25th September 2019, 9:35 AM
I just got this in. It's an amazing recreation so far, not afraid to alter area layout where it won't impact anything. I haven't gone too far, but a couple very quick observations.
I love the art style, the "toys in a diorama" style of the game is adorable and perfectly captures the look of the sprites in the original. The music is also top notch, they remade every tune faithfully. Yes, this includes the ZELDA cheat in file select. Also, for the first time in the US, they brought in Totakeke's hidden song. There's already one in richard's villa, but if you name your character Totakeke it'll play a distinct one. This one was in the Japanese version but unfortunately got dummied out in the US version (I think it was just overlooked). The map layout is very much the same, though with one big change. There's no more "scrolling in" the new areas when you reach the border. It always was just one big world, and now the game is rendered that way. You can even see some enemies on the beach while standing next to Ulrira's house. The one complaint I'll give is the odd stylistic choice to blur the very top and bottom of the screen. Since it's a 2D overhead game, rather than give some sense of "camera realism", it's actually a big distraction which also gets in the way of seeing certain details if they're on that part of the screen.
A few things to note. First of all, yes all the game references are there. Mr. Wright of Sim City is still in, Luigi the rooster master is still in, the Peach photo is in there, and all the little enemy references are accounted for.
It also looks like the "bikini top to necklace" localization change from the Gameboy game is officially across all regions now. That kind of humor looks like it's just not in keeping with Nintendo's current standards in Japan either.
There's loads more seashells in the game. This enables someone to get the level 2 sword a lot easier, but on the flip side for the completionists, it adds a whole lot of new seashells to find, so it all evens out.
The DX content is also in the game. The added dungeon hints are still present for better or worse, and they've kept the "owl beak" aesthetic for the hint stones in the dungeons. The color dungeon is also still there, which is very welcome! However, the photo album quest was scrapped entirely. Dampe's dungeon fun house has replaced the photo studio. It's a shame they couldn't just leave the old content in, since the photo moments added to both gameplay and "slice of life" moments in the game.
Then there's the controls. Thanks to all the extra buttons on the Switch, the controls are (for the most part) far superior here. The shield, sword, and dash boots all get buttons assigned to them, leaving X and Y as your extra item buttons. A now functions as a context sensitive button allowing you to examine, talk, and pick things up. It's a lot like LTTP in that regard, only with the map assigned to Select to free up an additional button for all those fun item combos. When combined with the lack of "loading areas" on the side of each screen in favor of one big cohesive exploring experience, the game becomes a lot more "playable". It's going to be hard to go back to the Gameboy version after this, frankly. Sorry ABF, you "press L + R to start" once again. However, there's a bigger annoyance for me personally. I had got the impression that this game allowed all-direction running since, well, it's a 3D game and art assets would easily work with that and also it's what they did in Link Between Worlds. However, it's only got 8 direction running. That would be fine I suppose, except I can't use the d-pad to move in the game! So, it's got 8 way direction awkwardly mapped to the analog stick and only the analog stick. It's not a good fit.
I love the art style, the "toys in a diorama" style of the game is adorable and perfectly captures the look of the sprites in the original. The music is also top notch, they remade every tune faithfully. Yes, this includes the ZELDA cheat in file select. Also, for the first time in the US, they brought in Totakeke's hidden song. There's already one in richard's villa, but if you name your character Totakeke it'll play a distinct one. This one was in the Japanese version but unfortunately got dummied out in the US version (I think it was just overlooked). The map layout is very much the same, though with one big change. There's no more "scrolling in" the new areas when you reach the border. It always was just one big world, and now the game is rendered that way. You can even see some enemies on the beach while standing next to Ulrira's house. The one complaint I'll give is the odd stylistic choice to blur the very top and bottom of the screen. Since it's a 2D overhead game, rather than give some sense of "camera realism", it's actually a big distraction which also gets in the way of seeing certain details if they're on that part of the screen.
A few things to note. First of all, yes all the game references are there. Mr. Wright of Sim City is still in, Luigi the rooster master is still in, the Peach photo is in there, and all the little enemy references are accounted for.
It also looks like the "bikini top to necklace" localization change from the Gameboy game is officially across all regions now. That kind of humor looks like it's just not in keeping with Nintendo's current standards in Japan either.
There's loads more seashells in the game. This enables someone to get the level 2 sword a lot easier, but on the flip side for the completionists, it adds a whole lot of new seashells to find, so it all evens out.
The DX content is also in the game. The added dungeon hints are still present for better or worse, and they've kept the "owl beak" aesthetic for the hint stones in the dungeons. The color dungeon is also still there, which is very welcome! However, the photo album quest was scrapped entirely. Dampe's dungeon fun house has replaced the photo studio. It's a shame they couldn't just leave the old content in, since the photo moments added to both gameplay and "slice of life" moments in the game.
Then there's the controls. Thanks to all the extra buttons on the Switch, the controls are (for the most part) far superior here. The shield, sword, and dash boots all get buttons assigned to them, leaving X and Y as your extra item buttons. A now functions as a context sensitive button allowing you to examine, talk, and pick things up. It's a lot like LTTP in that regard, only with the map assigned to Select to free up an additional button for all those fun item combos. When combined with the lack of "loading areas" on the side of each screen in favor of one big cohesive exploring experience, the game becomes a lot more "playable". It's going to be hard to go back to the Gameboy version after this, frankly. Sorry ABF, you "press L + R to start" once again. However, there's a bigger annoyance for me personally. I had got the impression that this game allowed all-direction running since, well, it's a 3D game and art assets would easily work with that and also it's what they did in Link Between Worlds. However, it's only got 8 direction running. That would be fine I suppose, except I can't use the d-pad to move in the game! So, it's got 8 way direction awkwardly mapped to the analog stick and only the analog stick. It's not a good fit.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)