BS The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Stone Tablets

BS The Legend of Zelda: The Ancient Stone Tablets (BSゼルダの伝説 古代の石盤 BS The Legend of Zelda: Inishie no Sekiban) was a game for the BS-X Broadcasting System add-on for the Super Famicom (Japanese Super Nintendo). Games were downloaded from St. GIGA's satellite radio service. The game was much like a Second Quest or Master Quest of A Link to the Past. Various actions earned the player points, and these points could later be traded in to Nintendo for different prizes.

The game was divided into four "weeks", each of which had to be played within a strict one-hour time period; minus the cutscenes this gave players 50 minutes in which to beat two dungeons, hunt for secrets, and perform all the other standard Zelda actions. The game made use of streaming orchestrated music as well as a technology called Live Voice, which supplied tips to players at key points during the game. Other than a rebroadcast the following year the game was never playable again, even for those who still possessed the game on a flash cartridge, until the advent of emulation.

The game is based on the fact that you are the character in the game. The character is named and is male or female based off of the broadcasting ID, which is also true for BS Zelda. The male character wears a green tunic, though others are later available, and a backwards baseball cap. The female character has long red hair and is otherwise almost exactly the same as the male.

Plot

Set six years after the events in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the story of Inishie no Sekiban begins when the character avatar from the distant Town Whose Name Has Been Stolen (それは名前を盗まれた街 Sore wa Namae o Nusumareta Machi?) enters a mysterious-looking Fortune teller's house (占い師の館 uranai shi no kan?) that has appeared in the town. Finding only a magical golden bee, the avatar follows after it and enters the back of the house where strong magic whisks the youth off to the Land of Hyrule where Princess Zelda's dreams have been troubled.

Discovering the youth collapsed on the ground, Zelda and her aged companion Aginah (アジナ?) (a character from A Link to the Past - brother of the more memorable Sahasrala) revive the child and discuss the recent and troubling premonitions they have felt concerning Ganon's return. A few moments later a soldier arrives and announces that Ganon's evil forces have returned. Aginah and Zelda explain that Link has left the country and they ask the child to help obtain the eight "Ancient Stone Tablets." It is believed that if the hero/heroine can obtain these tablets, the message in them will reveal an ancient secret capable of defending Hyrule from Ganon and his army.

As the youth travels through Hyrule collecting items and stone tablets, support comes from afar by telepathic communications from Aginah (voiced by Kōji Yada (矢田　耕司?)), the fortune teller (Yasuhiro Takato (高戸　靖広?)), Princess Zelda (Mariko Kōda (國府田　マリ子?)), the Hyrulian soldier (Moriya Endou (遠藤　守哉?)), and even the narrator of the game (Hiroshi Isobe (磯辺　弘?)). As the hero fights through the various dungeons, the land of Hyrule lends its powers to the child at certain pre-set points in the Zelda Time (ゼルダTIME?) that controls the youth's access to the land. Aginah and the fortune teller explain these matters to the youth whom Zelda identifies as the "Hero of Light" (光の勇者?) spoken of in legends.

Thus, the Hero of Light sets out to collect the Ancient Stone Tablets, traveling in the same Hyrule depicted in A Link to the Past. After collecting the Tablets and drawing the Master Sword from its pedestal in the Lost Woods, the Hero of Light, along with Zelda, climbs to the summit of Death Mountain to an ancient monument. Zelda translates the tablets using the Book of Mudora discovered in the basement of Link's House and the monument then cracks, revealing the Silver Arrow and Sacred Bow. This, Zelda says, is what the Hero of Light needs to defeat Ganon. Finally, a red portal opens up and reveals the way into the Dark World, where Ganon resides.

The Hero of Light enters Ganon's Tower and battles Ganon, defeating him with the Silver Arrow. After retreating back to Hyrule, Zelda reveals that although Link had sealed Ganon's body away forever in the Dark World by defeating him 6 years ago, Ganon's malicious essence had not been sealed. It was through this evil energy that the Hero of Light was pulled into Hyrule. The Hero then returns the Master Sword to its resting place in the Lost Woods, leaves Zelda and Aginah, and returns to The Town Whose Name Has Been Stolen in a flash of light.

Gameplay

The gameplay dynamics of BS Zelda: Inishie no Sekiban are most closely comparable to A Link to the Past, however as with the previous BS Zelda titles, there are a number of major differences that make play-through for the two games substantially different. Notable among these were the renewed uses of streaming SoundLink vocal data and strict time limits, and the game's episodic nature as previously featured in the earlier BS Zelda games.

The use of SoundLink in Inishie no Sekiban demonstrated a degree of maturity over the previous BS Zelda games insofar as they allowed a more natural and flowing playthrough without the pauses and delays that characterized vocal messages in BS Zelda.[50] Rather than displaying a "Listen Closely" sign and pausing gameplay, the player could continue to move about during voice messages in Inishie no Sekiban. The plot that was developed through vocal files was also considerably more intricate, with important plot details revealed in dialogue only spoken during playthrough. The seiyu voice-cast also grew in number from three people in BS Zelda to a cast of five,[51] and fully-voiced side-quest events and cut-scenes were also added at the beginning and end

The game again renewed its use of the in-game 1-hour-long "Zelda Time" clock as previously employed in earlier BS Zelda games. At various pre-set points in Zelda Time special events would occur such as the appearance of fairies, the casting of magical attacks such as Bombos or Ether, and the grant of unlimited munitions to the Hero of Light for a limited duration.[22] At other times plot-related events would occur (such as Princess Zelda being attacked by monsters or the priest falling into the river), changes in weather would occur (fog or rain), and enemies would spring forth in great profusion. Most time-linked events would be explained to the player via SoundLink so the player would not miss important events such as the side-quests.

As with the earlier BS Zelda titles, Inishie no Sekiban was divided into four weekly episodes broadcast in episodic installments. Once again episodes were named using the basic Satellaview suffixes described above, and broadcast only during a narrow 1-hour window. In addition, each episode once again limited players to a certain restricted playing area by withholding necessary items to ensure a paced gameplay experience and to enable a close tailoring of SoundLink plot details to the events unfolding in new areas of the overworld map. The overworld in Inishie no Sekiban is roughly identical to that in A Link to the Past except that it features cloud coverage to demarcate the areas that are explorable by the Hero of Light.

As in the previous BS Zelda titles, the player's name and gender are selected in the Satellaview game-selection interface, BS-X. This initial selection again carries across to the game, and the characters themselves are nameless in-game referred to by other characters as either the "Hero of Light" or simply "child"/"youth." The appearance of the Satellaview avatar has been updated for Inishie no Sekiban from the smaller version used in the earlier BS Zelda games in a manner consistent with A Link to the Past's differences from the original The Legend of Zelda.

Several recurring features unique to Inishie no Sekiban were introduced to the game including the addition of thieves that sell the Hero of Time munition upgrades, rental shops that rent shovels and sword upgrades, gambling minigames to increase rupee/score count, and the mysterious Mole character that if spoken to will uncover a grotto filled with many hundreds of rupees. The Mole in particular represents a noteworthy characteristic of the game as the location of the Mole and the Mole's grotto changed for subsequent rerun broadcasts. Thus, whereas reruns of the earlier BS Zelda games were identical in content to prior broadcast runs, reruns of Inishie no Sekiban contained original non-header content that could be used to identify the specific date of broadcast.

Other differences between Inishie no Sekiban and A Link to the Past (and the other BS Zelda titles) include the alteration of items from the past such as the Pegasus Boots which could now enable the player to change directions while running, and to move between rooms and screens without automatically stopping as in A Link to the Past. The dungeon items were also modified so that instead of pendants and crystals the player now collected the eight titular Ancient Stone Tablets. Slight game-dynamics alterations were made for Inishie no Sekiban as well, including the removal of cracked bombable walls and their replacement with walls that could be tested for weaknesses by sounding them with the sword as first used in Link's Awakening.

As in the previous BS Zelda games, players received a score for successful completion of in-game objectives. Factors weighing into the score included the opening of treasure chests, completion of the side-quest event, talking to the Mole, and the collection of rupees, small keys, pieces of heart, dungeon items, heart containers, special items, and tablets. Negative factors included the passage of each minute of "Zelda Time" prior to the collection of the 2 weekly tablets, the loss of hearts, and game-overs. Though scoring had no effect on gameplay, there were other post-game benefits. At the end of each hour of play the gamer was given a score readout. By submitting these game high scores in the form of a password player scores would be recorded by Nintendo. If the player scored high enough in comparison to other players during that week, the score and the player's name would be reported and the player could sometimes win prizes such as memory packs.

Weeks and Objectives

 * Week 1: The character awakens in the house in which Sahasrahla was found in A Link to the Past. Aginah is standing next to him or her, and he explains that he doesn't know who the character is, but he knows that he or she is important. He tells the character to go to the Eastern Palace to find out more. the character must travel there and defeat the enemies inside to acquire a stone tablet and some equipment. the character then finds Zelda and rescues her. She tells the character that she believes him or her to be the Hero of Light. The character then takes her to the castle, where she leaves him or her. After this, the character must acquire the flippers and complete the second dungeon which awaits behind the waterfall where the fairy fountain was found in the original A Link to the Past. After the week is over, the character is told to travel to Kakariko Village to find the next objective.
 * Week 2: the character awakens in Kakariko Village in Sahasrahla's house. The character must then find two more stone tablets. The character learns more of Ganon and a first hero who saved the land not long ago. There is little plot in this episode, but there is much inventory growth. The week ends with Aginah talking of going to Link's house. He says that the Hero will accompany him.
 * Week 3: The character wakes up in Link's house. The character then acquires the glove which allows him or her to lift heavy rocks once per screen. the goal is once again to acquire two more stone tablets.
 * Week 4: Zelda decides she is going to follow the character throughout this week. She follows the character into the graveyard dungeon and the dungeon that goes up the mountain. On top is a giant stone tablet, and she tries to decipher it. Once she does, the tablet breaks, giving the character the Silver Arrows and a path to get into Ganon's Tower. It is a simple level, and there is a drop down into an area like the center of the pyramid. Ganon says that he will steal the power. After the character defeats him, Zelda remarks that she never realized how beautiful Hyrule really is. When time runs out after 50 minutes, the character drops the master sword into place. He or she is transported back in a flash of light from where the hero came.

It is speculated that Ganon's Tower is in the dark world, but no one is sure where it originally was. There are also spots for the Magic Cape and the Book of Mudora, but neither of them normally appear in the game.