The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

:This article is about the original game for the Game Boy. For other uses, see Link's Awakening (Disambiguation).
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is the fourth main installment of . It is the first title in the series to be released on handheld system, and the only Zelda title on the original Game Boy. Since its release, has been popular among fans and critics; by 2004, the game had sold 3.83 million copies worldwide. In 2009, named it the 42nd most influential video game of all time.
A colorized update, titled , was released for the Game Boy Color in 1998. During a Nintendo Direct on February 13, 2019, an eponymous remake of the game was announced for Nintendo Switch. The remake was released on September 20, 2019.
==Story==
, who had defeated the evil and regained peace in , had not enjoyed the tranquility he had worked so hard to achieve for long, and eventually became restless. Feeling in need of training or enlightenment, he embarked on a journey and sailed across the oceans in a small sailboat. Eventually, completed his training in foreign countries and began to sail back to his home, . But suddenly the seas turned rough and the skies became dark. tried valiantly to fight the strong currents of the waves, even tying himself to the ship with some rope. But a bolt of lightning struck the ship and everything went dark.
Later on a faraway , a young girl named is walking along the of the 's beach. She suddenly spots someone laying on the sands. Upon looking closer, she finds an unconscious and tries to wake him, but to no avail. Unwilling to simply leave him lying on the beach, takes back to her house in . From beyond the darkness, hears the voice of a girl. He first mistakes the voice to be that of , but wakes up to discover that it was instead the voice of . It turned out that, miraculously, had been washed ashore on . starts his preparations to leave , and gives him back his . He also tells him of another thing that washed up on the beach.
Yet 's is nowhere to be found. Searching on 's beach, eventually finds it. Just before picking it up, a mysterious flies down to him. The explains that high on the mountaintops of is a giant , and inside sleeps a being known as the . The says that the must be awakened, for that is the only way can leave . He tells that he needs to go into the to find a and then flies away. Left with nothing but a puzzling riddle and his questions, heeds the 's words and heads into the . He eventually finds the . The reappears and tells him to go into and to use the to get inside.
 does so and fights his way through this early . After defeating the , finds a magical , the . Although does not know what it is at first, the reappears and explains that this is one of the . The explains that must retrieve the remaining seven if he is to awaken the sleeping . , still full of questions about this strange world, must explore the rest of and find the remainder of the .
Later in his journey, arrives in . The had told him to venture into to find an important item that will aid him. Unfortunately, a large, sleeping blocks his path. However, one of the six rabbit siblings of tells that and her beautiful voice can awaken those who hear her. returns to and eventually gets an from the . He finds on the who tells him of her wish to be a so that she can fly around the world and share her songs with many people. She hopes that she can make this wish to the . Afterwards, learns from how to play the on his , a song of awakening. However, since it is not enough to awaken the , tags along with to . decides to stay in after the awakes, and finds the in .
Sometime before getting the sixth , the flies to and tells him to go to the . When arrives there, he learns the horrible truth about . On a wall depicting the himself, the words read "TO THE FINDER... THE ISLE OF KOHOLINT, IS BUT AN ILLUSION... HUMAN, MONSTER, SEA, SKY... A SCENE ON THE LID OF A SLEEPER'S EYE... AWAKE THE DREAMER, AND KOHOLINT WILL VANISH MUCH LIKE A BUBBLE ON A NEEDLE... CAST-AWAY, YOU SHOULD KNOW THE TRUTH!"
 now faces a dilemma, whether he should awaken the or not. But the tells him that none know if the inscription is true, and advises him to trust his feelings. continues on, finding the remaining three . Eventually, he discovers on being attacked by monsters. saves her, and for a moment, she tries to tell something... but changes her mind. The knows about the song that she always sings, the , and wonders if she was trying to awaken the .
After obtains all eight of the , the says that now is the time to awaken the . heads up the mountaintop and encounters the , in which the sleeps. With his in hand and the other , plays the . The cracks open, and ventures inside.
Inside, finds the true mastermind behind all of the chaos on , the who have the power to transform. The monsters were created by the to prevent from awakening the . After a long battle, defeats the , the last of 's evils. Suddenly, a stairway opens and climbs up, where he finds himself in a strange black room filled with rainbow clouds and stars.
There the comes to see one last time. The explains that he is in fact part of the 's spirit, and thus was the guardian of his dream world. All was peaceful in the 's dream, until began to invade it. Many of the that had faced were the ones in the that had guarded the . But now had defeated the last one, and the 's dream was at peace once again. With the gone and the eight retrieved, the could finally be awakened. The then states that his role in this dream is now complete and says farewell to before vanishing.
Suddenly, hears a wail and the appears before him. The says that in his dreams, a whole world had existed. Yet he could not awaken due to the . It is only natural that dreams are to end, and when he awakes, shall disappear. He says that may someday recall this dream in the waking world, the only remaining memory of .
The then fades away and says that they should awaken together, and commands to play the one more time. does so slowly, while and its inhabitants fade away. is then forced out of the 's room by a stream of water.
The sky above shines brightly as fly overhead. awakens on a wooden board in the sea, part of his ship. Just as it was predicted, is gone and is back in the real world. As he recalls all of the events of his latest adventure, a shadow looms over him. Looking up, he sees the flying above him in the sky. smiles, realizing that he actually helped awaken the . 's dream journey had finally come to an end.
===The Legend of the Wind Fish===
It appears that the is a mere myth to the inhabitants of . The on top of is rather large and can be seen from a distance, making it obvious that some of the inhabitants of would know at least something of the , however. is a very good example of a simple citizen of , yet she knows of the existence of the . She even dreams of wishing on the to turn into a . It's not quite obvious if she too believes it is just a myth or if it is real, however, can be spotted on for no apparent reason. The seems to believe that she may have tried to awaken the with her song. Only the and possibly seem to know of the actual existence of the . Shortly after clears the , a boy in was asked by when they had appeared on the but had no idea what meant by this, suggesting that the inhabitants of have no idea that they are part of a dream world.
The is the only place that holds much information about the myth of the , and the script upon its walls, about being but a dream, is very much true. Judging by these writings, the seems to have been built solely for the person who would awaken the .
===The Perfect Ending===
If completes his quest without dying, an additional scene can be seen after the ending credits. Both versions of the game show as a (or simply having wings) while the "" theme plays in the background. This may either hint that had her wish come true and was "saved" from the fading dream world, or simply that was thinking of and her wish of becoming a .
The perfect ending varies between the original Game Boy release and the Game Boy Color release. In the original, a with wings on her back will fly around the words "The End" while singing her song. In , a full-colored image of can be seen within the clouds, and her song will be playing in the background, although she is not the one singing. Shortly afterward, the image fades into a who flies away. In the Nintendo Switch version, it is largely similar to , although Marin's image is animated slightly to have her briefly close her eyes and shudder in an apparent giggle before it fades away with a seagull flying past.
==Timeline Placement==
According to , is the sequel to , , and . It takes place in the "Downfall" split timeline after , where Ganon defeated the Hero of Time. The prologue speaks of Link defeating Ganon and saving Hyrule, an apparent reference to . Link journeys away from Hyrule to embark on a "quest for enlightenment". The "quest for enlightenment" away from Hyrule is the story told in and . After defeating Ganon once more at the end of the Linked Game, Link leaves Labrynna on a boat. This leads to the events of . is followed by centuries later.
According to takes place between , and .
During an interview around the release of , Shigeru Miyamoto stated that could have occurred at any point following .
Zelda.com originally stated that occurred partway through , taking place during the period where Link crosses the sea to Eastern Hyrule.http://web.archive.org/web/20021002111625/http://www.zelda.com/lib_timeline.html
===Speedrun Records===
==Listings==
===Characters===
===Bosses and Mini-bosses===
===Enemies===
===Locations===
===Dungeons===
===Items and Equipment===
===Translations===
===Credits===
===Glitches===
==Ports and Remakes==
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The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX for Game Boy Color is an enhanced port of with several new additions, most notably the entire game is now in color. It was released just after the release of .
 can be played on a Game Boy as well, although playing it on a Game Boy makes accessing the optional Color Dungeon impossible. However, if the dungeon is started on a Game Boy Color and then played on the original Game Boy, the dungeon is accessible.
===Nintendo 3DS re-release===
It was announced at Nintendo's E3 Press Conference on June 7, 2011 by Shigeru Miyamoto that would release that day alongside Super Mario Land as the first Virtual Console games on the Nintendo eShop. The eShop price for the game is $5.99 in the United States, $9AU in Australia, and £5.40 in the United Kingdom.
===Nintendo Switch remake===
A trailer announcing and showing off early footage of a 3D remake of for the Nintendo Switch was included as the final segment of the February 13, 2019 edition of Nintendo Direct, with a scheduled release on Sep 20, 2019. Some differences include anime-styled cutscenes in the beginning and ending, voice acting by some characters, and a Dungeon maker mode.
===Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda===
A port of the original Game Boy version of Link's Awakening is one of the games to be included in Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda, announced at E3 2021.
==Legacy==
While not as influential to the overall structure of Zelda games as or , introduced a number of elements that recur in later Zelda games, including:
*The use of a location other than Hyrule as a setting.
*A list of songs playable on the game's instrument that must be learned and have different functions, although unlike in and some later games the songs simply play when selected, rather than having to be played note by note.
*The first occurrence of fishing.
*Unique background music for each dungeon rather than reusing the same single theme or few themes, as its predecessors did. Most games after follow its lead in this respect.
*The first trading sequence in the series.
*The first clear example of a lava or fire-themed dungeon in the series, with .
*The Roc's Feather.
*An Owl who periodically meets Link and gives him advice on where to go or what to do next.
*A set of well-hidden collectible items that have no use by themselves but can be redeemed at a certain location to receive useful items. (Secret Seashells in , with Gold Skulltulas and Poe Souls as examples of successors.)
*The boss theme for this game was later used for the miniboss theme in /, as well as a remix being used in the fight against Twinrova in the linked ending.
*Some of the DLC outfits for the various characters in were based on those of Link's Awakening, and one of the maps for Legend Mode is derived in appearance and plotline from the same game as well. Also, Marin is a DLC warrior in the game, with some of her attacks involving the Wind Fish.
*In , Ganon is seen using a double-bladed Trident similar to the one used by his Shadow Nightmare incarnation instead of his regular trident during his fight against Link.
==References to other Nintendo games==
There are many references to Nintendo games in . The majority are from the Mario series.
*The Yoshi Doll
*Tarin himself, who is similar in appearance to .
*Tarin turning into a raccoon after eating a Mushroom might be a reference to Super Mario Bros. 3 (although Mario turned into a raccoon using a leaf).
*The Cucco Keeper is similar in appearance to .
*The Wind Fish's Egg is similar in appearance to a . 
*Mr. Write shows Link a picture of sent to him by the goat in Animal Village. (Because of the picture, her name is implied to be Christine. This scene is poking fun at long distance relationships involving mail, e-mail, etc. since the goat is lying about who she really is and Mr. Write thinks he is writing to a beautiful woman.)
**In the Switch version, the name is omitted, and the photo itself is replaced with of Princess Peach carrying a parasol.
*Mr. Write is similar in appearance to Dr. Wright from the version of . They share the same last name, but both are spelled differently. A slower version of Dr. Wright's theme from Sim City plays when you are in his house.
*In addition to Mario characters, Richard from made an appearance.
*Mamu is based on , the final boss of .
*Various enemies are based on a number of characters from Nintendo games, particularly Mario adventures:
**Blooper
**Boo
**Chain Chomp
**Cheep-Cheep
**Goomba
**Kirby
**Piranha Plant
**Pokey
**Shy Guy
**Spiny
**Thwomp & Thwimp
==Trivia==
*The game's setting was partially inspired by the American mystery television series, .
*Princess Zelda is not featured at all in , though she is referenced by Link, initially confusing Marin for her.
*If the name "ZELDA" is used when creating a new game, a remixed Zelda theme will play in the background.
**In the Japanese version, entering the name "ぜるだ" yields the same result. In addition, enting the name "とたけけ" will play an arranged version of Totaka's Song.
**In the original German release, entering the name "MOYSE" will play a strange jingle. In the German DX release, "MOYSE" will instead play Totaka's Song.
**The French DX version will yield the same result as "ZELDA" if the entered name is "LOLO". In the original release, "LOLO" will instead play a different song than "MOYSE" or "とたけけ".
*With the exception of Eagle's Tower, every dungeon in has a map that forms a picture of an object, such as a Moldorm in the case of Tail Cave or a Key in the case of Key Cavern.
* originally was intended to be a handheld port of .
==Nomenclature==
==Gallery==
==External Links==
*Official Japanese site
*Official Japanese site (DX Version)
*Official North American site
*Official European site
* page on Zelda.com
Category:Games
Category:2D Games
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