91 replies to this topic

[Koh]

Just finished the game, though not 100%.  I don't feel like grinding the mini games, and such for the remaining shells and such; I already got the Koholint Sword, lol.

 

So overall, it's solid, I still give it a 7/10 overall.  It's definitely easy to recommend to a friend, especially if they have no ties to the original game at all.  

 

I think they should have hired the guy who made the orchestral album to do the music, I think he captured the original tone and atmosphere of the tracks far greater than they did with this remake.

 

 

https://soundcloud.c...ral-arrangement

Edited by Koh, 28 September 2019 - 01:32 PM.

[Nicholas Steel]

The piece of power/guardian acorn music is incredibly bad. At least in the original you got this awesome, powerful yet highly repetitive music (the loss of area specific music and the repetitiveness aspects being what drove people to avoid them during casual playthroughs) but in this remaster you get the lamest piece of repetitive music imaginable so it's just annoying to get them.

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 29 September 2019 - 01:10 AM.

[The Satellite]

It's a mixed bag because, yes, the original powerup theme had more "power" to it, but I still found it annoying and far inferior to the majority of the game's music. In the remake, the theme may not have as much "power" but it's at least far less obnoxious. Honestly I would've rather they just removed it entirely. The visual effect they added would've been fine enough. Maybe add some kind of percussion line similar to Super Mario World music when you're with Yoshi. ... actually that would've been objectively more badass and an actual enhancement.

[Anthus]

I'm going to try to write up more thoughts on this later, but I finished it. It was great, and I loved everything except the eagle's tower. I didn't 100% it yet, and might not if stuff is locked behind the chamber dungeons, which seem really lame tbh.

I never beat the original mainly because of the horrible subscreen management, and this remake allowed me to fully enjoy this Zelda experience I had mostly missed out on. I can truly see why this game is so many people's favorite.

[Shane]

I would have preferred if the looping music didn't play when picking up the power/acorn drops. Speaking of, I'm going to have to bluntly say that that the fan made orchestral linked here really misses the mark with the charm and soul of Link's Awakening. It's utterly soulless to me, feels like something that's fine at a concert but not while I'm playing one of the more playful and colourful Zelda games. IMO the soundtrack being not your typical grand orchestra makes sense to me as they wanted to give the original Link's Awakening a parody/spin off vibe by making it not feel like your typical Zelda. Also what did that artist do to Link and Marin!? Dream Island? More like Nightmare Island.

 

Also tried out Chamber Dungeons today. It sucked, not going to lie. I think I would had an easier time building a dungeon from scratch. I haven't fully played around with it, but there's no way to set a universal dungeon look or song? Feels like it would have made combining the rooms feel a bit more like making a dungeon. This feels more like "fill in the blanks, no creative control for you".

[Norzan]

Yeah, orchestral music doesn't really fit with Link's Awakening when it's going for a dream-like experience. Orchestral music fits more grand, epic adventures, and Link's Awakening isn't certainly going for that.

[The Satellite]

I didn't 100% it yet, and might not if stuff is locked behind the chamber dungeons, which seem really lame tbh.

Spoiler

There's a heart piece, a heart container, a seashell, and a bottle locked behind the initial twelve challenges. There are twelve more "harder" challenges after that, but they give you absolutely no reward at all apart from 300 rupees per challenge.

[Nicholas Steel]

I forgot to link to my own specific feedback on the game (I instead linked to the topic), you can see it here: https://old.reddit.c...launch/f1duawp/

Edited by Nicholas Steel, 02 October 2019 - 01:55 AM.

[Koh]

I would have preferred if the looping music didn't play when picking up the power/acorn drops. Speaking of, I'm going to have to bluntly say that that the fan made orchestral linked here really misses the mark with the charm and soul of Link's Awakening. It's utterly soulless to me, feels like something that's fine at a concert but not while I'm playing one of the more playful and colourful Zelda games. IMO the soundtrack being not your typical grand orchestra makes sense to me as they wanted to give the original Link's Awakening a parody/spin off vibe by making it not feel like your typical Zelda. Also what did that artist do to Link and Marin!? Dream Island? More like Nightmare Island.

 

Also tried out Chamber Dungeons today. It sucked, not going to lie. I think I would had an easier time building a dungeon from scratch. I haven't fully played around with it, but there's no way to set a universal dungeon look or song? Feels like it would have made combining the rooms feel a bit more like making a dungeon. This feels more like "fill in the blanks, no creative control for you".

That's fine if you think that, but literally hundreds of others disagree with you on the conversion.  

 

I didn't necessarily expect an orchestral treatment, because that can lead to less impactful instruments compared to the 8-bit tunes.  We've seen that happen with some tracks in Pokemon Heart Gold, like the Dark Cave/Ice Cave music, the tone is entirely different.  But the remixes made for this remake hardly capture the same energy the original tracks had; at least with the orchestration here, they kept the atmosphere of the originals.  Especially the more haunting, sinister tracks, like Face Shrine, or like Color Dungeon.

 

I just wish they at least did that much with the tracks here.  Only a handful come close to the original atmosphere.

Edited by Koh, 07 October 2019 - 07:24 AM.

[Shane]

That's fine if you think that, but literally hundreds of others disagree with you on the conversion.

And hundreds if not thousands of others agree with me on the conversion.

[Deedee]

All of the dungeon themes in the remake, save maybe Key Cavern, are excellent. 

[klop422]

I'mma just say I love all the music remixes on their own at least, though I can't speak for their worth in the context of the game, since I haven't played it or even watched gameplay of it.

[Koh]

I don't know if they got the original composer back for the arrangements, but if they did, then, well, I guess only they truly know what they were trying to convey with the old 8-bit instruments.  Of course, perception is everything when it comes to interpreting how it sounds.  I think 8-bit instruments inherently have a more intense sound to them due to their limited scope.  I think a good example of an arrangement done right, but with higher fidelity instruments, would be the Lufia Curse of the Sinistrals arrangements.

 

 

This is a perfect example of how to properly convert music to higher quality, without losing any of the original essence of the instruments.

[Deedee]

Music doesn't have to be a 1-1 recreation of the original to be good. I love Angler's Tunnel in this version far more than the original, for example; and Eagle's Tower is just god tier now.

[Koh]

It doesn't have to be, but it helps.  A good example of it not being 1-1 but still being familiar and keeping the original tone would be...this track from Final Fantasy Adventure.

 

 

Take the same familiar melody and expand on it, giving it higher fidelity and complexity, without losing its original essence, nor compromising the tone.  That's how I'd prefer it.

 

ACtually the original Color Dungeon theme is the perfect example of that too.  It kept the same haunting nature of the original Zelda 1 dungeon theme, but expanded on the original 14 second loop tremendously, and still remains the best version of that music to this day

Edited by Koh, 07 October 2019 - 03:31 PM.