If by "completed" you mean "watched the runaway guys' playthrough" then yeah I say I did it
bigger test of friendship than any mario party game, teen boys be out for blood like sharks if you were stealing rupees or throwing each other into random bullshit.
A bit of a hassle to play multiplayer since you need 4 GBAs and a GameCube? But if you get the chance to play it, it’s an absolute gem. Puzzles are fun but I’m never looking at my friends in the same way again.
it was fun the single time i was able to get together with friends and play it but i dont think it was that good of a game
I never get the bother award because i am a good person
My friends told me I cheated during the color rail section on the sky level
all I did was run with the pegasus boots lmao
all I did was run with the pegasus boots lmao
This game is fantastic if you play Co-op, i'm not even sure if single player is available or not. It is so incredibly fun to go from map to map solving puzzles with your friends. being on the gamecube, everything is incredibly polished and it's arguable the best looking 2D zelda created.
Es un título que de una forma un poco ortodoxa llegó a la GCN de Nintendo, siendo un gran juego de aventuras, con todas las características que lo enmarcan dentro del universo Zelda, hubiera sido mejor confeccionado e implementado en la portátil de la empresa nipona. A pesar de la extraña decisión de traer Four Swords Adventures al cubo, es un disco con mucha calidad, con una dirección artística memorable y unas opciones multijugador que divierten hasta niveles insospechados. Sin embargo, se recomienda únicamente para los seguidores de las aventuras de Link y de su eterna lucha contra el mal, ya que los demás jugadores lo encontrarán un poco fuera de base, al contener un motor gráfico y una mecánica de juego que no concuerda con la consola en la que fue lanzado.
Surprisingly fun simple 2d zelda game that is level based almost like an arcade style zelda beat em up,
The biggest issue is how to actually play multiplayer
needing 4 gbas and 4 connector cables is insane
instead of using 4 gamecube controllers like a normal person.
that's about the only negative I can say other than compared to other zelda games the world story and characters are kind of too simple for my tastes, not that it makes it a bad game or even what its trying to do its just MY taste in zelda games
The biggest issue is how to actually play multiplayer
needing 4 gbas and 4 connector cables is insane
instead of using 4 gamecube controllers like a normal person.
that's about the only negative I can say other than compared to other zelda games the world story and characters are kind of too simple for my tastes, not that it makes it a bad game or even what its trying to do its just MY taste in zelda games
Extremely cool idea - went to a lot of trouble to get everything I needed to play this game with three friends and we had a lot of fun overall. Switching play between the main screen and the GBA was really clever and there are loads of ways to troll each other - would recommend!
I finished this game a lot of time. It sure doesn't come close to Twilight Princess or Wind Waker. The graphics are clearly made for the Game Boy Advance (which is an obligation if you want to play this game with friends since you'll need one GBA per player).
Still, it has it's little charm and it is fun. A lot of the bosses comes from previous game and a lot of Zelda's lore is mix. It takes 10 hours to finish with 20 to 30 minutes per level.
I recommend play it without comparing it to other Zelda's and appreciate it for what it is.
Still, it has it's little charm and it is fun. A lot of the bosses comes from previous game and a lot of Zelda's lore is mix. It takes 10 hours to finish with 20 to 30 minutes per level.
I recommend play it without comparing it to other Zelda's and appreciate it for what it is.
Somehow I played this authentically in 2023 with 4 people.
Game was fun, but the way they boot you out of the game with no way of saving progress if one of you disconnect, either by jerking your cable, accidentally turning off your GBA or running out of batteries(since you cant charge while playing), is such an attrocious design choice. Surely there could've been a work-around of some sort if they really tried it.
When nothing goes wrong, though, that's when you get a truly unique couch co-op experience, even if the game is a more streamlined and simple game compared to the other Zelda entries.
Game was fun, but the way they boot you out of the game with no way of saving progress if one of you disconnect, either by jerking your cable, accidentally turning off your GBA or running out of batteries(since you cant charge while playing), is such an attrocious design choice. Surely there could've been a work-around of some sort if they really tried it.
When nothing goes wrong, though, that's when you get a truly unique couch co-op experience, even if the game is a more streamlined and simple game compared to the other Zelda entries.
‘We will struggle together and grow stronger than before.’
Played with BertKnot, in preparation for our Zelda Marathon podcast.
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2002) was the result of an unexpected and incomplete development. The Capcom team, led by Hidemaro Fujibayashi, had been temporarily transferred from The Minish Cap (2004) to work on the multiplayer section of the A Link to the Past (1991) remaster. Many of the ideas were found in both games, but were primarily intended for a single-player experience. The resulting title was of questionable quality, unable to establish a distinct identity. However, the concept of a multiplayer opus for Zelda franchise was not a bad idea, and a hybrid title halfway between cooperation and competition was conceived. To demonstrate the connectivity between the GBA and GameCube, Nintendo set about developing Four Swords Adventures, which was to be a retelling of the original title, but in a much longer format. With Toshiaki Suzuki as director, the project was overseen by Aonuma and Miyamoto; the latter, in a very characteristic moment, insisted on last-minute changes to prioritise gameplay over story.
A game-design built around references
The game follows the storyline of Four Swords, and players control reflections of Link as they work together to rescue the Seven Sages and stop Shadow Link and Vaati's attacks on Hyrule. Eight different worlds, each consisting of three levels, unfold throughout the adventure. The latter always features one of the series' iconic dungeons, often from A Link to the Past, while the first two showcase famous locations from the overworld. Remarkably, Four Swords Adventures is a continuous layering of references, borrowing from The Legend of Zelda (1986), Ocarina of Time (1998), The Wind Waker (2002), and all the rest. This approach works wonderfully and has been perfectly analysed by Aonuma, who points out: ‘In bringing together the elements for the Four Swords [Adventures], [Suzuki] looked at, essentially, taking elements from the 3D Wind Waker, [...] finding ways to take elements that people who have played the newer games would then see in this game and be familiar with, in addition to taking some of the older elements from the past 2D games. [...] Four Swords [Adventures] is going to be something that will feel familiar [...] to both the old-school fans and the new-school fans.‘ [1]
The endless interplay of references allows for a smooth and natural progression, which benefits the game's arcade flavour by borrowing puzzles and mechanics familiar to veterans, but also by subverting players' expectations. On several occasions, the game throws in surprises that can catch players off guard – the Flying Tiles were particularly effective. Similarly, the gameplay mix – with side-scrolling sequences reminiscent of Adventure of Link (1987) and Link's Awakening (1993), or those set in the Dark World a la A Link to the Past – rejuvenates parts of the previous games. The boss of the sixth world is Moldorm, who will evoke painful memories for anyone who played A Link to the Past: the boss would often throw the player off the platform, and a fall would force them to climb back up several floors to start the fight again. Here, falling leads to a small side-view pit, making it easy to rejoin the action. The mix of 2D and 3D works to create fresh puzzles, which also take advantage of the two screens the player has to look at, both the GameCube's monitor and the GBA's screen. Projectiles can be fired through doors or ceilings, hitting targets that seem out of reach.
Exploration between cooperation and competition
In general, Four Swords Adventures manages to use its items wisely, exploiting them as much as possible. As with Four Swords, it is unfortunate that some items quickly become obsolete, and that players are often invited to take the same item, but the effort required to create complex puzzles that work in both multiplayer and single-player modes minimises this criticism. With several players, the linearity of the progression is never a problem, as it fades in favour of the competition between players. Moreover, the title offers levels that are more exploration-oriented – the Village of the Blue Maiden being perhaps the most telling example. The level is an excellent recontextualisation of exchange quests on a level scale: players can split up to collect clues separately and gather the information necessary to continue exploring. In these cases, the level invites closer cooperation and pushes the competitive element into the background. It is this invisible balance that makes Four Swords Adventures so enjoyable: the game always strikes the right tone to keep players engaged, and the level diversity keeps the experience refreshing.
While the final world partially abandons this approach, being a little too dense in its succession of puzzles and battles, all the levels are of a reasonable length, elegantly breaking up the action like a play. The aim is never to put players in a difficult position, but rather to reward them for their knowledge of the series' mechanics: arguably, Four Swords Adventures is a game whose optimal experience may require several players with a fairly extensive knowledge of the series. The ability to anticipate the design of the puzzles adds an exhilarating aspect to the title, and a chemistry between players who can race through the rooms to collect Force Gems. Of course, slower, more deliberate exploration is just as welcome, but this is a different, equally interesting experience.
It is also worth mentioning the presence of two other modes: Shadow Battle embraces the competitive aspect of the title, while Navi Trackers is a completely different mode, exclusive to the Japanese version – it was dubbed and was able to pronounce the players' names, which would probably have been too difficult to recreate in English. In any case, Four Swords Adventures was a love letter to a franchise that was then almost two decades old. It borrows codes that have become standards and sometimes subverts them, ambushing players with friendly mischief. The title alternates between the visual styles of A Link to the Past and The Wind Waker, depending on the sequence, while the music uses iconic themes from the franchise. If the game has few particularly memorable passages – the Village of the Blue Maiden is undoubtedly the exception – it is imbued throughout with a rare sincerity that pays tribute to the series, its creators and its players.
__________
[1] Eiji Aonuma, GDC Roundtable, 17th May 2004.
Played with BertKnot, in preparation for our Zelda Marathon podcast.
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords (2002) was the result of an unexpected and incomplete development. The Capcom team, led by Hidemaro Fujibayashi, had been temporarily transferred from The Minish Cap (2004) to work on the multiplayer section of the A Link to the Past (1991) remaster. Many of the ideas were found in both games, but were primarily intended for a single-player experience. The resulting title was of questionable quality, unable to establish a distinct identity. However, the concept of a multiplayer opus for Zelda franchise was not a bad idea, and a hybrid title halfway between cooperation and competition was conceived. To demonstrate the connectivity between the GBA and GameCube, Nintendo set about developing Four Swords Adventures, which was to be a retelling of the original title, but in a much longer format. With Toshiaki Suzuki as director, the project was overseen by Aonuma and Miyamoto; the latter, in a very characteristic moment, insisted on last-minute changes to prioritise gameplay over story.
A game-design built around references
The game follows the storyline of Four Swords, and players control reflections of Link as they work together to rescue the Seven Sages and stop Shadow Link and Vaati's attacks on Hyrule. Eight different worlds, each consisting of three levels, unfold throughout the adventure. The latter always features one of the series' iconic dungeons, often from A Link to the Past, while the first two showcase famous locations from the overworld. Remarkably, Four Swords Adventures is a continuous layering of references, borrowing from The Legend of Zelda (1986), Ocarina of Time (1998), The Wind Waker (2002), and all the rest. This approach works wonderfully and has been perfectly analysed by Aonuma, who points out: ‘In bringing together the elements for the Four Swords [Adventures], [Suzuki] looked at, essentially, taking elements from the 3D Wind Waker, [...] finding ways to take elements that people who have played the newer games would then see in this game and be familiar with, in addition to taking some of the older elements from the past 2D games. [...] Four Swords [Adventures] is going to be something that will feel familiar [...] to both the old-school fans and the new-school fans.‘ [1]
The endless interplay of references allows for a smooth and natural progression, which benefits the game's arcade flavour by borrowing puzzles and mechanics familiar to veterans, but also by subverting players' expectations. On several occasions, the game throws in surprises that can catch players off guard – the Flying Tiles were particularly effective. Similarly, the gameplay mix – with side-scrolling sequences reminiscent of Adventure of Link (1987) and Link's Awakening (1993), or those set in the Dark World a la A Link to the Past – rejuvenates parts of the previous games. The boss of the sixth world is Moldorm, who will evoke painful memories for anyone who played A Link to the Past: the boss would often throw the player off the platform, and a fall would force them to climb back up several floors to start the fight again. Here, falling leads to a small side-view pit, making it easy to rejoin the action. The mix of 2D and 3D works to create fresh puzzles, which also take advantage of the two screens the player has to look at, both the GameCube's monitor and the GBA's screen. Projectiles can be fired through doors or ceilings, hitting targets that seem out of reach.
Exploration between cooperation and competition
In general, Four Swords Adventures manages to use its items wisely, exploiting them as much as possible. As with Four Swords, it is unfortunate that some items quickly become obsolete, and that players are often invited to take the same item, but the effort required to create complex puzzles that work in both multiplayer and single-player modes minimises this criticism. With several players, the linearity of the progression is never a problem, as it fades in favour of the competition between players. Moreover, the title offers levels that are more exploration-oriented – the Village of the Blue Maiden being perhaps the most telling example. The level is an excellent recontextualisation of exchange quests on a level scale: players can split up to collect clues separately and gather the information necessary to continue exploring. In these cases, the level invites closer cooperation and pushes the competitive element into the background. It is this invisible balance that makes Four Swords Adventures so enjoyable: the game always strikes the right tone to keep players engaged, and the level diversity keeps the experience refreshing.
While the final world partially abandons this approach, being a little too dense in its succession of puzzles and battles, all the levels are of a reasonable length, elegantly breaking up the action like a play. The aim is never to put players in a difficult position, but rather to reward them for their knowledge of the series' mechanics: arguably, Four Swords Adventures is a game whose optimal experience may require several players with a fairly extensive knowledge of the series. The ability to anticipate the design of the puzzles adds an exhilarating aspect to the title, and a chemistry between players who can race through the rooms to collect Force Gems. Of course, slower, more deliberate exploration is just as welcome, but this is a different, equally interesting experience.
It is also worth mentioning the presence of two other modes: Shadow Battle embraces the competitive aspect of the title, while Navi Trackers is a completely different mode, exclusive to the Japanese version – it was dubbed and was able to pronounce the players' names, which would probably have been too difficult to recreate in English. In any case, Four Swords Adventures was a love letter to a franchise that was then almost two decades old. It borrows codes that have become standards and sometimes subverts them, ambushing players with friendly mischief. The title alternates between the visual styles of A Link to the Past and The Wind Waker, depending on the sequence, while the music uses iconic themes from the franchise. If the game has few particularly memorable passages – the Village of the Blue Maiden is undoubtedly the exception – it is imbued throughout with a rare sincerity that pays tribute to the series, its creators and its players.
__________
[1] Eiji Aonuma, GDC Roundtable, 17th May 2004.
SEXTA
If one of the GBAs runs out of battery and dies then it kickes you to the title screen instead of just waiting for you to put in new batteries.
Not fucking cool.
The rest of it is pretty fucking cool though.
Not fucking cool.
The rest of it is pretty fucking cool though.
Fun for the whole family
pretty fun!
This game's existence is one of the biggest anomalies in the series.
OH MAN GUESS WHO'S GETTING THE BOTHER AWARD
It's a shame that this game went so overlooked because of how much of a pain in the ass it is to get all of the equipment necessary for multiplayer.
This game is FANTASTIC. An underrated gem in the franchise. The level structure is unusual, but it's not at all a detriment. Just about all aspects of this game are great, and if you're able to get it working with Parsec, I highly recommend it.
This game is FANTASTIC. An underrated gem in the franchise. The level structure is unusual, but it's not at all a detriment. Just about all aspects of this game are great, and if you're able to get it working with Parsec, I highly recommend it.
Fun only with friends
Using the GBA as a controller makes this game way more enjoyable.
I played Red and got the most force rizz to the point where I was the last Link at the end with Zelda
This game has some cool ideas that would be neat in a traditional Zelda game, like the C-Stick formations, but the level structure kinda hurts it. Some levels are worse than others, and the best ones are mostly just neat. the final level has some serious nonsense design, bad note to end on.
Either the most fun or most infuriating experience you'll ever have with your friends. A Parsec must play.
This review contains spoilers
STORY: It's a very very basic Zelda story. Maidens have been captured, go save them. This gets a pass since it's a multiplayer game though. No one playing this is here for the story.
GRAPHICS/SOUND: Reuses a lot of the assets from A Link to the Past with some graphics and sound effects from Wind Waker thrown in. It looks basic, but it was meant to be played with a GBA so it gets another pass. The music is basically LTTP music with a few remixes thrown in. LTTP music is awesome so this is not a bad thing. I love the overworld remix. It's a cool reimagining of the classic theme.
GAMEPLAY: Ok this is where it gets divisive. The game was obviously built as a multiplayer game so because of this, much of the level design features ideas suited for multiple players. There is a lot of backtracking, hoards of enemies, and areas where the characters have to split up. The problem comes when playing this single-player. The level design just becomes frustrating and repetitive by the end. The final areas in particular have some incredibly annoying mechanics. There are some fun levels thrown in there. I like the levels that are mostly puzzle-based, but the majority of the game will have you doing the same things over and over again. At it's core it's still the same Zelda experience, but it's difficult to play for long periods of time.
Overall it's not a bad game, but it's definitely not one that's suited for single-player. I love a lot of the ideas, but frustrating level design really brings it down. It's hard to be mad at the game though because again, this was not built as a single-player experience. I've heard the multiplayer is a lot of fun! If you can jump through the billions of hoops to actually play it. Oh well.
GRAPHICS/SOUND: Reuses a lot of the assets from A Link to the Past with some graphics and sound effects from Wind Waker thrown in. It looks basic, but it was meant to be played with a GBA so it gets another pass. The music is basically LTTP music with a few remixes thrown in. LTTP music is awesome so this is not a bad thing. I love the overworld remix. It's a cool reimagining of the classic theme.
GAMEPLAY: Ok this is where it gets divisive. The game was obviously built as a multiplayer game so because of this, much of the level design features ideas suited for multiple players. There is a lot of backtracking, hoards of enemies, and areas where the characters have to split up. The problem comes when playing this single-player. The level design just becomes frustrating and repetitive by the end. The final areas in particular have some incredibly annoying mechanics. There are some fun levels thrown in there. I like the levels that are mostly puzzle-based, but the majority of the game will have you doing the same things over and over again. At it's core it's still the same Zelda experience, but it's difficult to play for long periods of time.
Overall it's not a bad game, but it's definitely not one that's suited for single-player. I love a lot of the ideas, but frustrating level design really brings it down. It's hard to be mad at the game though because again, this was not built as a single-player experience. I've heard the multiplayer is a lot of fun! If you can jump through the billions of hoops to actually play it. Oh well.
After playing Four Swords, I honestly was expecting a far worse game than what Four Swords Adventures turned out to be. The collaboration component has been refined and the puzzles are genuinely enjoyable. The game was a lighthearted tone that fits with the multiplayer aspect, and the level based structure (similar to a typical Mario game) doesn't get repetitive.
At the same time, there's no lack of problems. First of all, the game is way too easy. The player would almost have to intentionally die to experience any kind of obstacle difficulty-wise. Secondly, the plot is a basic justification for an adventure and has 0 importance. Plus the level structure could be improved, saving some type of progress as the players advance so that is feels more organic.
Still, it's a game worth trying.
At the same time, there's no lack of problems. First of all, the game is way too easy. The player would almost have to intentionally die to experience any kind of obstacle difficulty-wise. Secondly, the plot is a basic justification for an adventure and has 0 importance. Plus the level structure could be improved, saving some type of progress as the players advance so that is feels more organic.
Still, it's a game worth trying.
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures was originally multiplayer-only, much like its predecessor on the Game Boy Advance. However, a single-player mode was thrown in towards the end of development, and it turned out surprisingly well. Since it’s 2023 and I don’t have four GBAs, link cables, or an actual GameCube (I played this on the Wii), I played the single player version.
Four Swords Adventures has one major flaw: repetition. The same puzzles are used over and over again: push these blocks, pull this lever, stand on these buttons, blah blah blah. These “puzzles” are used so frequently that I began to wonder if the developers just couldn’t figure out any better four-player challenges and just decided to copy-paste the same ones to fill out time.
The story is a mess. It starts with Vaati reawakening and kidnapping the Seven Maidens (again), with Link drawing the Four Sword to chase him down. Then Shadow Link picks up a fucking flamethrower and starts torching entire villages. Then some undead knights come out of nowhere and tell the four Links to go fetch their pretty jewels. Then Ganon comes out of nowhere with zero foreshadowing and is revealed to be the main antagonist once again, now with an entirely new backstory… that we never actually see and is simply told to us by NPCs. There’s some interesting lore here, but none of it is fleshed out. Hell, Zelda gets abducted in the opening cutscene, Vaati doesn’t even talk, and we don’t get to see Ganon until the very end. What a waste. The game was originally supposed to have a deeper story until Shigeru Miyamoto snuck in one day, grabbed the devs by their throats, and whispered, “I don’t like stories in my games. Dumb it down for me.” He then kissed each of them on the forehead and slithered away to go hibernate until the next Mario game. Anyways, the story is both barebones and over complicated as a result of the devs trying to keep Shiggy happy.
The game certainly looks visually crisp, seamlessly integrating GBA graphics with the GameCube and including lots of cool-looking effects. The sprite-work is really good, with Ganon in particular looking more menacing than he ever has in a 2D game. However, the gamesteals borrows most of its assets and art style from A Link to the Past, which robs it of much of its identity. The music is also reused, so get ready to hear the same themes in every dungeon. On top of that, many of the bosses are watered down rehashes of the bosses from The Wind Waker, and their animations look terrible. Unlike Majora’s Mask or even the Oracle games, FSA doesn’t do anything interesting with its reused visuals to shake up player expectations, deliver a deeper story, or provide a grander adventure. I guess beating the shit out of that stupid bird again was fun, though.
On the plus side, the gameplay in general is definitely fun. Combat is engaging thanks to the formations, sword techniques, and items at your disposal, allowing Link to kick ridiculous amounts of ass in short spans of time. The final fight against Ganon is, predictably, awesome. The overworld levels are creative and fun, with lots of little quests to help the people of Hyrule and secrets hidden in plain sight. The dungeons, while often bland, get better as the game goes along, and I’m comfortable saying that the Pyramid, the Ice Temple, and the Palace of Winds are all great.
Overall, Four Swords Adventures is a lighter, more linear take on the Zelda formula that I mostly enjoyed. Its level-by-level progression was a nice change of pace that (presumably) lends itself well to multiplayer. Will I ever play it again? Probably not, but it was a fun break from the series formula while it lasted.
Four Swords Adventures has one major flaw: repetition. The same puzzles are used over and over again: push these blocks, pull this lever, stand on these buttons, blah blah blah. These “puzzles” are used so frequently that I began to wonder if the developers just couldn’t figure out any better four-player challenges and just decided to copy-paste the same ones to fill out time.
The story is a mess. It starts with Vaati reawakening and kidnapping the Seven Maidens (again), with Link drawing the Four Sword to chase him down. Then Shadow Link picks up a fucking flamethrower and starts torching entire villages. Then some undead knights come out of nowhere and tell the four Links to go fetch their pretty jewels. Then Ganon comes out of nowhere with zero foreshadowing and is revealed to be the main antagonist once again, now with an entirely new backstory… that we never actually see and is simply told to us by NPCs. There’s some interesting lore here, but none of it is fleshed out. Hell, Zelda gets abducted in the opening cutscene, Vaati doesn’t even talk, and we don’t get to see Ganon until the very end. What a waste. The game was originally supposed to have a deeper story until Shigeru Miyamoto snuck in one day, grabbed the devs by their throats, and whispered, “I don’t like stories in my games. Dumb it down for me.” He then kissed each of them on the forehead and slithered away to go hibernate until the next Mario game. Anyways, the story is both barebones and over complicated as a result of the devs trying to keep Shiggy happy.
The game certainly looks visually crisp, seamlessly integrating GBA graphics with the GameCube and including lots of cool-looking effects. The sprite-work is really good, with Ganon in particular looking more menacing than he ever has in a 2D game. However, the game
On the plus side, the gameplay in general is definitely fun. Combat is engaging thanks to the formations, sword techniques, and items at your disposal, allowing Link to kick ridiculous amounts of ass in short spans of time. The final fight against Ganon is, predictably, awesome. The overworld levels are creative and fun, with lots of little quests to help the people of Hyrule and secrets hidden in plain sight. The dungeons, while often bland, get better as the game goes along, and I’m comfortable saying that the Pyramid, the Ice Temple, and the Palace of Winds are all great.
Overall, Four Swords Adventures is a lighter, more linear take on the Zelda formula that I mostly enjoyed. Its level-by-level progression was a nice change of pace that (presumably) lends itself well to multiplayer. Will I ever play it again? Probably not, but it was a fun break from the series formula while it lasted.
Sometimes you play a game and think "they just don't make them like they used to." Sometimes they barely made 'em like that in the first place.
Breath of the Wild is the best-selling game in the Legend of Zelda series, selling about three times as many copies as the game in the number 2 spot; it is also easily the most open-ended game in the series. Four Swords Adventures is linear to the point that it's split into discrete stages that must be completed in a set order, so maybe it's not surprising that it's believed to be the worst selling game in the series. Some even call the game a spin-off, but I don't think there's really a compelling argument to be made there. Oddly enough, if you go to Zelda Dungeon, Age of Calamity, a sequel to Hyrule Warriors that sold ridiculous numbers for a game in its genre for basically no reason other than being a Breath of the Wild spin-off, is right at the top in the main banner, as if was a main entry. Maybe sales, relevance, and potential for engagement is all it takes to be a "real" Zelda. Four Swords Adventures is one of very few Zelda games to have never been re-released in any form, no longer representative of the brand.
After playing Breath of the Wild in 2017 I found myself spending a few months revisiting nearly every Zelda game I could, and with that game's sequel looming only a month and some change away, I figured I'd finally go back to this one. I haven't played through Four Swords Adventures since I was pretty young, at that point I had watched my dad play through Ocarina of Time, and I had rented Wind Waker and the Oracle games but never got further than a couple dungeons in until I owned them many years later. I was kind of surprised how often I reached areas I recognized, remembering them as being particularly frustrating, only for them to be pretty manageable. Infiltrating Hyrule Castle at the end of world 4 was much easier and shorter than I remember, and the Ice Palace had a couple puzzles that I could definitely understand a kid having trouble with but really wasn't that bad. I guess just keeping in mind how little experience I had with the series at the time explains it.
Although, strangely enough I remember World 5 somewhat fondly despite it's setting being one of the more treacherous in the game, a Lost Woods about as hostile as the one in Twilight Princess, and a Kakariko Village that looks a lot more like Thieve's Town. A deku scrub in the last level of the area reveals why; Ganondorf actually has given his minions a direct warning to be on the lookout for "four travelers", but they've all assumed that a group of kids couldn't possibly be the people he's talking about. The more straightforward traversal gauntlets and dungeoneering are broken up by stages that consist mostly of the type of exploration and character-interaction-driven gameplay you would expect from a typical Zelda game's side content, and thanks to the premise of this area, we get two of these back to back, a surprisingly chill chapter of the game.
If there's a common problem I have with both of the two most recent console Zelda games, it's their pacing. Breath of the Wild and Skyward Sword are both a single consistent stream, with the former feeling like an endless sandbox (for better or worse), and the latter just feeling like one big dungeon. The more traditional Zelda structure adopted by A Link to the Past allows the player to split the game into play sessions of more or less equal size and congruent curves of rising and falling tension. Do the necessary steps to get to the next dungeon, beat the dungeon, see what the characters in the world have to say about that, see what your new item can do in the world; it'll take about an hour or two, and you can confidently assume that repeating the process with the next dungeon during your next session will take about the same time. Translating this rhythm to strictly separated levels works quite naturally, and is honestly really refreshing. I think it's a shame more "adventure" themed games don't go for a more focused structure, I think the game that gets closest to scratching the same itch is Half Minute Hero.
The mechanics of this game are kind of crazy. There are ideas in this game that feel like band-aid fixes to make it work in both singleplayer and multiplayer, or individual level gimmicks to keep things from getting stale, and some of those ideas could have carried an entire game on their own. The formation system has a bizarre effect on basic combat. The horizontal line formation will always stretch to the right when activated, and the vertical line formation will always stretch downward; since the square and diamond formations keep the four player characters pretty close together, the player is put at an unusual disadvantage if an enemy is up and to the left of them. The way that the dark world works in most Zelda games is more or less like a completely different screen, here it's actually concurrent with the light world, with objects in one appearing as shadows in the other. 2D platforming did exist in the handheld games in small amounts, but here there are a couple late game areas that mostly consist of side-scrolling. There is like, one time in the game that you can upgrade the Fire Rod and it gets the same utility as the Cane of Somaria. If you shoot a projectile through a doorway on the GBA screen, it will keep flying into the TV; I assumed at first that this only worked in specific areas, but later in the game I found myself shooting sword beams through doors by accident, so it is just a consistent system in the game.
There's a very late puzzle in the game that requires you to go into the dark world, and pick up a Link that's in the light world and carry him around. I have no idea if this is something you could always do, or if this inexplicably only works in that room, but if that's just a consistent thing throughout the game, that's crazy. If it weren't for the fact that literally nothing carries over from one level to the next, meaning there's definitely no meaningful rewards to be gained from replaying a level and finding hidden things you missed, I would have gone through quite a few levels to see what kinds of shenanigans you could get up to with this cursed knowledge.
The core gamefeel is top-notch for 2D Zelda. You can do a "smash"-style input to do a leaping slice, you can do a Zelda 2-style downward stab in midair. If you have the Pegasus boots, you're not locking into a single direction, you have a relatively wide turning radius compared to normal movement, but you can drift around. It's honestly really frustrating that the game limits you to a single item at a time; I really want a game with this exact core movement that would let you use both the Pegasus boots and the Roc's feather, or both the bombs and arrows in the same way that the handheld games do. Hell, the final level of World 7 makes we wish we could get a new game in the style of Zelda 2, I think they could make it really work this time.
And I haven't even touched the multiplayer-only Shadow Battle mode, since nobody has ever actually played the multiplayer of this game because its absurd hardware requirement. With how much game there is here it's shocking that the Japanese version has an entire third mode.
The visuals are generally pretty appealing. The use of shaders in particular could be described as "economical" (both in that a lot of the effects are relatively simple, and that a lot of the particles and things seem to be lifted from Wind Waker), but effective. The assets in the game could be split into a few different categories. A lot of sprites and environment tiles are ripped straight from Link to the Past, a game that I personally think has spritework that is serviceable at worst, and merely neat at best. The stuff that was created specifically for this game typically looks pretty good, though some of the bosses definitely look unusually "gamey", even for Nintendo. I think the Four Swords/Minish Cap design is the best Link has ever looked in 2D. Some of the NPC and boss sprites are seemingly scanned from the 3D games, and these are typically the worst looking things in the game.
Outside of a handful of trickier puzzles, the game is extremely easy. You get as many as four extra lives every time you finish a stage, in addition to the handful you can usually find hidden in jars. I probably died less than 5 times throughout the entire game, and maxed out my lives right at the end of the game. Each stage requires you to collect at least 2000 force gems, though the second level is literally the only time I got even close to not having enough. I don't know if it's just because later levels have higher numbers of more powerful enemies that yield better drops, or what the likelihood is that the game is balanced with multiplayer griefing in mind.
The audiovisual theming is typically derived from prior games. Most of the music is from Link to the Past, though we do also get a few new songs, and some cool remixes of infrequently reused tracks like the final dungeon theme from the original Zelda. The final area is accessed by a rainbow bridge that Zelda herself conjures up, and is punctuated at the end by a escort/escape sequence, just like Ocarina of Time. At times it might seem like the game is lacking much of its own unique identity, but it's a lavish time capsule of everything that The Legend of Zelda was at the time.
Breath of the Wild is the best-selling game in the Legend of Zelda series, selling about three times as many copies as the game in the number 2 spot; it is also easily the most open-ended game in the series. Four Swords Adventures is linear to the point that it's split into discrete stages that must be completed in a set order, so maybe it's not surprising that it's believed to be the worst selling game in the series. Some even call the game a spin-off, but I don't think there's really a compelling argument to be made there. Oddly enough, if you go to Zelda Dungeon, Age of Calamity, a sequel to Hyrule Warriors that sold ridiculous numbers for a game in its genre for basically no reason other than being a Breath of the Wild spin-off, is right at the top in the main banner, as if was a main entry. Maybe sales, relevance, and potential for engagement is all it takes to be a "real" Zelda. Four Swords Adventures is one of very few Zelda games to have never been re-released in any form, no longer representative of the brand.
After playing Breath of the Wild in 2017 I found myself spending a few months revisiting nearly every Zelda game I could, and with that game's sequel looming only a month and some change away, I figured I'd finally go back to this one. I haven't played through Four Swords Adventures since I was pretty young, at that point I had watched my dad play through Ocarina of Time, and I had rented Wind Waker and the Oracle games but never got further than a couple dungeons in until I owned them many years later. I was kind of surprised how often I reached areas I recognized, remembering them as being particularly frustrating, only for them to be pretty manageable. Infiltrating Hyrule Castle at the end of world 4 was much easier and shorter than I remember, and the Ice Palace had a couple puzzles that I could definitely understand a kid having trouble with but really wasn't that bad. I guess just keeping in mind how little experience I had with the series at the time explains it.
Although, strangely enough I remember World 5 somewhat fondly despite it's setting being one of the more treacherous in the game, a Lost Woods about as hostile as the one in Twilight Princess, and a Kakariko Village that looks a lot more like Thieve's Town. A deku scrub in the last level of the area reveals why; Ganondorf actually has given his minions a direct warning to be on the lookout for "four travelers", but they've all assumed that a group of kids couldn't possibly be the people he's talking about. The more straightforward traversal gauntlets and dungeoneering are broken up by stages that consist mostly of the type of exploration and character-interaction-driven gameplay you would expect from a typical Zelda game's side content, and thanks to the premise of this area, we get two of these back to back, a surprisingly chill chapter of the game.
If there's a common problem I have with both of the two most recent console Zelda games, it's their pacing. Breath of the Wild and Skyward Sword are both a single consistent stream, with the former feeling like an endless sandbox (for better or worse), and the latter just feeling like one big dungeon. The more traditional Zelda structure adopted by A Link to the Past allows the player to split the game into play sessions of more or less equal size and congruent curves of rising and falling tension. Do the necessary steps to get to the next dungeon, beat the dungeon, see what the characters in the world have to say about that, see what your new item can do in the world; it'll take about an hour or two, and you can confidently assume that repeating the process with the next dungeon during your next session will take about the same time. Translating this rhythm to strictly separated levels works quite naturally, and is honestly really refreshing. I think it's a shame more "adventure" themed games don't go for a more focused structure, I think the game that gets closest to scratching the same itch is Half Minute Hero.
The mechanics of this game are kind of crazy. There are ideas in this game that feel like band-aid fixes to make it work in both singleplayer and multiplayer, or individual level gimmicks to keep things from getting stale, and some of those ideas could have carried an entire game on their own. The formation system has a bizarre effect on basic combat. The horizontal line formation will always stretch to the right when activated, and the vertical line formation will always stretch downward; since the square and diamond formations keep the four player characters pretty close together, the player is put at an unusual disadvantage if an enemy is up and to the left of them. The way that the dark world works in most Zelda games is more or less like a completely different screen, here it's actually concurrent with the light world, with objects in one appearing as shadows in the other. 2D platforming did exist in the handheld games in small amounts, but here there are a couple late game areas that mostly consist of side-scrolling. There is like, one time in the game that you can upgrade the Fire Rod and it gets the same utility as the Cane of Somaria. If you shoot a projectile through a doorway on the GBA screen, it will keep flying into the TV; I assumed at first that this only worked in specific areas, but later in the game I found myself shooting sword beams through doors by accident, so it is just a consistent system in the game.
There's a very late puzzle in the game that requires you to go into the dark world, and pick up a Link that's in the light world and carry him around. I have no idea if this is something you could always do, or if this inexplicably only works in that room, but if that's just a consistent thing throughout the game, that's crazy. If it weren't for the fact that literally nothing carries over from one level to the next, meaning there's definitely no meaningful rewards to be gained from replaying a level and finding hidden things you missed, I would have gone through quite a few levels to see what kinds of shenanigans you could get up to with this cursed knowledge.
The core gamefeel is top-notch for 2D Zelda. You can do a "smash"-style input to do a leaping slice, you can do a Zelda 2-style downward stab in midair. If you have the Pegasus boots, you're not locking into a single direction, you have a relatively wide turning radius compared to normal movement, but you can drift around. It's honestly really frustrating that the game limits you to a single item at a time; I really want a game with this exact core movement that would let you use both the Pegasus boots and the Roc's feather, or both the bombs and arrows in the same way that the handheld games do. Hell, the final level of World 7 makes we wish we could get a new game in the style of Zelda 2, I think they could make it really work this time.
And I haven't even touched the multiplayer-only Shadow Battle mode, since nobody has ever actually played the multiplayer of this game because its absurd hardware requirement. With how much game there is here it's shocking that the Japanese version has an entire third mode.
The visuals are generally pretty appealing. The use of shaders in particular could be described as "economical" (both in that a lot of the effects are relatively simple, and that a lot of the particles and things seem to be lifted from Wind Waker), but effective. The assets in the game could be split into a few different categories. A lot of sprites and environment tiles are ripped straight from Link to the Past, a game that I personally think has spritework that is serviceable at worst, and merely neat at best. The stuff that was created specifically for this game typically looks pretty good, though some of the bosses definitely look unusually "gamey", even for Nintendo. I think the Four Swords/Minish Cap design is the best Link has ever looked in 2D. Some of the NPC and boss sprites are seemingly scanned from the 3D games, and these are typically the worst looking things in the game.
Outside of a handful of trickier puzzles, the game is extremely easy. You get as many as four extra lives every time you finish a stage, in addition to the handful you can usually find hidden in jars. I probably died less than 5 times throughout the entire game, and maxed out my lives right at the end of the game. Each stage requires you to collect at least 2000 force gems, though the second level is literally the only time I got even close to not having enough. I don't know if it's just because later levels have higher numbers of more powerful enemies that yield better drops, or what the likelihood is that the game is balanced with multiplayer griefing in mind.
The audiovisual theming is typically derived from prior games. Most of the music is from Link to the Past, though we do also get a few new songs, and some cool remixes of infrequently reused tracks like the final dungeon theme from the original Zelda. The final area is accessed by a rainbow bridge that Zelda herself conjures up, and is punctuated at the end by a escort/escape sequence, just like Ocarina of Time. At times it might seem like the game is lacking much of its own unique identity, but it's a lavish time capsule of everything that The Legend of Zelda was at the time.
Rented when I was a kid. This sucks without friends.