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The remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, released for the Nintendo Switch, presents an old classic with a new but problematic coat of paint. It still offers the same adventure set in a memorable setting that is both mysterious and tragic, but now with an art style that robs the narrative of some of its impact.
The game opens with Link sailing alone during a fearsome storm. After a shipwreck, he wakes up on Koholint Island, having been found on its shores by a girl named Marin. He is brought to her village and soon discovers that the only way of escaping the island is by waking the Wind Fish, who is sleeping inside a giant egg atop a mountain.
We can [...]
Revisiting Skyward Sword – Part 1: Introduction
I first reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword back when it was originally released for the Nintendo Wii in 2011. It was of the first reviews I ever wrote, and its revised version, which was translated to English, can be read here. Back then, I was still young, optimistic, and naïve, believing people were fundamentally good, fascism was a thing of the past, and that Brazilian’s democracy would never be in jeopardy again. More importantly, I was still looking for a direction in life and was about to drop out of Law school to pursue a career in Literature – to my parents’ dismay. I was still grasping [...]
Experimentation is a common ethos in The Legend of Zelda series. Whether it is by introducing the third dimension in Ocarina of Time, changing exploration in The Wind Waker, or shaping the gameplay according to the peculiarities of the console with Phantom Hourglass and Skyward Sword, Nintendo developers are always demonstrating a clear desire to evolve the franchise by testing ways to modify its elements without changing what defines it. With A Link Between Worlds, a sequel to the classic A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo, the aim of the changes is to decrease the linearity of the adventure, allowing greater control over what to explore.
The protagonist is again Link, [...]
Marking the biggest change of direction in the franchise in years, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild redefines the concept of “open world,” bringing an immense setting filled with the most varied forms of exploration and interaction. Also changing the format of its dungeons, combat mechanics, narrative structure and even the sound design of the series, the title represents a triumph in renewal, resuscitating the energy of elements long fossilized, without fear of subverting them when necessary .
The very name of the game already points to its most important component: the vastness of Hyrule’s wilderness and the sense of freedom tied to it. While in previous [...]
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is, to this date, the installment in the series that appears to be the most influenced by the reception of its predecessors. Directed by Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Skyward Sword is a game of a lot of ups and downs, which tries to fix some of the flaws that always plagued the series, but ultimately reaches irregular results.
The story starts above the clouds, on a floating island called Skyloft. Its inhabitants live bucolic lives, completely ignorant to the existence of any land beneath them. They carry several portions of pumpkin from one side of the place to the other and like to race on their Loftwings – birds that are spiritually attached to [...]
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess offers a much more complex and cinematic version of the formula established by A Link to the Past. With a story marked by melancholy, and with more elaborate dungeons than its predecessor, the game impresses with its epic scope, although it lacks the element of mystery that used to encourage the exploration of the franchise’s fantastical worlds.
Twilight Princess introduces its protagonist, Link, when he is a simple farmer living in the bucolic Ordon Village, with his only concerns being tending to the local cattle and his horse, Epona. When he is assigned the task of carrying a shield for a ceremony in Hyrule, however, the young [...]