Inspired by @roykoopa's recent Top Ten: Best Link's Awakening moments, I recently restarted Link's Awakening again. I intend to finish it for the first time. I was just wondering, what tunic do you guys recommend I get, the Red Tunic (power) or the Blue Tunic (Defense)?

Also, I've heard that one has to be careful with the seashells for some reason, why is that?

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I chose defense for the simple reason that you can upgrade your sword during the game without getting the red tunic, but you can't upgrade your defense without the blue tunic.

As for the seashells, I'm not sure what you mean. Just be sure to visit Seashell Mansion when you have exactly five and ten seashells, then visit again after you get twenty (or more).

I usually get blue 'cause I think it looks better, but honestly red would probably be more useful since you can drop bosses faster.

Red for sure. After all, the best defense is a bitchin' look.

ludist210 said:

As for the seashells, I'm not sure what you mean. Just be sure to visit Seashell Mansion when you have exactly five and ten seashells, then visit again after you get twenty (or more).

That's pretty much it I think. You get an extra shell if you visit the mansion with exactly 5 and 10. (And maybe 15? dunno). IT doesn't matter if you miss them though, there's more than 20 in the game. I didn't know about the extra ones and I got through okay.

I do like blue better than red in general, but in this case I prefer the extra attack power. Faster kills=less time to get hurt anyway.

This is weird. More people are saying Red, but more people are voting blue. It seems there are some quiet dissenters among you.

@sirmastersephiroth Tch, those cowering Blues WOULD hide. They don't have the stuff to stand up and shout their resolve in the streets like us daring Reds!

DEFENSE

Between the option to end fights quicker or to allow them to drag on, I always choose ending fights quicker.

To me it's an obvious choice.

nate38 said:

Red for sure. After all, the best defense is a bitchin' look.

Haha, I like this.

I went with the Red Tunic in my first and only run so far this year, but I think the Blue one is more efficient for those who want to get the perfect ending.
I'm more of a impatient type, so I got the Red Tunic as soon as I could, so I could take on the harder part of the game faster.

But believe me, by the end of the game, the Red Tunic's utility is useful to the final boss only, really. You can always go back in the Color Dungeon and ask the fairy to change your clothing (gee, that sounded odd).

Not only the Lvl 2 sword is a reason to stick with defense, but the Boomerang (final reward after finishing the Link's Awakening Trading Sequence) will take care of most of the bad guys in one hit. And it even has a high ration on dropping fairies. It's insane. Clearly, Link's Awakening's Boomerang is the most overpowered weapon in series.

I picked Red, but I figured out that the Blue would have come more in handy.

It's up to you.

EDIT: "Utility is useful"...? Really? I never thought of such thing.

I need to post more often and polish my English Grammar a bit.

Guillaume said:

Between the option to end fights quicker or to allow them to drag on, I always choose ending fights quicker.

But more time means you have longer to figure out how to damage the boss (I stole that logic from Zero). It shouldn't be too much of an issue in Link's Awakening though, the bosses are pretty straightforward.

Besides, past Guillaume says to skip the color dungeon!

@Secret_Tunnel

Current Guillaume still skips the dungeon!

And he really doesn't need more time to figure out how to damage bosses he's killed dozens of times already.

Man, Guillaume is awesome.

I always go with the red one. Maybe it's me, but the blue one doesn't seem to decrease damage from attacks that already do a half heart of damage. There aren't too many enemies that deal more than a half heart, so the advantage of the blue one is limited.

Also, even though the lvl 2 sword doubles the damage from lvl 1, it doesn't have the knockback effect that the red tunic has. For this reason, red tunic > lvl 2 sword. Not only that, but you can't get the second sword until very far into the game, and I actually didn't get it at all in my first playthrough. The seashells can be tough to find and are a tedious pain to track down.

Thanks for the mention Sam!

As for myself, it's red all the way. I never really thought about the fact I was going to get the level 2 sword anyway; I just like the boost in offense regardless. Besides, I already know the game inside and out and generally don't worry about getting hit all that much.

Red tunic looks cool too.

I'd go red. You'll feel the effects of how much easier the game becomes from it.

Though back in MY day, we didn't have these fancy tunics. Link just wore his handy monochromatic olive tunic.

I went with Red Tunic, as the majority suggested. I'm pretty happy with the choice. I'm currently on my way to the Sign Post Maze and I just finished the trading quest.