The Frog For Whom The Bell Tolls - Link's Awakening's Predecessor

[DarkeSword]

Came across this today!

Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru

I never knew about this game before, but apparently Nintendo and Intelligent Systems developed this game for Gameboy, and the engine would eventually be reused for Link's Awakening! The graphics are really similar.

There's a fan translation patch out for it too. I think I'm gonna try this game out. Link's Awakening is my favorite Zelda game.

[Yami]

So the cameos were just laziness on Nintendo's side
I know this game, I played it a few years ago, it's not as good as Zelda, but not bad in it's own right.

[WillRock]

hold on I recognise this cover art... Isn't this the game with the original theme for Richards Villa? Let me check...

EDIT: YES check it out bros! 

You've probably figured it out if you're fans of the game, but I believe Richard and his castle were references to the character in this game. There are plenty of more well known references to characters in Links Awakening, including Mario, Luigi, Goombas, Kirby, Yoshi etc, but this was a much more obscure addition.

 

[Chernabogue]

 

 

[Eino Keskitalo]

I remember reading about the game on HG101. Sounded pretty good, perhaps I'll be inspired to pick it up!

[The Damned]

It's actually a decent little game. It wasn't pushing any limits, but it was a solid game overall. And sometimes, "solid overall" is just as satisfying as anything else.

Fun fact: Richard from the game appears in Link's Awakening, in the castle before you gain access to the Key Dungeon. And anything that ties into one of my favorite games ever is therefore good by association/osmosis.

[Tex]

Oh, yeah. I remember seeing fan art of this game in No Marios.

Miyamoto's Mole Mania also has a Link's Awakening feel to it. But it was overlooked because everyone was busy playing Pokémon at the time.

[SystemsReady]

Damn, I got beaten to the info about the cameo! ahahaha...

The Oracle games are way more polished than Link's Awakening...I wonder how much they changed the underlying engine to make it so. Especially since Oracle of Seasons started out as a Zelda 1 remake.

[The Damned]

Well, the engine difference between Link's Awakening and the Oracles games is likely because of the eight year gap between the games. Even the GameBoy Color remake (DX) was still a few years before Ages/Seasons came out. Combined with the fact that the GameBoy Color's hardware, while significantly better than the  original GameBoy, was structurally the same, and that many developers had learned every little trick they could do with the hardware, it makes sense that they would have opted for a better engine with more features.

[Yami]

21 hours ago, WillRock said:

You've probably figured it out if you're fans of the game, but I believe Richard and his castle were references to the character in this game. 

I read somewhere that the Richard in LA is the same Richard after the game, so he kind of "relocated" to the island (how he did this is a different discussion)

[WillRock]

20 minutes ago, Yami said:

I read somewhere that the Richard in LA is the same Richard after the game, so he kind of "relocated" to the island (how he did this is a different discussion)

Well the island (SPOILERS) was a dream of the wind fish  so unless this game itself was ALSO part of it, I can't see how that theory makes any sense

[Yami]

1 hour ago, WillRock said:

Well the island (SPOILERS) was a dream of the wind fish  so unless this game itself was ALSO part of it, I can't see how that theory makes any sense

I know.

[Mirby]

Isn't the main character of this an Assist Trophy in Smash 4? Or is that another character?

[The Damned]

http://supersmashbros.wikia.com/wiki/Prince_of_Sabl%C3%A9

Yes. Yes he is.

[SystemsReady]

On 1/29/2016 at 10:36 AM, The Damned said:

Well, the engine difference between Link's Awakening and the Oracles games is likely because of the eight year gap between the games. Even the GameBoy Color remake (DX) was still a few years before Ages/Seasons came out. Combined with the fact that the GameBoy Color's hardware, while significantly better than the  original GameBoy, was structurally the same, and that many developers had learned every little trick they could do with the hardware, it makes sense that they would have opted for a better engine with more features.

Eight years? Wow, that explains the massive difference between the games. I personally didn't think Link's Awakening aged that well (far too much moon logic), but I've been replaying Oracle of Ages for the first time in over a decade and it holds up.