The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (3DS)


A Link Between Worlds is a spiritual successor of sorts to A Link to the Past, and takes place further in to the timeline. As I have not played ALttP (YET), I won't be able to comment much on what the similarities and differences are.


In this game, you take control of a young hero named Link (please, try to contain your shock), as he essentially tries to save Hyrule and Princess Zelda. You see, there's this fellow named Yuga who is going around sealing the seven sages in to paintings. While trying to stop him, Zelda also suffers the same fate, and Link... well, instead of being stuck, he can now merge in to walls and shimmy around on them unless there's an obstruction.



Using his newfound powers, Link is able to go through cracks (teehee) that he finds throughout Hyrule in order to enter the mirror kingdom of Lorule. Unlike Hyrule, Lorule is not doing so great and is overcome with darkness. This is where Yagu resides and where he's hidden the seven sages that need to be freed.



If you've played a Zelda game, you'll probably be pretty familiar with the gameplay in this one. You go around attacking things with your sword, finding rupees, breaking people's jars and cutting grass, etc. You can find heart pieces, four of which make a heart, and full heart containers to up your life. Your equipment can also be upgraded, and you can play a few mini games and look for some cute little critters in exchange for item upgrades.



There are some differences from the average Zelda game. The first was mentioned in that you can now merge with walls. This is integral to a lot of the puzzle solving that you'll need to do throughout the maps and dungeons. Secondly, items are rented from a dude who takes over your home to open up shop. If you die, he takes the items back and you'll need to go rent them again. Later on, you can also outright buy them for a higher cost.



As usual, dungeons are a large part of the game. You'll enter quite a few in your journey, each of which requires specific items. ALBW goes back to the Zelda routes by being an overhead view without the ability to jump, and also in allowing more freedom of progression. You can tackle most of the dungeons in any order you want to, and the game doesn't really hold your hand as far as telling you where to go or what to do. It just gives you a list of destinations and lets you figure out the rest. Whether that's a positive or a negative is up to you.



Overall I really liked this game, more than I was expecting to. I actually prefer more direction in my games, and this one kind of leaves you on your own past the beginning sections. This did lead to some frustrating moments where I got stuck, but I actually found myself liking the freedom of deciding what I was going to do when, and at what pace I was going to progress the game. While some of the puzzles were frustrating, they were pretty fair and did a good job at making sure you thought things through and became familiar with your various gadgets. I also enjoyed the story, especially at the end, and it was a very nice game to look at. The item rentals made me nervous at first, but it wasn't unmanageable by any means, and the dual worlds to explore was a neat idea. So yeah, if you enjoy Zelda games, definitely give this one a try!

Verdict:
LIKED IT A LOT