You might go most of the game before using a particular tool, which was more than enough time for me to forget the signals the game used to suggest what I needed to be doing. This is really the only particular weakness of A Link Between Worlds. Every boss has its own quirk and tricks to beat - many of them require strategies both familiar to Link to the Past players along with key twists - and dungeons often ask for multiple tools used in tandem or in quick succession. But it always kept a strong grasp of the fundamentals of good Zelda design. I loved the way A Link Between Worlds forced me to think outside of the confines of the top-down perspective it's rooted in. The 2D painting mechanic will also make you consider your understanding of the game's vertical layers. Hyrule is almost completely the same - you'll still find a friendly face with a bottle under a certain bridge - but Lorule forces you to relearn your way around. This nostalgia helped and confused me throughout A Link Between Worlds.
This is partly because so much of the game was familiar to me as a life-time fan of A Link to the Past - it made sharp departures throughout stand out that much more. There aren't necessarily multiple ways to solve each puzzle, but I almost always felt clever. The end result is a collection of dungeons that require more creative thinking on a regular basis than previous Zelda games. They're all yours for the taking - until you die, that is, when you forfeit the lot of them. If you've got the rupees, you can rent equipment items like bombs or the grappling hook indefinitely from a mysterious merchant who takes residence in Link's house. A Link Between Worlds quickly establishes an economy with the concept of item rental. Items are no longer buried treasure to be found. A Link Between Worlds breaks up the basic structure of past Zelda games by giving you access to every piece of equipment from past Zelda games almost immediately, imbuing the game with open world sensibilities - there's even fast travel. In fact, it feels like someone went back in time to give the designers of Link to the Past a 3DS to make a direct sequel.īut Nintendo uses the refined foundation of the pixel-based Zelda games as a start for something much more ambitious. The game feels exactly like it should as a sequel to A Link to the Past. I never once lamented the polygonal Link. Nintendo has done a commendable job in bringing the pixel-based game design of overhead exploration and dungeon-crawling hack-and-slash into literal 3D here. Link is as responsive as he ever was in the 16-bit era, whether swinging a sword, throwing a boomerang or slinging a bow. This new Zelda doesn't waste any time getting you to play it. You go from waking up in your bed to swinging a sword in all of five minutes. There are no five-hour tutorial phases, no hand-holding. This grants Link a special gift: the ability to transform into a painting himself and move along walls in 2D.īut here's the thing: before going two-dimensional, A Link Between Worlds re-establishes the series' former tropes and mechanics as quickly as possible. Pulled into a strange conspiracy involving a villain who turns his victims into paintings and spirits them away to a dark shadow world called Lorule, Link is saved by a mysterious magic bracelet. It follows the adventures of a new Link, a new hero of Hyrule.
#A link between worlds zelda title series#
Sure, it's a few generations later, but for fans of the series - which, let's be clear, should be you - everything will be right where you left it. The result? The best Zelda game of the last twenty years.Ī Link Between Worlds is set in the same Hyrule as A Link to the Past. Nintendo has taken its most sacred cow and pushed it out into a more open world with all the terrifying freedom the series has never had. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds takes on all the expectations and danger of direct acknowledgement of its predecessor.īut A Link Between Worlds takes the fundamentals of the series' 16-bit era and flips its design conceits on their head. There are no cute winks or nods or maybes. There are no nebulous allusions to hidden timelines. More than two decades after The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was widely regarded as one of the greatest games of all time, Nintendo is doing the unthinkable with a direct sequel.
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