living Things]]: The residents of Animal Village adore Marin.

** Strangely enough, the third and eight dungeon actually have a security key for just that case (former in the very last puzzle before the boss and latter hidden in a statue you'd shoot with an arrow). The fourth dungeon however lacks one.

* [[Genre Blindness]]: Despite being [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] in battle (see below), the fifth dungeon's miniboss makes the mistake of stealing the dungeon's item, thus making it mandatory to find and kill him, no matter how much he flees.

* [[Guest Star Party Member]]: At certain points in the game, Bow-Wow the chain chomp, Marin, a ghost, and a flying blue rooster all accompany Link temporarily.

* [[Infinity+1 Sword]]: [[Kill It with Fire|The Magic Rod]]. It is ''twice'' as powerful as the LVL 2 Sword and Link can fire projectiles at any HP. [[Mook|Mooks]] catch on fire and die a slow, painful death. It goes without saying that this is a sadistically fun weapon too. It's also the only item in the ''entire series'' that can [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|kill Cuccoos.]]

** The Boomerang. You can only get it at the end of a sidequest spanning half of the game, but it is well worth it, being able to slaughter almost anything in the game, including otherwise unkillable Anti-Fairies and Sparks, and including {{spoiler|the final boss, Dethl.}}

* [[Jump Physics]]: When using the feather.

** [[Not Quite Flight]]: The Flying Rooster required to access the seventh dungeon can be picked up with the Power Bracelet to fly pretty much indefinitely, though he doesn't accompany you into the actual dungeon, and he leaves you after it's completed.

* [[Lost Forever]]: Some secret seashells if you don't go to the mansion at the right times, and another one only accessible while you have the Flying Rooster. But there are more than enough to get the level 2 sword, even without those.

* [[Magic Music]]: Your Ocarina has special powers starting in this game. Also, your goal in the game is to collect magical instruments to play along with the Ocarina.

* [[One-Winged Angel]]: The final boss pulls a mild version of this, in a last ditch effort to beat Link.

* [[Only Shop in Town]]: Mabe Village only has one store. Confusingly, though, the crane-minigame building also has "SHOP" written on the roof in giant letters, but you can't actually buy anything there.

* [[Power-Up Motif]]: The Piece of Power and Guardian Acorn work exactly this way; they change the background music for a short time, and when the song stops the powerup is over.

* [[Recurring Riff]]: The Color Dungeon in ''DX'' uses the dungeon theme from the original ''Legend of Zelda'' game.

* [[Recycled Soundtrack]]: The music in the 4th dungeon is a mildly remixed version of the "generic cave" music from this same game.

* [[Regional Bonus]]: As mentioned above, the German translation re-added an [[Easter Egg]] that most other Western translations removed.

* [[Sequence Breaking]]: Although it's a far more minor example compared to the boatloads of [[Sequence Breaking]] possible in [[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past|the previous installment]] as well as [[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|the next installment]] (mostly due to the way dungeons are accessed in this installment), in Turtle Rock, there's a bombable wall on the other side of a small pool of lava. Using the bomb arrow trick allows Link to simply bomb said wall from across the lava (and thus from the opposite side of the wall from what the designers intended) and then equip the Roc's Feather and jump over the pool of lava from either side. The fact that this gives Link access to a few keys makes the dungeon much easier.

** There's also a glitch in the original black and white version which allowed the player to "warp" from his current location to the exact same location--one screen away. Not only did this allow for a lot of extra exploration, but could occasionally lead to "Glitch Rooms" that contain later items, and allowed one to clear the second dungeon without either obtaining the power bracelet or beating the boss.

* [[Ship Tease]]: Link basically takes Marin on a date at one point in the game.

* [[Shoplift and Die]]: "I wasn't kidding when I said pay! Now you'll pay the ultimate price!" [[Shock and Awe|*cue the lightning* ]]

** And there is a whole ''mess'' of Super Mario shout outs. See [[The Cameo]], above.

* [[Sssssnaketalk]]: The boss of the fifth dungeon talks like this.

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To ''Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru'' ("For the Frog the Bell Tolls") an earlier action-adventure game for the [[Game Boy]]. The main character from ''Kaeru'', Richard, makes a cameo in ''Link's Awakening''

* [[Spoiler Title]]: In the US version, about two-thirds of the way through the game you make the (very unexpected) realization that {{spoiler|the whole of Koholint Island is just a dream of the Wind Fish}}. Meanwhile, the Japanese version of the game's name is ''The Legend of Zelda: {{spoiler|Dream Island}}''. Well that certainly ruins the tension.

* [[Trick Arrow]]: Equipping both the bow and the bombs allows Link to fire a [[Rule of Cool|bomb arrow.]]

** Finally duplicated again [[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|nine games later.]]

[[Category:Action Adventure]]

[[Category:Fantasy Video Games]]

[[Category:Video Game]]

[[Category:The Legend of Zelda]]