vodka-bull
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I never would have thought that a handheld Zelda game could pull me in like this again. Normally, my New 3DS XL is a console I pick up every now and then for short sessions, but never really use for long periods to actually finish a 3DS game. As far as I can remember, I've only completed two games on it so far: Ocarina of Time, and now the credits of A Link Between Worlds are rolling.
I still don't really know how to categorize the game. Is it a sequel, reboot, or prequel? I have no idea. What I do know, though, is that it definitely belongs among the three best Zelda games I've ever played.
And after Tears of the Kingdom was rather disappointing for me, I'm honestly glad that a 13-year-old game managed to restore my faith in the series.
For me, the soundtrack was already just as good as the soundtrack of Breath of the Wild.
The dungeons are incredibly well designed. The gameplay mechanic that lets you tackle the dungeons in any order gives the player a huge amount of freedom, making it far less linear than basically all the other classic Zelda games, and it's implemented incredibly well. Even the minigames — with the exception of Octoball — were fun.
The graphics are phenomenal. I already have a soft spot for the art style used in the Link's Awakening remake, but here, combined with the incredibly well-implemented 3D effect, the whole game is an absolute joy to play in 3D. In other games, I often had to disable the 3D effect because it was either poorly implemented or caused headaches during longer play sessions. In A Link Between Worlds, even that aspect was executed amazingly well.
The story was also surprisingly good, especially for a Zelda game. I usually don't expect an incredible story from the series, but the twist at the end genuinely caught me off guard in a positive way during the final battle. Yes, even on a handheld, it's absolutely possible to create a gripping Zelda experience (and at this point I'll spare myself the debate about whether the Switch counts as a handheld or not. I personally don't carry it around everywhere because it's too big and cumbersome).
The puzzles are great, the items are interesting, the controls are as intuitive as ever and exactly how they should be. There's more than enough content, side quests, good pacing — honestly, everything about the game just works.
I genuinely struggle to find any major criticism that would bother me enough to keep the game from deserving a 5/5 rating.
So yeah, hats off to Nintendo — they absolutely nailed it with this one.
Edit: if a Mod could put LTTP in the thread title, I'd appreciate it. Thought the tag alone would be enough to mark it as an LTTP title.
I still don't really know how to categorize the game. Is it a sequel, reboot, or prequel? I have no idea. What I do know, though, is that it definitely belongs among the three best Zelda games I've ever played.
And after Tears of the Kingdom was rather disappointing for me, I'm honestly glad that a 13-year-old game managed to restore my faith in the series.
For me, the soundtrack was already just as good as the soundtrack of Breath of the Wild.
The dungeons are incredibly well designed. The gameplay mechanic that lets you tackle the dungeons in any order gives the player a huge amount of freedom, making it far less linear than basically all the other classic Zelda games, and it's implemented incredibly well. Even the minigames — with the exception of Octoball — were fun.
The graphics are phenomenal. I already have a soft spot for the art style used in the Link's Awakening remake, but here, combined with the incredibly well-implemented 3D effect, the whole game is an absolute joy to play in 3D. In other games, I often had to disable the 3D effect because it was either poorly implemented or caused headaches during longer play sessions. In A Link Between Worlds, even that aspect was executed amazingly well.
The story was also surprisingly good, especially for a Zelda game. I usually don't expect an incredible story from the series, but the twist at the end genuinely caught me off guard in a positive way during the final battle. Yes, even on a handheld, it's absolutely possible to create a gripping Zelda experience (and at this point I'll spare myself the debate about whether the Switch counts as a handheld or not. I personally don't carry it around everywhere because it's too big and cumbersome).
The puzzles are great, the items are interesting, the controls are as intuitive as ever and exactly how they should be. There's more than enough content, side quests, good pacing — honestly, everything about the game just works.
I genuinely struggle to find any major criticism that would bother me enough to keep the game from deserving a 5/5 rating.
So yeah, hats off to Nintendo — they absolutely nailed it with this one.
Edit: if a Mod could put LTTP in the thread title, I'd appreciate it. Thought the tag alone would be enough to mark it as an LTTP title.
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Glad you enjoyed it.
