LogFAQs > #967458726

Hi again! Like I said in my other topic where I rank games, I kinda fell into a weird no-writing death spiral for two weeks and couldn't pull myself out of it. I pulled myself out of it, so I'm back. I really don't want to fall behind on this because I feel like the iron has already become extremely cold (it's like two months since this event happened already!) but I am still sticking with the plan to watch every run and I should try to do it before AGDQ starts, so yeah, let's watch a bunch of runs.

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019)

So, full disclosure, this game is kinda like, my favorite game of all time. The GB version, specifically, but the Switch version is pretty damn good too. So obviously I have a lot of bias towards any speedrun of this game in particular; that said, I do think this is a pretty great speedrun! Not that it should come as a surprise - Zelda games are always really solid. This is just a really good race that stays close the entire time and has great, really to-the-point commentary throughout. It's not quite a highlight for me, since I've seen it before, so I'm not gonna quite include it in my highlight reel, but it is a good, solid run.

- It's not exactly an incredible coincidence that someone who likes one Zelda game likes other Zelda games, but somehow, on the day I watched this run, I was already talking to Iceblue about Zelda 2 strats, while watching a tutorial Iceblue did on Zelda 1, and then he fucking showed up on this couch! All that on the same day! Freaked me out. Just can't get away from this guy, man.

- I love that the crane game in the remake is actually a pain in the ass when it's completely free in the GB version. The physics screw over both runners and it's hilarious.

- Piece of power routing stresses me out in this game. I hate any kind of routing in any game that really forces you to be precise about enemy kill counts and stuff like that and that really rears its ugly head here where you have to kill specific numbers of monsters in order to get a speed+offense boost.

- This game is run in German. Greetings from Germany! They make a big deal about reading the books in the library in German after the end of the run and it's an inside joke that I don't get.

- Appreciate the commentators' love for the sound design in this game. The little pitter-patter of Link's feet when he uses the pegasus boots is just the best!

- "Marin knows you're a thief, and that just kind of sets the tone for the relationship."

- This is a really minor thing, but for some reason the commentator used the phrase "breath of fresh air" when they meant "sigh of relief" and I found it funny. I mean, I get it, english idioms are a pain in the ass.

- Both Manbo's Mambo and the Frog Song of Soul receive respectful silence, as they deserve, but even better is that both runners hit both of them so close together that you can barely tell which screen is actually playing the theme. A lot of cliche "wow, isn't the music in this game great?" comments like every gdq run has, but this one really does deserve it.

- The boss of level 6: Face from Nick Jr.

- "Coming up, we have the best dialog box in the game. It's absolutely in German."

- The race is extremely close right up to the end, where the final boss decides it. Afterwards, while one screen plays a beautiful, tear-jerker epilogue, the other is the runner going to the library to read books in terrible broken German.

There is a prize segment after this. You can get a physical copy of Ty the Tasmanian Tiger for the Switch! Oh boy!