I completed this in three days when it came out with no guides.
With the phone booths it's kinda hard to even get stuck
With the phone booths it's kinda hard to even get stuck
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Links Awakening is full of unnecessarily obtuse and frustrating puzzles
- Thread starter Vire
- Start date
People are dumbfounded by the concept of getting lost or being confused as being a good thing. The Zelda franchise (before baby hand holding Fi and even Twilight Princes to an extent) is built on this idea as part of the adventure. If 6 year olds can figure this out without a guide, you can too. You just don't want to invest the time and focus to do so
Ah yes, cutting bushes in a game where you're rewarded with money and health for doing so is very obtuse.
And how dare the game expect me to talk to the NPCs? Where's the big quest marker?
Yes, i mean, many of us beat this as kids in a day without the internet as we know it. We also beat the much harder Link to the Past which made this seem even easier
With Zelda games, if you aren't paying attention to your surroundings like all the time, it'll probably come back to bite you (not saying this is a negative)
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Can't get on board with the complaints about this one. The entire straw millionaire quest is obvious through character personalities. If you're not talking to characters or entering houses you come across it may appear obtuse—but that's due to not putting in the legwork. You don't get a waypoint pointing you where to go but there's really not much off the beaten path. You just have to pay attention.
The dungeons are fine but some of the overworld stuff is daft. I too spent far to long finding that fucking bush.
More like "lmao I can't believe OP is stumped by a game I beat in 1998 as a literal child."
Maybe this would be a good comment in a thread that didn't overwhelmingly disagree with the OP.
No, not even then to be honest. The weird personal insult out of nowhere just makes me think you're in your feelings for some reason. And LA came out in 1993.
Okay, what about this one, which is in the game:
You come into a room inside a cave. There's a piece of heart on the right and an exit on the bottom. There's a bunch of rocks and two skeleton heads in the way.
You want both things: You want the heart and you want to exit.
Do you sit on your ass and do nothing or do you try to push? Same issue inside the actual dungeons. There are locked doors and multiple floors and a boss somewhere which you need to pass to get the instrument you've been told to look for. What do you do? Sit on your ass or try pushing some blocks, destroy pots or any other recurring game mechanic you've been taught you can do? In most rooms there's a logic to it, like parallel arrangements of stones and plates next to them. It's pretty darn obvious the game is subliminally telling you "Hey, try pushing something."
Zelda games are first and foremost exploration games. They've always had hidden passages to find, though... And yes, exploratory puzzles are still puzzles.
Nope... I just dont like using guides on my Phone, Tablet or PC... Its just not my prefered way of doing it. Im oldschool in that regard.
I come from the time where you would love yourself a good snes game with a stategy guide book.
TBH OP, the game isn't hard and I think you are way to used to the handholding of the new Games we are getting. Back in the day it was pretty normal to look around in a game world fopr hours to find a solution for a puzzle.
My 9 yo boy finished the game without a guide while I had to look up a guide for the infamous bush cutting puzzle....and I managed to finish the game back in 1993. I think we all forget how exciting and enjoyable it is to solve a puzzle without looking up the answer after 10 minutes.
My 9 yo boy finished the game without a guide while I had to look up a guide for the infamous bush cutting puzzle....and I managed to finish the game back in 1993. I think we all forget how exciting and enjoyable it is to solve a puzzle without looking up the answer after 10 minutes.
I can see where you are coming from, but it's honestly a positive for me. Link's Awakening has some of the most experimental puzzles in a Zelda game in terms of not knowing exactly what to do when you enter a room. The dungeons are also not designed in a straightforward manner with many having optional keys and rooms.
I would honestly like to see more puzzles like these in a future title as no game has come close to stumping me since in the same way. The eighth dungeon is always a head-scratcher for me when I take a few years off from replaying
I would honestly like to see more puzzles like these in a future title as no game has come close to stumping me since in the same way. The eighth dungeon is always a head-scratcher for me when I take a few years off from replaying
Yeah a bunch of aging geeks taking pride in fictional accomplishments in the face of someone struggling with an archaic game. What else is new.
ResetERA, we're welcoming to everyone unless you're not as good at video games as I am, in which case lmao get fucked.
I played it beginning to end without running into a puzzle that felt obtuse. I think the hardest thing was making all the sections square in the color dungeon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Maybe it's just because I grew up with Zelda games and recognize most of the puzzle tropes.
Maybe it's just because I grew up with Zelda games and recognize most of the puzzle tropes.
I just don't find getting lost and confused to be any fun. Especially in an old school game like this where the combat isn't fun, and getting lost means you have to repeatedly backtrack to old areas to face the same enemies en route from point A to B. The strategy guide is a fun enhancer. There's nothing wrong with using one to complete any game.
I suspect the original Link's Awakening was made intentionally obtuse to sell strategy guides and support Nintendo's Power Line hotline in the 90s. The reason why games aren't this obtuse today is because with the internet, nobody buys strategy guides anymore or calls a hotline for tips.
cant really disagree, Its actually a jump forward in terms of being a more traditional zelda than 1 and 2, but it retains their obtuse elements. Didn't have a ton of fun with it, LttP is a lot better
This is a really dumb response. Being lost is only fun if you are finding things you didnt expect to find. If you are retreading the same parts over and over again in search on an obtuse answer, its not going to be fun. Zelda as an entire franchise isnt built on obtuse puzzles, basically just the first 3 titles and thats it. Yes most people could figure it out if this was the only thing they do everyday, but people have lives outside of video games.
This is a really dumb response. Being lost is only fun if you are finding things you didnt expect to find. If you are retreading the same parts over and over again in search on an obtuse answer, its not going to be fun. Zelda as an entire franchise isnt built on obtuse puzzles, basically just the first 3 titles and thats it. Yes most people could figure it out if this was the only thing they do everyday, but people have lives outside of video games.
LttP definitely had some instances of this. Finding the flute boy and the medallions come to mind.
I beat it when I was 8 I'm sure you can manage.
Joking aside, I find it fascinating as a product of it's time. That's just what video games were back then. And there was no Internet. You could get stuck on some obtuse shit for months, and when you finally find the one thing, it was glorious. I love that this game is still that.
Joking aside, I find it fascinating as a product of it's time. That's just what video games were back then. And there was no Internet. You could get stuck on some obtuse shit for months, and when you finally find the one thing, it was glorious. I love that this game is still that.
I mean, I'm sympathetic to this being a game from 1993 and thus being dated in its design sensibilities, but again...gotta echo most of the thread here and point out that it's a game that I managed to beat when I was, like, 6 (and it was the first game of its sort that I'd ever played, to boot). I can see where some solutions might not be signposted that effectively, but not so much that they'd be impossible to figure out without a guide or anything.
You literally can't beat Eagle's Tower just through trial and error.
I too am dumbfounded when people replay to personal experience with other personal experience about the same subject.
Why not? I beat the game without any issues and no need to look it up. Took a loooot of wondering around in the dungeon, but wasn't too bad.
Right everyone coming in with a scorching "haha I beat the game when I was a wee babby" is definitely coming in to relay personal experience and totally not pathetically bragging about a video game.
Man you're really mad some people are making fun of an OP whining about an easy game.
And Link's Awakening is a better game than every single AAA big release this generation.
I'm certainly not bragging. Just stating that if I were able to complete the game at 11, I don't consider the game to be overly frustrating or obtuse.
Eagle's Tower has always been tough though.
I get what you're going for, but as someone that loves Zelda games... they're all way too easy, puzzle-wise. Link's Awakening is one of the last ones I played through, and I did so a few years ago on the Virtual Console, and I remember it being a complete breeze. I would have preferred them more challenging.
I guess that BOTW is a good middle ground, with a ton of shrines of varying difficulty to play through. There were some I found tricky and enjoyed the challenge of, and people who don't want to solve them aren't obligated to. But for a game like Link's Awakening that's mostly linear, I don't think there's a middle ground that can please people looking for tough puzzles and people that don't want to deal with them.
I guess that BOTW is a good middle ground, with a ton of shrines of varying difficulty to play through. There were some I found tricky and enjoyed the challenge of, and people who don't want to solve them aren't obligated to. But for a game like Link's Awakening that's mostly linear, I don't think there's a middle ground that can please people looking for tough puzzles and people that don't want to deal with them.
The puzzles were mostly fine, it was the few occasions where the game expected you to know exactly where to go on the map that it was annoying. People mention the phone but there are at least a few occasions where it isn't helpful at all, like finding that bush to chop or knowing to find Marin at the top of the map.
It's just an outdated game by 2019's standards. Like I said the puzzles were fine but games do puzzles way better nowadays, the puzzles in Links Awakening are just talking to everyone, reading everything and chopping random shit until the game tells you the answer, which is horribly boring.
Edit: I should say that a lot of the dungeon puzzles are actually great, which is why I think the game is good overall.
It's just an outdated game by 2019's standards. Like I said the puzzles were fine but games do puzzles way better nowadays, the puzzles in Links Awakening are just talking to everyone, reading everything and chopping random shit until the game tells you the answer, which is horribly boring.
Edit: I should say that a lot of the dungeon puzzles are actually great, which is why I think the game is good overall.
I'm "mad" that this fucking forum is as much a den of complete douchebags as any other but pretends it's something better.
How much of an absolute cretin do you have to be to treat someone like this over a fucking video game. Isn't this entire mindset the thing we're supposed to be fighting against because we got shit for it when we were young? Instead y'all are just doing the same thing we put up with for being nerds.
Lol. Are you serious? Be careful or you might end up on the Shitty Gamer Takes twitter account.
So what do you want us to do? Look at OP's obvious wrong complaints about a game literal children can beat with a little bit of thought and just say... what? They're right? They are clearly not right.
You're the one who acted like somehow us pointing out the flaws in their criticism is... somehow bullying them? The only person throwing out insults is you.
They arent wrong though, the superiority complex on display is weird
The only bullshit thing is the bush, tbh. The trading miniquest is handholded, and the puzzle have their logic (you know that something in that room should be done by the sound alarm)
You're right if someone struggles with a video game then clearly they deserve to be treated like a pariah.