The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords is a relatively short game alongside A Link to the Past for the Game Boy Advance. It was the first multi-player Zelda game to be released, and the first in the Four Swords lineup. The game introduced Vaati as a new main boss for the franchise. To play it, one must link up two to four GBA systems each with its own game.

Prologue
"Long ago, in the kingdom of Hyrule, there appeared a Wind Sorcerer named Vaati. Vaati could bend the wind to his will and used this awful power to terrorize many villages of Hyrule. In his assaults on the villages, Vaati would kidnap any beautiful girls who caught his fancy.

''Many knights from the castle and other brave men set out to subdue the sorcerer and rescue the girls, but each one fell in turn to Vaati's awesome power. Just as the people had begun to lose hope, a lone young boy traveling with little but a sword at his side appeared.''

''When this boy heard what was happening, he said only, "I will defeat this sorcerer." He boldly entered Vaati's palace, mystically trapped the evil sorcerer inside the blade of his sword, and returned the young girls to their villages. The boy then went deep into the forest and disappeared.''

''The villagers asked the girls how a boy so young could have saved them all and defeated the sorcerer when no one else could. The young girls told a story of how with just a wave of his sword, the boy's body shattered into four pieces, each of which then formed a complete copy of the boy. These four young boys then worked together to defeat the sorcerer. The people did not believe the story, but they called it the Four Sword nonetheless. As rumors of the blade's power to divide a person into four entities spread, the people built a shrine to protect it.''

''Princess Zelda of the land of Hyrule was a beautiful young girl born with mysterious power to sense approaching forces of evil. For this reason, she was assigned with the sacred duty of protecting the shrine of the Four Sword and the blade itself. One day, Zelda was in Hyrule Castle when she sensed that something unusual was occurring at the Four Sword Shrine. She asked a boy named Link, whom she trusted above anyone else, to accompany her to investigate the happenings at the shrine...''"

Defeat of the Wind Mage at the hand of the Four Heroes
As they approached the shrine to check on the seal, suddenly a dark figure grabbed princess Zelda. The seal on Vaati had weakened over time, and Vaati managed to break out of his prison within the Four Sword. Having still no memory of his time as a Picori, or the power of the Light Force, Vaati did not recognize the princess and saw only a fair maiden. He decided she was to become his bride to commemorate his return and took off with her to his palace. After being instructed by fairies, Link takes the Four Sword from its pedestal and is split into four, as the legend foretold. The Great Fairies could help Link to get to the Palace of Winds, but not until he proved himself courageous enough. After traveling over three different lands and the dungeons they contained, Link and his three other selves confronted the wind mage in the Palace of Winds, the seat of Vaati's power. After an arduous battle between the sorcerer and the heroes, Link was able to reseal Vaati into the Four Sword blade.

Timeline Placement
As can be observed in the plots of the three games featuring the Four Sword, Four Swords takes place many years after the events of The Minish Cap, and before Four Swords Adventures. The opening scenes of Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures cements the continuity of the three-game mini-series, dubbed the "Four Sword Series".

About the Four Swords game, Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma said it was meant as the first game in the timeline, leading many theorists to place it before Ocarina of Time, while others thought that its placement may have changed with the release of Four Swords Adventures and other Zelda titles.

According to the official timeline released in Hyrule Historia, The Minish Cap and Four Swords take place between Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time, while Four Swords Adventures takes place after Twilight Princess.

Gameplay
Four Swords is one of the most unique games among the Zelda series. It is the only game that requires at least two people to play, Four Swords, along with its sequel Four Swords Adventures, does not feature an overworld, and Four Swords uses random dungeons, similar to those of mystery dungeon games.

Floors of stages are made of two parts. These two parts are randomly interchanged to produce random floors. To move onto the next floor of a stage, all the Links must reach the warp zone. The faster they reach the Warp Zone the bigger the Rupee bonus. After clearing two floors, or nine floors if clearing Vaati's Palace with the Hero Keys, the Links will be warped to a boss room. After defeating a boss, with the exception of Vaati, a Great Fairy will appear. Depending on the number of Rupees collected, they will give the Links either a silver key, a gold key, a hero key, or in some cases no key at all. The Link who did the best in a stage will receive a Medal of Courage. These medals are needed to acquire certain items and a technique in A Link to the Past. The number of players playing the game, as well as which epic they are playing through, affects the type of random areas and items that will appear during a playthrough.

When a Link loses all his hearts, he will be downed. A downed Link is incapable of moving, until he pays a penalty of Rupees to be revived. The more times a Link is downed the greater the penalties become. If a Link does not have enough Rupees to be revived the game ends. If all Links have filled all their heart containers, any Rupees a Link finds will be worth twice its normal value.

The Three Epics
The first time through Four Swords, the team of players will struggle through the first three levels for silver keys in order to complete the game. However, after completing the game, there is an option of going back through it two more times. Each epic has a different ending, and to fully complete the game, all three epics must be played.


 * The First Epic: The first time through the game, the team will need to collect a total of at least 1000 Rupees per stage in order to get Silver Keys to open the path to Vaati's Palace.


 * The Second Epic: Stages are a bit harder, and if the team already has Silver Keys, they may try to collect a sum of 3000 Rupees in order to receive Gold Keys to Vaati's Palace.


 * The Final Epic: If the team of Gold Key holders can collect a total of 5000 Rupees per stage, the Links will receive Hero's Keys from each level. In the final epic, Vaati's Palace has four boss battles, instead of the usual one boss.

Four Swords: Anniversary Edition
As part of the 25th Anniversary of the Zelda series, a special edition known as Four Swords: Anniversary Edition was made available as a free download for both the Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS between September 28, 2011 and February 20, 2012. The game includes new levels, located in the Realm of Memories and Hero's Trial, with levels based on The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past, and Link's Awakening.

Changes

 * The game now features a single player mode. In this mode, two Links can be used to solve puzzles. When both Links are necessary, the other Link will automatically assist the user's Link. When the Links separate, the active Link can now summon the other one to his location, as in Four Swords Adventures. The dialogue has also been altered to account for the single player mode.
 * The game has two new stages: the Realm of Memories, based on A Link to the Past,  Link's Awakening and The Legend of Zelda; and the Hero's Trial, a difficult three-part stage unlocked after gaining 30,000 Rupees. These new stages allow the player to unlock the Hurricane Spin and Master Sword, replacing the connectivity with A Link to the Past in the original game.
 * When multiplayer mode is desired, the game now requires wireless connection rather than link cables.
 * Some of the original GBA sound effects were upgraded, sounding more generic for the DSI or 3DS Ware standards.
 * The soundtracks have been given a few instrumental upgrades, sounding more generic than their GBA counterparts and fit for the DSI or 3DS Ware standards.

Legacy

 * Even though The Wind Waker was the first Zelda game to use the cel-shading graphic style, Four Swords was the first to use the style's accompanying 2D art elements.
 * Four Swords is the first game featuring a dungeon set entirely in the clouds.
 * It is the first multiplayer Zelda game.

Trivia
In Four Swords, the player does not get the option of choosing a name for Link, akin to Four Swords Adventures. This has been changed in the Anniversary Edition.