Link's Awakening Part 3: Link, the Hero of Douche.

Turtle Rock, Dungeon #8. It's big.

When last I left off, I was working through the dungeons in this game. I’m really impressed by the complexity of the dungeon layouts – they’re totally unique, tricky, and remarkably complex. There’s a lot of work with layers and different levels, and much like in the first Zelda game, it’s really more about figuring out how to get to a room that you see on a map than just walking through the dungeon solving puzzles. That makes for an interesting challenge, but also a lot of backtracking which can get a little bit tedious after a while. This is a game that is much more puzzle and much less hack-and-slash; if your idea of a perfect Zelda game is Twilight Princess, you might find this game a little bit too frustrating for your liking. 

Anyway, that said, something interesting happens in Link’s Awakening that you don’t even begin to see again until Twilight Princess – the bosses all have something to say to you, and their short statements start to reveal a very unsettling plot which probably rivals Majora’s Mask in sadface quality. 

If you’re planning to play the game and don’t want to get spoilered, I guess stop here? (Note that this is the first Zelda game with a complex enough plot to warrant a spoiler warning.)

"Yeah! I'm a hero! I kill everybody!"

As you progress through the dungeons, the bosses start to tell you things about the island and why they’re trying to stop you from getting to the instruments which will wake up the Wind Fish. It seems that whoever wakes up the Wind Fish will inadvertently destroy the entire island and all of its inhabitants – they are, in fact, all a part of the Wind Fish’s dream, and don’t exist in the real world. Even after making friends with the inhabitants of Koholint Island, Link doesn’t seem too bothered by that, which is probably the most disturbing thing in the entire game. 

After you collect all eight of the instruments, you go to the Wind Fish’s egg (oh, Japan) and play the Ballad of the Wind Fish to make a crack in the egg. Inside, you fight a Nightmare which changes into familiar forms, including Aghanim and Ganon from a Link to the Past. It’s a pretty awesome final battle. Once you beat the Nightmare, it expresses despair at the fact that the island is going to disappear and dies. Link’s not bovvered. Nice guy.

"I'm so glad I destroyed the island to get this bit of wood back!"

The ending sequence is literally the saddest thing I’ve ever seen. The Wind Fish wakes up, tells you the island is going to disappear because it’s the nature of all dreams to end, and then you see scenes of the people of Koholint Island (and eventually the island itself) disappearing into nothingness. Link is blown out of the egg by a water jet, wakes up floating around on the remains of the boat he was in at the beginning of the game, and looks up to see the Wind Fish flying by. He grins at the fish and bobs around on the raft, land nowhere in sight, as the credits roll. 

Yeah, bro, this is way better than that stupid island.

If you beat the game without losing a single life, Marin (the girl who rescues you at the beginning and slowly develops a crush on Link over the course of the game) is shown with wings at the end of the credits, implying that she escaped the island or something. The DX version shows a seagull, implying Marin got her wish of turning into a seagull and flying away to see the rest of the world. Basically, Link’s actions either kill, mutate, or turn into a seagull the girl with a crush on him. Now that’s a guy to take home to your mum.  

Basically, the game is great, but it pretty much turns Link into the biggest jerk of all time. This is somebody who would rather see the entire population of an island cease to exist than to not return to Hyrule – assuming he even gets to Hyrule, since it doesn’t look like there’s a rescue squad coming his way at the end of the game. I’m pretty sure my timeline is going to feature this Link dying at sea, never to be found. 

Here's the "perfect" DX ending, if you're interested.

Anyway, next post I’ll be going into the review of this much underrated Zelda game, and hopefully I can convince you gentle readers to either find a cartridge or a ROM so you can give it a try!