The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I bought that Link costume something like 3-4 years ago, telling myself I'd get to use it eventually for the blog... Took long enough, but that's FINALLY been done!

I was originally hoping to have this game as my anniversary review this year. Although I like The Legend of Zelda, I feel like I don’t get to talk about the franchise often enough. The third entry in the franchise, subtitled A Link to the Past, was released on April 13th, 1992, in America. The SNES game solidified many of the concepts that were present in the first two, and set the stage for all the ones that would come after. 

I eventually decided against reviewing this game for an anniversary, in part because I like said anniversary reviews to be long and detailed, and I need to have a lot to say. I didn’t have the time for such a thing this year. Also, I’ve grown to notice that it’s one of the better-known entries in the series. It’s not as huge as TLoZ: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask or Breath of the Wild, but I’d still classify it among the Top 5. I’ve seen a large community of people playing it to this day, piling on the self-imposed challenges and item randomizers. There are people out there who know this game better than I know my own home, and I’ve never moved in 28 years. So I don't have several parts' worth of things to say about it.

The big reason why I wanted to cover it, however, is that it’s one of the rare few games to have followed me in some form throughout my life. My cousins passed it down to me, in a package that included their SNES console and the rest of their collection, when I was about 10; I borrowed a copy from a friend to play on my Game Boy Advance SP; and I purchased it on the Wii Shop Channel too. I have a great sense of nostalgia for this one.

The story: A mysterious character named Agahnim showed up at Hyrule Castle and became the King’s advisor. After gaining Hyrule’s trust, the wizard proceeded with his plan, capturing seven maidens descended from sages, including Princess Zelda, and imprisoning them. He also brainwashes the King's guards into obeying him. 

"Now let's see some hero try to stop me!"

Good thing the princess is a telepath.

Link is a young boy living with his uncle near Hyrule Castle. One night, his uncle leaves on a mission at the Castle and tells Link not to follow him. However, the boy hears a telepathic message from Zelda. He heads to the Castle, gets his dying uncle’s sword and shield, and frees Princess Zelda from the castle's prison. They escape in the underground passageways and towards the sanctuary located north of the castle. The priest tells Link that there’s only one weapon strong enough to defeat Agahnim: The Master Sword. However, to obtain it, he must first gather the Pendants of Virtue in three dungeons: The Eastern Palace, the Desert Palace (located south-west on the map), and the Tower of Hera (located up north, in the mountains).

Defenseless in the danger world?
Guess it's my lucky day.

Near the Tower of Hera, Link gets his first taste of a land called the Dark World, in which people have turned into monsters; of course, lucky as he is, being in this place turns him into a harmless bunny instead. Link soon finds a magic mirror that allows him to retain his normal form while exploring the Dark World. With the Pendants, he unsheathes the Master Sword from its pedestal in the depths of the Lost Woods. Meanwhile, Zelda is captured again, and Link, aided by his new sword, storms the castle and battles Agahnim. The wizard’s defeat instantly sends Link to the Dark World. 

In this world, which is a Sacred Realm corrupted by dark magic, Link must rescue the seven maidens from the seven dungeons. Some of them are devilishly difficult to access, and require a great deal of logic. Thankfully, Link can come back to the Light World at any moment with the magic mirror, and there are portals hidden in select places to send Link back to the Dark World. 

The final fight! But you probably already know.

After rescuing the seven maidens, Link heads to the Tower of Ganon in the Dark World. The maidens break the seal and he goes in, defeating Agahnim once more, only for the wizard to reveal himself as a disguise for Ganon. The final confrontation takes place within the pyramid that currently stands where Hyrule Castle would have normally been, and after a long and grueling battle, Link defeats Ganon, restores the Sacred Land, and returns to his world, free from Ganon… well until the next adventure in that timeline of the Zelda canon, anyway.

I think everyone remembers their first Zelda game, in part because of the concept behind the series and hoiw iconic it is. Explore map -> Visit dungeon -> find important item in dungeon -> use important item to defeat the boss -> Move on to next dungeon. That formula has been played with over the years, of course, and it’s not always followed to the letter in this particular game, but it’s generally what happens. The fantastic game design is that getting to the important item in question requires a lot of exploration and some puzzle-solving, but the rest of the dungeon doesn’t suddenly become a walk in the park just because you found its treasure. No, sometimes it gets even trickier, because you then have to figure out how to use that item to its full potential. Again, that’s a staple of the Zelda series. And it probably stood out to me more in ALTTP because it was my first experience with the franchise.

"I'm being followed by a girl, and she isn't
Princess Zelda. Something's fishy."

Sometimes you remember a dungeon for its boss (and how tough it is), sometimes you remember it for the concept and any special details about it. I remember how astonished I was to find out that the “princess” you rescue in the dungeon of Thieves’ Town is actually the boss, its true identity revealed to Link by bringing the “girl” to a sunlit room. Or what about the Lost Woods, turned into a scary forest full of skulls with a dungeon beneath, ending in a fight against Mothula, on what I swear is the most annoying boss arena in the entire game. Stupid moving spikes.

Have you ever tried getting a screenshot of
Mothula with its wings open?
It's fucking hard!

It's beginning to look a lot like an ice world...

The Ice Palace, for how difficult it is to actually get there in the first place, and then how difficult it is to navigate due to its layout even more labyrinthine than the average dungeon. And of course, everybody likes ice dungeons, am I right? /s Then, there’s also Hyrule Castle, twisted beyond recognition by the evil forces at play – but it only serves as the last dungeon of the Light World. 

Since it was my first Zelda, I was introduced to the element of open world – the LoZ series is one of the first to experiment with having a gigantic world that can be freely explored. So it felt like a special gaming experience. This also means a world chock full of secrets and surprises to look for. There are many items that are mandatory to finish the quest, but those that aren’t can help a great deal. That magic powder, man. It does wonders. Most items have several uses and effects, and it’s quite interesting to try them in several scenarios (but watch out, as some items cost magic to use). There’s also the usual Zelda fare: Bottles and Heart Pieces. Did I ever get all of the Heart Pieces in this? I think I did, in one of the versions I played. For the record, no, I never found the Chris Houlihan room. 

Daa daa daa daaaaaaaaa!

I think what surprised me the most about this game isn’t in the game itself. It’s something I discovered a few months ago. I mentioned randomizers earlier; it’s a type of mod in which the major items of the game are given random locations instead of being where you normally find them. Of course, the items are set to random places, but never in ways that would make clearing the game impossible (as an example, hiding an item behind a challenge that can’t be beaten without it). That’s not a new thing per se, and it’s also not the only franchise where players have toyed with this idea – though I've heard it more commonly used for Pokémon.

But no, here’s the kicker – there’s an active competitive scene of one-on-one battles of randomized speedruns of A Link to the Past. Yep – both competitors start playing at the exact same time with the randomizer setting the items at the same places for both, and the race involves figuring out where all the major items are, in order to finish all the dungeons and beat Ganon. The one time I watched such a competition, the streamer went through every single cave to look for a massively important item that couldn’t be found in any of the dungeons, so he lost because he found the item literally in the last place he still had to check. 

That’s why I don’t do randomizers. My legendary bad luck will ensure I have a bad time.

I recall never really enjoying Turtle Rock.
It was like all the annoying tricks the game
could pull, rolled into one dungeon.

I don’t even know if I can really be neutral when discussing the game – it’s such an important game in my life as a gamer. I’m not even sure there’s anything negative I can actually say about it. Nope – literally nothing comes to mind. Yeah, I rage at some of the more labyrinthine dungeons (the Ice palace and Turtle Rock in particular, though all of the Dark World dungeons are mazelike to some degree). 

The first time I played, I had to figure a lot of things out on my own, but in my defense, I was a kid with barely any knowledge of English. I know there were, surprisingly, some games of the NES and SNES era that were translated to French, with some of them available in the French-speaking parts of Canada; I recall seeing the game in French a few times, but can’t recall if I ever owned such a version. 

As the third game in the Legend of Zelda franchise, which was still young at the time, A Link to the Past set some new ideas that would be explored again later. In particular, the “alternate world” that’s also present in Twilight Princess and A Link Between Worlds. The Dark World feels lived-in, a world in which you can interact with all sorts of people and things, and even complete some side-quests. I don’t think you ever forget how you find the flute, in the Haunted Grove. And yes, later versions redraw the flute as an ocarina, a musical item now closely tied to the franchise's history. 

Several scenes of the game feel.... special,
to say the least. Like the moment in the
Haunted Grove.

It’s still one of my favorite Zelda games, and it takes precedence over the other Zelda games that are considered the best (such as Ocarina of Time or Breath of the Wild) due to my very limited or nonexistant experience playing the others. Mind you, I do have Ocarina of Time 3D in my collection, but I’ve yet to find time to play it beyond the first dungeon. I think I’m suffering from a form of hype backlash about it. I think I’m afraid of being disappointed by Ocarina of Time due to all the good everyone says about it and I’ve built up expectations that might be unrealistic. But if it really is better than A Link to the Past, then I shouldn’t be so worried, right? 

It even feels extraneous to say that I’d recommend playing the game; do I even actually need to say that? My perception might be skewed as I imagine this is one of the most famous games from Nintendo. Am I correct there? Tell me it’s accurate. It’s a famous LoZ, it’s a famous SNES game with people literally using it for competition… If you’ve never played it and you’re a Zelda fan, you’re missing out. If you only have a passing interest in the franchise, it’s still worth playing. 

On this, I say goodbye, and see you soon for a Top 12 list.