The influence of Link's Awakening on Deltarune
Deltarune is a game with many well-known influences such as the 90s RPGs EarthBound and Mother 3, the deconstructive RPG Moon: Remix RPG Adventure and possibly the RPG Breath of Fire II in regards to parts of the backstory. There is another game whose presence looms over Deltarune, starting in Chapter 3, that is not often discussed in this regard: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Beyond Chapter 3, Link's Awakening is also thematically relevant to Chapter 5 and even Deltarune as a whole.
The connection between Link's Awakening and TV World
Much of Deltarune Chapter 3 is spent playing the in-universe video game TV Time: The Legend of Tenna and its original incarnation, known only as "Mantle", should the player wish to pursue the extra content of the chapter. These games are top-down Zelda-esque games, reflecting the series as it was in the years before and right after the release of its most famous title, Ocarina of Time.
The most obvious parallel to draw with the game boards of The Legend of Tenna in Chapter 3 is with the original The Legend of Zelda, strengthened by the "Power Croissant" item. This is a riff on the Power Bracelet items in various Zelda games, whose sprites in early titles resemble croissants. However, the island setting of the second board of The Legend of Tenna also brings to mind Link's Awakening, which is set on a tropical island. And that game also has a Power Bracelet as well.
A more explicit connection is found in the code of Deltarune, specifically pertaining to the third board of the Sword Route commonly called Bit Roots. Three sprites from the Zelda series, used in Link's Awakening and the Oracles games (which re-use a lot of elements from Link's Awakening) can be found. Only one of them, the one associated with fire shot out by torches in dungeons, is used in-game. It is associated with the object spawner for the rotating fire bars in Bit Roots. This was first brought to my attention thanks to a video from YouTuber Soda Man, specifically his video Every Secret Hiding in DELTARUNE's Code at 17:15, and he gave me some insight to what the sprites represent in-game as well.
It thus seems likely Link's Awakening had direct influence on the development of Chapter 3. Aside from this, some of the songs in Chapter 3 also seem to be based on tracks from Link's Awakening or are at least reminiscent. SWORD parallels Powerful Link, NORTHERNLIGHT is reminiscent of a distorted Mabe Village and most notably, GLACEIR is very similar to the two Face Shrine themes.
Waking dreams in islands and Dark Worlds
What is the relevance of these connections? The story of Deltarune deals a lot with the theme of using fantasy to escape one's problems, be it through playing pretend, the internet, tv, the internet, religion or nostalgic memories, until reality eventually comes knocking. Fantasy is brought alive in a literal sense through the Dark Fountains that create Dark Worlds. Rooms become entire worlds and the objects within become people that can be interacted with, all viewed through the mind of the one who made the Dark Fountain.
Link's Awakening meanwhile is set some time after The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. After defeating Ganon in that game, Link traveled to foreign lands to train and grow stronger. However, on his way back to Hyrule, he is shipwrecked on Koholint Island.
Over the course of the game, Link finds out that Koholint Island is located within the dream of a deity called the Wind Fish. In many ways, Koholint Island is similar to the Dark Worlds of Deltarune. According to the Wind Fish, it started out as an egg, but before long, an entire world appeared. One filled with mountains, forests, villages, dungeons and people.
"IN MY DREAMS... AN EGG APPEARED AND WAS SURROUNDED BY AN ISLAND, WITH PEOPLE, ANIMALS, AN ENTIRE WORLD!"
Similarly, Dark Worlds may appear empty at times but be tempered by light into something where people actually dwell, as explained in Chapter 3.
"The dusty, the empty, such are the worlds such as those. Ooo la la. The purple worlds, you think they give the creeps. Tsk... You have seen naught but that tempered by light. You should thank Tenna for brightening everything up."
A central conceit of Deltarune is that the Dark Worlds are formed from the experiences and mind of those who create their respective Dark Fountain. Similarly, there are indications that Koholint Island was in some way formed by Link's experiences as the map has some similarities with the map of Hyrule from A Link to the Past.
Interesting to note is that initially during development, Link's Awakening started out as a Game Boy port of A Link to the Past. But it eventually grew into its own project. Kensuke Tanabe, a writer for both games, also reused an idea he had from A Link to the Past's development in Link's Awakening: an egg atop a mountain breaks and leads to the end of the world. In this way, the real life history of Link's Awakening may also parallel the in-game history of the dream island.
Will your fantasy prove stronger than ours?
The main antagonists of Link's Awakening, collectively referred to as the Shadow Nightmares, are creatures born of nightmares. Their origins are described as follows in the Japanese version of the game (translation by Sidier):
ぢゃが、あるとき ユメのさけめから あくむがめばえ しまを、むしばみだしたのぢゃ。
But, at some point in time, nightmares sprouted from cracks in the dream and began to spoil the island.
The nightmares appeared from cracks within the dream and began to wreak havoc on Koholint Island. The exact origins are not spelled out, but they do take the form of several of enemies from A Link to the Past, most notably Ganon and Agahnim, the main antagonists. The Shadow Nightmares may thus be born of Link's nightmares, with the same holding true for the monsters in the game, which appeared on the island at the same time as Link.
The Nightmares are creatures of the dream world and their motivation is their own continued existence. As such, the monsters guard the instruments needed to wake the Wind Fish and they chastise Link as an outsider. He is someone from outside the dream, someone from the real world, and do everything in his power to stop his quest.
"This island is going to dis- appear... Our world is going to disappear... Our world... Our... world..."
In Deltarune, the influence of these antagonists runs most deeply in Chapter 5. There, seven flowers belonging to Asgore Dreemurr attained a new level of consciousness under the influence of the Dark World, taking the form of humans (and a mouse). Their only real desire is to make Asgore happy and to perpetuate their new existence they found themselves in, which allowed them to explore their newfound humanity and the feelings that came with it.
The climax of the main conflict in Chapter 5 ultimately revolves around the fantasy of the seven flowers versus that of the main characters. Leaving too many Dark Fountains open poses a threat to the world, so the protagonists of Deltarune Kris, Ralsei and Susie seek to close the one that gave the flowers sentience. Meanwhile, they want to keep their own one that houses many of the dark creatures from their previous adventures open. Flowery, the leader of the flowers, calls the heroes out for this as hypocritical.
"Why not leave OUR Fountain... and get rid of YOURS in Castle Town? Y... you... Or... will you really take away someone else's fantasy... Just to keep your own?"
The motivations are thus similar, though the Shadow Nightmares are more unambiguously framed as in the wrong for also keeping the Wind Fish hostage just to perpetuate their own world. But in the end the Shadow Nightmares have to fade as the Wind Fish is forced to wake up and the flowers have to concede the willpower of the protagonists is stronger than their own, as shown by their defeat in battle.
The Hero cannot escape from the Dream
But where does all of this leave Link and the protagonists of Deltarune? Link is spurred by a mysterious Owl to gather the instruments needed to wake the Wind Fish and learns only partially through his journey that Koholint Island is a dream. This happens in the southern Face Shrine, where an ancient tablet reveals the truth:
"THE WIND FISH SLUMBERS LONG... THE HERO'S LIFE GONE... SEA BEARS FOAM, SLEEP BEARS DREAMS. BOTH END IN THE SAME WAY CRASSSH!"
The only way for Link to leave the island is to wake the Wind Fish and destroy Koholint. Link is thus faced with a choice: will he remain in the dream and preserve the people within it, or will he choose to wake up with the Wind Fish thereby ending the dream for good?
In theory, there is nothing really driving Link in Link's Awakening aside from his desire to return home to Hyrule. He could let the dream go on in perpetuity, thereby saving the people of Koholint and the Shadow Nightmares. The people of Koholint don't even know if there is anything outside the island. They never even give it thought.
"Where are you from, brother? ...Outside the island? What is 'outside?' I've never thought about it..."
The bosses working for the Shadow Nightmares also taunt Link about his choice to sow doubt in his heart. Will he disappear along with Koholint when the Wind Fish wakes, for example? But another quote from the bosses reveals more about their underlying motivations.
"Why did you come here? If it weren't for you, nothing would have to change!"
Their desire for Koholint to continue is a desire, ultimately, for stagnation. To remain trapped in a world that is not real, where the outside world does not exist, where there is no past and no future.
"Dude! You're asking me when we started to live on this island? What do you mean by 'when?' Whoa! The concept just makes my head hurt!"
It is likely no coincidence that of the themes referenced in Deltarune, two are fairly standard ones that players will hear a lot while playing the game, but the other two are the Face Shrine themes. The theme that plays in the area where Link learns the truth of Koholint.
The seven flowers in Deltarune keep Asgore trapped in a world made of vapid nostalgia, with the start of Chapter 5's Dark World even calling back to the start of Chapter 1's Dark World, which released 8 years prior in real life and so is sure to feel nostalgic to players.
Similarly, the antagonists of other chapters are stuck in the past as well or want to create fantasy worlds: King in Chapter 1 feels nostalgia for the days the people of the Light World (Lightners) used to play with him, Queen in Chapter 2 seeks to create an ideal fantasy world for the Lightners to make them happy and Tenna in Chapter 3 wishes to go back to the days where Lightners would gather around him to watch tv.
But this is not limited to the antagonists of Deltarune. Susie, one of the protagonists, also just wants things to stay the way they are forever. To escape what is implied to be a neglectful and alcoholic household, she takes up residence in a Dark World of her own at the end of Chapter 5 and refers to it as 'home.'
"When the sun comes up again... I want tomorrow to be the same as yesterday. And the next day to be just the same as that. That in the end we can always go back to the way things were before."
As Deltarune is not a finished game, it is unknown where the story will ultimately end. But it seems likely that as just for the Shadow Nightmares, the people of Koholint, King, Queen, Tenna, the seven flowers and indeed Link himself, eventually, the dream will have to come to an end as is in their nature. Fantasy can enrich one's live as Susie learned to open up thanks to the adventures she had in the Dark World and make friends, but it is dangerous to lose oneself in it as well. This may very well be where the story of Deltarune is going in Chapters 6 and 7. But in the end, the memories, experiences and lessons learned from fantasy will always remain.
"BUT, VERILY, IT BE THE NATURE OF DREAMS TO END! WHEN I DOST AWAKEN, KOHOLINT WILL BE GONE... ONLY THE MEMORY OF THIS DREAM LAND WILL EXIST IN THE WAKING WORLD... SOMEDAY, THOU MAY RECALL THIS ISLAND... THAT MEMORY MUST BE THE REAL DREAM WORLD..."
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