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.