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The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Topic Started: Dec 19 2013, 07:06 PM (254 Views)
TheGreg
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Zelda is far and away my favorite game series of all time.

One of the reasons is that Zelda pioneered open world design, and has always struck a great balance between freedom of exploration and finely tuned gameplay and progression.

If there was one complaint I had about the otherwise excellent Skyward Sword (The previous entry in the series), it was that it took a step back from exploration in favor of a more streamlined experience.

What an absolute joy it was to find that the 3DS's The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds isn’t just a return to the classic overworld design, but arguably the best entry since Ocarina of Time.

A Link Between Worlds is a masterpiece, filled with compelling design and innovative gameplay.

Although it’s a sequel to the Super Nintendo classic A Link to the Past, Worlds is a breath of fresh air more than a retread, unafraid to take risks and shake up the tried and true formula.

Dungeon progression and item acquisition has been redefined, giving the player freedom to explore and progress through the game in a very organic way. Players can rent or buy any item at any time from a centralized shop. Renting is far cheaper, but if Link should fall in battle, borrowed items are lost. It can lead to some genuine tension, especially considering the game’s difficulty is no pushover.

The game also allows the player to enter dungeons in any order. As long as you have the right item, you can enter.

The beauty of this design is that dungeon puzzles are far less restrictive, as the player is not expected to have every item. These dungeons are absolutely outstanding- both expertly designed and extremely satisfying.

It’s here that the game best shows off its most unique gameplay feature: the ability to morph into a painting and travel along walls. This opens up many new puzzle concepts and forces even Zelda veterans to think in a different way.

There’s a wonderful bit of irony in that when the game is 3D, it plays like an old-school 2D Zelda because of its classic overhead camera, but when Link turns into a 2D painting, the camera shifts to a more 3D plane, and requires more complex spatial reasoning.

As with A Link to the Past, there are two worlds to explore. This time instead of a light world and dark world, we have Hyrule and Lorule.

They function in much the same way, however, and retain many of those awesome multi-dimensional puzzles that require the player to go from world to world in order to reach certain areas.

The graphics are excellent, sporting vibrant visuals and great use of the 3DS’ added dimensionality. I’m not a huge fan of the Link character model, but cutscenes are so infrequent it’s a nonissue. A Link Between Worlds is about gameplay first, story second and that’s very refreshing.

The game’s plot is actually quite good, and has some memorable characters, but is also very efficiently told.

Then there’s the music, which is outstandingly, amazingly awesome. Remixed themes and new material alike are absolutely superb.

Needless to say, I was stunned by how much I enjoyed A Link Between Worlds. It stands among the best games in the series and is the best to ever appear on a handheld console.

Whether you are a die-hard Zelda fan or not, A Link Between Worlds gets my highest recommendation. It’s one of the best games of the year and a reminder of why I love playing them.
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