A Link To A Masterpiece: A Look Back At The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past 30 Years Later

A Link To A Masterpiece: A Look Back At The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past 30 Years Later
November 17, 2021

By Ryan Porzl

Earlier this year, I wrote and celebrated a milestone anniversary for the original Legend of Zelda game which celebrated it's 35th Anniversary but it's not the only game to have a big anniversary. In 1991, after a four year hiatus, the Legend of Zelda franchise made it's return with, what could be considered, the greatest game in the franchise and undoubtedly one of video game's true masterpieces in The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past. Returning to the classic elements of the original, the player controls Link as he travels between two worlds in an attempt to save both from Ganon. With the 30th Anniversary on November 21st, let's have a look at one of the greatest games of all time as we celebrate three decades of A Link To The Past. This article does contain spoilers.

Characters-

Link- The protagonist. An elf boy who originally lives with his uncle south of Hyrule Castle. Link is the last descendant of the Knights of Hyrule, who along with the Seven Sages, battled Ganon and sealed him away in the Dark World. He originally begins his journey by rescuing Princess Zelda from Hyrule Castle before eventually seeking the legendary Master Sword and eventually fights his way through the Dark World to save the seven maidens, stop Ganon and Agahnim's takeover of the Light World, and reclaim the Triforce.

Princess Zelda- The princess of Hyrule and a descendant of the seven sages. At the beginning of the game, her father was killed by the mysterious wizard Agahnim and she imprisoned. As a descendent of the seven sages, Agahnim needs her in order to break the seal between the light and dark worlds in order to free Ganon.

Ganon- The antagonist. Originally, a human bandit named Ganondorf, he successfully traveled to the sacred realm and was able to get his hands on the Triforce but by doing so, it turned the Golden Land into the Dark World and morphed him into a half human-half boar named Ganon. He eventually sought to conquer the light world but was sealed away in the Dark World by the Seven Sages. He uses the wizard Aghanim to break the seal by sending the seven maidens who are the sages' descendants to the Dark World.

Agahnim- A mysterious wizard who traveled to Hyrule prior to the events of the game in order to rid Hyrule from a series of misfortunes and is considered a hero. Soon after, he rids Hyrule of it's King, takes control of the guards, and plans to send seven maidens who are the descendants of the seven sages to the Dark World in order to break the sages' seal to the sacred realm which would free Ganon and allow him to conquer the Light World. Originally thought to be a servant of Ganon, it's later revealed he's actually the alter-ego of Ganon.

Sahasrahla- The elder of Kakariko Village, Sahasrhla is a descendant of the seven sages and goes into hiding after the rise of Agahnim. A telepath, he's able to communicate with Link not only across the Light World but even in the Dark World. As a result, he serves as a mentor to Link in his quest to save Hyrule and the Golden Land from Ganon and Agahnim.

Plot-

A Link To The Past's story takes place well before the events of the game. Many centuries before, legends told of a powerful Golden Power which resided in a place called the Golden Land near the Kingdom of Hyrule. At one point, a group of thieves led by a man named Ganondorf were able to infiltrate the land after entering through a magical gateway. Upon their arrival and discovery of the powerful artifact known as the Triforce, Ganondorf killed his minions in order to claim the power for himself. After touching the Triforce, the Golden Land would be consumed with darkness becoming the Dark World and Ganondorf would become a half man-half boar creature named Ganon. Eventually, Ganon would seek to conquer the Light World and unleashed his army to the land of Hyrule. In what would become known as "the Imprisoning War", The King of Hyrule sent Seven Wise Sages and the Knights of Hyrule to fight them off while the Sages created a seal to prevent Ganon and his forces from entering the Light World. In the end, the Sages and Knights proved successful and Ganon was sealed away in the Dark World. Peace would then reign for centuries until one day, a series of misfortunes including disease and drought began to plague the kingdom. Desperate for a solution, the King announced a reward for anyone who could stop it. Shortly after, a mysterious wizard named Agahnim traveled to Hyrule and with powerful and mysterious magic was able to save the Kingdom from the disasters. Named a hero, Agahnim was rewarded as Chief Advisor of the Throne. Once again, peace seem to return but before long Agahnim began showing his true colors by killing the King, taking the throne, and putting a spell on the guards of Hyrule. Afterwards, he began searching for the descendants of the Seven Wise Men and sent them to the Dark World in order to break the seal. At the beginning of the game, Agahnim succeeded in sending six maidens to the Dark World while imprisoning the seventh who is Princess Zelda.

On a dark rainy night, an elf boy and last descendant of the Knights of Hyrule named Link is asleep when he and his uncle receive a telepathic message from Zelda requesting their help. The Uncle tells Link to stay home while he will return in the morning while leaving with his sword and shield. Link follows but is unable to enter the castle. He eventually finds a secret passage inside after being told by Zelda telepathically. There, he meets his uncle who gives Link his sword and shield before dying. Link fights his way through Hyrule Castle until he reaches the dungeon where he rescues Zelda. The two then escape through a secret passage in the throne room and wind up in the Sanctuary where the Priest decides to allow Zelda to hide there while telling Link to seek the Master Sword and the elder of Kakariko Village named Sahasrahla. Link first travels to Kakariko Village but is mostly unwelcome as he is wanted for "kidnapping" Zelda. He finds the home of the elder Sahasrahla but is told by his grandson he went into hiding and marks where on the map. After finding and meeting Sahasrahla, Link is giving the test of retrieving the Pendant of Courage in a dungeon nearby and is ultimately successful. Seeing his potential, Sahasrahla decides to help Link on his quest and sends him to two other dungeons to locate the Pendant of Power and the Pendant of Wisdom as all three pendants are needed to pull the Master Sword. During his journey to the third dungeon, he first travels to the Dark World where he takes the form of a rabbit unable to fight. However, during his travels, he received a magic mirror which allowed him to return to the Light World. While in the third dungeon, he's able to acquire an item called the Moon Pearl which would allow him to retain his true body in the Dark World. After getting the three pendants, Link travels to the Lost Woods and successfully pulls the Master Sword out. However, just as he does this, Zelda telepathically communicates to him that Agahnim's forces have found her. Link returns to the Sanctuary where the Priest is dying but lives long enough to tell Link that Zelda has been taken to the Castle. Link then returns to Hyrule Castle where he enters a previously unreachable area and fights his way through but it's too late as Agahnim sends Zelda to the Dark World thus breaking the seal. The two fight with Link defeating Agahnim but Agahnim responds by sending Link to the Dark World.

Upon reaching the Dark World, he receives a telepathic message from Sahasrahla who explains the situation and that Link must save the seven maidens and reclaim the Golden Power in order to save the Light World. From there, Link journeys through the Dark World where he ventures into seven dungeons and fights his way until freeing each maiden and Zelda one by one. During this time, the theory is that Agahnim is a servant of Ganon that Ganon ordered to break the seal which would allow him access to the Light World. Link also travels back and forth between the worlds, collecting items, and other things that make him stronger. After freeing all seven maidens, he's able to have access to the Tower of Ganon on Death Mountain where he faces Agahnim again and once again, defeats him. Afterwards, Ganon's spirit comes out of him in the form of a bat and flies to the pyramid where he breaks a hole at the top. Link follows and heads into the pyramid for the final battle. Before the fight, Ganon reveals Agahnim was actually his alter-ego. During the battle, Ganon not only uses a trident but magic and the power of darkness but Link overcomes it and defeats Ganon with the Master Sword and silver arrows. With Ganon dead, Link finds the Triforce and upon touching it, brings peace to the Light World while restoring the Dark World into The Golden Land. In the end of the game, the King of Hyrule, Link's uncle, and the Priest are revived while Link returns the Master Sword to it's resting place at the Lost Woods.

Gameplay-

The gameplay of The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past saw a return to the style previously used in the first game after Nintendo deviated from it in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Combining action and RPG elements, the game is played from an overhead perspective as the player plays as Link as they journey through Hyrule fighting various creatures, exploring the land, acquiring items, and fighting their way first through three dungeons to acquire three pendants in the pendant of courage (green), pendant of power (blue), and pendant of wisdom (red). Upon collecting all three, they journey to the lost woods to collect the Master Sword. Eventually, the player and Link then journeys to the Dark World where they must explore seven dungeons each containing a captured maiden (as well as Princess Zelda) before eventually fighting Ganon. Throughout the journey, the game gets more difficult so Link can not only acquire special items to help him advance but stronger swords, mail tunics, and shields which increase his strength and defense as well as heart containers to increase his health. A Link To The Past saw the return of many classic elements like items such as a bow n' arrow, bombs, and boomerangs.  There's the fact that there's around eight dungeons in the Dark World as most Zelda games have seven or eight before the final boss. Link can shoot a sword projectile from his sword if he has full health. Link can gain upgrade armor via mail tunics or shield upgrades with new shields or sword upgrade with stronger swords or strengthen the Master Sword. There's heart containers which can increase Link's life. Shops to buy items. Secrets that can be found by either blowing up a wall with a bomb or charging through some cracks with the pegasus boot. Link can kill enemies that either drop items like bombs or arrows or hearts or rupees (the game's currency). The dungeons feature keys to unlock locked doors, a map to help the player navigate through it, a compass to help them find out which room has the boss, a big key which allows him to unlock the boss' door, and a special item that helps Link on his journey (and sometimes helps him defeat the boss of the dungeon), and upon defeating the boss, they gain a heart container to increase their health and an item which, in this case, is a pendant or a crystal which contains a captured maiden. As is also the case with many Zelda games, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past is nonlinear which means the player can tackle any dungeon they want, whenever they want provided they have the items they need to advance. However, the game also introduces new elements with some becoming common in future games. 

The most notable being the introduction of the Master Sword, the sword of evil's bane which has been a staple in Zelda games since. Another is the Dark World and Link's ability to travel between his world and a "dark" one. Certain items that became known in later games like hookshots, pegasus boots, and flippers allowing the player to swim in deep water debuted in A Link To The Past. Another new feature was the ability to collect fairies in bottles which the player can either use at anytime to heal themselves or be revived if they run out of hearts. 

As is also usual with Zelda games, the player has one life and if they lose all their health, it's game over unless they have a bottled fairy to revive them after falling. As is the case with Zelda games, the player are given infinite continues which allow them to continue where they last left off or the ability to stop the game so the player can play another day. The player is also given the chance to save and quit their game anytime as well without having to get a Game Over. The game also has three save files in the beginning which allow the player to save their game and return to where they last left off. If the player is in the light world, they're usually given the choice to start their game at either Link's house or the Sanctuary while they always start at the top of the pyramid in the Dark World. 

Behind the Scenes-

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past was directed by Zelda co-creator Takashi Tezuka and produced by Zelda co-creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Koji Kondo returned from The Legend of Zelda to compose A Link To The Past after missing out on Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. He continued contributing to many other Zelda games with the most recent being the 2016 HD version of Twilight Princess while also having composed for Ocarina of Time. The writer was Kensuke Tanabe who previously served as director and course designer for Yume Kojo: Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario Bros. 2 and a course designer for Super Mario Bros. 3. He later returned to the same capacity for the follow up Zelda game Link's Awakening and later did script support for Ocarina of Time. The programmers were Yasunori Soejima and Toshihiko Nakago. Soejima returned to the Zelda franchise having previously served as a programmer for The Legend of Zelda and later contributed display system programming for Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Nakago also returned having served as a programmer for The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. He also contributed to Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Ice Climbers, and later would go on to work on many more Zelda and Mario games over the decades in various capacities while also working on Star Fox 64 and Yoshi's Story. Along with Tezuka and Miyamoto, Nakago was credited by former Nintendo President Satoru Iwata as part of Nintendo's "Golden Triangle". The artist were Masanao Arimoto and Tsuyoshi Watanabe. Arimoto previously worked on F-Zero and would later work on the Zelda franchise with Link's Awakening, The Wind Waker (as well as it's HD version), and The Four Swords Adventure while also contributing to Star Fox 2, F-Zero X, Yoshi's Story, and the Mario franchise. A Link To The Past marked Watanabe's first game he worked on. He later worked as a MOCAP System Director for Ocarina of Time while also contributing to the first two Star Fox games, Wave Race 64, and Luigi's Mansion and also has long worked on the Mario franchise.

Work on A Link To The Past began as early as 1988 when plans were in place for a third Zelda game for the NES but plans changed a year later when Nintendo began work on developing the Super Nintendo and Super Famicom. Originally, Shigeru Miyamoto planned on A Link To The Past to feature a party consisting of an elf and fighter, a magic user, and a girl but this obviously didn't happen. Another thing considered was being able to create wildfires with grassy areas but this was cancelled due to time constraints though it would be used in The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords Adventure. A Link To The Past had a large budget as well as resources poured into it and plenty of time due to the success of the two previous Zelda games. The game used an 8 Mbit (1 MB) which was huge at the time since most Super Nintendo games used half that in 4 Mbit (512 KB) but because of that, they were able to create a large world for Link to explore. Both the Light and Dark Worlds are almost the same in terms of layout but their texture tiles are different. The Dark World actually only exists in the ROM as an overlay of the Light World. The developers were also able to save storage space by getting rid of any duplication. Instead of using the Super Nintendo's 16-color tiles, A Link To The Past used only 8 by using a simple graphic compression on the Super Nintendo to limit the color depth of many tiles. This trick was done a year before for Super Mario World.

As was common at the time, the English version underwent some censorship, in this case, over religious iconography and symbols which Nintendo of America was against showing at the time. The subtitle was changed because of this from "Triforce of the Gods" to "A Link To The Past". Agahnim's story was altered as he was originally a priest that was hinted to have been sent from the gods to Hyrule but the English version depicts him as a wizard while the idea or hint of him being sent from the gods was dropped. The Sanctuary in the Light World is modeled after a Christian Chapel but features no religious symbols while the dialogue was changed to remove any hints of religion. The Hylian language originally had vulture and ankh designs which were based on Egyptian Hieroglyphs but these were also altered due to them having religious meaning. 

Release-

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past was released as "Zeruda no Densestu: Kamigami no Toraifosu" (The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods) in Japan on November 21, 1991 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, in North America on April 13, 1992 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and in Europe on September 24, 1992 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A Link To The Past received critical acclaim as both GameRankings and SNES Force scored it a 93%, both AllGame and Dragon scored it a perfect 5 stars, GamePro scored it a perfect 5/5, Famitsu scored it a 39/40, and EGM scored it a 35/40. The game received many awards and runner up positions as it won the Chicago Tribune's Game of the Year for 1992 award (tying with Street Fighter II), EGM's Best Video Game Sequel for 1992 award, Nintendo Power's Graphics and Sound award for an SNES game, Nintendo Power's Challenge award for a SNES game, and Nintendo Power's award for Best Hero (Link). Meanwhile, the game was runner up for Nintendo Power's Game of the Year award. A Link To The Past was also named by Entertainment Weekly, Next Generation, and Popular Mechanics as the Best Game of All Time while getting runner up honors from G4, GameReactor, and IGN. Kotaku and GamePro named it the Best Game of the Generation. A Link To The Past also sold well as it topped the Famitsu sales charts during November to December 1991 and in January 1992 thus becoming the best selling game released in 1991. In North America, it was the third highest selling game of 1992 behind only Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Street Fighter II. Eventually, it likely sold a million copies in North America due to the fact a "Player's Choice" re-release while ultimately selling 4.61 copies worldwide, making it one of the highest selling games in the SNES. Upon it's re-release on GBA, it sold an additional 1.4 million copies and grossed $41 million by August 2006.

IGN would originally rank A Link To The Past in 11th place of their "Top 100 Games" list in 2005 while readers would vote it in 5th place. Later on, IGN would also rank it as the 2nd Best Game of All Time in 2015 and 2019. Readers of Famitsu voted it the 31st Best Game in a 2006 poll. Nintendo Power ranked it #2 on their list of the 200 Best Super Nintendo Games. GamesRadar scored it as the third best Super Nintendo game, behind only Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger. ScrewAttack placed it 2nd on their list of the Top 20 Super Nintendo Games. Readers of Edge magazine voted it 6th in a July 2007 poll on the 100 Best Games of All Time. In 2001, Game Informer placed it at #23 on their list of the Top 200 Games of All Time list while eventually moving it up to #12 in a similar article in 2009. In 2001, EGM ranked it #3 on it's list of the 100 Best Games of All Time list. 

Aftermath-
The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past has been re-released many times over the past 30 years. In 2002, the game was ported to the Game Boy Advance as A Link To The Past and Four Swords which also included the Four Swords multiplayer game. Also, like most classic Nintendo games, it's been ported and re-released on the Wii Virtual Console, the Wii U Virtual Console, and the Nintendo Switch Online. Along with the re-releases, A Link To The Past continues to be influential in many ways. In the 90s, a comic book and manga adaptations of the game have been created. The follow up to A Link To The Past, which was The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, has the same gameplay and items including the classics but also includes several A Link To The Past items like the pegasus boot and flippers. In 2013, a spiritual successor to A Link To The Past was created in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds which takes place in the same world as A Link To The Past but features a new story, puzzles, and dungeons. Many songs from A Link To The Past have also been included in the Super Smash Bros. series while Princess Zelda's look is partially based on her A Link To The Past form in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.