Community:The Legend of Zelda: Ballad of the Wind Fish

The Legend of Zelda: Ballad of the Wind Fish was a fan made game created by Jerrel Dulay. It was intended to be a 3D remake of the Game Boy Zelda title, Link's Awakening, and used a very similar engine that console Zelda games, such as Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess utilizes.

It was initially designed to be a confidential project, and would have not been announced to the general public until a later time. However, a leaked video of the project was uploaded on numerous sites, most notably at Gametrailers. The project was widely spread to several known Zelda community fan sites as well as to other websites, where on most the video has been deleted. Ballad of the Wind Fish had since gotten an array of positive and negative input.

An alpha demo of the project had been released on May 3rd, 2009, and is mainly for showcasing the game, including the landscape and usable items. The demo can be downloaded at the main site.

The project has since been cancelled as of 2010. The game's source code was considered to be released to the public, but nothing has come thus far.

Plot and Setting
As Ballad of the Wind Fish was a fan remake of Link's Awakening, it is most likely that its plot would have been the same as Link's Awakening's. However as mentioned in an interview over at That VideoGame Blog website, Jerrel Dulay had also mentioned the possibilty of introducing some additional new items and dungeons and some changes in sub-quests, such as rescuing BowWow.

Gameplay
Ballad of the Wind Fish used an engine that console Zelda titles, such as Ocarina of Time, use. As with other console Zelda titles, the game was intended to have a menu system in which several items could be equipped and used at once, and would have also offered the ability of L-Targeting. At one moment, Ballad of the Wind Fish displayed its controls at the bottom of the screen, much like Link's Awakening did, but had displayed Wii control graphics that were ripped from Twilight Princess. Jerrel Dulay had also mentioned in the Zelda Universe forums and in an interview that it may have been possible, using bluetooth technology, to play the game using a Wiimote.

Interior houses have been shown to have an overhead view, primarily to give the player a better view. There was no confirmed word on how side scroller rooms would have been programed in the game, but Jerrel Dulay had stated that he was considering several options for it.

Changes
Although Ballad of the Wind Fish was a remake of Link's Awakening, it had been announced that there would have been various new original content, as well as a variety of other changes in existing things.

Items

 * Probably the most notable new addition was the Ocean Rod, which uses magic power to summon a water typhoon to the area where the rod was used. This typhoon, when walked into, allows Link to perform a 'super jump' to reach new areas. The button the rod is assigned to can also be held to charge up the rod. This Rod will also work as a 'sword' while submerged underwater. Supposedly the Ocean Rod can also be 'combined' with the bow to shoot Water Arrows as well.
 * Several other items, such as the Magic Rod, were also planned to be 'moved' into different dungeons or locations. The reason primarily because the designer felt that some items were originally acquired very late in the original game.
 * The Cucco Balloon, misspelled as 'Cuckoo', was another new item. It works the same as a normal Cucco in console Zelda titles, as it allows Link to slowly hover downwards when held. The only main difference is that the balloon is an equippable item and can be used anytime.
 * BowWow would have been an actual item, and would have supposedly been featured in its own feature-length dungeon. It was also planned to function as an anchor to keep Link underwater.
 * The Boomerang and Magic Powder was supposedly planned to also be combined.

Dungeons

 * There was possiblity of at least two new dungeons, which either may hold new items or older items that were moved. There was no word whether the Color Dungeon from Link's Awakening DX would have made a reappearance.