Summary
-
Echoes of Wisdom
uses the same graphical design style as the 2019
Link’s Awakening
remake for the Nintendo Switch. -
Link’s Awakening
‘s cutscenes greatly enhanced the emotional impact of the game’s opening and closing sequences. - Animated cutscenes similar to
Link’s Awakening
could benefit
Echoes of Wisdom
‘s storytelling, especially if Zelda is a silent protagonist like Link.
Upon the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom in Nintendo’s June 2024 Direct, one thing was abundantly clear: visually, this was a spiritual successor to 2019’s Link’s Awakening remake. That makes complete sense. As the second-highest-selling 2D Zelda game after the original TLOZ in 1986, the Link’s Awakening remake brought 2D Zelda back into the mainstream in a big way. Echoes of Wisdom is the first brand-new 2D Zelda in over a decade, so it’s understandable that Nintendo would want to capitalize on a winning formula.
As a remake of a beloved classic, 2019’s Link’s Awakening did its job perfectly. It retained everything great about the original, while improving on its controls, adding new content, and most notably, beautifully updating the visuals. Nintendo made a great decision in having Echoes of Wisdom use that same beloved graphical style, but one vital part of Link’s Awakening’s visuals has still not been confirmed as part of Echoes of Wisdom: its animated cutscenes.
Link’s Awakening’s Cutscenes Set it Apart From Other Zelda Games
Link’s Awakening’s Animated Cutscenes Emphasized the Game’s Unique Storyline
Link’s Awakening Versions |
Console |
Release Date |
---|---|---|
Link’s Awakening (Original) |
Game Boy |
June 6, 1993 |
Link’s Awakening DX |
Game Boy Color |
December 12, 1998 |
Link’s Awakening (Remake) |
Nintendo Switch |
September 20, 2019 |
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Link’s Awakening is widely regarded as having one of the best stories in the Zelda series. It introduces unique characters other than the usual suspects like Ganon and the Princess, places Link in a brand new world outside of Hyrule, and tells a tale with a tragic twist that is unlike any other in the franchise. In many ways, Link’s Awakening broke long-standing series conventions in terms of its storyline, which helped it stand out and become more appreciated by fans over time due to its individuality.
In delivering such a story-focused adventure, Link’s Awakening expands on the relatability of its characters through cinematic, animated cutscenes. The cutscenes in the Link’s Awakening remake are animated in an anime styling, with full-color graphics and beautifully hand-drawn art, directed by Junichi Yamamoto – best known for his work on the anime classic Your Name. While these scenes appear sparingly in the game (there are only three animated cutscenes total), they do their job in setting up and closing out the story to make it even more emotionally resonant.
As beautiful as these scenes are in the remake, they weren’t exactly a brand-new addition. The original Game Boy release of Link’s Awakening contained its own versions of these same cutscenes, which were also impressively animated considering they were created as pixel art with limited hardware. Of course, like all the visuals in the Switch remake, the cutscenes were remade to look even more fluid and colorful, while still respecting the legacy of the original.
Notably, while Link’s Awakening’s cutscenes helped the game stand on its own, they weren’t the first of their kind in the Zelda series — though they were definitely the most comprehensive. The first instance of a cutscene with unique art was actually in Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. Whenever Link died in that game (which was a lot), players would be treated to a game over screen that consisted of an image of Ganon accompanied by his mocking laughter. A Link to the Past later took things a step further with its intro sequence, which featured art depicting the Imprisoning War that was so vital to that game’s backstory.
Expanding on the ideas Zelda 2 and ALTTP presented, Link’s Awakening featured the first cutscenes depicting Link in action, which only emphasizes this game’s more personalized storyline. While Link served more as the avatar of the player than as his own person in prior games, Link’s Awakening showed players Link’s individuality more than ever before. While Link’s Awakening’s cutscenes weren’t technically the very first of their kind, they were truly one-of-a-kind. In reusing the same graphical styling as Link’s Awakening in Echoes of Wisdom, the Zelda Team would be making a huge mistake not to include similar cutscenes to help make its story as memorable as Link’s Awakening’s was.
How Link’s Awakening’s Cutscenes Expanded on its Story
LA’s Cutscenes Made the Story More Emotionally Resonant
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Because Link is a silent protagonist, conveying his emotions, especially in 2D, is exceedingly difficult. This is where LA’s cutscenes help elevate the game’s storyline tenfold. The animated cutscenes place emphasis on Link’s facial expressions, which is the simplest way for a person to identify emotion. The cutscenes only show up in two places in Link’s Awakening: in the intro and at the end after beating the final boss. There’s also one additional “secret ending” that players can unlock if they beat the entire game without dying. This unlocks a short post-credit scene that only adds to the story even more.
- In the original Game Boy release of Link’s Awakening, the secret ending simply showed a sprite of Marin flying off the screen with seagull’s wings, making her look like an angel.
- This was changed to be a bit more ambiguous in the Game Boy Color release, which showed a full headshot of Marin in the clouds, followed by a Seagull flying off into the sunset.
- The Switch release’s secret cut scene iterated off the Game Boy Color’s version rather than following the original.
The introduction sequence of Link’s Awakening is a scene depicting Link out at sea in a terrible storm. His boat is struck by lightning, and he finds himself shipwrecked and lost in the middle of the ocean. This sets up the story for where the game starts, with Link having been washed ashore and rescued by Marin. In the outro sequence, Link is shown waking up at sea, realizing his entire experience was only a dream. The pain of this realization is shown on his face, in a way that his 2D sprite never could have accomplished. When he sees the Wind Fish flying overhead, there’s a genuine look of joy on Link’s face, and fans can practically feel him recalling the time he spent with Marin fondly.
Aside from showing Link’s emotions, one of the ways LA’s cutscenes were effective is that they feed into the lore of the game. That’s because these cutscenes only ever show up at the very beginning and very end of the game — both moments when Link was outside the Wind Fish’s dream. When Link is inside the Wind Fish’s dream, the graphical style remains in the 2D top-down perspective fans know and love. When Link is outside the Wind Fish’s dream, though, the events are depicted in these animated cutscenes, giving these moments a more “realistic” feel.
This helps hammer home the dreamy existence of Koholint Island. When Marin shows up in the final post-credit scene after players unlock the “good ending”, it’s a true confirmation that she was genuinely real, because this scene of her in the clouds is decidedly occurring outside the Wind Fish’s dream. This adds an even deeper layer to the game’s story, helping players to feel that jarring shift between the dream and the real world just as much as Link does.
Echoes of Wisdom Would Benefit From Link’s Awakening-Style Cutscenes
Echoes of Wisdom Already Uses LA’s Visual Style, so It Might as Well Borrow More
Link’s Awakening’s ending wouldn’t hit nearly as hard without its final cutscene, as Link looks up at the Wind Fish with a conflicted look of lament and hope on his face. Images like that speak louder than any amount of in-game dialogue could. In the newer 3D games, the Zelda Team took advantage of Link’s emotional reactions more than ever, as it was far easier to do so than with 2D sprites.
This led to great scenes like Link leaving Saria in Kokiri Forest in Ocarina of Time, or Princess Zelda sealing herself away in Skyward Sword. These were genuinely effective scenes that delivered snapshots into Link’s personality, hitting fans in the feels just as hard as the ending of LA did. Those advancements have rendered the need for animated cutscenes like those in LA mostly obsolete in the modern era of big 3D Zelda titles.
Additionally, unlike the original Link’s Awakening for the Game Boy, the newer, chibi graphical style of the Switch 2D games allows for more emphasis on the characters’ expressions. Echoes of Wisdom’s trailers show a number of sequences where the Princess expresses visible emotion during in-game cutscenes, such as in the opening sequence of the first trailer, or when she meets Tri for the first time. Notably, some of Link’s Awakening’s most memorable moments were in-game cutscenes, such as when Link and Marin spent time together on the beach, or their musical duet in Mabe Village. Some of these scenes live in players’ minds rent-free just as much as any animated cutscene.
Still, this doesn’t render the need for such cutscenes completely void. While the in-game cutscenes in EOW’s trailers are cinematic in their own way, just as LA’s mid-game cutscenes were, they don’t have nearly the same impact as LA’s animated ones. The cutesy, chibi design style of Echoes just doesn’t lend itself to emotional moments in quite the same way as more detailed artistic renders like those in LA’s intro and outro. Link’s Awakening’s animated cutscenes are some of the most re-watchable in the Zelda series, and that just isn’t the same for in-game cutscenes like that of EOW’s initial reveal trailer.
Princess Zelda is Ready to Shine as a Protagonist
Echoes of Wisdom Has the Chance to Tell a Captivating Zelda Story
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In the trailers shown of EOW thus far, there has been no indication that Princess Zelda will have any dialogue of her own. This seems to indicate that, like Link in previous titles, Princess Zelda will be taking over the mantle as a silent protagonist this time around. That being the case, just like how Link’s story was made more interesting and emotional through the cutscenes in Link’s Awakening, the same could be said for the Princess in Echoes. This would even be more substantial for the Princess than it was for Link.
Link is always the strong and silent type, so his being mostly emotionless throughout a game wouldn’t be too out of the ordinary. The same can’t be said for the Princess. As the series went on, Princess Zelda became a more fleshed-out character. In many games, she has even more of a personality than Link does. In both BOTW and TOTK, for example, it’s really Princess Zelda who pushes those games’ storylines forward.
Princess Zelda already serves as the main story-telling device in recent Zelda games, so fans will expect her to push that role even further when she takes on the protagonist role in Echoes of Wisdom. Echoes has the opportunity to present one of the most compelling stories in the series with Zelda as the hero. Using animated cutscenes like Link’s Awakening can help elevate the story of a 2D Zelda title to become one of the most memorable in the series, as proven by Link’s Awakening. Nintendo should avoid making Princess Zelda in EOW just another Link in a female skin. Princess Zelda has consistently been the most interesting character in recent Zelda titles, and Echoes of Wisdom can definitely use that to its advantage.
Link’s Awakening was a story that tested the boundaries between dreams and reality. Beyond just its dialogue, the most important way it conveyed that separation was through its clever and beautifully crafted animated cutscenes. The return of 2D Zelda in Echoes of Wisdom is already like a dream come true for the Zelda fandom, but many are still uncertain of whether it’s all a bit too good to be true. As was the case with Link’s Awakening, animated cutscenes might just be what separates that dream from reality.