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.

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 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.

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.
 * 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.
 * With a total of twelve dungeons, A Link to the Past has more dungeons than any other official Zelda game. Ocarina of Time comes in second with eleven.

Related Articles

 * The Ancient Stone Tablets
 * Secret Chris Houlihan room
 * The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Comic)

Ports and Remakes
A Link to the Past was ported to the Game Boy Advance, introducing Four Swords into the same GBA 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). The Ice Palace dungeon was altered to make travel slightly less difficult. Another thing to point out is the sprite of the Witch's Hut's assistant has changes to look like Maple.

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 Chris Houlihan Room is only accessible in the SNES version.

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