The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Review

[BehattedWanderer]

So, it's the Tingle idea from Windwaker, but for items, for renting, and at the onset of the game?

Okay, it's an interesting idea to say "someone went dungeon raiding before the Hero got to them", but that seems a little too off for me to be in full support of. I could see it being interesting if only one, two at the most, of the dungeons were raided, and you go to open a chest and that music plays but stops halfway through, and you're left with the message "Someone must have taken the item!", which sets up a short mini-quest to find it, and who has it. You could even discover someone who's wearing a cheaply done cosplay of the Hero's Clothes, or like nathan drake's/lara croft's outfit. It would be a fun little aside, as long as it wasn't overlong or super frustrating. But all the time? That's a bit much.

 

[WeepingAngels]

So, it's the Tingle idea from Windwaker, but for items, for renting, and at the onset of the game?

Okay, it's an interesting idea to say "someone went dungeon raiding before the Hero got to them", but that seems a little too off for me to be in full support of. I could see it being interesting if only one, two at the most, of the dungeons were raided, and you go to open a chest and that music plays but stops halfway through, and you're left with the message "Someone must have taken the item!", which sets up a short mini-quest to find it, and who has it. You could even discover someone who's wearing a cheaply done cosplay of the Hero's Clothes, or like nathan drake's/lara croft's outfit. It would be a fun little aside, as long as it wasn't overlong or super frustrating. But all the time? That's a bit much.

You are overthinking it. It's not complicated and it doesn't need to be.

Basically, you rent a bunch of items and then you go out exploring. I have 14 heart pieces and 3 bottles so far and I haven't even started the second dungeon. Of course, the second dungeon could be done third and the third dungeon done second, that's the beauty of the rental system.

I will say though that the treasure chests in the first dungeon (and probably ever other dungeon) hold boring shit. Rupees and upgrade parts. I could do without an upgrade system. Luckily there are no wallet upgrades and it looks like you can hold up to 9999 rupees.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

So, it's the Tingle idea from Windwaker, but for items, for renting, and at the onset of the game?

Okay, it's an interesting idea to say "someone went dungeon raiding before the Hero got to them", but that seems a little too off for me to be in full support of. I could see it being interesting if only one, two at the most, of the dungeons were raided, and you go to open a chest and that music plays but stops halfway through, and you're left with the message "Someone must have taken the item!", which sets up a short mini-quest to find it, and who has it. You could even discover someone who's wearing a cheaply done cosplay of the Hero's Clothes, or like nathan drake's/lara croft's outfit. It would be a fun little aside, as long as it wasn't overlong or super frustrating. But all the time? That's a bit much.

You are overthinking it. It's not complicated and it doesn't need to be.

Basically, you rent a bunch of items and then you go out exploring. I have 14 heart pieces and 3 bottles so far and I haven't even started the second dungeon. Of course, the second dungeon could be done third and the third dungeon done second, that's the beauty of the rental system.

I will say though that the treasure chests in the first dungeon (and probably ever other dungeon) hold boring shit. Rupees and upgrade parts. I could do without an upgrade system. Luckily there are no wallet upgrades and it looks like you can hold up to 9999 rupees.

Oh, I was just saying an idea to justify renting equipment, but that all actually sounds pretty good. Though, it would take me forever to actually play more of the game, since I'd be too busy farming rupees to buy the items. I'm assuming there's not a thing where you can only hold two or three items at a time, right?

 

[Uratoh]

Oh, I was just saying an idea to justify renting equipment, but that all actually sounds pretty good. Though, it would take me forever to actually play more of the game, since I'd be too busy farming rupees to buy the items. I'm assuming there's not a thing where you can only hold two or three items at a time, right?

You can rent as many items as you can afford, and haul em all about. And it doesn't take forever to farm up for all of them unless you want to own em all as soon as you can buy...the game throws rupees at you if you keep your eyes open. 50, 100, even 300 rupees at a time, the game seems overall designed for you to own them all by the end of it as long as you keep exploring. I'm at 6 Macguffins out of 7 in Lorule and own most of the items, with enough rupees to go buy all but one of em if I really felt like it.

 

[WeepingAngels]

So, it's the Tingle idea from Windwaker, but for items, for renting, and at the onset of the game?

Okay, it's an interesting idea to say "someone went dungeon raiding before the Hero got to them", but that seems a little too off for me to be in full support of. I could see it being interesting if only one, two at the most, of the dungeons were raided, and you go to open a chest and that music plays but stops halfway through, and you're left with the message "Someone must have taken the item!", which sets up a short mini-quest to find it, and who has it. You could even discover someone who's wearing a cheaply done cosplay of the Hero's Clothes, or like nathan drake's/lara croft's outfit. It would be a fun little aside, as long as it wasn't overlong or super frustrating. But all the time? That's a bit much.

You are overthinking it. It's not complicated and it doesn't need to be.

Basically, you rent a bunch of items and then you go out exploring. I have 14 heart pieces and 3 bottles so far and I haven't even started the second dungeon. Of course, the second dungeon could be done third and the third dungeon done second, that's the beauty of the rental system.

I will say though that the treasure chests in the first dungeon (and probably ever other dungeon) hold boring shit. Rupees and upgrade parts. I could do without an upgrade system. Luckily there are no wallet upgrades and it looks like you can hold up to 9999 rupees.

Oh, I was just saying an idea to justify renting equipment, but that all actually sounds pretty good. Though, it would take me forever to actually play more of the game, since I'd be too busy farming rupees to buy the items. I'm assuming there's not a thing where you can only hold two or three items at a time, right?

Like Uratoh said, the game throws Rupees at you. I was playing one of the minigames to get a heart piece and I kept failing and had to go back to get more rupees to keep playing. In Kakriko Village I was racking up 600 rupees at a time in less than 10 minutes (hint, catching bees is quick money).

You can carry as many items as you can afford. You can assign two at a time to buttons X and Y.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

Honestly Jims cons make no sense

What you just said makes no sense, as he explained all of the reasons he didn't like what he didn't like. You on the other hand haven't.

Also... you don't happen to be the same "Stealth" who was Jim's biggest fan on Destructoid who used to babble what were often incoherent lines? (and were subsequently quoted on Twitter for them)

 

[lord.jeff]

I haven't played the game so I can't say for certain but having to get your items again sounds like a good way of incorporating a death penalty. Something I feel a lot of modern games lack with quicksaves and regular check points.

 

[Taerdin]

I wish I could get beyond the visuals... I love Link to the Past.

Thanks for the review Jim! I'm trying to come back the The Escapist because I'm a huge fan of you, but it's difficult

 

[xyrafhoan]

The most negative review I read, stated that the rental idea is pretty good, especially when you consider the open world factor.

I've always favored the top-down Zelda games, so I'm fairly excited for this, but I'm still a bit dubious whether or not I want to spend almost 60$ on it(Danish prices...)

My biggest concern is that you supposedly breeze through it.
Another negative point I've seen, is that most of the dungeons are very easy and not very unique.
The story supposedly falls a bit flat.

Can anyone confirm or deny?
I know these are very subjective things, but I'm thinking in comparison to other handheld titles.

Personally I liked the dungeons, but they definitely are short and I would say only a handful of the dungeons will leave you scratching your head about what to do. This is not a long game by any stretch, even if you explore. Bosses are easy. The story does throw a small curveball but it's generally designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, so don't play this title for story either. But the gameplay is absolutely spot on, the item rental system and non-linear dungeon order enables you to explore the world a lot more freely than any other title, and the Streetpass Shadow Link battles are one of the most excellent StreetPass orientated things in the history of ever. And if it matters to you, this game runs at a solid 60 fps with or without 3D and has one hell of a nostalgic and excellent soundtrack, rearranging the majority of the songs from Link to the Past.

Nintendo has been a little more generous with discounts, so if you are still iffy about the short length, you might want to wait and see if the price goes down but you might be waiting for a year or more for that to happen. But honestly despite the brevity this is a seriously fun game, borderline brilliant at times. It's one hell of an improvement on the DS titles, and personally I enjoyed it more than Skyward Sword on the Wii. Compared to some of Nintendo's other handheld titles, like New Super Mario Bros 2 or Paper Mario Sticker Star, this is a much more consistent effort that manages to be both nostalgic and fresh.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

After playing A link between worlds i have to say i had no problem with Ravio, unlike most zelda games this one seems to throw money at you hand over fist. Upon entering lorule i had purchased half the inventory and after some squid hunting had the money for every item except the sand rod by the second dungeon. I will say the Tower of free money helped. Also i just purchased every item from Ravio right at the begining, and unlike almost every other legend of zelda game I've played i never died. A healthy supply of faries in bottles allowed me to barrel through every dungeon nearly unscathed. This may be different in Hero mode