The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX -- Part 1: Links to the Past
1"Funny" thing you might've noticed of late... I haven't been doing any uploading and such. Surprise! You're surprised, right? Well, I'm not... but that doesn't mean I have to like it! Because I don't. But short of bending space-time to put extra hours in the day, that wasn't going to happen. And then after awhile I get into a sort of unfun doldrums wherein even HAVING small bits of time here or there doesn't really sove the problem, because I've totally lost my focus and find myself with remarkably low drive to do anything incredibly specific.
So I start editing and encoding and producing videos from old footage, 'cause that realy needs to be done. Like NEEDS to be done... but, it's a slow-moving and uninteresting process, which I've found only FURTHER sinks me into the mire of not getting anything "done"... even if a bunch of progress bars and shuffling bits upon gigabytes of information moving around assures me that there is indeed forward motion.
I've often found that the cure for this is, somewhat contradictorily, to make entirely NEW content! Yes! That will certainly make everything better! ...and not worse! Because I was already apparently struggling with keeping pace with the material I already had! ...but think about it, I was the MOST recently fired up while I was playing Advance Wars and trying new crazy things, and it even brought Splatoon back from the dead... kinda?! ...once I finished the Advance Wars campaign, though... I kinda lurched all the way back to nothing, because processing all that stuff is really tiresome and tedious. And YOU try writing something interesting while you're coming fresh off of THAT... wait, no, don't. I'm saying this is a bad idea.
So I started a new project on a whim, and here's the evidence of this madness!
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This all actually started, as most sudden rushes to action arbitrarily do, because of other external factors... today is the launch of some new Hyrule Warriors DLC, the Link's Awakening pack, and I'm super excited about it, because THIS game was my "first" Zelda game! ...sort of! I'd played the very original on the NES at a friend's house quite a bit, but it didn't really resonate well with me, because I only got to play very infrequently, and there was really no sign of what I was doing versus what I needed to do... and most importantly, we weren't... very good... and that game will gladly chew you up and spit you out without so much as a polite word of thanks. The nerve! Picking on kids like that!
So yeah, this is the context in which we meet Marin, who will soon be roughing up bad guys by the thousands, because that's what random side characters promoted to full-on Hyrule Warrior status do! ...even if she's not even from Hyrule!
However, I never actually got to play the Game Boy Color remake, in all its non-monochrome glory! ...so this'll be a treat for everyone! Maybe? If not, why are you still here?!
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So enough about me and my insanity, this is Link's Awakening! Wait, he's asleep? It takes a whole game to NOT be asleep? You totally shouldn't be sailing a ship while you're asleep!
But enough super-insensitive goading and poking and prodding on my part, we're starting an adventure! A really good one, actually! Hot off the heels of A Link to the Past, Zelda showed that it could be so much more than it had been in the past... you had lots of talky NPCs, unique and distinct dungeons, there was a distinct story to tie all your random spelunking together... it's Zelda! And now you can have THAT ...in your pocket! Link's Awakening is like... a smaller version of that, in a way that totally feels unsmall!
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As a small little bonus, this game has a weird little Easter egg if you input your name as "ZELDA"... in the original The Legend of Zelda, you'd get instant access to the more challenging (and more than slightly unfair at several points) second quest, but in this game you get... an extra wacky upbeat remix of the main theme?! Okay!
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Part 1: Links to the Past
No, I'm sure that title won't confuse anyone at all, it's fine. It's not *A* Link to the Past, it's *MY* Link to the Past! There's... Link! And *HIS* past! No, scratch that, this is a Link to "JO "...'s... past! Don't be confused, because it's clearly on the level, 'cause that's the name on the shield! It must be so! Tarin's clearly nearsighted or something, but otherwise he gets a good look at our hero and doesn't make that "mistake" more than a couple times... probably...? I'm sure it won't happen again! We're totally neutral up in here! (This... this is going to be a running theme in the descriptions like it was with "JO" in Dragon Quest Swords, isn't it? ...uh, I mean, what? What game is that? I surely didn't not finish something else that I'll get back to arbitrarily sometime?!)
Shut up your suspicious face, let's explore a village! In a totally non-action-oriented fashion! With no fighting! And me deliberately doing EVERYTHING I can except what I'm supposed to!