You gotta saaaave the world!
The game is set in the fictional world of Hyrule. A young boy, Link, is sent telepathic messages by the Princess Zelda, claiming she has been kidnapped by the Dark Wizard Agahnim, and is being held prisoner in Hyrule Castle. The villains' goal is to break the seal created by the Seven Sages, holding the Dark Lord Ganon. To prevent this from happening, Link must find three sacred pendants which will grant him access to The Master Sword, the only weapon capable of stopping Agahnim from releasing Ganon and controlling the world.
The game is presented from a top down perspective, as did the first title in the series. The Heads up Display shows all of the essentials the player will need; using a magic meter which is present in the form of a green bar, shows how much can be used on various spells. Next to that is a thumbnail of the selected weapon, which can be changed very simply by opening a menu and choosing which is right for the occasion. To the right of that is the rupee count, which acts as currency and can be used to purchase new weapons, bombs, and arrows, which are shown next to the rupee count. When the game begins, the player has four heart containers, whenever damage is inflicted half of a heart fades away, when all of the hearts run out, the player is reverted to the last save point, unless certain items such as fairies are in the inventory, in that case, the player is restored to life. As the game progress, items such as pieces of heart can be found, when four of which are collected the player earns a new heart container, thusly acting as collectibles.
Through out the game it becomes common knowledge that Ganon, the true antagonist, is held captive in the dark realm by the Seven Sages. When the game reaches a certain point, Link is transported to this realm, which acts as a change of environment. Where locations would be beautiful and luxurious in the light realm would be nefarious and deformed in its dark form. Trees would become enemies in certain instances, shooting objects at the player. Enemies also change, where ordinarily would be a Hyrulian Guard wielding a staff, would be an ogre that throws bombs. When the player has the option to jump between these worlds at will it becomes a very interesting change of pace to see the differences in design.
Within the game there is a large variety of weapons, these include regular swords and shields, which are available at the very start. Beyond that, more conventional weapons such as a bow and arrows, bombs and boomerangs become present. Due to the very magical and fantasy based nature of the Zelda series however, the weapons become much more intricate and unique. The Rod of Ice and The Rod of Fire are excellent examples of how magic is used, shooting off a blast will inflict a certain hazard on the enemy, be it freezing them or setting them alight. Other various weapons include The Medallions of Ether, Quake and Bombos, which cause radial attacks of Ice, Earth and Fire respectively.
Interestingly these weapons don't just add new ways to take on enemies; they act as ways to traverse the next puzzle. The Hookshot, which shoots out a chain with a hook on the end, can be used to traverse large gaps, or the Pegasus Boots, which allow the player to run at super speeds, opening up puzzles with time limits that require the player to dash through a door after triggering a switch.
Leading on to the next topic, a major point of Zelda is that it is a puzzle/adventure game. Some puzzles could be as simple as pressing a button or pulling a lever, however increase in difficulty as the game progresses, having the player do such things as drop through holes on the floor to land on a certain platform, or pulling objects to keep pressure sensitive switches active.
The music within the game is very atmospheric, using the same music for similar areas, for example areas that are bright and green will have a very triumphant and heroic background music to symbolise the players journey, whereas darker areas, such as crypts and tombs, will use more sinister tones for the pieces, giving the player a sense of dread and enhancing the mood.
A major downside to not just the game, but the series, was the fact that the player could not keep track of which collectibles had been found and which were left undiscovered. Given that they are such an important part of the story, supplying the player with health, one would assume that there would be some kind of tracking system to keep informed of your progress. Although this can be blamed on the age of the technology and gaming itself, designers could have included some way to track these statistics.
Many games are adventure based, on the Super Nintendo franchises such as Metroid and Mario are Zelda's rivals, which incidentally were all huge successes before and after the Super versions which were for the Super Nintendo. The excellent thing about comparing Zelda's mechanics and game play to these two games, is that they all seem to borrow ideas from one another, with the Role Playing element of Metroid and the simplistic 'Save the Princess' plotline of Mario, the game stands in a genre full of big names, however stands strong enough to earn high merits on all of its features.
As far as games go it's difficult to call one perfect, taking into account mechanics, game play, story, replay value and of course personal preference. But as far as any title goes on the Super Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past certainly has a large influence on other games of the genre. With excellent aspects in every area, it's incredibly difficult to find something that is at fault or wrong with the game, however finding one is a task that is not possible in this case.