Já tá virando piada entre amigos a quantidade de hot takes que eu tenho em relação a um bando de jogo famoso, eu juro que não é intencional, agora, falando do Zelda, esse carinha aqui é um dos mais ''graves'' desses hot takes.

Eu acabei não curtindo muito, a gameplay e o loop dela me agradaram bastante, assim como o gráfico e a trilha, mas acabei não curtindo o level design. Achei o jogo nem um pouco intuitivo, juro que a cada 20 min eu abria um detonado pra passar de uma dungeon ou então achar o jeito de progredir no ''open world'', e acabei passando muita raiva com isso.

E quando as dungeons não estavam sendo uma complicação do caralho de resolver, ela eram muito irritantes, posso contar no dedo quais que eu curti de verdade.

Uma pena, sério, Zelda era uma franquia que eu sempre quis conhecer e que pena que não curti um dos jogos mais aclamados dela, óbvio que não vou desistir aqui, quero pegar mais alguns pra ver se o meu problema é com ESSE jogo, ou com a fórmula da franquia, bem... isso apenas o tempo vai dizer.

A Link to the Past es una obra maestra. Cuesta creer que ya salió hace poco más de 30 años, porque si lo sacase un estudio indie ahora, seguiría siendo considerado una obra maestra. TODO en este juego ha envejecido genial y se siente como si fuera original y nuevo.

Jugablemente, es una pasada. No entiendo como no se le tiene en tan alta estima como a otros de la saga. La cantidad de cosas que hay es increíble. Un montón de objetos diferentes y que no se sienten desaprovechados en ningún momento, una variedad de NPCs que me sorprende que fuesen capaces de hacer y que ninguno se siente forzado, hacen que el mundo del juego sea mucho más vivo (hablaré dentro de poco del mismo)

. Unas boss-fights que aunque sean en 2D, consiguen ser sobresalientes y siendo bastantes, consiguen tener variedad y muchos enemigos que hacen que el combate del juego sea bastante más estratégico de lo que puede parecer a simple vista. Ahora, quiero hablar de dos cosas que me parecen las mejores del videojuego: su mundo y las mazmorras.

Su mundo es sin duda una revolución para el medio. Nos ponemos en el contexto de 1992, un año en el que no había juegos tan grandes. Ver un mundo así con tantas localidades es increíble. Pero no solo eso, sino que de repente el juego (por si acaso, es spoiler así que no sigas precioso) te presenta el Dark World, que tiene más NPCs y es prácticamente un mundo apartado. Esto hace que haya puzzles hasta en el overworld, alternando entre las 2 versiones para poder pasarte el juego.

Y las mazmorras... Son increíbles. Aunque tengo que aclarar que son bastantes.¿Por qué digo esto? Te preguntarás. Pues gracias por la pregunta. Porque las 3 primeras son bastante más flojas. Ojo, no son malas, pero sí que se sienten peores que las siguientes. Pero las siguientes son sobresalientes. Tienen un montón de mecánicas y enemigos con los que crean puzzles muy buenos. Si bien tienen una estructura similar, al contener diferentes objetos desbloqueables, consiguen hacer salas parecidas y que se sientan diferentes.

Audiovisualmente, es muy bueno. El juego sigue siendo muy bonito a día de hoy y se mantiene muy bien. Gráficamente por motivos obvios no es la gran cosa, pero el estilo artístico y diseño de mundo, personajes y enemigos está genial. Aparte, la OST es una maravilla y tiene un montón de temas que son icónicos en la saga e incluso en la industria.

Narrativamente, también me ha sorprendido. La historia está muy bien contada ytiene un buen ritmo. No es demasiado original, pero el lore del mundo está bastante bien.

Por lo tanto, A Link to the Past me parece una obra maestra y un referente para hacer videojuegos. Que no te tires para atrás el paso del tiempo, porque lo vas a disfrutar como un niño. Un must-play de esa generación y de los juegos de aventuras.

An absolute classic, and a very well-balanced experience. The world is big enough to not feel small, but small enough that it's not a bother to traverse. The world is dense with secrets and they all give you something worthwhile. The secrets are hidden enough that they feel satisfying to find, but not so obscure you'll need a walkthrough. The dungeons are short and sweet, with each dungeon item remaining useful throughout the game.

The one shortcoming is that combat can feel a bit awkward because you can move omnidirectionally but only attack cardinally. But I can excuse this because of the game's age (and because with extra hearts and bottles, getting hit is not that big of a deal most of the time).

This is a personal thing, but I like that there's a good selection of magic-based items in this game. It makes Link feel like a proper magic knight better than the couple token spells you get in OoT and WW.

“I know I don't quite have the figure of a faerie. Ganon's cruel power is to blame! You must defeat Ganon!”
— The Cursed Fairy, also known as the Fat Faerie

A Link to the Past has an unbeatable art style, an outstanding soundtrack, and an unparalleled amount of detail in its environments, side quests, and NPCs. I struggle to think of a flaw large enough to level against the game. Perhaps the only thing holding it back is its story.


While most Zelda games focus at some capacity on restoring peace within the monarchy, there is always a defining narrative thread that is at the core of any given one of the stories. I say most because A Link to the Past is not one of those Zelda games. It’s understandable why this was the blueprint for all future Zelda games to come until the series’ rebirth in 2017, but over it, there always looms this feeling of disappointment when it comes to the story. Skyward Sword, for all its flaws, at least had the surprisingly unexplored trait of being the coming-of-age story of Link and Zelda. While the latter character was not particularly fleshed out, the game provided a decent amount of depth for a story bearing the insurmountable pressure of being the canonical beginning of the entire series. Link’s Awakening remains the most well-thought-out and uniquely told Zelda story, and Majora’s Mask has this unique element in its story, questlines, and decidedly bold time loop mechanic. Ocarina of Time also fell victim to the ALttP paradigm, but it was and still is much grander in its vision of reconnecting a broken world, a broken people. Sure, this is all done under the guise of monarchy (blech), yet its ambitions were more, dare I say, diverse...

In the end, nothing changes. That is the pattern with most Zelda games; the perpetual neverending cycle, the cycle that never lets itself be defeated by petty uprisings and defiance. I’m not advocating a giant pig monster to destroy and enslave a perfectly happy little fantasy world, I’m only concerned with the fact that A Link to the Past was and still is probably the worst-told Zelda story. It is also worth noting that, after the credits roll and the supposed peace is restored, the Dark World is all but completely eradicated. What hints at an interesting story of the disparity between two paralleling worlds gives way to the standard cookie-cutter inoffensive and unperceptive conclusion that many fantasy game stories fall prey to. Out of sight, out of mind.

Some might balk at the idea of bringing…oh god…politics??? In MY Zelda game???? But I feel it is necessary to discuss, especially considering the backlash that came after Skyward Sword and its tiresome formula. After all, it has to start somewhere, right?

For all the (admittedly somewhat loose) criticisms I hold against this game, it still remains one of the most admirable video games I have ever played. This is the one that cemented The Legend of Zelda as a monolith series in gaming, and it's easy to see why. Playing a game over thirty years after its initial release and feeling as though it could have released any time in the last decade is a rare feeling to experience, and I'm glad to say A Link to the Past extrudes this feeling.

A Link to the Past basically took all of the concepts from the first game, and turbocharged them into one of the best adventure games ever made. The visuals were obviously improved massively thanks to the SNES, but the aesthetic itself was also meticulously crafted to give the entire game a fairytale cartoon look that is absolutely timeless.

The soundtrack introduced classic songs for the series that while the sound design itself is a top notch effort into giving every interaction with an item its own unique feeling. Gameplay is upgraded in every way from the concepts of the first game, with most of the items returning, but adding new ways to interact with the world and the expanded dungeons which themselves build on the concepts used in the first game.

To cap all of this off, the story is a compelling narrative and the world feels way more lived in thanks to the various NPCs wandering the world. Taking all of this and then flipping it on its head mid-game with the time travel twist just expands upon the game even more in a clever way that allows them to reuse assets while still giving you a sense of exploring the world anew.

Quite simply, this is one of the best games of all time, and the best video game to have ever been made at the time of its release.