History Trivia / TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening

** The final boss's last form, [=DethI=], is actually a [[SpellMyNameWithAnS weirdly spelled translation]] of Death Eye. Because the uppercase "I" and lowercase "L" look similar in many fonts, many mistook it for "Dethl" (with an "L"). This extended to Zelda.com and even the Prima player's guide.

* CreatorDrivenSuccessor: To ''Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru'' ("VideoGame/ForTheFrogTheBellTolls") an earlier action-adventure game for the UsefulNotes/GameBoy. TheRival character from ''Kaeru'', Richard, makes a cameo in ''Link's Awakening''.

* NewbieBoom: The UsefulNotes/GameBoy original sold about 3.8 million units, while the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch remake sold more than 6 million as of 2022. This was attributed in large part to the larger public profile the ''Zelda'' franchise in general got after ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' became a massive hit (along with the "Switch effect" that saw great software sales in general on the console), as it's otherwise rare for remakes to sell better than the original games.

* DevelopmentGag: You can visit Richard from ''VideoGame/ForTheFrogTheBellTolls'', a reference to ''Link's Awakening'' using a improved version of that game's engine.

* PropRecycling: In the Switch remake, Kirby's model is reused directly from ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'', though with different textures applied.

* AscendedFanon: The entire game was this, in a sense. Rather than start as an official ''Zelda'' title, ''Link's Awakening'' was more of a personal project for fun's sake during the dev team's off-time, one that was fortunately received with interest and praise upon being revealed to Nintendo's higher-ups. A happy accident in hindsight, as the remodeled ''VideoGame/ForTheFrogTheBellTolls'' engine and most of its assets would make development of the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle series]] games a much easier task.

* FlipFlopOfGod: Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto once said this game could be the sequel to any ''Legend of Zelda'' game where Ganon is defeated. Many people saw it as the sequel to ''A Link to the Past'', which was the Zelda game released before this one. This was half-right, as the ''Hyrule Historia'' later placed it after the ''Oracle'' games, which were sequels to [=ALttP=].[[note]]Sequels in Zelda meaning any game that stars a [[LegacyCharacter Link]] that appeared in a prior title.[[/note]]

* NewbieBoom: The UsefulNotes/GameBoy original sold about 3.8 million units, while the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch remake sold about 5.5 million as of 2021. This was attributed in large part to the larger public profile the ''Zelda'' franchise in general got after ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' became a massive hit (along with the "Switch effect" that saw great software sales in general on the console), as it's otherwise rare for remakes to sell better than the original games.

** During the development of the game, Dark Link was considered to be a form that the Shadow Nightmares took on during the final boss fight. It is likely that he was to act as a sort of MouthOfSauron, giving the fight some BossBanter between phases.

* UrbanLegendOfZelda: The final dungeon of the game is in the Wind Fish's Egg, a location that you have been practically able to reach since you could get to the second dungeon, but cannot enter until all eight dungeons are cleared. Once inside, you enter a room with nothing special, however the second room is almost completely black, and lacks a floor, forcing you to fall down and do a Lost Woods style puzzle. However, if one looks closely, you can see a set of floor tiles on the other side of the second room, implying there is something over there. There isn't, but childhood rumors flew regarding a second version of the dungeon, one that was more like the rest you had played through during the game. Maybe there was a harder final boss, maybe there was a secret ending, maybe there was a secret ninth instrument that instant-killed the final boss; it all depended on who told you about it.

* QuoteSource: ShopliftAndDie

* CompletelyDifferentTitle: The game is titled ''The Dreaming Island'' in Japanese, which was changed to ''Link's Awakening'' for the English localization. The original title was apparently considered as an English title during development, judging by files found in a ContentLeak; it was likely changed to hide the fact that [[spoiler: Koholint Island is an dream]].