Is A Link Between Worlds that great?

I recently beat The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds a few months ago, as well as Hero Mode, both 100%, and after months of thinking, I can't help but feel a little disappointed with the experience.

The game itself isn't really challenging at all, and felt more like a chore than actual fun.

So you may be wondering, what's wrong with it?

...Where to begin, where to begin...

First of all the fact that it's based off of A Link to the Past.

Now, obviously, I like ALTTP, and at first, I thought the idea of having similar design would be a good idea, but after a while, I realized that it kills the concept of exploration when you have the exact same layout. Of course, some people haven't played ALTTP, but that's no reason to do something like that. It's a boring gameplay concept for people who HAVE played it, and it makes them look very lazy.

Now for dungeons. The dungeons have been changed, but there's something about them that seems to be too easy. I couldn't find myself being challenged at all. Most of the dungeons you can do in any order, so it would be unfair to make some more challenging than others, right? Nintendo realized this, so they made them as easy as each other. And since lately, they've been thinking more about the younger audience playing this game, they would be too easy more the majority. But the problem is, even if you do find this game challenging, you don't need to worry anyway, because right next to every little puzzle, there's a "hint ghost" thing that tells you exactly how to solve it. I know they're optional, but come on, Nintendo, if you're going to have these things, at least make the game itself (excluding the hint ghosts) challenging for people who ARE really good.

I've heard people say that solving puzzles in this game is very satisfying and rewarding, but I have no clue as to how to they came to that conclusion. They're so easy, it makes me feel like I'm losing brain cells, playing a little kid's game.

Dungeon items are a dead concept too. For the first three dungeons, they're completely absent. For the rest, they're just upgrades for stuff you already have, making an already easy game even easier. Why? Because of a character named Ravio.

Ravio is essentially just your means of getting items. He opens a shop in your house, and rents you any item you want. The worst concept ever.

Not only is the reason for eliminating the surprise you get from seeing what's in a chest inside a dungeon, but it creates a ton of other problems.

Back to the issue on dungeons being accessed in any order, it is also unfair to throw a puzzle at you halfway through the dungeon that requires an item you don't have. So how does Nintendo solve this? They make sure every single dungeon (with the exception of the last one) requires nothing more than the item required to get into it. Also eliminating even more challenge. At one point, they even started substituting bombs with an enemy that can be used as one.

It also makes other flaws the game has even more obvious. When I found out that you have to rent the items again when you die, I worried about how tedious that would make things if I had to slash a ton of bushes over and over for the sake of renting some items I had to lose. However, this problem was eliminated. Why, you ask? Because it made another problem far more apparent to me.

The combat and gameplay in this game is incredibly easy. You will never come close to dying in normal mode, not even if you are a newcomer to gaming or something. So it makes me wonder why Nintendo included it in the first place.

Remember the switch hook from the oracle games? In those, I remember seeing pots and stuff from afar, but not knowing how to get there. Later on, I got the Switch hook, and I figured it out. I like the sensation of seeing something that makes no sense, but then later on, obtaining the item required to do it. But that is completely killed by having all the items already. I know this could be considered nitpicking, but some people would agree with me.

Now let's talk about hero mode. I expected rearranged dungeons, like the master quest, but when it said that enemies would be stronger, I wanted to pull my hair out. That is RIDICULOUS. It heightens the problem mentioned earlier and creates a ton of other problems, too.

...And think about it. I'm only scratching at the surface. I don't want this to turn into too much of a rant, so go ahead and play this game. Make an honest opinion for yourself. The music and graphics are good, and the plot is okay, aside from most of it being a complete copy/paste of ALTTP's plot. They're the only things that are decent in this game, and because of that, it's my least favorite Zelda game, but my opinion might not be the same as yours.

I've also beaten A link between worlds 100% on both quests.

2 major problems in my oppinion are: practically the same overworld as in Alttp, and you can rent most major items. Altogether it also seems a bit easy game and the Hero mode just brings the damage you take to unreasonable amount.

By the way, that bomb-enemy is actually a debug (since you can, in theory, enter a dungeon without having bombs).

Dungeons are much better than overworld. The good thing is, that they are new, or at least so much new-er, that you enjoy solving them.

All together I think it is still a dinamic game (plays smoothly), so it has a nice replay value (in my oppinion). But the same thing also makes it quite easy (younger players seem to be the major "target group" for buying this game).

Globaly it is a game to buy and have, but it has its flaws.

Puzzledude just said everything I was going to say when I decided to post. So in short, I'll just leave you with my opinion on the game. Upon first hearing about it, I was stoked! A "reboot" for a ALTTP? I'll take that action any day on any platform! After playing the game, I honestly fell in love with it! It's one of the better Zelda titles out there and overall one of the best 3DS titles. It has excellent replay value, rewarding puzzles, and if nothing else, the GFX alone should be reason enough to at least play it once. What your getting with this game is basically a re-imagining if you will, of it's SNES counterpart. As Puzzledude already said, it does have it's flaws, and these are left up to opinion like anything else, but overall it's truly a great game for any fan of the series.

May I ask why? Did you seriously have a hard time with it? I had no challenges with it whatsoever.

We probably like the new smooth playing and fast advancement. The game sometimes also looks very appealing (snowy mountain for the win, a Parallel Worlds reference).

If you compare this to some read-to-death looong dialogs of Skyward sword and endless flying across limitless sky, you can see the difference in the replay value of both games.

...Yeah, you're right. I DO like how "smooth" it feels, and that thing about the atmosphere being pleasing ties in to what I said earlier about the graphics, but in my opinion, controls and graphics aren't enough to make up for the gameplay itself.

For me, I thought some of the new game play elements introduced were very creative. I enjoy games that I actually feel involved with and would choose game play over any "read - to - death" scenario any day. Skyward Sword, as beautiful as it may be visually, lacked in a lot of other important areas... IMO and I felt like I was reading more than playing... this was a deal breaker for me as far as game play was concerned. I would choose the older Zelda titles any day over some of the more recent titles. As for challenge, I had some difficulty in some areas of ALBW, but I think for me it was getting use to the 3DS as i don't usually play handheld games all that often. I have yet to play the first 2 Zelda titles released on the original DS. Did you guys like those? What did you think?

The DS Zeldas, "Phantom Hourglass" and "Spirit Tracks"...

Well, opinions are all over the place.

Some people love both, some people hate both.

Some like PH and hate ST,

Some like ST and hate PH.

I've never played ST, but I really like PH. Play them and make an opinion for yourself.

Renting items was my least favorite thing that ever took place. I'm not saying I'm not good at the game with constant deaths, but after a while, ALBW turns out to be a farming game after a while. Every time you die in a dungeon with a rented item that is 'required' to complete the dungeon up to the boss, is sent back, and you have to rent it again just to get back to the boss to complete it. Since I didn't see any gameplay of ALBW or have any clue on how to get through the dungeons(I don't use walk-through's for Zelda at all), I had complications and this was the biggest problem I had with the game. However the overall design of the world and dungeons themselves is very well thought-out. The special new ability is weird, but useful and threw in a new feel for the game. I didn't make it past the two dungeons after acquiring that ability since renting items killed the feel for the general concept of Zelda and how it really came to be for several generations. I think this was one of the worse Zelda titles due to how acquiring items came to be.

I agree that some of the dungeons are pretty well-designed, but the world? How can you say that? It's literally a copy/paste of a link to the past, with minor differences here and there to have a couple puzzles that utilize the merging ability.

Maybe Nintendo didn't realize, that players want the same engine, but different overworlds and different dungeons (pretty much what romhacking is all about); and not the other way around. A link between worlds is more like: the same overworld, but new (3d) engine (gfx).

I don't understand, why don't they do an actual sequel of Alttp in the good old 16 bit (the Wii version of Alttp is just that). Then they would pack this into the WAD file and make it awailable on Wii. They would gain money big time, and the 16 bit version (with possible filters) would be easy for them to make with the tools, that are available today.

Puzzledude wrote:I've also beaten A link between worlds 100% on both quests.

Both...quests?

Normal and Hero.

Hero?

Darkie wrote:Hero?

Hero mode is only accessible after completing the game once. It's only more difficult due to Link being able to take more damage from a hit. I know I didn't beat the game, but I think the enemies take more hits as well?

O.O Sound like fun.

Chagmen_Lietons wrote:
I know I didn't beat the game, but I think the enemies take more hits as well?

Enemies take the same amount of hits in both quests.

The enemies deal four times the damage compared to the normal quest. So the first enemies you meet will damage you by 2 hearts :-D

Okay so this is a bit off-topc but I noticed something when I was playing through hero mode today.

When you go inside the castle to tell princess zelda about what yuga did, you read those paintings telling the legend of hyrule. Now this story is pretty obviously the story of ocarina of time which is a pretty basic back story to any zelda game. This game is also confirmed to have taken place 6 generations after link to the past

Now according to the official zelda timeline, the side link to the past is on implies link lost against ganon in ocarina of time. So why is that back story there? Am I missing something, or is that the back story explaining the original link to the past?

I do not mess around with the weird Zelda timeline theories, but here's an Image which could be helpful

http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/storypics/atl.jpg

If this doesn't answer your question you can ask Duke Serkol from the BSZ HP, since he went really into the storyline:

http://z9.invisionfree.com/bszelda/index.php?s=48fecdafe769024d136cd155a04ef0f9&showtopic=1430

Conn wrote:I do not mess around with the weird Zelda timeline theories, but here's an Image which could be helpful

http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/storypics/atl.jpg

The heck? Where on Earth did THAT timeline come from? Is that official? Last time I checked, the official timeline never included any of those non-canon games, and it wasn't THAT complicated.

That's not the official timeline, I have Hyrule Historia with the official one in my lap right now, that seems like a spinoff of the official one that takes non-canon games into account.

yeah, additional "non-canonal" games, like CD-i and BSZelda were added by Duke and me, to the best of our knowledge.