The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening | The Completionist | New Game Plus

hey guys so before we start today's video I just want to do another quick announcement and I am doing a second run of the completionist legacy live show this time I'm gonna be touring in the Midwest of the United States this tour is happening from November 18th through the 23rd November 18th I'll be in Chicago November 19th I'll be in East Moline November 20th I'll be in Milwaukee November 21st I'll be in st. Louis November 22nd I'll be in Indianapolis which I used to go to any Popcaan so I know a lot of you guys been going to that one and I end the show November 23rd in Denver Colorado tickets are moving pretty quickly so if you want to pick up your tickets today head over to the completionist comm slash live there are some VIP packages still left - needless to say if these shows do really well I'll probably do an East Coast or a West Coast tour and hopefully one in Europe as well so please come to the shows let's hang out let's laugh let's cry let's play games I'll see you guys there remakes are inherently weird especially when they come out decades after the original as the player I want something more than just the exact same game with a new paintjob but if the original is a classic like Link's Awakening I also don't want the developers to mess with it too much and ruin a good thing but with an adorable and a whimsical new art style that somehow increases my nostalgia for this game instead of diminishing it and a couple of new cool sounding additions like a dungeon builder I am happy for the excuse to recompete one of my favorite Zelda games of all time the legend of zelda links awakening for the Nintendo switch [Music] hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the completionist new game+ where i reek of lean the original 120 games i featured here on my channel I'm excited about this one because I get to combine the nostalgia I feel for the original with the excitement of getting to dive into a new Zelda game Isle of Link's Awakening when I originally played it and it's honestly in my top 5 Zelda games of all time and the new remake for the Nintendo switch looks freaking adorable with an art style you need to the series and all sorts of small little changes that I hope will streamline the experience of replaying this already fantastic game I'm also extremely curious about the addition of the dungeon builder and it's great to have new things to look forward to when revisiting a new game that I've already played so many times I'm awfully kind of giddy about this you guys I just loved this game so much so when I last played Link's Awakening I played Link's Awakening DX which was the remastered version for the Game Boy Color it had an extra dungeon called the color dungeon and was compatible with the Game Boy printer and well one of those things is uh well not really a thing anymore it speaks to what a classic this game is that I'm totally cool with getting a third version of it and I gave that version of finish it because I thought it was a little too hard to beat the game without dying but you have to do if you want that precious secret ending but part of that difficulty was due to the inherent clunkiness of playing an older game with all of the little quality of life improvements that Nintendo has made I'm hoping that I won't have that issue with a Nintendo switch version and honestly those little improvements are what I'm looking forward to most Link's Awakening is already a great game but bringing it into the modern era of Zelda gaming is a really exciting prospect the original is a sister game of a Link to the Past another classic but it's also one of the weirdest Elva games of all time there's no Triforce no Ganon no Zelda it doesn't take place in Hyrule jumping is a huge part of the game and there are even a bunch of Mario enemies in it like goombas and chain chomps that's weird as hell but in a good way despite being bizarre compared to the rest of the Cirie's the basic setup for Link's Awakening is super simple after a shipwreck link has washed up on the shores of koh Holland Island a mysterious owl lets him know that in order for him to leave he needs to collect the eight instruments that can awaken the legendary wind fish and that's it no real villain and no fate of the world shenanigans just a lost hero who wants to get home and he'll have a lot of the franchise's usual tools to help him do so as well as some new ones well knew back in 1993 anyways linked in Traverse Co Holland Island with his trusty sword and shield a hook shot an ocarina in a whole bunch more including the rock feather that helps him leap over obstacles the only mechanic that's really new to this version of the game is the dungeon builder which lets you rearrange rooms from all of the game's dungeons using slabs that you can buy from the shop or earn as rewards for completing various activities but outside of that this is still Link's Awakening and it's here to give us the new version of a timeless sell that experience anything's possible in a world full of talking owls and giant wind fishes but I can't imagine that I won't like this version even more than the original I mean just look at it it's so pretty the art style that Nintendo chose for the Link's Awakening remake is unique even amongst the series it stands apart from the old screws Elda aesthetics but also from the Wind Waker esque hand-drawn vibe that characterizes most of the modern portable Zelda games but Link's awakenings toy like cutesy aesthetics are shocking the expressive and allows the relatively simple story to pack even more of an emotional punch this time around Zelda is a franchise with a huge amount of nostalgia and significance not just for me but for many people so when I play thanks awakening for the very first time I already went in with a certain level of investment and when booting up a Zelda game even when you've never played before you've already got a pretty good idea of some things that you can expect to find there will be dungeons and boss fights and lots and lots of stuff to collect so while this game definitely has all of those things the ways in which it deviated from the Zelda formula also allowed for a sense of discovery for example obviously I think most Zelda games should probably have Zelda in them but link kind of has a love interest in this one and she's a pretty great substitute by the end of my original playthrough I didn't even miss the more classical characters and locations but all those characters and locations have the benefit of having been rendered in much more detail than Mary Norco Holland Island so gain to experience this weird corner of the Zelda universe in a more immersive way really helps it feels like all this belongs and with a story this simple the details are where this game is going to come to life I remembered plenty of the dungeons and puzzles and enemies from before but they all have so much personality now even doing classic Zelda stuff like collecting heart pieces felt less like a chore because I got to rediscover the world of covalent in the process it doesn't hurt either that there are twice as many hard pieces this time around as well as twice as many secret seeshells but you can turn in for rewards like an upgraded sword it made the process of collecting feel worth it because I wasn't just trying to remember where everything was last time around but actually stumbling across new hiding spots for new items so for example the trade quest that ultimately unlocks the boomerang was a lot more fun this time around because the characters who treated me each of the items were rendered with so much more personality even in our brief interactions before I just kind of felt like crossing items off a to-do list this time it was a great way to meet the inhabitants of the island the one who makes the biggest impression is definitely Marin though and Link's Awakening for the Nintendo switch really sells her feelings for link within the story even with her limited amount of screen time okay so there been a lot of complaints about the game's visual framedrops which are actually a result of the Nintendo switch hardware rather than the game itself this has something to do with the fact that when the switch goes into power-save mode the RAM doesn't quite sink up with the hardware and software you ever notice how things look really bad in Hyrule warriors definitive edition the same happens in the messenger it's an annoying problem that happens but it's not exclusive to those games it happens here with Link's Awakening the best way to take care of this is to power down the switch full stop and when you pick it up again be sure that you reset your switch already but in my eyes this is worth the trade-off of getting such a comprehensive visual upgrade in the version of the game for Game Boy Color there were a series of photographs you could collect and print out and it was honestly kind of weird although I wasn't surprised to find that the feature had been cut from this game because it's not the 90s anymore I was surprised to find that some of those photographic moments had turned into little cutscenes where the game slows down for a second and focuses in on the relationships of our characters he was very emotional and cool and I didn't even have to print anything it's good that the new art style is more immersive because this game is probably even quicker and easier than before beating it without dying was a huge pain last time but this time around I managed it on normal mode without much trouble at all of course hero mode did give me a little bit of trouble there are no hearts to heal you in this mode so you have to go through the whole game as a fragile little baby and play much more defensively it's hard but actually a bit easier than it sounds which I credit to the little quality of life changes that led to fewer frustrating preventable deaths this time around for instance the sword and shield are permanently mapped to specific buttons this time which doesn't seem like a huge change we're talking about Zelda but I can't tell you how many times I died last time around because I was switching items around and forgot which button was my sword it was kind of a bummer but now that the game has fewer of those struggles it allows for even more of a relaxing and nostalgic experience it's all just so chill the cool breezy island setting the quick and bite-sized dungeons even the game's super weird sense of humor like the boss who's just a face on the ground that guy's weird as hell but at least he's living his best life and I've seen a lot of people online getting frustrated by the crane game you can play to try and grab certain items and even that wasn't too much of a pain once I figured out the new physics I don't know that we needed super realistic crane physics in this game but whatever after each dungeon you can use the crane to get a new figurine for someone in the town that's pretty adorable most of those figurines are of Mario characters and the game also features Mario enemies in some of the more side-scrolling sections oh yeah there are still side-scrolling sections which I still think is a little weird but they're infrequent enough they don't ruin the flow of the game I still think it's hilarious to see goombas and a Zelda game but it really fits in with the playful nostalgic vibe of the game I wasn't expecting to have a majorly different reaction to this game that I did last time but all the little changes in the new visual style really add up to something more irony loved Link's Awakening but now I get to immerse myself even more and love it for new reasons like being able to experience the sweet oral story without worrying as much about not dying and although all those little changes are great and I'm super into the new visual style I wish I had a stronger reaction to the remakes brand new ideas like the dungeon builder which are awesome on paper but the game doesn't really commit to them hard enough or push those new ideas as far as it could all right now I'm not saying I wanted more fishing or anything although I do appreciated the addition of what I now consider a Zelda staple and you best believe I caught all those fishes and I also didn't necessarily need a brand new dungeon like they added for the DX remake on gameboy color though I was glad to see that dungeon come back because it's pretty quick and fun even if the idea of puzzles based on colors isn't really novel anymore but the dungeon builder should have been this game's big addition the thing that sets it apart from the original from the other Zelda games and even from other dungeon crawlers especially in a world where so many of them are based on randomization and people have pushed level builders like Mario maker their absolute extreme this was a huge opportunity to secure a place in Zelda history and let the players reflects their creativity in our nostalgia at the same time by whipping up our own top-down dungeons for wait to get lost in but unfortunately that's not really how it worked out here the dungeon builder and Link's Awakening only lets you use rooms found throughout the games nine dungeons arranging them in a new layout look if you're gonna let us make a dungeon let us make a dungeon I feel bad for complaining though because it's still more of a game that I love yet I want to be able to design my own puzzles or it leads to shoes which enemies I get to put where using the preset rooms feel really limited and sort of lazy you'll unlock the rooms from each dungeon after you've completed it and you unlock some bonus chambers or effects by finding the chamber stones and I'm honestly cool with the fact that there's a whole new collectible it mixes things up from last time they've played because I've got a whole new set of things to find now although half of the stones can be bought at the shop which honestly I don't think that link should just be walking around with that kind of cash in his pocket alright so back to the dungeon builder there is kind of a puzzle element to it all but it's not what you expect there's a series of challenges that the grave digger dam P gives you in which you have to build dungeons that fit a certain criteria like making a dungeon shaped like a sword or only using stair modules it's kind of fun at first but by the time you get to the last of mp GOL challenges it's clear that there's not so much variety here and that's bad too because the idea there is really cool completing dungeon building challenges so you can have more pieces to build your dungeons with is a solid foundation but since you're just using a set number of pre-existing rooms the completed dungeons don't end up having any real personality it's reasonably fun but it falls short of my dream of designing crazy dungeons to subject my friends to there's also a little bit of a weird trading element where you can load your dungeons up unnhhh amiibo and give them to people to play even that feels half-assed just allow full uploading of levels like with Mario maker you know there are some extra dungeon rooms unlocked with amiibo as well but the only really interesting one is from the specific Link's Awakening amiibo which gets you the Dark Link effect and it's exactly like it sounds as you navigate through a custom dungeon with this effect Dark Link will chase you around which is actually pretty cool but even then it makes me wish that there were more of these unique effects with elements pulled from throughout Zelda history and they started to do that in this game but they kind of dropped the ball pretty quickly now look I try to touch a game based on what it is rather than what I wish it was but I'll admit I got my hopes up when I heard there was going to be a dungeon builder and Link's Awakening is a great game all on its own so I'm thankful that we got this little bit of extra material to add some value to otherwise pretty short game I definitely did all the challenges and even enjoyed them but I still wish we would have gotten the dungeon builder of my dreams so why is this game so important to me well for starters I grew up playing this game when I was on the go a lot in the Game Boy but more importantly and when I started to fall in love with games again I was in college and while I was in college I used to follow this emcee that I liked a lot known as MC Lars fast forward now to 2019 and I realized that my circles run very close to his so I reached out because I wanted to collaborate with him especially because when I was in college I was replaying Link's Awakening and listening to his album The Graduate he said yes and well Lars take it away what's up it's MC Lars and the completionist this is Link's Awakening with Ganon defeated my Link to the Past with to go on a journey and level the fast defending Hyrule would become my own ego returning like Odysseus when what was this my boat crash from the shores the Kowal it drama gotta wake the wind fish up no trip to the Bahamas I'll be sneakily gathering his instruments quickly guarded by the name is between the worlds I'm Swift gee I'm quickly persisting but is he the chosen one potentially risking life and limb to shake the tension to light in the violence and wake the wind fish listen Lee you can't concentrate when you come to play never getting off the crane it's not a game you gotta seek my guidance for the sirens United this peaceful island gotta get back gotta get back home this Link's Awakening and I'll do this on my own gotta get back gotta get back home a dream within a dream that I'm hoping is my own gotta get back gotta get back home it's Link's Awakening and I'll do this on my own gotta get back gotta get back home a dream within the dream that I'm hoping is my one two three four five six seven eight silence I'm defeating hoping that it's not too late off the beaten path no Miyamoto now no princess aldehyde ro organic cuz he's out twin piece inspired influencing my actions can I trust his villagers device are just like fractions power wisdom courage fishing in the villages I chill with Kirby Yoshi and the way to steal the realest kid awake are you plan to stay cuz at this rate you're never going to wake up out released in that cow release but I will renounce you want I will wing if you don't pick it up in particular I tell Mary you're acting ridiculous go on the instruments all together and track toward the mountaintop of the egg silhouette gotta get back gotta get back hall is least awakened me and I'll do this on my own gotta get back gotta get back home a dream within a dream that I'm hoping is my own gotta get back gotta get back home and sleeps awakening and I'll do this on my own gotta get back gotta get back home a dream within the dream that I'm hoping is my own there's a lot to collect in Link's Awakening and the game offers up some pretty decent rewards for your troubles some of those rewards are chamber stones which would be more exciting if the dungeon builder was cooler but more options are always nice the seashells will also get you an upgrade for your sword and I'm never gonna turn down a chance to be better at killing stuff speaking of upgrades the game gives you options when you beat the color dungeon you can get a red tuning that doubles your attack power or the blue one that doubles your durability what's cool though is that you can go back to the color dungeon and switch whenever you want so you've always got the options last time I remember I mostly stuck with the blue tunic because I was so scared of dying and having to start over this time around I tried both using the red tunic a lot of my normal mode playthrough and the blue tunic for my hero mode placement because when you're starting out with so few hearts it's basically a necessity if you're not a fan of dying constantly speaking of dying you're probably thinking that there better be a pretty dope reward for making through the entire game unscathed well yes and no you get that secret ending which mostly just gives a nice little wrap-up moment to the link and marién relationship so if you're as invested in that as I was it's probably worth it I also got a nice little zero death counter on my save file so everyone knows how badass I am doing two deathless runs of the game was still the hardest thing about it but I found it way less stressful this time that's mostly because they gave us so many extra heart containers the game is still pretty short even with the extra material and I had to be extra careful with the few points but in the end I made it through pretty easy peasy and even all that it never felt like work Link's Awakening is one of my favorite games but it's even more beautiful and immersive so doing every single thing was a great way to prolong that experience I didn't think I could love Link's Awakening more than I already did but well here we are while I completed Link's Awakening Flint n dose which there were zero deaths which is a number I also got last time after a couple of restarts but the process was way less scarier this time around 32 hard pieces and 50 secret seeshells collected which is double the amount I had to get before and I guess it was technically a hundred seashells and 64 hard pieces if you count hero mode didn't mind it though because I got to explore the weird adorable world why searched for them 14 chamber stones or in this case 28 chamber Stones collected across both playthroughs half of which were purchased for a truly exorbitant amount of rubies these weren't something I had to worry about on my first playthrough and we're probably the collectible that required the most work 28 hours of total playtime between my two playthroughs and the dungeon builders that's over double what it took me last time thanks to the extra material and zero pictures print it out on the Gameboy printer because it's not 1995 anymore although you know sometimes I kind of wish it was so there you guys have it not only do I still love Link's Awakening but I probably love it even more now the new art style is adorable and sweet and just really lovely and while the dungeon builder didn't live up to the in depth dungeon creator the eyes still longed for it's definitely worth doing and completing all of the challenges it has to offer even doing a deathless run is worth it this time around because it will help you maximize your value for the game it's a short one that's fully priced so if you're willing to ring every drop of it out of it to be rewarded here so with that of my guys I give this game my completionist rating of complete it completers that's what I'm here today guys so please as always the let me know what you thought about today's episode it's somewhere on the internet if you like the show Jimmy if you ever hit that like button on this bad boy leave a comment down below what games you want to see me complete on New Game+ and hey speaking of New Game+ and I scream all the time over at twitch.tv slash the completionist one more time that's twitch.tv slash the completionist a big big THANK YOU to MC Lars the legend guys I've been a huge MC Lars fan for a pretty much half my life and the fact that he reached out to work with me on the music video that's in this episode with something super special please go check him out on all music services in YouTube he's a great guy I highly recommend him and that said guys we'll see you next week for the brand-new episode of the completionist bye

Channel: The Completionist

Views: 587,693

Rating: 4.8728495 out of 5

Keywords: link's awakening, link's awakening review, link's awakening ost, link's awakening gameplay, gameplay, review, game review, game reviews, funny, comedy, video essay, nintendo, nintendo switch, switch, link's awakening switch, zelda, zelda link's awakening, zelda links awakening, links awakening, legend of zelda, the legend of zelda link's awakening, remake, zelda remake, game boy, game boy color, gameboy, zelda switch, completionist, jirard khalil, the legend of zelda, zelda review

Id: viA_cnvl74g

Length: 21min 23sec (1283 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 16 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Scukojake]

That was actually a pretty fine tune with MC Lars. We definitely need it uploaded separately.

[u/Ishtuk]

MC Lars! He's a very fun live show, my ska band in high school got to open for him around '06-'07ish.

[u/legendaryemerald]

What the hell is he talking about when he says turning off the Switch off manually fixes the framerate? I can’t find anyone else online saying that, and I just tested it myself in handheld and tv and it doesn’t fix anything.

[u/DuneSpoon]

I am surprised of the final completionist rating of Complete It even though it's easier to stay alive with secret potions, bottled fairies, and additional heart containers. I felt the same as Jirard in the video about Dampé's golden puzzle challenges.

It was tedious going through rooms you already solved elsewhere in the game, in a dungeon you already know the solution to. Making the dungeon can be a little challenging, but I got frustrated when the game would automatically reset which staircases were tied together.

It would be more worth it if I could build dungeons and send them to friends online.

And then doing all the challenges on both difficulties when there's no completion bonus is too much for me.

However the core Link's Awakening experience is better than ever and except for what I mentioned above, would give it the same rating.

[u/NeutroBlaster96]

While obviously the reasoning behind the New Game Plus was probably not fun, it is nice that some of these coincide with remakes so that Jirard can get a new experience.