Forums > Submission Feedback > overdrive's The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds review

I kind of think the title on this is a play on its LttP. Literally, it's a link between the two in-game world's, but it's also a link to the world of LttP.

I liked how having access to all items at once (sort of) allowed you to explore dungeons in any order. I think, though, that prevented them from scaling the difficulty of the dungeons like in other games (because there isn't really an order). The idea of renting was silly too. If I died, I was just going to save scum, which would let me keep the items AND not loose progress.

I absolutely loved how items use the magic bar and it recharges. In order zelda games, I hate chopping grass everywhere I go to fill up all the different discrete consumables you need.

I did have fun though, probably for the same reasons you did--the feelies of feeling like it's LttP and early 90s again. I tried to play through a second time in hard mode, but it didn't really have the same magic a second time.

(I look forward to seeing how the paragraph about the current world ages in a few years.)

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Yeah, the dungeons really don't scale. A couple are more tricky than others, but that's kind of devised more on world placement. I thought the ice dungeon on Death Mountain was pretty tricky in a fun way to navigate, but it would likely be expected to be a bit tougher because the ice dungeon was arguably the trickiest in LttP and Turtle Rock, where it's located, was the last one to do in that game. But, yeah, when you make it to the second world, I think the only rule is you have to do the Thieves Dungeon before the Desert one because the sage you rescue in Thieves gives you the Sand Rod that you need to get to and through Desert. But all the dungeons there were pretty to really fun, which is good because I was a bit worried after the first couple, since they seemed less interesting that their counterparts in LttP.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

A Link Between Worlds was the last Zelda project before Breath of the Wild, and playing it gave me a lot of hope that Breath of the Wild would prove to be something special, specifically because of the non-linear nature of A Link Between Worlds. Zelda had been pushing hard in a linear direction since Ocarina of Time came along and upended everything, so I played A Link Between Worlds and suddenly could see the series getting back on track... which is what it definitely did. I'm starting to realize, based on comments from some folks, that there are now two Zelda fanbases as there are two Sonic fanbases. For some, true Zelda is linear, with a limited overworld and a focus on dungeon crawling. For others--and I include me in that number--something like Breath of the Wild or A Link Between Worlds is the closest we've seen the series come to its proper essence since, well... A Link to the Past!

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

For some, true Zelda is linear, with a limited overworld and a focus on dungeon crawling. For others--and I include me in that number--something like Breath of the Wild or A Link Between Worlds is the closest we've seen the series come to its proper essence since, well... A Link to the Past!

While I agree, even the most linear Zelda games eventually turn non-linear by the end. Windwaker, for example, is 100% linear, but the most time I spent playing it was running around and hoping islands as the world opened up. When you eventually get the tools, you can explore most Zelda games freely. I think it's just a matter of whether that point is front-loaded or after you finished the majority of dungeons.

The Zelda game I always wanted was some cross between Windwaker and the original game. :)

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I think that for me, the lines for the "what is best?" question for Zelda are drawn a bit differently.

For me, it's the "accomplishing or busywork" line where if I have an hour or two, am I going to get something accomplished or feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. Typically, this revolves around doing a dungeon and I do note that the Zeldas I like tend to have more instead of fewer dungeons, but I'm also down with cool worlds to explore that are full of secrets.

For me, Twilight Princess was a blah part in the series because, especially early in the game, you had to do a lot of busy-work simply to get to those first few dungeons. I couldn't even get into Majora's Mask for that reason. The Oracle games were kind of annoying due to how your progress kept being interrupted in the late-game dungeons because you'd have to swap out items on a near room-by-room basis (that was another thing LBW did great -- by focusing dungeons on a particular item, you only had to go to the menu to make a change occasionally instead of frequently).

I guess my order of things to consider would be:

1a. Cool dungeons
1b. Smooth transitions where you get to do what you want without being saddled by mandatory busy-work constantly
2a. Involving overworld with lots of secrets to unearth
2b. Not having to constantly hit up menus because you have 54 tools and 2 buttons that can be used for them

Where the 1s and 2s are equal. Twilight Princess had 1a down, but that got balanced by not doing 1b. The Oracles were decent enough with both 1 points and had 2a, but not 2b. This game had all of them, which made it easy to ignore how easy it was.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle