The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

"Long ago, in the beautiful kingdom of Hyrule surrounded by mountains and forests..." - Prologue

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (ゼルダの伝説：　神々のトライフォース, Zeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Toraifoosu, lit. The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods) is the third game in the The Legend of Zelda series, and the first and only one for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. After the side-scrolling and more RPG-like gameplay of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, A Link to the Past was a return to the overhead view and gameplay style of the original. It introduced the concept of two different worlds (one dark, one light), which was revisited to an extent in its console successor Ocarina of Time with two time periods rather than dark and light worlds.

Story
Based on the Instruction Manual Story for A Link to the Past

The Imprisoning War
One day, a band of evil thieves managed to open the gateway to the Sacred Realm, where the mystical Triforce was hidden. Upon finding the sacred golden relic, the leader of the thieves, Ganondorf, slew his followers and claimed it as his own. Before long, dark power began to flow forth from the Sacred Realm. People were drawn into this darkness and never heard from again. As a result, the King of Hyrule ordered the seven sages to seal the entrance to the Sacred Realm. A great battle ensued--monsters poured into the light world from the sacred land and attacked the castle. The Knights of Hyrule defended the sages during the great battle against evil, and, though most of them perished in the struggle, the sages were able to cast their seal, stoppering the flow of darkness and trapping the evil king Ganon within. This battle became known as the Imprisoning War.

The Wizard
Once the conflicts against Ganon had ceased, Hyrule entered a time of peace which lasted for centuries, until one year, when unexplained catastrophes began to occur. Pestilence and drought ravaged the land. Thinking the recent disasters plaguing Hyrule were somehow linked to the sages' seal, the king ordered his sages to investigate--but the seal was still intact. Desperate for answers, he offered rewards for anyone who could find the source of Hyrule's troubles.

In response, a stranger named Agahnim appeared as if from nowhere and stayed the catastrophes with mighty magic. As a reward, the king gave him a new position as chief advisor to the throne, and the common folk proclaimed him their hero. Once more, peace appeared to have returned to Hyrule. Yet all was not well. Agahnim began to govern Hyrule in place of the king and abuse his political power as he saw fit. Rumors spread saying that Agahnim planned to remove the king and take the crown for himself, and that strange magical experiments were taking place in the castle tower at night. He cast spells on the soldiers and kidnapped the young maidens descended from the seven sages, using their powers in an attempt to break the seal placed on the Sacred Realm.

Your Quest Begins
One night, a girl's voice awakens you from your sleep.

"Help me... my name is Zelda... I am in the castle dungeon," She telepathically pleads.

You jump out of bed not knowing whether the voice was part of a dream or reality. Upon leaving your bed, you find your Uncle, who should be fast asleep at this time, preparing to go out, girded for battle. "I'll be back by morning," he says as he departs. "Don't leave the house."

Plot
The only weapon potent enough to defeat Agahnim was the legendary blade of evil's bane. Legends said that only the hero who won the three pendants could claim the sword:

''The hero's triumph on Cataclysm's Eve

''wins three symbols of virtue.

''The Master Sword he then retrieves,

keeping the Knight's line true.

- ALttP, Master Sword inscription

That hero was supposed to emerge from the descendants of the Knights of Hyrule who had aided the seven sages during the battle against evil in which the sages' seals were cast. But the Knights had nearly been wiped out in that battle, and so it was thought that the hero would never rise again. Luckily, Link was the last remaining member of their bloodline, the one destined to become the legendary hero, and he managed to obtain the three pendants from the temples in Hyrule and found and withdrew the Master Sword from its resting place in the Lost Woods.

But Link claimed it too late, and by the time he arrived to challenge Agahnim at Hyrule Castle, the priest had already sent Zelda to the Dark World, thereby breaking the sages' seal, then opened a gate to link the worlds. Link then learned that Ganon, the evil King of Darkness, had rediscovered the entrance to the sacred land and claimed the mystical Triforce. Ganon wished to conquer the world, and so demonic power transformed the sacred land into the Dark World. After building up his power, Ganon had planned to go on to the light world to completely fulfill his wish, but he was unable to depart the Realm. His evil power remained with him, trapped there by the sages' seals.

Now that the sages' seals were broken, however, it was only a matter of time before evil power covered the land. If Ganon was allowed to return to the world of light, nothing would be able to stop him. As long as he remained in the Dark World, however, Hyrule's hopes remained as well. Using a magic mirror, Link traveled between the worlds of light and darkness and rescued the maidens from evil monsters. With their power, he was able to penetrate the barrier surrounding Ganon's Tower in the Dark World. He ascended the tower, where he again discovered the priest Agahnim. This time he managed to defeat Agahnim, and Ganon finally revealed himself.

Ganon fled to the Pyramid of Power, now ready to make his way to the world of light, but Link was hot on his heels. Link, too, entered the Pyramid, and, armed with the demon-destroying Silver Arrows and the legendary Master Sword, he faced off with the King of Darkness. With the Silver Arrows, he was able to deal a fatal blow to Ganon and recover the Triforce. Thus was the Sacred Realm purged of Ganon's evil power, and thus did Link become the new master of the Triforce of legend.

Triforce of the Gods
The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods is the English translation of the original Japanese name, Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Triforce. It is said that Nintendo of America changed the name of the game to "A Link to the Past" because they wanted to avoid any references that could be considered religious in the title of the game.

Trivia

 * According to "Twin Galaxies", the fastest completion time for A Link to the Past is 1 hour, 36 minutes and 43 seconds by Rodrigo Lopes on June 5th, 2003.

Characters

 * Link
 * Zelda
 * Agahnim
 * Sahasrahla
 * Link's Uncle

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Ports and Remakes
A Link to the Past was ported to the Game Boy Advance, adding Four Swords into the same cartridge. The game added some sounds, and modified a few sprites. While not affecting gameplay, this remake of A Link to the Past featured newer artwork of Link looking slightly younger for some reason (compare old Link artworks of A Link to the Past to newer, cleaner looking artwork; Link looks slightly like his Oracle series appearance but a bit older). It could be that this is the same Link as the one from the Oracle series, but only the newer artwork looks similar; whether Nintendo did this for that reason or not may never be known, it may just be a coincidence that the artworks of the Game Boy Advance remake and the Oracle games look very similar. Another thing to point out is the sprite of the Witch's Hut's assistant has changes to look like Maple, increasing the chance that it could be the same Link.

The game was also later ported to the Wii's Virtual Console later on January 22, 2007.