The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Template:If defined call1Template:If defined call1Template:If defined call1Template:If defined call1Template:If defined call1

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Missing image Alttp_box.jpg
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date(s)	1992 (SNES) December 2, 2002 (GBA)
Genre	Action Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E), ELSPA: 3+
Platform(s)	SNES, Game Boy Advance

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, released in Japan on November 21, 1991, as ゼルダの伝説 神々のトライフォース (Zeruda no Densetsu: Kamigami no Toraifōsu, literally The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods), and in North America and Europe in 1992, was the only game in the Zelda series released for the Super Famicom (in Japan) and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (in North America and Europe). It is hailed by many (especially of its generation) as Nintendo's finest hour, and the greatest video game of all time.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was originally planned for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since Nintendo had a lot of resources at the time, they decided to carry A Link to the Past over to the SNES instead. It introduced many of the features of gameplay that are still included in the series to this day, such as trading sequences, multi-level dungeons, a dynamic environment (light and dark worlds), and items such as the Master Sword and the hookshot.

The game was also available for the Satellaview, the Japanese addon for the Super Famicom. The game was completely unchanged, expect for being converted into a downloadable format.

A Satellaview-exclusive sequel, Kodai no Sekiban, was released in 1997.

In 2002, Capcom ported it to the Game Boy Advance. The Game Boy Advance version was released in North America first (December 2nd, 2002), then Japan (March 13th, 2003). This port was packaged with a Capcom-developed multiplayer Zelda game called Four Swords.

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, a Zelda game specifically designed for multiplayer play on Nintendo GameCube, used the graphics from A Link to the Past, as well as many new graphical elements drawn to match them. Players were able to play Four Swords by linking together multiple Game Boy Advances with the game.

Contents

1 Chronology 2 The two worlds 3 Bosses 3.1 Light World 3.2 Dark World 3.3 GBA-exclusive bosses 4 Palace of the Four Swords 5 Music 6 Japanese-English differences 7 The Chris Houlihan room 8 Technical notes 9 See also

Chronology

The chronology of The Legend of Zelda series of games is as of now officially unspecified. See the chronology section of the The Legend of Zelda series article for more information. According to the text on the back of the game's packaging A Link to the Past follows the adventures of Zelda's and Link's ancestors referring to the characters from the two NES games The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Thus A Link to the Past takes place before the events of the first two Zelda games. The story of the Triforce and the banishment of Ganon by the seven sages is a rough outline of the story of Ocarina of Time, thus placing A Link to the Past after Ocarina of Time in the Zelda timeline. Shigeru Miyamoto has yet to make an official statement about the true chronology of the Zelda series.

The two worlds

A Link to the Past was the first Zelda game to feature two parallel worlds, similar yet different, that Link could travel between. The first, called the Light World, is the ordinary Hyrule where Link grew up with his uncle. The second was once the Golden Land, a place of light and pureness and home of the sacred Triforce, until Ganon corrupted it with his evil power, changing it into a world of darkness and despair, and it became the Dark World. Each place in the Light World corresponds to a similar place in the Dark World, often with much of the same structure.

Unlike Ocarina of Time, where there is only one set location at which Link can travel back and forth in time, A Link to the Past allows Link to travel from the Dark World to the Light World at almost any outside location using the Magic Mirror. Once in the Light World, a sparkly portal is created on the exact spot where they arrived. The player can only return to the Dark World by stepping into this portal or by using one of the eight warp tiles hidden around the world. Walking through the gateway of Hyrule Castle will also send the player back. This flexibility enabled a variety of puzzles that exploited slight differences between the Light and Dark Worlds.

Everything in the Light World looks fairly normal, while the Dark World is true to its name by being dark and depressing; the water is a dull shade, the grass is dead, there are skulls everywhere, and the trees have distorted faces.

Bosses

Light World

• Ball & Chain Knight
• The guard of Princess Zelda, who was about to be sent to the Dark World. He swings around a Ball & Chain at Link, and can only be paralyzed by Link's Boomerang for a few moments. He can endure several hits from Link's Sword, but two Pots are enough to defeat him. He drops a Big Key, which unlocks Zelda's prison cell. In the final dungeon of the Light World (Agahnim's Tower), Ball & Chain Knights appear early in Golden Armor but do not drop any special items.

• Armos Knight
• The bosses of the Eastern Palace, and the keepers of the Pendant of Courage. Initially, they are blue (as in the screenshot) and bounce around in a repeated and predictable pattern. Three arrows, or numerous attacks with Link's Sword, are required to defeat them. When only one Armos Knight remains, it becomes red and makes large jumps to stomp Link. It takes three Arrows to defeat but does not follow a regular pattern. The Armos Knights appear again in Ganon's Tower on top of a floor made of ice, but the Silver Arrows can defeat them in one shot.

• Lanmolas
• The bosses of the Desert Palace, and the keepers of the Pendant of Power. Lanmolas burrow in the sand. When they are about to emerge, the ground at that location starts to crumble, and they burst forth, launching four balls of sand along the diagonals, which can harm Link. The Lanmolas then fly through the air and dive back into the sand. They can only be harmed while in the air or emerging from the sand. Once two of the Lanmolas are defeated, the final one will become faster, and launches eight clumps of sand instead of four. The Lanmolas appear again in Ganon's Tower in a room with a fire-breathing trap in it, but they are easily defeated by the Silver Arrows or other advanced weaponry.

• Moldorm
• The Moldorm is a snake-like creature that squirms around on a small round platform suspended over a large pit, guarding the Pendant of Wisdom at the top of the Tower of Hera. When Link fights him, he can easily be knocked down to the level below, forcing him to fight the Moldorm all over again. Its entire body is armored and cannot be harmed by Link; only the tip of its tail is vulnerable. The Moldorm becomes faster and faster each time it is hit. It also reappears in Ganon's Tower, but the room is very different, and much bigger as well.

• Agahnim
• Link fights Agahnim after the wizard sends Princess Zelda to the Dark World in Hyrule Castle, which breaks the Seal of the Wise Men. He can shoot spinning balls of energy, an orb of energy and lightning bolts. The spinning balls of energy, when hit, break into small balls of energy that disperse in all directions. The orbs of energy can be deflected with the Master Sword or the Bug-Catching Net. Agahnim can only be harmed when these orbs of energy are reflected directly back to him. His lightning attack cannot be deflected, and are very damaging to Link. Agahnim teleports around the room, and cannot be harmed directly, even by the Master Sword. When defeated, he spins around rapidly and sends Link to the Dark World.

Dark World

• Helmasaur King
• The Helmasaur King, the leader of all Helmasaurs (a minor enemy found throughout the Dark World), guards the first Maiden from the Palace of Darkness. He is a giant, orange, and monstrous beast capable of swinging his tail rapidly and shooting fireballs which divide into multiple balls of fire, all capable of harming Link. Bombs and the Magic Hammer must be used to destroy the mask protecting the Helmasaur King's face. When destroyed, a glowing green spot on its forehead is revealed. Several strikes from Sword or Bow at this spot is enough to defeat the Helmasaur King.

• Arrghus
• Arrghus is a one-eyed octopus-like monster surrounded by small floating creatures. From the Swamp Palace, it guards the second Maiden. It can swing the creatures attached to him at Link in a large arc before returning to cover the body once more. To harm him, each individual floating creature must be pulled away from the main body with the Hookshot and defeated one by one. When none remain, Arrghus leaps into the air and attempts to slam down onto Link, then rapidly swimming around until hit. It then leaps again and the pattern repeats until Link gives Arrghus his last.

• Mothula
• As the name suggests, Mothula is a giant moth. It guards the third Maiden, found in the dungeon of Skull Woods. It flies around a room lined by spike traps and covered with conveyer belts, which move Link towards the spikes, which randomly slide across the room. Mothula itself flies around quickly, shooting small rings of energy at Link. The Fire Rod defeats it handily, although the Sword also works.

• Blind
• Blind is the legendary thief who guards the fourth Maiden, in Thieves' Town (aka Blind's Hideout). He has the ability to mimic others, and initially disguises himself as the fourth Maiden until brought under a patch of light. He is a large, fiery man wearing a tattered white robe and featuring a red, demonic-looking head. He floats around the room shooting beams from his eyes, and when struck several times collapses, at which point his head flies around the room shooting fire. Eventually, the body will grow a new head. Blind must be 'defeated' in this manner three times before truly dying. There is a building in Kakariko Village at the same location which is referenced as formerly being Blind's Hideout, indicating that he may once have lived in the Light World.

• Kholdstare
• Kholdstare is a snowball frozen in ice in a room where shards of ice drop from the ceiling. He is the master of Ice Island and guards the fifth Maiden. The ice around it must first be melted with the Fire Rod, releasing three separate snowball-beasts which quickly roll around the room, each easily vanquished by the Fire Rod.

• Vitreous
• Vitreous is the boss of Misery Mire, and guards the sixth Maiden. It is a single giant eye in a pile of slime surrounded by many smaller eyes. It sends the little eyes to bounce menacingly towards Link, while the large eye ocassionally fires lightning bolts. When only four nonfunctional small eyes remain, the giant eye breaks free from the slime and tries to crush Link by bouncing around on the ground.

• Trinexx
• Trinexx has three heads - a fire head, an ice head, and Trinexx itself. This beast guards Princess Zelda herself in Turtle Rock. The fire and ice heads can spray fire and ice (respectively) at Link. The ice head additionally can freeze parts of the floor, making it very slippery. Trinexx itself can extend its neck to strike Link. The Fire and Ice Rods must be used to weaken the ice and fire heads, respectively, making them vulnerable to the Sword for a short time. When both elemental heads are defeated, Trinexx itself pulls into its shell as it explodes and emerges as a snake, which slithers around the room rapidly, trying to slam into Link. The flashing segment of Trinexx's body is its only weak point. Defeating him, and all the other Dark World bosses, allows Link to break the seal around Ganon's Tower using the power of the seven Maidens.

• Agahnim
• Agahnim reappears in Ganon's Tower. He can no longer shoot Lightning, but two shadowy, illusory versions of the wizard fight alongside him and are invulnerable to attack. Otherwise, the battle is much the same. When his own power is turned against him enough times, he collapses and a large blue bat emerges from his corpse. The bat (i.e. Ganon) flies out of the Tower and crashes through the roof of the Pyramid of Power, leaving a large hole. Link automatically plays the Flute, and the Bird carries Link to the Pyramid of Power hot on Ganon's heels.

• Ganon
• When Link drops into the Pyramid of Power after defeating Agahnim, he at last encounters his nemesis: Ganon, standing ready with Trident in hand. After a brief monologue, the battle begins as Ganon teleports around the room, throwing his Trident at Link. After being hit several times, he whirls his Trident over his head and conjures fire bats, which he launches at Link. After enduring many more hits, he changes his battle strategy again, using his great bulk to create a pit around the edges of the room by stomping the floor. The Pyramid's lamps extinguish, making him invisible. Lighting the Lanterns with either the Lamp or the Fire Rod makes him vulnerable once again. When slashed with the Master Sword, he freezes in place for a few moments, at which time only the Silver Arrow can harm him. Once struck with four Silver Arrows, Ganon dies and a path opens to the heart of the Pyramid and the Triforce. Interestingly, Link can still fall off the pit around the edge, in which case Ganon will have to be defeated all over again!

GBA-exclusive bosses

The Game Boy Advance port added many variants of existing bosses. The player could fight these in the Palace of the Four Sword after completing the Four Swords multiplayer adventure.

• Helmasaur King
• A stronger form of Helmasaur King. Unlike his previous incarnation's appearance, he features green skin and an orange mask. And unlike his previous incarnation, he has several masks. He has the same attack pattern for the most part, but stronger and faster.

• Arrghus
• A stronger form of Arrghus. Arrghus previously had little puff-like creatures attached to him, but this time, he has green, electric jellyfish creatures. They're all still invincible when they're together, and they're still only vulnerable when hooked away from Arrghus. However, like other types of jellyfish, these will electrify Link if he strikes one as they're giving off electricity. When they are all destroyed, an orange Arrghus will jump up into the air, slam down, and start swimming around rapidly. Same strategy to defeat.

• Mothula
• A stronger form of Mothula. It has a green body and orange wings. The spikes and the conveyer belts have been removed from the fight, but this time, Mothula will split into three Mothulas, which will turn into several Bees when struck. If Link strikes the fakes before the real one, it will merely reform two others. All are able to shoot the ring beams.

• Blind
• A stronger form of Blind. Link comes into the room and sees his Uncle lying there, mortally wounded. But after hearing what his "Uncle" had to say, he transforms into an orange Blind.

• He sticks with the same strategy, and it feels the same until he loses his head. It flies around the room, but Blind's shirt remains on the ground, and he will not recover his body until Link knocks the green head towards his body. As you continue doing this, you will have to knock more heads into his body each time, and the heads will start shooting fireballs.

• Dark Links
• Four Dark forms of Link, which each take turns fighting him. Each one is stronger than the last.

• Dark Link 1
• Uses normal attacks and can jump like a Stalfos to evade hits.

• Dark Link 2

• Dark Link 3
• Uses jump attacks.

• Dark Link 4
• Shoots firebolts out of his sword like a Lynel.

Defeating each of these gives Link a piece of the Four Sword. When all four pieces have been collected, the player sees the bonus GBA-only ending (http://www.vgmuseum.com/end/gba/b/loze.htm).

Palace of the Four Swords

The Palace of the Four Swords is a new level added to the Game Boy Advance remake, which is unlocked by defeating Vaati in the Four Swords game. While the entrance is usually blocked off by a rabbit-like creature who offers a hint for 20 Rupees (which turns out to be a ripoff), he disappears after you complete Four Swords. This level has six main areas - Main Area, West Area, East Area, North West Area, North East Area and North Area. For all but the Main and North Areas, there will be one or more puzzles you have to solve in order to gain access to the boss of that Area. The four bosses of those areas are Helmasaur King, Arrghus, Mothula and Blind the Thief. Each one guards a Sword in a Pedestal, which is used to break the seal blocking the North Area. Once all four Areas are beaten, you can then break the seal, and enter the final boss area. The final boss is four Dark Links, which you fight one at a time, each being stronger than the last. Beating this Dungeon gets you a new Dark World-centered ending. Also, Like Likes appear in one room in this dungeon, making it the only appearance of them in this game.

Music

The music was composed by Koji Kondo. The overworld theme of the original Legend of Zelda, or "Hyrule Overture" theme, was carried over to A Link to the Past and played in the Light World, redone in SPC700 style. It was also carried over to Super Smash Bros. in Nintendo 64 style and Super Smash Bros. Melee in orchestral style.

Japanese-English differences

The Japanese version of A Link to the Past was called Triforce of the Gods. Why this change? At the time Nintendo had a policy of removing or altering any potentially offensive religious references in English-language versions of games for their systems (most famously demonstrated in the Castlevania series), and Triforce of the Gods was clearly referring to pagan deities (real or imagined).

The most significant changes were to the manual.

• The manual told the story of the creation of Hyrule, but the English version added this sentence: "Every culture has such myths and theories about the creation of their worlds, and it can be beneficial and entertaining to examine them in detail, for they often affect the present day social structure." This is to enforce to the reader that this is absolutely untrue, but is still interesting to read.

• The Japanese version said the Hylians had magic power because they were a race chosen by the gods. However the US version tries to once more water down the religiosity by saying they merely had magic in their blood.

• The English manual refers to Ganon's gang of thieves as being skilled in "the black arts", but the Japanese does not. Perhaps this was to make them seem more evil?

• The English manual also invented the Dragmire/Mandrag title. "The name of this king of thieves is Ganondorf Dragmire, but he is known by his alias, Mandrag Ganon, which means Ganon of the Enchanted Thieves." Nor are the thieves intended to be enchanted (Blind the Thief is in a way), but that's another matter)

• "The Triforce, being an inanimate object, cannot judge between good and evil. Therefore, it could not know that Ganon's wishes were evil; it merely granted them." Further downplay of religious comments, the intention was that the Triforce could not judge because it was not a god and only the gods could judge, rather than the English version, that it was unable because it was an inanimate object.

• The chapter section "司祭" ("The Priest") was changed to "The Coming of the Wizard", again, to remove the religious reference. Also when he saved Hyrule the King appoints him as a priest, but in the English version he became his chief advisor.

• a sentence about the seal (on Ganon's imprisonment) merely being studied was changed to refer to the sages themselves checking it—but the sages were all dead! It was after all the descendants of the sages (the seven girls) that Link has to save.

• a sentence referring to the people as praying to the gods (for help) was cut out. This was meant to lead into Agahnim appearing "like a comet" (perhaps meaning coming down from the heavens?), as if in response to their cries. Instead the English manual says the King offered rewards, so Agahnim's appearance was not quite so miraculous.

• The English manual, strangely, leaves out a line about Agahnim beginning to govern Hyrule in the King's stead and abuse his power.

• "You watch him leave with the family sword in hand and shield on arm."—in the Japanese original, it wasn't a "family" one, but probably merely his personal equipment.

• The original Agahnim was much more violent. "To do this, he needs to break the Seal Of The Seven Wise Men. But he cannot do this with his power alone. He must also use the life force of the descendants of the Seven Wise Men." However, the Japanese original said "To do this, one has to sacrifice the maiden descendants of the seven sages to break the seal." This shows that, rather than using the "life force" of the maidens (and making it sound just like they will faint when it is over), they will actually die. This is why they are all female, the stereotypical "virgin sacrifice" plotline.

• The English manual makes Agahnim sound like a separate character, one that is misled or manipulated by Ganon. "With Agahnim the wizard as his pawn, this is about to become a reality (thus the late night experiments in the castle tower...)." However, the Japanese merely says Agahnim is close to making this dream a reality.

• in the American version, Link's ancestors are referenced, while in the Japanese version, they are not.

Zelda Universe (http://www.zeldalegends.net/files/text/z3translation/z3_manual_story.html) has an exhaustive line-by-line comparison of the manual versions.

A Link to the Past actually has two differing scripts in its Japanese and English versions.

The Japanese Hylian had designs of a vulture and an ankh that are clearly inspired by two very similar Egyptian hieroglyphs, both carrying religious meanings. Regardless, this was the first and last appearance of an Egyptian-styled Hylian, and all consecutive games have featured Japanese-derived symbols.

The Chris Houlihan room

The Chris Houlihan room is a room designed by Nintendo for Chris Houlihan. Chris Houlihan was an avid reader of Nintendo Power, and around the early 90s, Nintendo Power held a contest, where the winner would be included in a secret room in this game, and Chris Houlihan won the contest. Nintendo made it extremely difficult to find, and it wasn't discovered for a long time. The Chris Houlihan room has a message on a tile on the wall, and 45 Blue Rupees (225 Rupees total). The Chris Houlihan Tile was removed in the Game Boy Advance version, and was renamed the Top Secret Room. However, the room is not accessible outside of emulation.

The only known way into the Chris Houlihan room, other than using a cheat device, is to use this strategy. The Pegaus Boots are the only item required to accomplish this.

• Load a game, and start the game in the Sanctuary. Immediately run out of the building, and keep running South until you're out of the Sanctuary's Garden. Run west and turn South on the next screen as soon as you can. Navigate through the heavily-wooded area without hitting the trees, bushes or enemies and head east. Once you're at Hyrule Castle, run South and then East, across the Castle gates. When you approach a wall, head North, and run into the Bush covering the Sewers, causing you to fall into it. Instead of falling into the Sewers, however, you fall into the Chris Houlihan room.

For more details, see the Chris Houlihan Room FAQ (http://faqs.ign.com/articles/374/374271p1.html).

Technical notes

At the time, most SNES game cartridges had 4 Mbit (512 KB) of memory. This game broke the trend in using 8 Mbit (1 MB), allowing the Nintendo development team to create a remarkably expansive world for Link to inhabit.

A Link to the Past features two fully-explorable worlds; the Light World has four dungeons and Dark World has nine. Each palace has from three to eight floors, and each floor has several rooms. Moreover, many entrances on the overworld lead to more places to explore; cave mouths (sometimes needing to be bombed to open) lead to caves, all houses can be entered and explored, and sometimes bushes or gravestones conceal a hole that leads to secret places. In short, the game's world was very large and intricate for a game of this time.

The game also premiered a simple graphic compression method on the SNES by limiting the color depth of many (but not all) tiles to 8 colors instead of the SNES's native 16-color tiles. The tiles were decompressed at runtime by simply adding a leading zero bit to each pixel's color index.

See also

• BS Zelda: Kodai no Sekiban, its direct sequel
• The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, the multiplayer adventure added for its Game Boy Advance remake

es:Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

fr:The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past ja:ゼルダの伝説 神々のトライフォース