Video: Digital Foundry Takes A Look At The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening E3 Demo

Having this and Cadence of Hyrule come out in the span of a few months AND a BotW sequel announcement makes this period an embarrassment of riches for Zelda fans.

It's a good time to be a Zelda AND Nintendo fan. 😊

Yeah, that makes sense. While playing the demo, I felt the game ran smoothest when I was in a cave or dungeon, while it had a couple issues outside in Mabe Village, especially while cutting grass. I’m not concerned at all about the finished product. I’m sure it’ll be polished nicely upon release.

I ask myself how a game like this one can't be fluid ?
I'm serious about it. What makes the game that choppy ?
The game is even not running at 1080p.

I really hope they're going to do something about the performences before the launch.

Very much looking forward to this. BotW didn’t really do it for me, so excited to get some older-school Zelda action

I've got to admit I'm still not entirely sold on this game, I adore the original and still have it but so far this seems to stick far to close to it, leaving me little reason to spend £50 on it. I like my top down Zelda games but a new one would have preferable

@PCkid They most likely are.

Yoshi's crafted World has some framerate dips though.

Linneman's a big boy these days.

@PCkid because its still in development and hasnt been optimised yet?

Getting it day one. I never had any Nintendo portable devices so this is all brand new to me. The pixel police can cry all they want but it’s the gameplay i’m interested in. The music sounds fantastic too.

Having never played any of the gameboy games, I am really excited for this!

Played the original ages ago and re-playing this will feel like a new game to me. Day 1 for me.

I can not wait for this game, loved the original on Game Boy Color and on the 3DS Virtual console. I just downloaded Oracle of Ages/Seasons on the 3DS Virtual Console to get me hyped. This looks so beautiful and the tilt-shift aesthetic works really well for Zelda, giving it a tangible, mini fantasy story feel

That said, I'm really hoping that the Switch Pro is indeed real as we are seeing more and more games target lower resolutions on the system. Plus, these resolutions mean an even lower target handheld, where sometimes I'm playing games that are running at 360p or 480p, which is a shame.

As a 4K TV owner, anything at 1080p or higher looks great but anything under 900p starts to look a bit jaggy, pixelated or blurry, depending on how the game is rendered. I realise that I'm in the minority owning a 4K TV, but I would just love to have Switch games render at 900p or higher docked.

@WiltonRoots "the pixel police" that is a funny phrase! Like you, i think game play is very important and can overcome visual shortcomings.

Man, i hope this demo makes its way to Eshop.

@Wavey84 Give us Wind Waker HD while we're at it.
I really want that game on my Switch.

Looks lovely. Day 1 for me.

Putting aside the framerate issues (Nintendo almost never drops the ball in this regard), I could see this being another Switch release with a low-ish undocked resolution. It's a pity they keep designing games that can't hit native res on the tablet screen.

The music in Link's Awakening is absolutely gorgeous, but with imperfect performance and what appears to be an almost identical campaign to the original, I don't think I could justify paying too much for this.

Less than 900p but we don't need a switch pro. I guess botw2 will run at 700p.

Anyways it's a day one purchase for me despite the tech issues and I hope four swords is included.

@Morph

Not really.
I think that the Switch has performence issues.
And the crazy thing is that I can clearly see that Link's Awakening comes from a 3DS project.

@PCkid it might have performance issues but its a demo of a game that is still 3 months out from release. You would usually expect the refinements to be happening in this period and with feedback from playtests, I'm sure it will be fine when it launches.

In this game, I don't need 60fps but smooth 30fps will be Ok.

@Morph A game goes "GOLD" almost a month before the release date.
It's not 3 but 2 months left, but I personally don't care because I'm not going to buy it. I still prefer the original on my GB.

@PCkid in a world of day one updates its right up until release date (and beyond but that would be unusual for a Nintendo published game). I have the original as well, however I dont know if I prefer it because I haven't played this new one yet, time will tell.

I thought nintendo fans cared about frame rates. So now 30fps is enough. Interesting how we move the goal post to defend our positions. I'm not ok with 30fps 800p in 2019. Unless you still use a flip phone and a crt tv you shouldn't be ok with it either.

@graysoncharles it does look good. Imagine what 60fps and 1080p would look like! Especially upscalled to a 4k.

@Morph You're right on that but Yoshi's Crafted World, as an example, is not fluid from the launch until today, so...

@sixrings I doubt BOTW2 will run any worse than BOTW.

I never played the original so this is highly anticipated for me. I appreciate the darker games in the franchise but the chibi ones give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I'm getting a similar feeling playing nino kuni 2 at the moment.

Link looks like an elf. Well, I guess he is an elf.
The toy like graphics totally fit the top down classic Zelda style, and the perfect way to represent the old zeldas in 3D

The game looks great, but at the same time, I can't stand the toy-like visuals. Plus, since this is a 1:1 HD conversion, I'm not paying full retail price for such a short game when I've beaten it multiple times on GB.

What they should've done was turn the 2D BotW concept they had when they tested out the mechanics on the OG LoZ into a fully fledged remake of OG LoZ.

Really looking forward to this one as I haven't revisted the game in, oh 20 years or so. Pre ordered it at a discount during E3 so bonus there.

@Wavey84 nintendo expects you to keep two tvs in your living room. One for your nintendo (1080p or even 720p will do) and then one for everything else (4k-8k xbox one x, Olympics, world cup...)

@Wavey84

I have the same configuration 4K 65", so I totally understand what you said.
720p is related to the XBOX360 era for me, it's difficult to imagine that is about 15 years. In early 2000's it was fantastic because TV's were HD Ready but it's almost 2020 now.

@dugan Yep I mean you're getting people in here who are crying like they're going to suffer retinal damage just by playing it. Based on footage of an unfinished game. In fact there's been a lot of crying over unfinished games in here recently. Must be something in the water.

I have full confidence Nintendo and Grezzo will iron out the frame rate issues for launch. Their final months of development are usually focused on that, as Mario, Yoshi and Xenoblade proved.

I'm still not sold on the artstyle for this game. I'd love it for an EarthBound remake, but it just doesn't feel like it's a good fit for Link's Awakening.