In the original game, there were two extra abilities in Four Swords for the player to unlock. The first is shooting sword beams, which is unlocked by getting the Master Sword in A Link to the Past. The second move is more complicated: the player needs to collect 10 Medals of Courage to unlock a special quest in A Link to the Past, then complete that quest, which unlocks the hurricane spin (an extended spin attack) for both games. Without A Link to the Past, the Anniversary Edition needed new ways to unlock these, so it added two extra areas. Each one has a silver, gold, and hero’s door, although the second and third doors are unlocked by completing the previous levels. Each door has three levels – fixed design rather than random – with no bosses.
Realm of Memories
After defeating Vaati once, the Realm of Memories is unlocked. This has three levels, each inspired by previous Zelda games, with the artwork and music to match. They’re a bit harder than the base game, but not too bad. This section is really quite fun, seeing how the old games were reinterpreted to fit with Four Swords’ design.
The first level is based on A Link to the Past. Its first two stages are outside Hyrule Castle and then inside, and the third stage is based on the Lost Woods. The second level is based on Link’s Awakening, with stages set in Gaponga Swamp, Tail Cave, and Tal Tal Heights. Everything here is grayscale except the Links and rupees. Finally, the third level is based on the original game. The stages are the area around the starting point, the Lost Woods and graveyard area, and the first quest first dungeon (“Eagle”). Completing all three levels unlocks the sword beams.
Hero’s Trial
The second and harder bonus area is the Hero’s Trial, unlocked by collecting a total of 30,000 rupees (it took me getting through Vaati’s Palace gold door plus the entire Realm of Memories to get there) or five medals of courage. They’re based on areas from the base game, with each of the three levels having two stages based on one of the three starter areas and then one based on Vaati’s Palace. These stages are hard, like original game second quest dungeon hard.
And just like those dungeons, they throw tons of enemies at Link. Even fairly simple enemies like stalfos become difficult when they’re throwing bones at Link from ten different directions at once. Those ambushes usually have one or two harder enemies in the mix just to make it worse. And then there’s the times the game throws a bunch of tough enemies – darknuts, wizzrobes, moblins – at the Links and says “good luck.” Fortunately, the game throws lots of rupees out in these stages so resurrecting Links is easy to do at first, although by the end of the the last stage when it costs 500 rupees each time, it can get nerve-wracking, especially since dying without enough rupees means having to do the entire level over again. There’s an option to reset a stage that I never looked at outside of the Hero’s Trial, but it comes in handy here.
The first level has stages in the Sea of Trees, and this is the easiest by far. The second has stages in Talus Cave, which are brutal with all the icy areas; already tough fights are not any easier when you don’t have anywhere to stand. The last door is Death Mountain with lots of lava platforming. Then the Vaati’s Palace areas like combining fans with tough fights so it’s hard to find a place to stand. Completing all three levels unlocks the hurricane spin.
Final Thoughts
So, that’s Four Swords. It’s fun for a while, but quickly gets repetitive – especially the Hero’s Trial, where I ended up having to repeat stages because they were kicking my ass. It’s by far the weakest of the nine I’ve played, but considering it’s only ever been a) a bonus game included with a re-release of A Link to the Past and b) a free download, that’s kind of to be expected. (Also, it was intended for multiplayer, so single playering it may not be the best experience.) I’m glad I played it, although if I hadn’t found a way, this would be the one to skip.
