Just finished it up. They did a real nice job on the conclusion of the game, though I think the ending cinematic
misses the detail of seagulls flying into the sunset, which is implied to be marin getting her wish after the dream ends in the original. I know it has its own way of implying it, but it felt less clear this time.
I completely forgot that the trading quest is non-optional in the end too
So, final thoughts. I'll lead with the critique:
Framerate. The drops are there, but only when streaming in new areas. In 95% of cases it's rock solid after loading has completed, so this was actually the least of my worries.
The input implementation is bit of a joke. If the analog movement was actual analog movement I could perhaps understand, but forcing you to use the analog when link can only move in 8 directions anyway is ridiculous.
I suspect they put that restriction in place to prevent the player from cheesing certain puzzles with finely-aimed projectiles or jumps, but that could easily have been solved by restricting just those things to 8-way movement instead of Link as a whole.
Two of the triggers being wasted on duplicate inputs instead of extra item slots is also super dumb, because it fails to solve the constant item switching from the original. It mitigates it a bit, but if I had four slots I could do bombs / arrows /
roc's feather /
hookshot and not need to switch for 90% of my exploration and combat needs.
Messing with the secret seashell quest was also a mistake. The original is one of the best collectible quests around because it doesn't go overboard with the item count (20 shells = reward) and gives you 6 more shells than you need, thus preventing that awful aimless wandering that comes with needing to find just one or two more.
The remake not only adds 24 more shells on top of the original 26, but also interferes with the reward distribution. The 6-shell buffer is gone and the
koholint sword comes at 40 shells instead of 20, meaning you're likely to get it way later in the game. It also adds a bunch of extra items like heart containers and custom dungeon chambers for the new dampe content
before you get the original reward, which just feels like a piss-take and robs the quest of the simplicity and satisfaction it originally had.
Speaking of the custom dungeon stuff, it's fine. Too simple to be on Mario Maker's level and the challenges all feel like exercises in box-ticking because of how stringent the constraints are, but you could probably get creative in free mode and build something neat. I think it's hamstrung from the get-go because you don't get to build your own puzzles and the objective always boils down to 'get all the chests and kill the boss'.
As for the other new content, the figurines from the crane game are nice enough but ultimately not worth the effort since all you get is a little bit of flavour text for each one and another sodding chamber stone for completing the set.
But, despite those criticisms, it's super faithful to the original, has a lovely aesthetic, and is a remake of a game that's still
great arguably the best top-down Zelda all these years later. The small-but-dense overworld is something game developers have all but forgotten and need to bring back, and it's crammed with charm in its design and writing.
Great stuff