Great Games: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
A fabulous return to form for the Zelda series
When The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past came out on the Super Nintendo in 1992, there were only two other Zelda games in existence. The first, of course, being the original Legend of Zelda and the second being its sequel, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. The two were very different from one another, with one a top-down adventure game, and the other, a side-scrolling RPG hybrid. Players at the time might not have known which direction Nintendo would take, or if something completely new would be done altogether. A Link to the Past, thankfully, was a return to the classic formula that had made the original a classic.
A Link to the Past throws you right in the middle of the action. One stormy night, Link hears Princess Zelda’s voice. She has been trapped in Hyrule Castle by the dark wizard Agahnim and needs you to save her. Link sneaks into the sewers of the Castle to find his injured uncle, who hands Link his sword and shield. You crawl through the castle maze, eventually finding Zelda and leading her to safety. From there, you are tasked with finding three magic pendants, which will allow you to draw the Master Sword, the only weapon capable of defeating Agahnim. You exit the sanctuary, and the familiar overworld theme of the original Zelda starts to play. The game has now begun.
For those who played the first Zelda, this game almost feels like a remake. Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto even called it “the real sequel to the Legend of Zelda.” Just like the first one, it’s from a top-down perspective, while the wide country of Hyrule is free for you to explore. The biggest change is in the graphics, which have a wider palette of colors and more detailed movements than the earlier games. A great scene is when you first find the Master Sword hidden in an old forest. Small animals are scampering about and the sun’s light leaks down through the foliage. Like King Arthur, you draw the mossy sword from its stone and restore it to its former glory.
Where A Link to the Past goes beyond the previous games is in its scope. You not only can explore Hyrule, but the Dark World as well. The Dark World can be reached either by portals hidden throughout the game or by using the Magic Mirror. This was the first Zelda game to have a parallel world adjacent to Hyrule, which was later executed to great effect in Twilight Princess. When Agahnim first sends you to the top of that pyramid and the music of the Dark World starts, the player can’t help but feel chills. Much of the game requires you go back and forth between these worlds to acquire new items or to enter into new places.
The dungeons are also a delightful challenge. Unlike the first game, they have layers. You can run down the stairs, drop down holes, or break open holes to send light down to a lower level. As to be expected, there is a lot of backtracking and flip-switching. A Link to the Past also adopts the magic meter from Zelda II. This can make dungeon crawling a lot easier, since spells like Ether or Quake can clear a room of enemies. My favorite items to use against the bosses were the Magic Cape and the Cane of Somaria. They make you invulnerable to enemy attacks while you use them. It almost felt like cheating. Some of the bosses are very tricky. There’s a sandworm boss that can only be hurt from the tip of its tail, and it can also knock you off the lower floor. There’s another boss frozen completely in ice, who is all but impossible to defeat if don’t have enough magic left to melt him.
This was also the first Zelda game to have a real story to it. The script was written by Kensuke Tanabe, who had been reportedly influenced by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. There is a lot more dialogue, especially with Princess Zelda, who was barely present in the previous two games. There are also many side characters littered throughout Hyrule. There’s the sad tale, for instance, of the old man in the Dark World who can no longer listen to his son’s flute. If you help this man out, you can receive the flute and fly around Hyrule. This flute would later become the basis for the Ocarina. The big twist of the game is that Agahnim was merely a puppet of the true villain, Ganon. Ganon was mostly absent from Zelda II, so his return here helped cement him as the arch-antagonist of the Zelda series.
Zelda composer Kenji Kondo fully utilized the SNES to give us the best score that he could. Many classic staples of the Zelda franchise, like “Zelda’s Lullaby,” “Fairy Fountain Theme,” and “Kakariko Village,” were first composed for this game. There are also chilling new themes like “Hyrule Castle” and the aforementioned “Dark World.”
A Link to the Past, like The Ocarina of Time, also received a manga adaptation from that talented duo Akira Himekawa. The manga is an improvement on the game’s story, featuring a new character by the name of Ghanti. Ghanti is a thief who initially wants to take revenge against the warriors of Hyrule, but Link eventually turns her to his side. There are also plenty of little inside jokes for those who played the game, like the lady in Kakariko Village who shouts that Link is a wanted man. All of it, very good stuff.
