Opening thoughts on A Link to the Past.
This one I got as a “half-birthday” present (my sister and I were born 18 months apart, so we each got one present on the other’s birthday). I promptly got myself grounded and the game taken away because I was so engrossed I neglected to do things like cleaning my room when we had company coming to visit. Oops.
This is not only my favorite Zelda game I’ve played, but one of my all-time favorite games, period. I’ve played it so many times I know it really well, and have even done a few randomizer runs1. That said, I’m still learning new things about the game – this playthrough I learned there’s a cucco you can turn into a human.
The Epic Story
“Long ago, in the beautiful kingdom of Hyrule surrounded by mountains and forests, legends told of an omnipotent and omniscient Golden Power that resided in a hidden land. Many people aggressively sought to enter the hidden Golden Land, but no one ever returned. One day evil power began to flow from the Golden Land, so the King commanded seven wise men to seal the gate to the Land of the Golden Power. That seal should have remained for all time…
“But, when these events were obscured by the mists of time and became legend…
“A mysterious wizard known as Agahnim came to Hyrule to release the seal. He eliminated the good King of Hyrule…
“Through evil magic, he began to make descendants of the seven wise men vanish, one after another. And the time of destiny for Princess Zelda is drawing near.”2
Once again, there’s more in the manual. They talk more about the creation of the world, and about how Ganon found the Triforce and the effort to seal him in the Sacred Realm/Golden Land/Dark World. Agahnim apparently came to Hyrule as a friend, dispelling disasters that had ravaged the land. His evil sorcery is mostly the subject of whispers and rumors. But they did a good job of condensing the story for the people who didn’t read it, too.
Hashing Out the Timeline
So the biggest question here: how does this relate to the first two games? The story for Ganon is completely different, and he dies at the end of this game and the first game. I ultimately decided there wasn’t any continuity between the two – the differences were too much – and treated this game as a reboot.
A distant prequel, with Ganon being resurrected at some point, never crossed my mind. I suppose that’s what the A Link to the Past subtitle is supposed to mean3.
So, here’s the timeline as we have it now:
- Creation of the world and Triforce.
- People search for the Triforce. Ganon eventually finds it.
- The Imprisoning War ends with Ganon sealed in the Triforce’s sacred realm, which Ganon’s evil influence turns into the cursed Dark World.
- Disasters sweep Hyrule. Agahnim shows up as a friend and stops the disasters, but he’s really looking to break the wise men’s seal.
- [Events of this game. The Triforce eventually passes into the possession of the Hyrule royal family.]
- A king, doubting his son’s ability to rule, hides a third of the Triforce. The prince, in an effort to locate the missing piece, allows a wizard to interrogate his sister, who knows where it is. When she refuses to tell, the wizard puts her under a sleeping curse.
- Ganon is resurrected at some point and steals half the remaining Triforce. The princess splits the one piece she still has into eight and hides them from him before she’s captured by him.
- A new hero reunites the split Triforce and uses it to challenge Ganon. Ganon is defeated and his third of the Triforce is recovered.
- On the hero’s sixteenth birthday, a previously unknown birthmark appears, identifying him as the one to find the hidden Triforce third. He locates it, awakening the long-sleeping Zelda, and in the process prevents Ganon’s minions from resurrecting him.
This is the first Zelda game where it feels like there’s a story beyond “Here’s why Link needs to go to all the dungeons, collect a full set of plot coupons, go to the final dungeon, and smash the boss.” Sure, after meeting Sahasrahla, it basically boils down to that, only smashing the boss doesn’t work so he gets to do it all over again, only with more plot coupons stored in harder dungeons. But the gradual revelation of the first chunk of the plot, along with the fact that there is that “Oh ho ho, surely you didn’t think we’d make that whole Dark World map and only use a tiny bit of it, did you?” twist, make the plot feel more alive.
Next: “Help me… please help me…”