New Awakening

I just finished testing a full hack of Link's Awakening. It revises the dungeons, and to a lesser extent the overworld, and changes some owl dialogue text. I intended to do a more heavy revising of the game text, but until I start learning how to use text pointers, the text is mostly as is in the game.

The new game is overall significantly more difficult than the original. I have strived to put tight limits on backtracking in dungeons (which is basically always a needless headache) and make sure the new puzzles and fights are fairly novel. The dungeon order has changed. Now we go from Tail Cave to Key Cavern to Bottle Grotto to Turtle Rock to Angler's Tunnel to Catfish's Maw, back to Angler's Tunnel with the Flippers (now in Catfish's Maw), then on to Eagle's Tower and finally the Face Shrine. The first four dungeons are structured pretty similarly to the originals, but as time goes on, especially in the last four dungeons, the player will find the dungeons to be very foreign and designed much differently from the originals. Many screens are completely unrecognizable. This should make the game a more novel experience for the returning player, without throwing a lot of new stuff at the player right at the beginning.

Like in Hard Awakening, the player does not get a sword at the beach. The sword is now at Turtle Rock. I have tweaked the enemies so that bombs and powder will be sufficient to take them down until then (Vires are still there, but they do not need to be defeated). The first three Nightmares are all optional now; you will not need to face Moldorm without a sword. To balance the increased difficulty of the game, I have moved Crazy Tracy into town to make her potions available earlier on; the shopkeeper with the Shovel and Bow is in the castle. Potions have also been added to most of the dungeons, and I have placed hearts and the like around tough encounters. To balance the player not getting the first three heart containers from the first three bosses, I have added about 7 pieces of heart to the dungeons. Note that getting too many hearts will crash the game; I would recommend not looking outside the dungeons for too many pieces of heart.

The plot sequence has been broken. Marin caused a crash, so she no longer appears at the beach. Kiki the monkey is no longer needed to access the castle, and in case you skip right to the Stick and never get the Bananas, I have tweaked Kiki's dialogue so he is no longer hungry all the time. Many owl dialogues do not occur, but if I've overlooked any, the original owl dialogues may appear, which should contrast with the tone of the new dialogues. Bow-wow is not necessary, nor does he have to be left at Mabe Village. I have also removed certain obstacles so the player can explore areas without certain items. You do not need the Bracelet to access Ukuku Prairie, nor do you need the Sword to get into the mountains, nor do you need the Flippers to reach Turtle Rock. Richard is missing entirely; the Golden Leaves are just collectibles and you just need the Shovel to get the Slime Key.

There are shortcuts and alternative pathways in many places in the new game. Aside from using magic potions to get past the fires guarding Turtle Rock, you can also find a shortcut to the western mountains just south of Key Cavern (though you will miss an opportunity for a bomb upgrade). Also, multiple dungeons have extra keys for the player to find, though some require early possession of the bow, which I believe is not truly needed until the Face Shrine. The new keys offer alternative pathways if something goes wrong, but the extra keys are especially difficult to obtain.

To balance the player's getting the Wand very early in the game, I have tweaked the enemies after Turtle Rock to be much tougher. They come in larger numbers and the more dangerous creatures are more common. The Face Shrine enemy that throws the big black ball at you is a recurring enemy because he is immune to the Wand; he will provide the most difficult boss fights. In one case, you fight two copies of that enemy at the same time (there used to be two such fights but I removed the first one because I kept dying). Again, potions and hearts are placed before and/or after the hardest encounters so the player is less likely to get caught off-guard and killed with little warning. Note that some encounters are optional; you may be able to find ways to avoid some of the enemies.

The Face Shrine is by far the most difficult dungeon. You should not get lost in it, but the puzzles should confound your expectations, and the enemies should strain your resources. The Face Shrine has also received a cosmetic overhaul. I have recolored the whole dungeon and filled it with unlit torches to darken the atmosphere. I would replace the music with that of the Shadow Temple from Ocarina of Time, but I don't know how. The most difficult puzzle in the game should be a moving tile puzzle in the Face Shrine. It's the same type of puzzle as those blocks you would push in Turtle Rock to cover all of the holes in a room. The puzzle in the Face Shrine, however, has FOUR different blocks you need to use, each of which can each be pushed in multiple directions.

To my knowledge, I have fixed the text so it displays correctly, and I have designed the dungeons so that there is no way to get trapped in any of them, nor any way to break the dungeon. In fact, I'm fairly certain that even Manbo's Mambo, saving and quitting, and using miniboss warp portals will never be necessary unless you run out of bombs or powder or arrows in a dungeon that requires many of them. Note that a good supply of bombs and powder is pretty important early in the game. Note also that you don't need to buy the bombs; only the Shovel, and probably also the Bow if you can't get to the Bow I've put in one of the dungeons.

There are some sprites which are rendered incorrectly. Some of this is intentionally left uncorrected, either because correcting them is impossible (the sprites in a room can only be rendered correctly by two different sprite banks) or because the net result was interesting (seeing knights in Tail Cave instead of Stalfos). But usually, opening and closing the inventory will correct the sprites in a given room.

The end result is, I believe, quite strong. The game is challenging but does not require save states to be playable and should not force the player to retry puzzles incessantly outside the last dungeon. The game is new but the new challenges are not thrown at the player all at once. The only warning I have is that you will need to be able to bounce off of walls with the Boots, which I don't think is a well-known trick (it is needed only once or twice in Hard Awakening). If you jump at a wall with the Boots and the Feather, the ricochet off the wall can let you reach places that would otherwise be unreachable. You have to push in the right direction right after the impact. If you are in a top-down screen, you can use the ricochet to add some lateral distance. If you are in a side-scrolling screen, you can reach places a full tile higher than normal. Also note that, in side-scrolling screens, if you dash over an edge with the boots, you can use the Feather in midair, which can help your trajectory.

It took about two weeks to finish. I think you will enjoy it.