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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening review thread

Ulysses 31

Member
I'll never finish them that way. When I put down a game for too long it'll be at least a year before i'll get back to it. I don't want to have a bunch of unfinished games so now i'm gonna start focusing on new ones that I buy until I beat it.
Ok but do you have some rule that you have to start playing new games the day they release? :lollipop_grinning:

I never understand these "I have to finish this single player game that I'm enjoying before this new single player game that I might enjoy comes out" mind set.

And you can already play DX11, the demo is pretty long(easily 5-10 hours) and progress carries over to the full game. :p
 
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Shaqazooloo

Member
Ok but do you have some rule that you have to start playing new games the day they release? :lollipop_grinning:

I never understand these "I have to finish this single player games before this new single player game comes out" mind set.
I like playing games at launch, if I wait too long I might not buy it at all, I want it while it's still fresh in my mind.

And you can already play DX11, the demo is pretty long(easily 5-10 hours) and progress carries over to the full game. :p
Thanks for the tip, didn't know that the demo was the opening part of the game.
 

Ulysses 31

Member
iu
 

StormCell

Member
It's a Zelda game. Aren't high scores pretty much a given, even for the more mediocre entries? (even Spirit Tracks got an 87 metacritic score, Phantom Hourglass 90 and Twilight Princess got 95!)

Titles are usually judged based on the merits and context that they're released in. Spirit Tracks and Phantom Hourglass were DS titles, and when you consider the hardware those titles were considered very impressive. If they had released on Wii, I doubt they would have scored that high.

Twilight Princess, otoh, is really good. I didn't remember it very fondly until I replayed it on the Wii U, though. It was a good game after Wind Waker, which is also really good.

Of course, I really enjoyed Skyward Sword on my one playthrough. Attempts to play through it again have all failed....
 
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Framerate is performance and it does affect the gameplay experience, so it should be accounted for when reviewing a game.

Not all games need silky smooth 60fps to play well. Some are perfectly good experiences with less. I wouldn't have enjoyed Dragon Quest Builders 2 more with 60fps; I would have enjoyed Astral Chain more with them.

And maybe the scores already account for this. A game can be better than average, even great, with technical failings.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Very much looking forward to this, some performance issue will not going stop me from enjoying this game, same way I did with Bloodborne.
 

Outrunner

Member
Not all games need silky smooth 60fps to play well. Some are perfectly good experiences with less. I wouldn't have enjoyed Dragon Quest Builders 2 more with 60fps; I would have enjoyed Astral Chain more with them.

And maybe the scores already account for this. A game can be better than average, even great, with technical failings.

No one is saying that the game needs to be 60 fps. Framerate drops are distracting and make the gameplay experience worse. Link's Awakening has several moments with unstable framerate. No one is saying that it makes it a bad game.
 
No one is saying that the game needs to be 60 fps. Framerate drops are distracting and make the gameplay experience worse. Link's Awakening has several moments with unstable framerate. No one is saying that it makes it a bad game.

And since it is, even despite the fps drops it should deserve a great score. I don't think an 88 should be surprising even if the fps is unstable.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
Cmon a constant stuttering switch between 30 and 60fps is super jarring. Either make it 30 or get to 60. If you cant hold 60 delay it and polish it or cap it at 30.

I think its pretty crazy to see Nintendo push something out the door that was clearly not polished enough.
 

Shifty

Member
Those are some high scores, damn. I was expecting it to be high, but not quite that high.

My copy arrived today, but the release snuck up on me- I thought it was next week, so the game is gonna be sitting in the switch for a few more days while I polish off Control.

Really looking forward to digging into it though. Link's Awakening DX was my first 2D Zelda, and spent a heck of a lot of time in my Game Boy Color, so this is going to be a nostalgia bomb. I hope my memory of the trading quest holds up.
 

StormCell

Member
Cmon a constant stuttering switch between 30 and 60fps is super jarring. Either make it 30 or get to 60. If you cant hold 60 delay it and polish it or cap it at 30.

I think its pretty crazy to see Nintendo push something out the door that was clearly not polished enough.

BotW says hello.
 

Tygeezy

Member
don't play switch games on a 4k telly honstly
don't
Games that are native 1080 p look good on my 4k. Although the upscaler is very good on samsungs. It depends how far away you sit and how big your tv is. Mine is 75 inch and I sit 10 feet away. So 1080 p still looks good. Not many switch games run at 1080 p though so they can look very soft. My tv has a sharpening option that I use for non native games that really helps though too. 900p is doable with some sharpening being applied.
 
Across Link's Awakening, Astral Chain and Luigi's Mansion the Switch is starting to look pretty tempting. Not tempting enough for me to drop 400€ though.
 

BlackTron

Member
I'm very lukewarm on the art style, and would hope that in 2019 that they could remake a gen 1 Game Boy title with a decent framerate. TBH that's kind of pathetic. OoT and LA are my favorite Zelda's and I don't like Grezzo's influence on either one. Too bad Nintendo didn't handle this in-house.

I love Link's Awakening but I think I'm ok with the GBC version that's been planted firmly in my GBA SP's cart slot for about 15 years. I'll pick this up for $30-40 down the line when the opportunity arises.
 
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StormCell

Member
And it was bad then too. Just because Nintendo made past mistakes when it comes to the framerate of their game doesn't make it OK for them to do it now, especially on a title that looks so much simpler.

It's arguably the GOAT. They still haven't ironed out all the performance issues, but I sure am glad they didn't delay it another year to try to fix all of it.
 

StormCell

Member
BoTw is running on underpowered hardware. Its pretty amazing it even runs on wiiu.

I wouldnt compare such a game with this kind of game, besides them both being named zelda.

Just because a game doesn't have nearly as much content doesn't mean it can't be taxing the system and managing to pull off some technical feats that the hardware probably shouldn't be able to do, or something like that.

Maybe it's like you said and they're just not doing something right in UE4, OR maybe they're attempting to do too much for such a simple game. Visually, there's quite a lot going on with the lighting and depth of field blur. They could have probably made a sightly uglier game that runs at a smooth 60 fps.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
$92 on the nose, if I buy from Walmart. Lot of cash for not a lot of game.



At $92 (80 + tax CDN) tho? Is that a good price for 15 a hour single player RPG experience? Everything doesn't need to be 60 hours long, I agree, but this isn't some $29 game either. A full fledged price for a bite sized RPG. At 25-30 hours I'd fall on the sword here, but I can't justify $92 for 15 hours no matter how shiny the review are.

Yeah, this is pretty much why I'm passing on this too. Also being Canadian, this is way too much for such a short adventure game.
 

Gamernyc78

Banned
Some of the excuses by fans of the framerate issue is remarkable to say the least lol Now it's "oh tht doesn't matter nor should anyone care" Nintendo you definitely got them 😂😏😁
 

StormCell

Member
Some of the excuses by fans of the framerate issue is remarkable to say the least lol Now it's "oh tht doesn't matter nor should anyone care" Nintendo you definitely got them 😂😏😁

Frankly, I suspect a lot of their games are being made to run on upgraded hardware. All of their games except a few are going to run at better resolution and framerate as soon they release something with more memory and faster CPU.
 

Gamernyc78

Banned
Frankly, I suspect a lot of their games are being made to run on upgraded hardware. All of their games except a few are going to run at better resolution and framerate as soon they release something with more memory and faster CPU.

Things like this don't ruin my gaming experience but I'm cognizant of the fact tht for others it does and games definitely should be docked points for those types of issues. Eitber way I'm planning on picking this up as I've actually never played the original.
 
I had this pre-ordered but I canceled it, can't justify paying full price for a remake of a GB game that runs poorly. I'll pick it up later at a discounted price, I'm in no rush.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
I'll wait for the framerate patch.

Or I'll just wait. My childhood memories of Link's Awakening on that green-and-black Game Boy screen can remain unsullied.
 
Where do you usually get Nintendo first party games at a discount?
Well there's a few scenarios I see happening. Either it gets a Nintendo selects release, it gets an actual sale (which happened for SSB, Xenoblade, and Mario Kart 8) or if none of those happen I'll get in 3 or more years down the line on ebay. Wind Waker HD has been around $30 CAD on ebay for a while now which is probably the closest comparison to this.
 

Kazza

Member
Of course, I really enjoyed Skyward Sword on my one playthrough. Attempts to play through it again have all failed....

Ah, I'm getting my Zeldas mixed up, I meant to say Skyward Sword, that's the one that even a lot of Zelda fans feel a little iffy about. It still got 93...... :messenger_tears_of_joy:

uaH6G76.png




SMH at the 10s from IGN, Eurogamer, Edge...
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
So is this coming out midnight EST or PST?
i think midnight EST. that's what it was for Mario Maker.
Some of the excuses by fans of the framerate issue is remarkable to say the least lol Now it's "oh tht doesn't matter nor should anyone care
i mean i really honestly do not care. i play games that drop frames all the time. my friend has a PS4 and we play PUBG and Fallout 76 and both drop frames left and right. plus Nintendo is generally good about patching performance support. if someone cares, that is fine. that is their right. but just as well, it's my right to not care at all.
 
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Shifty1897

Member
So the game clearly framerate issues but still gets a nice score. Must be nice to have that Nintendo privlage where reviews ignore shortcomings on games

I know right like remember when Shadow of the Colossus came out on the PS2 and it ran at 20fps and people treated it like the second coming of Christ?

That was clearly Nintendo fanboys at work.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
Ah, I'm getting my Zeldas mixed up, I meant to say Skyward Sword, that's the one that even a lot of Zelda fans feel a little iffy about. It still got 93...... :messenger_tears_of_joy:

uaH6G76.png




SMH at the 10s from IGN, Eurogamer, Edge...
As a ZELDA fan this is true which is why I was saying I just don't trust Zelda reviews
It's not just Zelda, Rockstar games as well.

If Red Dead 2 is a perfect 10 then I don't know where to start.
 

Kazza

Member
As a ZELDA fan this is true which is why I was saying I just don't trust Zelda reviews
It's not just Zelda, Rockstar games as well.

If Red Dead 2 is a perfect 10 then I don't know where to start.

Is there a Zelda youtuber you trust? For Sonic games I generally trust a guy called SomeCallMeJohnny, as he is a fan, but a grounded one, so won't go all fanboyish or start shitting on it for no reason. Sometimes it's better if you get to know an individual youtuber, although that usually means waiting until a few days after release to get a review.
 
Ah, I'm getting my Zeldas mixed up, I meant to say Skyward Sword, that's the one that even a lot of Zelda fans feel a little iffy about. It still got 93...... :messenger_tears_of_joy:

uaH6G76.png




SMH at the 10s from IGN, Eurogamer, Edge...

Eh, Skyward Sword is often viewed as the Yin to Breath of the Wilds Yang.

Skyward Sword: Plentiful dungeons that are uniquely awesome and exceptional boss fight design encounters, shitty overworld exploration

BoTW: Awesome overworld exploration, very few dungeons that are shitty and all have a similar look. Straightforward, uninspired boss fights that all look similar as well and just aren't up to the series standard.

What SS is good at, BoTW kinda sucks at and vice versa.
 

Guiberu

Member
Such an odd framerate issue.

Seems to only kick in when entering/exiting an area.

Presumably due to streaming/loading in the overworld.

Just fucking cull everything within a certain distance of the player, and keep the immediate vicinity of the previous area stored in cache.
 
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