4/5 ★ – Lazurus3P's review of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Review
Pros:
- Zelda dungeon gameplay, it’s great here
- Returning to the Link to the Past Hyrule was great
- Music of course
- The wall merging mechanic, it made dungeon puzzles and traversing the world interesting and different. I wonder if it will ruin future 2D Zelda’s for me
- Non-linear design
- Lorule as a concept
- Rescuing the Seven Sages directly in each dungeon
- Story is good
- I like Hilda and Ravio, and the twist with Hilda at the end was good
- Not really frustrating at all. Needed a guide for some things,but only because I was trying to 100% every dungeon
- The 3D is great, even though it isn’t a gimmick within the gameplay. It’s a shining example of a 1st-party title using a console’s gimmick to its fullest.
- It’s a good length
Cons:
- Villain is kinda weak
- Plot felt a bit rushed at the end, and it’s kinda just go here, get these/save these Sages
- Re-using the Link to the Past map is great, but it does hinder the game in a way
- It’s kind of a dungeon rush? Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I’d much prefer that then some of the horrible non-dungeon gameplay in other Zelda games
- My expectations might’ve been a bit too high, I’ve been looking forward to playing this for over 11 years
- I might’ve liked this more if I didn’t just play Link to the Past 2.5 years ago. If you played both on release, having that intense nostalgia after a 22 year gap would make this experience better.
- Some dungeons are a bit too linear, they boil down to okay well I know I can’t go there so I’ll go here and eventually I’ll get something to progress.
Summary
Even though A Link to the Past require a guide sometimes, and would’ve been more frustrating without Switch Online rewind, I would still put it above this. It just has a magic and iconic status that very few games possess. To be honest I might’ve even put Phantom Hourglass above this, but returning to the Ocean King dungeon over and over alone below it below this.
8/10