If you weren’t already excited for Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, this gameplay trailer will knock your socks off. The original game trailer shows many new features, but this gameplay trailer gives you a better taste of the kind of challenges Link will face along the way, and how to overcome some of them.
Figuring things out, your own way
One of the great things about A Link Between Worlds is that the game makers aren’t holding your hand throughout the game like they had in earlier ones such as Skyward Sword. With the new game, you’re able to assess the situation and come up with your own solutions without having to be told how to do it. I think this freedom is very welcomed, with the new ability to merge with your surroundings. The gamers are going to have to think outside the box on this game, and come up with new solutions to old Zelda problems.
An example within the gameplay trailer would be at the 20 second mark, where Link avoids a foe that’s using a radar to see Link’s moves. To avoid this foe, Link doesn’t resort to shooting them out quickly, but instead merges with the wall so the foe doesn’t notice him. This is a great example of the new types of thinking that gamers are going to have to do in A Link Between Worlds.
Link evades a nasty foe by blending into the wall.
New Dungeons to Explore
If you’ve played many older Zelda games, you’ll notice a routine pattern forming with all the dungeons. In almost every Zelda game, there is a type of course the gamers go through which involves usually a forest, volcanic, and water dungeon. This is a type of normality we’ve come to accept in Zelda games… – until A Link Between Worlds. With the hopes of new dungeons to explore gives the players a sense of freshness, away from the same tasks they’ve played once before.
Upgrading your Items
This is another great feature not found in many of the predecessor Zelda games. The only time I’ve personally every upgraded anything in Zelda was the ship in Phantom of the Hourglass on the DS. Even that was a bit weird for me since in the other games you never thought about what you could upgrade, but instead dealt with whatever the game gave you for weapons.
With the arrival of upgrades brings better melee and ranged weapons to A Link Between Worlds, which gives the player something else to keep in mind when a dungeon or boss becomes a bit difficult.
A feature example within the trailer would be at the 1:09 mark, where Link is upgrading his bow to shoot three arrows instead of one. That would have been a great feature to have in older games, when fighting a mob of monsters, and I’m glad to see they have it within the newest game.
Link upgrades his bow to the new powerful three-arrows.
I’ve gotta say, as a hardcore Zelda fanatic, I’m very thrilled with this new game and hope to pick it up in the future. Nintendo has always been impressive with the new gaming technology and games they come out with, but A Link Between Worlds has taken the Zelda franchise a step further in hand-held gaming, and the Zelda thought process along the way.
Published: Nov 1, 2013 11:28 am