Revisiting A Link to the Past
When I was a teenager, nothing meant more to me than The Legend of Zelda. I was completely invested in each games story and cast of characters. I knew the timeline by heart. I knew the name of each enemy. The Zelda series could do no wrong to me. But despite that, I had two opinions that were quite rare amongst Zelda fans. I didn’t rank Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past as highly as everyone else. Back then, I would rank the likes of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess over those two games. But it’s been many years years since those days, and I’ve replayed this series countless times. I’ve replayed many Zelda games three times or more, with Majora’s Mask taking the trophy for five times. My rankings and opinions have changed. And I certainly don’t care about the timeline anymore. Now, Ocarina of Time is my favorite Zelda game. And A Link to the Past would be number three. So what changed?
Well, I just so happened to finish my third playthrough of A Link to the Past and would like to express how my feelings on it changed so extremely.
As I did many Zelda replays during 2023, I realized one tragic design flaw in most Zelda games:
Boring padding.
Majora’s Mask has Beneath the Well, which is just horribly boring and obnoxious. And there’s many other moments where you have to fast travel out of a location just to find a specific item and fast travel back to that first location, like the Big Bomb in Ikana Castle.
Wind Waker has the infamous Triforce Quest which was sadly indicative of Nintendo rushing many games in the GameCube era.
Twilight Princess has an extremely slow three hour intro and the Tears of Light. Also the stupid part where you have to blindly find a misplaced bridge.
Skyward Sword has the The Imprisoned who you fight three times, and the little robot Scrapper who you need to find certain objects with to open paths.
Those are the most extreme examples I could think of on the top of my head. You could make the argument that it started with my beloved Link’s Awakening thanks to the Trading Side Quest technically being mandatory for the first four items. You need to trade four items to open the way to Kanalet Castle. The reason I don’t find this nearly as egregious as later games, is because the first three trading items are all found within the starting village of the game. And the fourth item is only like seven or eight screens away from the starting village. It’s quite simple and takes five minutes.
Many Zelda games are afraid to be 20 hour adventures, and add in unnecessary padding.
Wait, this is supposed to be about A Link to the Past, right?
One thing I’ve always deeply appreciated about A Link the Past is its pacing. Within five minutes, you’re already in a dungeon fighting monsters, pushing blocks, getting the boomerang and a heart container! It’s pretty unheard of for the series. Ocarina of Time impressively echoes this pacing with its first dungeon being almost immediate. The game very quickly sets up your goals and asks you to go out and explore. The one thing I think A Link to the Past does better than any other game in the Zelda franchise is begging the player to explore the world.
Almost every single square of Hyrule Field/The Dark World has a cool secret to find like the Waterfall of Wishing, or the Fairy who can upgrade your arrow or bomb count. It could even be a heart piece, or just a simple fairy fountain. Compare this to Ocarina of Time where Hyrule Field is sadly pretty empty. And maybe it’s just me, but I never found A Link to the Past to be an easy game. The Dark World monsters can chew you up and spit you out pretty fast. So even though the game has the most mandatory heart containers in the series- eleven by my count, you still want those six extra hearts. And to get them, you must explore. There’s also completely optional and useful items like the Magic Cape or the Cane of Bynra.
During my last playthrough of Ocarina of Time, I did a three heart challenge. Because of this added difficulty, I needed to find extra gear like the Big Gorons Sword and the Fairy Spells. But during a normal playthrough of Ocarina of Time, I don’t need any of these optional upgrades. The Zelda series as a whole became dramatically easier around the time it came out. Which is why I applaud A Link to the Past for it’s difficulty. it’s not going to make you rip your hair out, but once again, it incentivizes exploration. Look at Wind Waker, why the hell would you get any of the optional hearts when the game is so easy a four year old could beat it? Zelda games don’t usually incentivize exploration quite as well as A Link to the Past.
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Aside from pacing and incentivizing exploration, the game offers the player an extremely high number of dungeons. Quite possibly still the most dungeons in the series depending on how you differentiate dungeon and mini-dungeon. By my count, I would say there are 12 dungeons in this game. And many of them have characteristics that I find memorable. Such as the Tower of Hera which has a focus on falling through holes and the blue and orange switches. Of course there is the Ice Cavern, the fiery Turtle Rock, and the multilayered Thieves Den. The dungeon quality is pretty high once you start wrapping up the Light World. If it’s your first or second time playing through he game, you’ll probably get lost within these dungeons.
Of course, I can’t deny the stunning music done by the legendary Koji Kondo. So many themes in this game went on to be staples for the series. You can say that about much of the iconography in A Link to the Past. I still find it kind of amazing that the Master Sword and it’s iconic tune started in this game! There’s also some funny little quirks like Link’s pink hair, Link having a praying animation (Nintendo always tried to avoid religious allusions), or the left-handed angle of Link’s sword slash.
The one area I would say A Link to the Past falls a bit short is charming side characters. Every game started to have them starting directly with Link’s Awakening. Marin and Tarin, the Animal Village, The Happy Mask Salesman, the Kokiri, Goron, and Zora- the entirety of Majora’s Mask! The Zelda series is no stranger to quirky side characters who make the world worth saving. A Link to the Past has a few memorable little guys like Sahasrahla, the Flute Boy and the Blacksmiths. But you really only speak to them once and that’s it. Not nearly as memorable as later games. But I have to be careful what I ask for! Because one way some Zelda games try to make characters memorable is by forcing the player to do boring side activities. I find the way Link’s Awakening and Ocarina of Time weave these side characters into the main story to be done perfectly.
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Impressive isn’t even enough to begin to describe A Link to the Past. It is an elegant symphony of gameplay and secrets. I can’t believe something created so flawlessly was released in 1991. There many good reasons this game stands out even today.
