[Let’s Talk] Thoughts on the graphical style of the Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake

Posted on February 23, 2019 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Let's Talk, Switch

Last week, the latest Nintendo Direct was held. Many announcements were made throughout the presentation, but The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for Switch was one of the biggest. The classic 1993 Game Boy title is being completely remade and will launch later this year.

After the Nintendo Direct ended, many people shared their thoughts on how Zelda: Link’s Awakening looks. The game seems to be generating a polarizing reaction. Right now the style is looking like something you either love or hate.

So what side of the fence do you sit on? Are you a fan of the new style? Or were you hoping it’d go in a different direction? Let us know in the comments below.

Highlights from last week’s topic: February 2019 Nintendo Direct reactions

R.Z.

I think this direct was awesome, it was on the level that I usually expect at E3.
Actually it’s been a trend for the past four years or so to have regular Nintendo Directs during the year that are more interesting than E3 Directs.

What made this direct so good in my opinion was the many high quality game reveals. Super Mario Maker 2 itself is a major announcement, so is the Remake of a Link to the Past and Astral Chain was a real treat for core gamers.

Then you have more niche stuff that can really resonate with some audiences such as the revival of the Rune Factory IP or that wholly new JRPG (Oninaki) by Square’s Tokyo RPG Factory. Pardon me if I forgot some games that you care for but weren’t relevent enough to my interests that I could remember them.

Lastly the new info on existing games was pretty strong too.
First and foremost showing off the new Fire Emblem was a pretty big event and even though the game is not for me from what I’ve seen, I still think it’s an ace in Nintendo’s game this year nonetheless.
Both Yoshi and DaemonXMachina got demos and while I don’t think they are “MAJOR” titles, they are pretty important for fans still.
On the third party front, neglected fans of Dragon Quest who stick to Nintendo platforms were finally treated some concrete info on Dragon Quest XI and Dragon Quest Builders 2 looks as good as ever.
Many other surprises and info littered the direct that I think could cater to pretty much every profile form fans of superheroes or FF or Disney or Gorey fighters or indie games …

So yeah, I think that Direct was excellent and extremely well paced.

Now it just leaves me to wonder whether Nintendo will be able to match that at the fated time of E3. I believe most “MAJOR” announcements for 2019 have been made by now and it will probably be a bit too early to really be looking into 2020 too (though I believe that will happen around september).
I’m afraid E3 will be a bit underwhelming, mostly revealing new info on Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem, Smash DLC, Mario Maker and other well known stuff, with the rumored Switch mini possibly taking the spotlight.
It doesn’t look like a bad program, but I’d be disappointed.

King Orik

The Direct had quite a few big titles, however, it wasn’t as well rounded as I would’ve liked since they focused mainly on RPG’s. That said, it did have at least something for everyone and it certainly stood out as the best of all the directs. I look forward to what’s in store with 3rd parties in particular as there was still less focus on them as I was hoping for. Maybe they’ll have a Direct focused on 3rd party titles next month? That’d be great 🙂

Personally Dragon Quest 11, Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Links Awakening Remake would be good.

Kaydee Yewbirt

I got quite a lot of good news out of this direct, including a date for Dragon Quest Builders 2 and the introduction of a new IP (Astral Chain) and a port/remake of an old favourite to the Switch (RF4 Special). I’d also like to keep my eye on Oninaki and Link’s Awakening.

But the best news by far for me was Rune Factory 5. My mouth was already hanging open in surprise from seeing RF4 on that screen…and then I gasped (and screamed! Just a little!) when RF5 got shown right after. Good thing no one was around…a scream garbled by a gasp can’t be a nice thing to listen to. I thought Rune Factory was dead and would never return. So glad to know that Hashimoto has picked it back up now that he’s working with Hakama. We all wondered what him splitting off from Marvelous to form a group with other ‘like-minded colleagues’ would mean for Bokumono and Rune Factory, but I wasn’t optimistic that it would mean Rune Factory would start up again. That was an announcement I never thought I’d see in a Nintendo Direct. It just seemed too good to be true.

Sometimes it’s wonderful to be wrong.

EDIT: Things I would have loved to see but didn’t (but was already too happy to care): Even ten seconds of info on Animal Crossing. Port of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Port of Skyward Sword (with an option to not use motion controls). A release date for Mineko’s Night Market. And a hint of what the next Xenoblade game would be, or a look at that fantasy-oriented project Monolith Software is working on. But I knew all those things (except Animal Crossing) were very unlikely and I wasn’t expecting them. They’re just dream wishlist items…and I already actually GOT one dream wishlist item from that Direct in the form of RF5. So it already exceeded my expectations.

Aline Piroutek

Best Direct of the year. No discussion.
Aside from the joke, I really liked it. I ignored a lot of games from it like Disney TsunTsun, the Undertale-like, the new Square Enix RPG I don’t remember the name, the Chocobo Mystery Dungeon, Yoshi(I already know a, lot aboit the game), the Manhunt wannabe, Runefactory 4 port, the Undertale-like game, Tetris 99(I don’t play Switch Online), Grid(or Grip, I don’t remember) , Smash brief appearence, Captain Toad expansions, even Mario Maker 2(I don’t like Mario Maker that much) but there was still a lot of content.
Dragon Quest XI release window, Daemon X Machina(they need to improve the game, I think it will be delayed to end of 2019), Fire Emblem Three Houses release date, Links Awakening 2019, Astral Chain with a release date! A lot of content of interest.
There was enough content to praise people of all tastes. People who like RPG, who like Action Games, who like puzzle, platfform, retro rpg, racing, mecha, tactic rpg, hack and slash, anime-like; the only people who were sad were the shooters fans: no FPS like Metroid Prime neither Darius Burst Collection.

Auragar

It was a fine Direct overall, nothing really for me as usual but that is fine, I am pretty picky and anything I would want would not likely be in a normal Direct, but rather either a game specific Direct or just not handled by Nintendo, though I still stand by the fact that I found it really weird how they handled the Smash info here. I do think it is really cool and shocking that Rune Factory is actually alive somehow. Astral Chain looks pretty rad as well. I was surprised the 2D Zelda and Link’s Awakening remake rumours were actually real. Not surprised Metroid Prime Trilogy was a no show yet again, this was likely because of the Metroid Prime 4 delay though. Super Mario Maker 2 was a nice surprise to see so soon, and that it actually adds slopes which people were begging for. Fire Emblem: Three Houses looks really nice, and is taking an interesting route this time around with it being in a military academy, sad it was delayed though. Pretty neat also that Dragon Quest XI is sort of adding the 3DS stuff, and actually is providing some more story as well to make it even more enticing. So many shadowdrops as well with the surprise that IX was the Final Fantasy instead of VII. Daemon x Machina is releasing a lot later than I was thinking though we did get a demo (which eh… not my thing to be honest).