Video Game Deconstruction: Link's Awakening

Since I am, as most of you should know, a huge fucking nerd, I often think about game-related things. No, not things like "ooh, that Link is such a dreamboat *swoon*," but more like "Wow, I really like how that game uses a contrast of music and scenery to put you into a state of unease." These thoughts cover a wide variety of topics, but I have lately discovered a new series of them. As I have been getting older, I have begun to experience a strange phenomenon where I rediscover games I've been playing for years and years, and I've been wondering if I'm the only one that experiences this. This is gonna be kinda hard to explain, so allow me to set the stage first:

Someone has been playing video games their whole life. So there is, of course, a few cherished gems from their past that they often replay. Now, the only thing a kid cares about when playing a game is, y'know, playing a game. Story and character development are virtually ignored, or at least just barely paid enough attention to for the child to have a rough idea of what is going on, whether they're playing something as simplistic as Mega Man, or something as complex as a Final Fantasy. Now, as this person grows up, they play these games more. But they continue to never really pay much attention to the story since, hey, they've beaten it like, what, a bazillion times now? But one day, this person suddenly thinks hard about a game and realizes that, holy shit, this plot has a lot of depth to it! This person then replays this game one more time, and actually pays attention to it. They really listen to the characters, and notice all the small details about the game. Its almost like they're playing it for the first time ever all over again.

This is the phenomenon I'm talking about, and it has recently happened to me with The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. There is a lot of depth to this seemingly simplistic game that I never really noticed until recently, and I will be discussing this as the first part of what I hope will become a series called Video Game Deconstruction, where I talk about the treasure of surprises buried beneath the sands of childhood negligence, or discuss exactly why I like some of the overall terrible games I enjoy that nobody else seems to. So lets dive right in, after the jump!
(Oh, by the way, this is, of course, gonna have tons of spoilers. So, yeah, you've been warned and stuff.)


I'm going to write this as a small retelling of the events of the game, pointing out the points that I never paid attention to as a kid. Since I'm assuming anyone interested in this has already played that game, I'll try to avoid outright describing the entire plot, except where necessary to emphasize the point I'm trying to make. So lets start by talking about the intro!


The game opens with Link, proving that he is the world's biggest badass, riding a small raft in the middle of the ocean. During a huge storm. Yeah, he's that awesome. Disaster literally strikes as his Failraft is hit with Plot Lightning and he is knocked unconscious. A girl walking along an island beach discovers his completely uncooked or drowned body washed ashore, as the camera pans up to the top of a huge mountain in the background, at the top of which is the opening title screen, along with a huge, polka-dotted egg.

As Link explores the island, he discovers that the only way to leave is to awaken the Wind Fish, a mysterious creature that sleeps inside that huge egg thing. To accomplish this, he needs to collect eight instruments with the power to awaken the slumbering beast. However, all is not well on the island of Koholint. The land is covered by monsters, and the instruments are guarded by creatures calling themselves Nightmares. Now this is where things start to get weird. As you slay these monsters, they repeatedly tell you to stop what you're doing, and that you are doing more harm than good. But hey, why would you listen to them? They're the bad guys! Of course they want you to stop killing them! But later on, you are directed to go to a secluded shrine, devoid of all life. (Literally. Nothing alive goes here. Even all the enemies are just animated Armos statues.) Inside the shrine is a plaque, completely surrounded by utter darkness. And this plaque says that the island is a dream world, and waking the Wind Fish will cause it to vanish. But this is instantly dismissed by your owl guide as being just a legend, and even if it were true, does it really matter? You have to wake the Wind Fish anyway if you want to leave.

But this is where you should really start thinking about the residents of this island. Everybody in the one small village populated by people is completely fixated on their own little life. Tarin is obsessed with mushroom farming, like its the only thing he was born to do. Two small boys outside of the library (that nobody ever shows any interest in, by the way) react to you like you have asked them about what is outside of the island, to which their reply is basically "...outside? What do you mean? You're weird." It seems the only person on the whole island who thinks about life outside the island is Marin, who is obsessed with leaving the place. So much so that if you dig when she's following you, she encourages you to dig to the other side of the world. It's also made to seem like the other villagers write off her wonderings of where the coconuts to grow their coconut trees came from as her just being a silly girl. Something is odd here.

But even odder is the island itself. Now, in the Zelda universe, magic is not unheard of. Most every one of Link's adventures involves magic somehow. But Koholint Island is filled with impossible things, even in the Zelda universe. Never before, in any game, has there been a way to fully revive the dead. Yet here's an ocarina song that has the power to turn a pile of bones into a fully alive, happy flying chicken. It can even instill life in an inanimate hunk of rock for Link to do battle with. (Again, Link is a badass as he brings solid stone to life, just so he can kill it.) Early in the adventure, Link enters a dream world where he finds the ocarina previously mentioned. He then wakes up and is able to bring this dream ocarina out of his dream and into the "real world." The island is littered with glowing holes that teleport you around. (Yes, teleportation has always existed, but it was always the result of a magic song, a spell, or the blessings of the Golden Goddesses themselves. There was never a geographical location with such power.) There is even a village populated by talking anthropomorphic animals. Not things like the Zora, the race of fish-people, but actual, full-on animals, with intelligence and JOBS, like the chef bear or the painter crocodile. Even the local shopkeeper has amazingly devastating magic, able to kill even a fully powered up Link with little effort. Even in the game series where a small boy can put on a mask and become a huge hulking rock-beast, this is all incredibly strange.

The journey ends with a big final battle with the biggest Nightmare of them all. One who shifts into various forms. Before continuing, I'd like to point out how you are lead to believe that this was all the Wind Fish's dream. Yet his biggest Nightmare takes the forms of some of LINK'S biggest fears. The dark wizard Agahnim, an amalgamation of some of the bigger bosses he's fought, and even Ganon himself. The Wind Fish should not know what these things are. And it is this thought that, after all these years, made me realize something. This is not just the Wind Fish's dream. Koholint Island is not a physical place created by the Wind Fish's magic that Link washed up on. This is an ethereal world, into which Link's unconscious mind has been drawn in, creating a kind of hybrid dream world, combining the minds of both Link and the Wind Fish. This is why the final boss is a group of enemies from Link's past. This is why the island is inhabited by Moblins, creatures that were created in Ganon's image and should only exist in lands that Ganon is fighting to control. This is why the most powerful weapon in the game, able to kill the final boss in one hit, is the boomerang, possibly the most iconic item of Link's arsenal that should have huge sentimental value to him, as it is always the first tool he gets. This is not a journey for Link to awaken the creature that is keeping him imprisoned on this island. It is a journey for both of them to wake up and return to the real world.

If you pay attention, you'll even notice that both Link and the Wind Fish have subconscious manifestations of their thoughts on the island. Marin is clearly a representation of the Wind Fish's desire to wake up and leave the island behind, with her talk of leaving the island, wondering what is outside of the island, and even going so far as to want to become a seagull so she can just fly forever, discovering new lands. The Owl, and by extension the various owl statues littered about, are very likely the Wind Fish's mind giving Link instructions on how to complete his journey. But what about Link? Surely anyone that has played the game knows that you can steal from the shop. Hell, it's almost mandatory to get that damn bow without hours of farming for money. However, doing so permanently changes your name to "THIEF," which everyone is happy to call you. Is Link's guilt for stealing being projected onto the island? Probably, as returning to the store gets you nothing but a slow death at the hands of an old man who should, by all means, NOT have access to a killer death beam. In the DX version of the game, the photo you get from stealing from the shop is even the ONLY photo in the game that has no notification at all of you getting it. It just silently appears in your album, like its too ashamed to be there for you to be told of it.

I could go on, but what's the fun of revealing everything? How about you go replay the game. Leave no stone unturned. Experience everything. Maybe even discover some new things of your own. Because, as this article has shown, even things you've been exposed to for years and years can still have hidden treasures within them, just waiting to be discovered, and deconstructed.