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 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 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. A Link to the Past, partnered with Four Swords, was also the first ever Zelda re-release that was released in America, ported to the Game Boy Advance system.

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 adviser 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.

Plot
The game starts with Link being awakened in the middle of the night by a telepathic plea from Princess Zelda, who tells him that she is being held prisoner in the dungeon of the castle. Now wide awake, Link finds his uncle with sword and shield in hand. He tells Link not to leave the house, then sets off for the castle. Link ignores his uncle's warning and follows him, only to arrive at the castle to find him gravely wounded. He gives Link his sword and shield and entrusts him with the fate of Princess Zelda. Link proceeds to rescue Zelda, and the two escape the castle through its sewer system to the sanctuary just north of the castle.

There, the priest tells Link that the only weapon powerful enough to defeat Agahnim was the legendary Master Sword. He then sends him to find the elder, Sahasrahla, who explains that not just anyone could wield the Master Sword, and that a hero must appear from the descendants of the Knights of Hyrule. To prove himself worthy of wielding the sacred blade, Link would need to acquire the three Pendants of Virtue.

After successfully obtaining the pendants and withdrawing the blade from its pedestal in the Lost Woods, Zelda calls out to Link yet again, this time warning that soldiers have invaded the sanctuary. Link hurries off to the sanctuary only to find that he was a moment too late, and that the soldiers had already taken Zelda off to Hyrule Castle. Once again, Link hurries to her rescue, and once again arrives too late, as Agahnim was already in the process of sending Princess Zelda to the Dark World. Upon completing this ritual, the sages' seal was at last broken. Link goes on to defeat Agahnim, who then draws him into the Dark World.

There, Link is contacted telepathically by Sahasrahla, who tells him that he is standing in what was once the Sacred Realm, but was transformed by Ganon's evil wish to conquer the world. He then commissions Link with the task of rescuing the imprisoned maidens from the dungeons scattered across the Dark World. Upon freeing them all, Link travels to Ganon's Tower, where the seven maidens used their combined power to dispel the barrier sealing off the entrance. Link proceeds to traverse the tower and defeat Agahnim a second time. Upon his defeat, the shadow of Ganon rises from the body, turns into a bat, and flies off to the Pyramid of Power, where Link and Ganon would face off. With the power of the Silver Arrows and the Master Sword, Link vanquishes Ganon, recovers the Triforce, and by making a wish, reverts the effects of Ganon's evil reign over Hyrule and restores the land to its former glory.

Gameplay
A Link to the Past retains various gameplay elements from the original NES game, among them the top-view perspective; Link can collect rupees once more and use items by assigning them to a button, as well as recovering his life energy with hearts. Returning from The Adventure of Link is the ability to use magic to perform spells and to make special items functional, as well as a major interaction with non-playable characters to obtain vital information regarding the quest.

A returning mechanic from both games is the availability of dungeons, which must be conquered in order to archive success in the adventure. Each dungeon has a map and a compass, the former shows the layout of the dungeon in particular and the latter locates the boss's whereabouts; keys must be collected in order to open locked doors, puzzles must be solved to progress, and enemies must be defeated if they are interrupting the exploration. The dungeons are multi-leveled, ranging in number from two to ten, and Big Keys are needed both to open major chests (containing items that increase Link's inventory and help him progress through his adventure) and to open boss rooms.

Similar to the bombs in the first NES game and the magic meter in the second game, various items in A Link to the Past can be upgraded either in capacity or by being turned into more advanced versions. This can be done through completing sidequests or entering certain special places. Optional weapons and items are hidden through Hyrule as well.

This game introduces a very important mechanic: The Light World/Dark World dichotomy. The game has actually two maps of Hyrule, which are related to each other in several ways; for example, by switching from the Dark World to the Light World while standing in an apparently empty dead end, Link can find in the latter world a secret cave or a passage that was otherwise inaccessible, leading to secret prizes. By doing the opposite (switching from the Light World to the Dark World), Link can gain access to new dungeons, which is important to have success in the quest. A Link to the Past is praised for using cleverly this gameplay device, which in some ways has been reused in subsequent Zelda games.

A Link to the Past is also the first title to have a more developed storyline, which reflects for the first time the dungeon's different purposes. The first three house the sacred pendants that give Link access to the Master Sword, the fourth has to do with a failed attempt to rescue Princess Zelda, the next seven dungeons house the imprisoned maidens, who (once freed) help Link break the seal of the final dungeon's entrance. This style of story progression was used in various subsequent Zelda games, among them Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker, although the latter added various twists and subversions to the concept (by adding the Triforce sub-quest, lacking a dungeon for the third pearl, etc.).

Japanese Version
The Japanese version of the game is titled The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods, which 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. For the same reason, parts of the background story were modified as well, for example Agahnim is a priest in the original version, but only a wizard in the English version. Likewise, in the Japanese version the text symbols seen in scripts that are translated by the Book of Mudora are based on Egyptian symbols, in the English version they were replaced by random, meaningless figures.

Graphics and Audio
The game made use of the SNES capabilities to offer more realistic graphics, not only in regards of the areas' textures and colors, but also to add new visual effects, such as the mist and the upper leaves' shadows in Lost Woods, the thunders in the Dark World equivalent of Death Mountain, and so on.

The game's audio retains the overworld tune that debuted in the first Zelda game, although it's only heard while Link stands on the Light World; Kakariko Village's theme is heard here for the first time, and so is Hyrule Castle's background tune. The Dark World's themes are different in all regards (overworld, dungeons, etc.), meaning that the overall soundtrack of the game is far more diverse than that of the first two titles in the series.

Setting
Like its predecessors (and, for that matter, most Zelda games), A Link to the Past is set in the fictional land of Hyrule; notably, the territory of the land is bigger than in the first game, but smaller than in The Adventure of Link.

However, its Dark World counterpart is now included and explorable. In the Light World, familiar zones like Lost Woods and Death Mountain are present, while Kakariko Village and Lake Hylia are introduced here. In the Dark World, every location is different in name and presentaion; for example, the Lost Woods is replaced by the Skeleton Forest, Kakariko Village is the Village of Outcasts, and the southwestern desert is the Swamp of Evil. The replacements also affect the dungeons which, instead of housing the Pendants of Virtue, hold captive the maidens who were supposed to break the seal protecting Ganon's Tower.

Timeline Placement
The back of the game's box places it before the two NES The Legend of Zelda games, though Shigeru Miyamoto suggested the other way around in an interview, and the only direct sequel to this game thus far is Link's Awakening. Shigeru Miyamoto gave a later interview in 1999 that seemed to confirm the earlier placement of the game (before The Legend of Zelda) while confirming that it happened after Ocarina of Time.

Although the game's events are confirmed to occur after the 3D installments, it's unknown whether it's placed in the Child or Adult timeline, considering that the split is official.

Reception
A Link to the Past received a near-perfect score of 39/40 from Japanese magazine Famitsu, and sold 4.6 million copies worldwide.

Both the Game Boy Advance and the Virtual Console versions of the game gained IGN's and Gamespot's recommendation, with praises in matter of presentation, graphics, sound, gameplay and lasting appeal. Criticism on the GBA version focused on the possibility that Zelda fans, at that time, would complain for the lack of a new game for the handheld console, while the Virtual Console version was recommended only for those who didn't play the game in any of the past versions already.

Even today, A Link to the Past remains as a piece of collection for Zelda for fans, as well as one of the highest-ranked games for the SNES, and frequently rivals games like Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess for being the best in the series. Nintendo Power ranked it second in their list of best The Legend of Zelda games, citing the game's improvements over its NES predecessors.

Ports and Remakes
A Link to the Past was remade for the Game Boy Advance in 2002, introducing Four Swords into the same GBA cartridge. The game added sounds and music from Ocarina of Time and altered the sprites somewhat. Link screams whenever he swings his sword or takes damage. The Ice Palace dungeon was altered to make travel slightly less difficult, and the sprite of the Witch's Hut's assistant has changed to look like Maple.

Another major change is that the GBA port changes the original "seven wise men" to "seven Sages", as Ocarina of Time clearly showed that only two of the seven Sages were actually men.

The Palace of the Four Sword was also added in the GBA remake of the game as an optional dungeon. The dungeon features the first four Dark World bosses with amplified power, which must be defeated to obtain the four swords needed to access the final battle against four doppelganger Links.

The Pegasus Shoes were renamed Pegasus Boots to reflect later games.

Other changes include the addition of a "Press Start" prompt at the title screen, the ability to skip the Triforce sequence at startup, and a "save and continue" feature on-demand instead of when Link dies. You can also start from where you saved and the "start from" menu is displayed after Link dies instead of going to the file select menu.

The Chris Houlihan Room is accessible in the GBA version, but Chris Houlihan's name is not mentioned in the game text.

The shop to the east of the Village of Outcasts was changed to sell only shields, and was surrounded by Like Likes, which are an enemy type that did not appear at all in the original SNES version.

While not significantly 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). Zelda was also given entirely new artwork depicting her in her commonly accepted Ocarina of Time outfit, rather then the plain blue gown of the original artwork.

The game (the original SNES version) was also ported to the Wii's Virtual Console on January 22, 2007.

Legacy
Like its predecessors, A Link to the Past introduced elements that became mainstream for the Zelda franchise, including:


 * The Master Sword. Games like Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess featured it with a similar function and purpose as in the SNES game.
 * The dungeons became more thematically distinctive, reflecting different architectures and purposes. Dungeons based on water and ice, for instance, are played for the first time here.
 * This is the first game where Pieces of Heart are shown, leading to more sidequests (assuming they existed at all in the NES titles).
 * A Link to the Past was the first game in the series to use the now standardized Zelda logo in American releases. Japan would later use this standardized logo by the release of Ocarina of Time.
 * This game introduces the Cucco Revenge Squad, where a flock of Cuccos will attack Link if he attacks one continuously.
 * Kakariko Village and Lake Hylia debut in this title.

Trivia

 * According to Speed Demos Archive, the fastest single-segment completion time for A Link to the Past is 1 hour, 35 minutes and 45 seconds by Philippe 'Wak' Brisson on June 12th, 2009. The fastest single-segment 100% time is 2 hours, 0 minutes and 1 second by Philippe 'Wak' Brisson on July 31st, 2007.
 * With a total of twelve dungeons, A Link to the Past has more dungeons than any other official Zelda game.
 * The bronze plates on the walls of inside the houses in Kakariko Village, which occasionally dispense Rupees when pulled by Link, strongly resemble Mario.
 * This is the first Zelda game where you actually see a family member, and the only other games that do this are The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap.
 * This also is the first Zelda game in which Princess Zelda is garbed in a white and pink (later changed to purple in Twilight Princess) ornamented dress. This outfit has become a staple in her design ever since.

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