Four Swords is an additional game originally included with the GBA remake of A Link to the Past. The original game was multiplayer only – it will let a solo player view the opening cutscene, but no more. I was able to get a setup working where I could play the game, but there are bits where both players need to perform an action together, and those, while not impossible, were too frustrating to do on a regular basis, especially when it was something that was required to defeat enemies. Fortunately, in 2011 they released the Anniversary Edition which had a single-player mode, and that’s the version I’m playing here.
The Story
Over time, the trend in the Zelda games has generally been toward more story; Four Swords completely reverses that trend. If you look at what’s in the game and the manual, Four Swords may actually have the least story of any Zelda game thus far, except maybe the very first one. The manual introduces the villain, Vaati, a wind sorcerer who had a thing for kidnapping young women. He was eventually defeated when a boy came to fight him, and the rumor was that the boy’s sword split him into four copies to fight Vaati. Vaati’s spirit was sealed inside the sword, which was named the Four Sword in honor of its powers.
The game itself features an opening cutscene that starts with Zelda and Link approaching the Four Sword to check the seal. The seal is already broken, and Vaati, who resembles the DethI shadow nightmare from Link’s Awakening, grabs Zelda, knocks Link out, and flies off to his palace. When Link wakes, he’s greeted by a group of fairies, who encourage him to take the Four Sword and prove his worth to the fairies who can help him find Vaati’s palace. Link takes the Four Sword out of its pedestal, splits into four (colored differently so players can tell each other apart), and the Links march off to save Zelda.
It’s Dangerous to Go Alone…
Four Swords gameplay is both cooperative and competitive. The Links have to work together to overcome puzzles, sometimes standing on switches, sometimes pulling levers simultaneously, and in what feels like it should be the game’s signature mechanic, one Link sometimes has to toss the other over a gap, and then the second Link finds a way to get the first across. There are some enemies that need to be literally pulled apart by two Links pulling in opposite directions. Meanwhile, they’re collecting rupees, and if one Link dies, the rupees needed to resurrect him come from the communal pool. However, after each level is completed, the Link who collected the most rupees in the level is awarded a Medal of Courage; once a save file has enough of them, it can access a special quest in A Link to the Past. There are other new tricks involving rupees – enemies that will steal rupees from a Link, and black rupees that cause the Link who touches them to drop 80 rupees on the ground.
The single-player adaptation lets the player control two Links. One will either follow the one being actively controlled or stay put, as the player directs. When a puzzle requires both Links’ input, the inactive Link will automatically spring to action to fulfill his part. Some of the tricks which encourage multiplayer competition feel kind of ridiculous in single-player, but they’re still there. (Medals of Courage are not awarded in single-player play; there’s no A Link to the Past to link back to, and the new game mode they unlock in the Anniversary Edition can be unlocked by collecting enough rupees.)
At the start, there are four areas unlocked, starting with the Chambers of Insight which is a tutorial for the game, including the various items Link will need to complete his quest. Then there come the next three areas: Sea of Trees (forest), Talus Cave (ice), and Death Mountain (flame). Running through these areas involves playing three stages. The first two stages are randomly generated, which makes it hard to say too much about them. In the third stages, the Links fight a boss, then approach the fairy corresponding to the element, and if they earned enough rupees in the stage, get a key. There are three types of keys, which have to be earned in order and require an increasing number of rupees: 1,000 for a silver key, 3,000 for a golden key, and 5,000 for a Hero’s Key. Hero’s Keys are hard to come by in single-player (they basically require farming enemies that drop rupees), and even Golden Keys can be tough if the stages aren’t filled with rupees.
Next: Bosses and the end.
