I missed out on this game when it originally came out way back on the Gameboy, but I heard a lot of people say it was one of the best Zelda games ever made, so I figured now would be a good time to jump on.
Link wakes up on a mysterious island as in unable to leave. He is told that the only way to leave the island is to gather the instruments and awaken the Wind Fish. The Wind Fish can be found sleeping in a giant egg atop a Volcano. At first, this sounds silly as fuck, and while you're not wrong things quickly start to make sense. The game doesn't really try to hide this, as you realize it a few dungeons in, but the town you ended up in isn't real, it's the dream of the Wind Fish.
I remember hearing people talking about how dark of a game this is, but I think that was a bit overblown. The world makes no effort to really feel real, and you only have one character you meet that feels like there is that much to them at all, Marin. Even then it's a pretty basic character and the lack of feeling really kind of puts a damper on the idea this world will disappear once the adventure is completed. This isn't to say the story isn't good, it's a pretty solid story for a Zelda game,especially one that came out on the original Gameboy.
The actual game-play feels just like the old Zelda games, feeling like a bit of a mix between the original Legend of Zelda with its dungeon layouts and map design, but the more detailed environments and expanded mechanics of Link to the Past, with its own unique items as well. If you like finding secrets and the like, there is a lot of stuff to discover in this game.
It's also got that old school Zelda touch where finding secret areas could mean traveling through a mini-dungeon. More-so than that, however, exploration is key to finishing this game. If you just head right through the dungeons, you'll find yourself at an impasse you can't overcome either due to missing an important item, or some information you need to solve a trick to one of the dungeons. Exploration is a key aspect of the game, and I really dig the game for it.
The game comes with a good variety of enemies to fight, and all of them you have to tackle a little bit differently. Some enemies require certain tools to fight,some have different movement patterns or shields, and the list goes on. Regular encounters and bosses are just as interesting and varied as any other games, though we are getting into one of the things that does kind of bother me about Link's Awakening.
While it is fun throughout, I found it to be one of the easiest Zelda games I've played. It wasn't until the final boss I really felt like anything the game put in front of me as much of a challenge, and that is the big thing that is keeping me from ranking this game higher in relation to other Zelda titles. A few bosses, some really clever puzzles or at least one dungeon was overall something that gave me trouble at some point in all other titles, but the most challenge I got out of this one was a kind of difficult final fight, though the challenge only came from trying out a few things to figure out how to fight the different forms. Once I figured out the way to do it, the fight became a breeze.
There was new content made for the switch version, specifically the dungeon creator. You have to build dungeons out of rooms you have come across in the main story dungeon, and you have to make them under certain conditions and then play through them. It's a fun little mini-game, and if you know other people who like making dungeons it's possible to craft some fun free-form dungeons for your friends to play through. It's not a fantastic addition, but it's fun enough and having it there does nothing to take away from the rest of the game.
Something you'll notice is I often don't talk to much about a games music, the reason being thatmost games the music is just kind of there to add to the atmosphere and feel of the game, and on it's own rarely stands out all that much, and generally I just assume if people see I don't talk about the music, that it's passable. It's really only a handful of games that seem to have music worth talking about, and I think Link's Awakening is one of those games.
It is hard to really describe how bizarrely relaxing and calming I find some of the music,and it does a great job at adding to the dream vibe the game goes for. It's definitely a great song, but something about the Mabe Town theme just feels surreal, and it does the atmosphere of the game wonders.
In the end, you have a solid and fun old school Zelda game. Interesting enemies, albeit a bit easy, fun exploration, and a fun and interesting premise for an old school Zelda. If you are at all a fan of the series, or even if it's your first time giving one of these games a go, Link's Awakening is a definite buy if you own a Switch.