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Link's Awakening
Jul. 8th, 2015 11:15 amIn between flying out to LA and flying back to DC, I beat and completed Link's Awakening. Sometimes I think I only bought a 3DS so that I can play this game on airplanes. I do a full playthrough once or twice a year, and I've got it down to about nine hours.
What struck me this time around is how chatty the game is. Every time Link bumps up against one of the crystal obstacles when he's not wearing the Pegasus Boots, the game is like Y'ALL NEED SOME SPECIAL SHIT TO BREAK UP THIS BITCH. Every time Link touches a rock while not wearing the Power Bracelet, the game is like BRO DO U EVEN LIFT. The game tells you in great detail what a dungeon map is, and what a compass is, and what a boss key is, and then keeps telling you, over and over again.
The boss monsters also talk to Link. This starts getting creepy in the fifth dungeon, when the mini-boss, a Master Stalfos, runs away from Link, openly stating that he's fleeing the battle because he's afraid he can't win. The fifth dungeon is also when the final bosses begin cautioning Link against waking the Wind Fish. If he achieves his objective, they tell him, then everyone on the island will disappear into nothing, as if they had never existed. And they're not wrong.
What's interesting about the Zelda series is that very few people lie to Link. In fact, the two characters that do deliberately withhold the truth from him are Zelda and the King of Red Lions. The terrible thing is that, unless you're playing one of the games for the second time, you don't know that the bad guys are more or less always telling the truth (a major exception being Blind in A Link to the Past, but everyone has already told Link that s/he lies).
As a kid, what I always wanted to know about Link's Awakening was why Link was sailing out into the ocean by himself in the first place. Why didn't he just stay in Hyrule, where he was already a hero? Now that I think about it, though, Link would probably have had some conflicting emotions concerning being used like a tool. In the Ishinomori manga based on A Link to the Past, Zelda emotionally manipulates Link and then all but throws him away once he's no longer needed. I know the manga isn't canon, but the Hero's Shade character in Twilight Princess represents the same problem.
It's probably significant that Link is always fairly young, or at least pliable (the word in Japanese is sunao) enough to do what he's told without stopping to question whether what he's doing is in fact the right thing to do.
What struck me this time around is how chatty the game is. Every time Link bumps up against one of the crystal obstacles when he's not wearing the Pegasus Boots, the game is like Y'ALL NEED SOME SPECIAL SHIT TO BREAK UP THIS BITCH. Every time Link touches a rock while not wearing the Power Bracelet, the game is like BRO DO U EVEN LIFT. The game tells you in great detail what a dungeon map is, and what a compass is, and what a boss key is, and then keeps telling you, over and over again.
The boss monsters also talk to Link. This starts getting creepy in the fifth dungeon, when the mini-boss, a Master Stalfos, runs away from Link, openly stating that he's fleeing the battle because he's afraid he can't win. The fifth dungeon is also when the final bosses begin cautioning Link against waking the Wind Fish. If he achieves his objective, they tell him, then everyone on the island will disappear into nothing, as if they had never existed. And they're not wrong.
What's interesting about the Zelda series is that very few people lie to Link. In fact, the two characters that do deliberately withhold the truth from him are Zelda and the King of Red Lions. The terrible thing is that, unless you're playing one of the games for the second time, you don't know that the bad guys are more or less always telling the truth (a major exception being Blind in A Link to the Past, but everyone has already told Link that s/he lies).
As a kid, what I always wanted to know about Link's Awakening was why Link was sailing out into the ocean by himself in the first place. Why didn't he just stay in Hyrule, where he was already a hero? Now that I think about it, though, Link would probably have had some conflicting emotions concerning being used like a tool. In the Ishinomori manga based on A Link to the Past, Zelda emotionally manipulates Link and then all but throws him away once he's no longer needed. I know the manga isn't canon, but the Hero's Shade character in Twilight Princess represents the same problem.
It's probably significant that Link is always fairly young, or at least pliable (the word in Japanese is sunao) enough to do what he's told without stopping to question whether what he's doing is in fact the right thing to do.
