A Link Between Worlds

Link Between Worlds is a recent top-down Zelda on the 3DS. It copies the overworld from A Link to the Past (altered around a bit) and uses much of the same design.

Two major departures from A Link to the Past are the renting items and new wall-merging mechanic. The wall-merging is a new mechanic that is super cool and is used everywhere for everything. The items are not found in dungeons, but are rather rented from Ravio.

While the renting items thing is quite novel, I don’t think it works. I think it only hurts the game. Firstly, this means there’s no real excitement in getting a new item, as you just choose it whenever you please. Secondly, it’s a disincentive for going into dungeons. You can basically just clear the overworld entirely before setting foot in any of the dark world dungeons. There’s no progression, the whole world is basically open from the start. You can literally just rent all the items in the beginning and just avoid dying (which is what I did). Lastly, it greatly reduces the dungeon design in general.

I will say that the dungeons themselves are quite compact and well designed. They aren’t labyrinthine compared to other 2D Zeldas. In essence, they are shorter and less complex. But they do a lot with the short time they have.

With the idea of renting items, the game let’s you play the dark world dungeons in any order. Or rather, it pretends to. I never quite understand this bizarre idea of pretending to be wide open but it’s not. The Sand Rod, necessary for the Desert Palace, cannot be rented until you rescue one of the Sages (which could be in any other dungeons afayk, so pick randomly). The Swamp Palace has large rocks which requires the Titan’s Mitts, which is a treasure in a dungeon.

I’m not sure why the Titan’s Mitts is the only dungeon treasure that’s necessary. Frankly I find this breaking of expectations set for the player baffling.

None of these issues are some terrible detriment to the gameplay overall. It just diminishes what could have been even greater. The gameplay is absolutely solid, with imaginative puzzles and bosses.

The design reminiscent of A Link to the Past makes it feel pretty similar to a romhack of that game honestly. If you enjoyed Link Between Worlds I would definitely recommend some alttp romhacks that are pretty fun.