Sleemonc

This is a first impression of The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds from a person that hasn’t purchased a handheld console in 15+ years. (Although I’ve played them )

Just got a 3ds and just started to play the Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds it’s freaking awesome! These are my initial impressions of the game. LOZ:LBW does not do any hand holding what so ever instead it lets the player explore  the environment and find out what’s next. Sometimes there are story/character driven arcs that guide you but for the most part you’re exploring. Within minutes of play you’re placed in a dungeon or for the new players introduced to the idea of the dungeon and what the player must do to overcome it.

LOZ:LBW reminds me a lot of Link’s Awakening one of my all-time favourites in the franchise (this may be due to a bias since it was the first Zelda I finished) the gameplay was rock solid the story was engaging and the exploring was the perfect balance of scale (so no boring walking sequencing that go on for too long).  Enough about that game… LOZ:LBW has the same feel of have the map just big enough and the story keeps me playing for more and more hours. The biggest mechanic that was added to LOZ:LBW was the Merge mechanic where Link can merge into a wall and go through tight spaces, such as behind rocks, slits in the wall etc. At first I thought this to be a huge gimmick but after a few uses I was hooked. There were areas in the map where I couldn’t get passed thinking I would need the “bracklet”(from multiple other Zelda games) in order to lift the boulder but the player can easily just use the merge mechanic on the wall to get around it.

I’m currently not too far in the game but it’s been a blast playing the puzzles are smarter, and even genuine times of confusion. Link controls really well although the (spoiler) bow takes a bit to get used to… LOZ:LBW forces the player to really think about how to approach a situation with the given equipment which is in essence what Zelda franchise is about.

I hope that as I continue to play it continues this trend and keeps 1uping itself in all the areas I talked about.

It’s only been the two hours of the game and I’m going to make a call of …. If you have a 3DS GO BUY THIS GAME!