The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (ゼルダの伝説 夢をみる島, Zeruda no Densetsu Yume o Miru Shima, lit. The Legend of Zelda: The Dreaming Island), one of the prime titles of the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. Said by many fans to be one of the best portable Zelda titles even today, Link's Awakening still proves to be a tough contender even against the likes of The Minish Cap, and A Link to the Past + Four Swords.

Story
Link, who had defeated the evil Ganon and regained peace in Hyrule, had not enjoyed the archived tranquility for long, and eventually becomes restless. Feeling in need of training or enlightenment, he embarks on a journey and sails across oceans in a small sail boat. Eventually Link completes his training in foreign countries and begins to sail back to his home, Hyrule. But then suddenly the seas turn rough as the skies become dark, a thunder storm is stirring up. Link tried to valiantly fight the strong currants of the waves, even tying himself to the ship with some rope. But a bolt of lightning strikes the ship and everything turns dark.

Later in a faraway island, a young girl named Marin is walking along the shores of the island's beach. She suddenly spots someone laying on the sands. Upon closer look, she finds an unconscious Link and tries to wake him up but with no avail. Unable to do anything else, Marin takes Link back to her house in Mabe Village. From beyond the darkness, Link hears the voice of a girl. He first mistakes the voice to be of Princess Zelda's, but wakes up to discover that it was the voice of Marin. Not knowing where he is, the girl and her father, Tarin, explain the island to him. Miraculously, Link had been washed ashore on Koholint Island. Link starts his preparations to leave the island, and Tarin returns him his shield.

Yet Link's sword is nowhere to be found. Searching in the beaches of the island, Link eventually finds it next to his boat that was shipwrecked. Suddenly a mysterious owl flies down to him. The owl explains that high on the mountaintops of the island is a giant egg, and inside sleeps a being known as The Wind Fish. The owl says that the Wind Fish must be awakened, or else Link cannot leave the island, and tells Link that he needs to go into the woods to find a key and then flies away. Left with nothing but a puzzling riddle and wonderment, Link is forced to listen to the owl's words and heads into the forest. He eventually finds the Tail Key. The owl reappears and tells him to go into Tail Cave and to use that key to get inside.

Link does so and goes through several enemies and puzzles in this early dungeon. After defeating the boss, Link finds a magical instrument, the Full Moon Cello. Although not knowing what it is at first, the owl reappears and explains that instrument is one of the Eight Instruments of the Sirens. The owl explains that Link must retrieve the remaining seven instruments if he is to awaken the sleeping Wind Fish. Now Link, still full of questions about this strange world, must journey throughout the rest of the island and find these mystical instruments.

Eventually in his journey, Link arrives in Animal Village. The owl had told him to venture into Yarna Desert to find an important item that will aid Link. Unfortunately a large, sleeping walrus blocks his path. Yet one of the animals of Animal Village tell Link that Marin and her beautiful voice and song can awaken those who hear her. Link returns to Mabe Village and eventually gets an Ocarina from the Dream Shrine. He finds Marin at the beach who explains to him her wish to be a seagull, so that she could fly around the world and share her songs with many people. She hopes that she can make this wish to the Wind Fish. Afterwards Link learns from Marin how to play the Ballad of the Wind Fish on his ocarina, the song of awakening. However since it is not enough to awaken the walrus, Marin tags along with Link to Animal Village. Marin decides to stay in the village after the walrus awakes, and Link finds the Angler Key in the desert.

Sometime after getting the sixth instrument, the owl flies to Link and tells him to go to the Southern Face Shrine. When Link arrives there, he learns a horrible truth about the island. On a wall depicting the Wind Fish himself, the words read "To the finder, the isle of Koholint is but an illusion... Human, monster, sea, sky... a scene on the lid of a sleeper's eye... Awake the dreamer, and Koholint will vanish much like a bubble on a needle... Cast-away, you should know the truth!"

Link now faces a dilemma, whether he should awaken the Wind Fish or not. But the owl reassures him and tells him to trust his feelings. Link paves on and continues to find the remaining three instruments. Eventually he finds Marin on Tal Tal Mountain Range being attacked by monsters, and Link saves her. For a moment, she tries to tell Link something... but changes her mind. The owl knows about her singing and the song of awakening that she always sings, and wonders if she was trying to awake the dreamer, the Wind Fish.

Later Link has now obtained all eight of the Instruments of the Siren. The owl says that now is the time to awaken the dreamer. Link heads up the mountain tops and encounters the giant egg, in which the Wind Fish sleeps. With his ocarina in hand and the other instruments, Link plays the Ballad of the Wind Fish. Suddenly an entrance cracks open from the egg, and Link goes inside.

Inside, Link finds the true mastermind behind all of the chaos of Koholint, the Nightmare who has the power to transform into other forms. After a long battle, Link defeats the Nightmare, the last of the island's evils. Suddenly a stairway opens and Link climbs up, where he finds himself in a strange black room filled with rainbow clouds and stars.

There the owl comes to see Link one last time. The owl explains that he is in fact part of the Wind Fish's spirit, and thus was the guardian of his dream world. All was peaceful in the Wind Fish's dream, until nightmares began to invade it. Many of the nightmares that Link had faced were the very ones in dungeons that guarded the eight instruments. But now Link had defeated the last of the Nightmares, and that the Wind Fish's dream is at ease once again. With the Nightmares gone and the Eight Instruments of the Siren retrieved, the Wind Fish can finally be awakened. The owl then says that his role in this dream is now complete and says farewell to Link before vanishing rather than flying away.

Suddenly a wail is sounded and the Wind Fish appears right before Link's very own eyes! The Wind Fish says that in his dreams, a whole world had appeared. Yet he could not awaken due to the Nightmares. Yet it is only natural that dreams are to end, and when he awakes Koholint shall disappear. He says that Link may someday recall this dream world in the waking world, the only memory of the island.

The Wind Fish then fades away and says that they should awaken together, and commands Link to play the song of awakening one more time. Link does so and slowly, the whole island and its inhabitants fade away. The entire island disappears, but the ocean is kept in place. Suddenly Link is forced out of the The Wind Fish's room by a stream of water.

The sky above shines brightly as seagulls fly overhead. Link awakens on a wooden board in the the sea, once part of his ship. Just as it was predicted, Koholint Island was a dream and Link was back in reality. As he recalls all of the events, a shadow looms over him. Looking up, he sees the Wind Fish flying in the sky. Link then smiles, realizing that maybe he did actually help to awake the Wind Fish. Link's journey of awakening had finally came to an end.

The Legend of the Wind Fish
It would appear that The Wind Fish could be a mere myth to the inhabitants of Koholint Island. The egg on top of Mt. Tamaranch is rather large and can be seen from a distance, making it obvious that some of the inhabitants of Koholint Island would know something about The Wind Fish. Marin for example is a very good example of a simple citizen of Mabe Village, yet knows the existence of the Wind Wish, even wishing that she could wish on The Wind Fish to turn into a seagull. However it's not quite sure if she too believes whether it is just a myth or real herself, however Marin can be spotted on Tal Tal Mountain Range for no apparent reason. The Owl seems to believe that she may have tried to awaken the Wind Fish with her song. Only the Owl and possibly Marin seem to know the actual existence of the Wind Fish. Shortly after Link clears the Face Shrine dungeon, a boy in Mabe Village would be asked by Link 'when they had appeared on the island' but had no idea what Link meant, obviously suggesting that the inhabitants of Koholint Island have no idea that they are part of a dream world.

The Southern Face Shrine is the only place that holds the most information about the myth of The Wind Fish, and the sayings on its walls about the island being a but a dream is very much true. Judging by the writing on the walls, the shrine seems to have been built only for the person who would awaken The Wind Fish.

The Perfect Ending
If Link had never died during the game before seeing the game's ending, an additional scene can be seen after the ending credits. Both show Marin as a seagull (or simply having seagull wings) while the Ballad of The Wind Fish theme plays in the background. This may possibly either hint that Marin had her wish come true and was "saved" from the fading dream world, or simply Link having a memory of Marin and her wish of being a seagull.

The perfect ending varies between the original Game Boy release and the Game Boy Color remake. In the original, a Marin with wings on her back will fly around the words "The End" while singing her song. In Link's Awakening DX, a full colored image of Marin can be seen within the skies and clouds, again her song theme will be playing in the background although she won't be singing it. Shortly after, the image fades into a seagull who flies away.

Timeline Placement
The chronological placement of Link's Awakening in respect to the rest of the series has always been something of a hot issue, although the game was originally created as a sequel to A Link to the Past, still clearly references A Link to the Past's story in booklet, and is a necessary story element in Ancient Stone Tablets. Although the Japanese manual is vastly different from the American manual, it still mentions that Link had defeated Ganon prior to the events of Link's Awakening.

Still, every new game featuring a boat incites a new debate over the possible "ret-conning" of Link's Awakening to a new placement in the timeline. A good example being in the Oracle series, as in the linked ending, Link can be seen leaving either Holodrum or Labrynna on a boat that looks nearly identical as the boat in Link's Awakening. Most timeline theorists however generally believe that Link's Awakening comes after A Link to the Past.

Ports and Remakes
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX for Game Boy Color is a remake of Link's Awakening with several new additions, most notably the entire game is now in color. It was released just before the release of Ocarina of Time. The engines and color palletes in both of the Oracle series games are probably based on Link's Awakening DX's.

Link's Awakening DX can also be played on a Game Boy as well, however playing it on a Game Boy makes accessing the optional dungeon Color Dungeon impossible.

Link's Awakening DX's Differences

 * The game has been given a color palette.
 * The title screen has been slightly altered.
 * The Eight Instruments of the Siren now fade in seven different colors.
 * Additional dialogue has been added.
 * Some areas have had their landscaping changed between the games.
 * The Stone Slabs were changed into Owl Statues that resemble the game's owl character.
 * The Stone Slab Fragments were also changed into Stone Beaks.

The Photo Shop
In northern Ukuku Prairie is a photo shop owned by a mouse photographer. At certain times in the game, the photographer will take a photo of Link and the event. The photo can then be viewed at any time in the photo album within the shop, and the photograph will sometimes fade in seven different colors when viewed. There are a total of 12 photographs, and each can be printed by the Game Boy Printer.

One of the photographs is taken within the photo shop by asking the photographer to take Link's picture, and he will ask Link several questions if Link wants his photo taken. This photograph actually has an alternate photo. If Link agrees that he wants his photo taken, he will pose with a peace sign. If he answers all of the questions with no, he will be stunned by the camera's flash. There is no way to get both photos in a single game file.

To actually start getting photographs, Link will need to visit the photo shop to get his picture taken. Afterwards, the mouse will give him the photo album. Link will only be able to encounter the other photograph events once he has gotten this photograph and the photo album, else the events would be ignored. The mouse will not take a photo of Link if he has Marin, Madame MeowMeow's Bow-Wow, or the Blue Rooster following him.

The Color Dungeon
One of the other most notable changes in Link's Awakening DX is the optional, hidden Color Dungeon. Unlike the other dungeons in the game, it is shorter than most and considered to be "very easy" by some. Link can go into the dungeon as soon as he gets the Pegasus Boots from the third dungeon, Key Cavern. In the library of Mabe Village, is an unreachable book high on a bookshelf. By dashing into the shelves with the boots, the book will fall to the floor. The book gives directions on which order to push the gravestones in a certain graveyard of Koholint Island, near where Syrup the witch's hut is. After moving all of the gravestones in the correct order, the final moved gravestone will reveal the entrance way to the dungeon.

The dungeon has many puzzles that are highly based on colors, therefore the Color Dungeon cannot be entered when playing Link's Awakening DX on a Game Boy, thus requiring the use of a Game Boy Color.

Because Link only needs the Pegasus Boots from the third dungeon, he will be able to read the book even before getting the third instrument. However it is possible to move the gravestones without the need of the book. Although, a few puzzles requires the need of the Power Bracelet. One of the mini-bosses also requires the use of a lot of Magic Powder too.

The reward for clearing this dungeon is not an instrument, but rather Link will meet a Great Fairy who offers him 'the power of color'. Link can choose from either the Blue Tunic or the Red Tunic to wear. The Blue Tunic increases Link's defenses and will lose less hearts than normal when hurt (same as a Guardian Acorn). The Red Tunic increases Link's attacking power with his sword (much like a Piece of Power, sans speed bonus). Link has the option of clearing the dungeon again to switch between the tunics, but he can never revert back to his Green Tunic.

References to the other Nintendo games
There are several references to Nintendo games in Link's Awakening. The majority are from the Mario series.


 * The Yoshi Doll
 * Tarin himself (who is similar in appearance to Mario)
 * Tarin turning into a raccoon after eating a Mushroom might be a reference to Super Mario Bros.3
 * The yoshi-like egg on top of the mountain
 * Mr. Write shows you the picture of Peach sent to him by the goat in Animal Village. (Because of the picture, her name is implied to be Christine. This scene is poking fun at long distance relationships involving mail, e-mail, etc. since the goat is lying about who she really is and Mr. Write thinks he is writing to a beautiful woman) Mr. Write himself is a reference to.
 * In addition to Mario characters, Richard from Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru made an appearance.
 * Mamu is based on, the final boss of.
 * Various enemies:
 * Goomba
 * Piranha Plant
 * Cheep-Cheep
 * Boo
 * Mask-Mimic
 * Pokey
 * Bloober
 * Thwimp/Thwomp
 * Bombite
 * Bow-Wow
 * Anti-Kirby

Trivia

 * Princess Zelda is not featured at all in Link’s Awakening, though she is referenced by Link, initially confusing Marin for her.
 * According to Twin Galaxies, the fastest completion of Link’s Awakening is 1 hour, 22 minutes and 57 seconds by Rodrigo Lopes on June 12th, 2006.
 * If the player inputs the name ZELDA when creating a new game, a remixed Zelda theme tune will play in the background.
 * Unlike the other Zelda games in the series, none of the levels in the original Link’s Awakening are called Dungeons or Temples.
 * In the first shop, Link can sneak an item past the shopkeeper and acquire it for free. He will, however, be labeled "THIEF" for the rest of the game. Upon returning to that shop, the shopkeeper will kill Link with a giant beam.
 * Rather than the usual maximum of 20, this game has a maximum of only 14 heart containers.
 * This game has practically the same cover art compared to A Link to the Past.

Links and Reviews

 * Link's Awakening page on ZU - Strategies, game information, pictures and more.
 * Link's Awakening review on VGRC.net 9.5 out of 10
 * Link's Awakening DX review on VGRC.net: 9.75 out of 10
 * Interactive clickable map of Koholint Island