Koholint Island is a land of contrasts, it seems. A good portion of the changes made for this release are inspired and take what was already good about DX and enhances its scope as well as sheer amount of content.
The best new additions include the extra collectibles: new Heart Pieces and Seashell locations are a great method that the game uses to feel fresh, and the ones that now are continually added to Mabe Village make the town a much more integrated community - as though you can always visit and relax with plenty to do. I really like the addition of more warp points to use throughout the adventure, the more detailed overworld map layout, and the reduced amount of item switching overall. If these enhancements were the game's central unique attributes, I'd raise my score above DX for sure.
That said, the game's new flaws are super apparent. Chief among them is the infamous framerate drops that thankfully don't impede actual gameplay significantly, but are still so frequent when even just walking around that it's crazy the game wasn't updated to clean that up. Sometimes decisions regarding controls can come across as a strange execution of the original concept (particularly for Turtle Rock's mechanic, which only uses a joystick and no d-pad? what lmao).
A lot has also been criticized about the new Dungeon Builder mode, and I will also do this, yes, but it has a surprising amount of presence in obtaining 100% collectibles. The fact that it replaces the Photo Quest from DX doesn't irk me at all considering that I think much of the charm of that quest is in the expressiveness of the illustrations that would likely be a contrived effort to reproduce with the current in-game models (I also find that quest's comedy to be incomprehensible at times in DX, so it's not a huge loss for me to begin with). But I am of two minds about this new mode when taken on its own and its overall integration with the quest: on one hand, the challenges provided effectively showcase the difference in priorities that developers have in comparison to users, and can provide a nice change of pace from normal exploring with how it forces you to flip your thinking under different design constraints - a different kind of puzzle. The downside to everything, though, is playing through the dungeons after arranging for the sake of completing Dampe's challenges; this takes way too much time, in combination with arranging time, for what is transparently reused content with only slight changes. This is
a mode that's easy to get consumed by rather than having you consume it, with several objectives easily taking up to at least 15-20 minutes altogether for content that is just not fun enough in practice for there to be this many rewards kept behind them all. And mind you, this is a game where most other tasks take up to 5-10 mins. max due to its streamlined nature. I'd rather tackle an original, multi-part Dampe Dungeon to get the remaining collectibles than spend time in this mode at the end of the day. I don't want to make it sound like the mode's existence in itself is a core, debilitating flaw for the game, but it's significant to mention its shortcomings since it is the most established original content the game has. Also, chamber stones are bar-none some of the most unsatisfying collectibles to get in the series given how much effort obtaining most of them require and how little tangible usefulness they actually have.
There are also some aspects of the original that are simply translated alright, like the music direction. The strengths of the original compositions are still present and intact, but what was once an actively standout positive of the GBA game is now just a consistently fine background element. The artstyle is also passable, though the toy-like look of Link and NPCs isn't translated to most enemies which, in retrospect, makes the outrage fans initially had over the look of this game look even more pointlessly directed. I even got swept up in that "controversy" myself, not having touched any version of LA. Look at how nobody's concerned about talking like they used to about this these days, like a smaller version of Windwaker's initial reception. It's all a good demonstration to me of how insidious and fleeting a good portion of community-driven Internet discourse can be, and what to better avoid when considering what I know about a topic, and how I know what I do, before jumping on bandwagons. I'd like to think I've improved at least at this much since then. There's plenty to meaningfully criticize about this game without resorting to being disingenuous or insisting it betrays the original vision for the game somehow because of its differences; it's just not always that deep.
In summary, both versions of LA I've compared remain completely appropriate ways to experience these games, and I would consider their strengths and weaknesses to generally balance each other out (would probably to default to the Switch version of the two if given the choice), but unfortunately this remake is not such an unambiguous improvement that a $60 purchase is warranted. I hope the Dungeon Builder isn't what made Nintendo charge this much for the game, as that would be an unfortunate waste. It's a better financial decision to download DX on 3DS if you can, and try that out.
The best new additions include the extra collectibles: new Heart Pieces and Seashell locations are a great method that the game uses to feel fresh, and the ones that now are continually added to Mabe Village make the town a much more integrated community - as though you can always visit and relax with plenty to do. I really like the addition of more warp points to use throughout the adventure, the more detailed overworld map layout, and the reduced amount of item switching overall. If these enhancements were the game's central unique attributes, I'd raise my score above DX for sure.
That said, the game's new flaws are super apparent. Chief among them is the infamous framerate drops that thankfully don't impede actual gameplay significantly, but are still so frequent when even just walking around that it's crazy the game wasn't updated to clean that up. Sometimes decisions regarding controls can come across as a strange execution of the original concept (particularly for Turtle Rock's mechanic, which only uses a joystick and no d-pad? what lmao).
A lot has also been criticized about the new Dungeon Builder mode, and I will also do this, yes, but it has a surprising amount of presence in obtaining 100% collectibles. The fact that it replaces the Photo Quest from DX doesn't irk me at all considering that I think much of the charm of that quest is in the expressiveness of the illustrations that would likely be a contrived effort to reproduce with the current in-game models (I also find that quest's comedy to be incomprehensible at times in DX, so it's not a huge loss for me to begin with). But I am of two minds about this new mode when taken on its own and its overall integration with the quest: on one hand, the challenges provided effectively showcase the difference in priorities that developers have in comparison to users, and can provide a nice change of pace from normal exploring with how it forces you to flip your thinking under different design constraints - a different kind of puzzle. The downside to everything, though, is playing through the dungeons after arranging for the sake of completing Dampe's challenges; this takes way too much time, in combination with arranging time, for what is transparently reused content with only slight changes. This is
a mode that's easy to get consumed by rather than having you consume it, with several objectives easily taking up to at least 15-20 minutes altogether for content that is just not fun enough in practice for there to be this many rewards kept behind them all. And mind you, this is a game where most other tasks take up to 5-10 mins. max due to its streamlined nature. I'd rather tackle an original, multi-part Dampe Dungeon to get the remaining collectibles than spend time in this mode at the end of the day. I don't want to make it sound like the mode's existence in itself is a core, debilitating flaw for the game, but it's significant to mention its shortcomings since it is the most established original content the game has. Also, chamber stones are bar-none some of the most unsatisfying collectibles to get in the series given how much effort obtaining most of them require and how little tangible usefulness they actually have.
There are also some aspects of the original that are simply translated alright, like the music direction. The strengths of the original compositions are still present and intact, but what was once an actively standout positive of the GBA game is now just a consistently fine background element. The artstyle is also passable, though the toy-like look of Link and NPCs isn't translated to most enemies which, in retrospect, makes the outrage fans initially had over the look of this game look even more pointlessly directed. I even got swept up in that "controversy" myself, not having touched any version of LA. Look at how nobody's concerned about talking like they used to about this these days, like a smaller version of Windwaker's initial reception. It's all a good demonstration to me of how insidious and fleeting a good portion of community-driven Internet discourse can be, and what to better avoid when considering what I know about a topic, and how I know what I do, before jumping on bandwagons. I'd like to think I've improved at least at this much since then. There's plenty to meaningfully criticize about this game without resorting to being disingenuous or insisting it betrays the original vision for the game somehow because of its differences; it's just not always that deep.
In summary, both versions of LA I've compared remain completely appropriate ways to experience these games, and I would consider their strengths and weaknesses to generally balance each other out (would probably to default to the Switch version of the two if given the choice), but unfortunately this remake is not such an unambiguous improvement that a $60 purchase is warranted. I hope the Dungeon Builder isn't what made Nintendo charge this much for the game, as that would be an unfortunate waste. It's a better financial decision to download DX on 3DS if you can, and try that out.