Four Swords Adventures is the second multiplayer game in the series and a sequel to the original Four Swords featuring the return of Vaati the Wind Mage. Unlike Four Swords (before the Anniversary Edition), the story mode of Adventures can be played solo. For games with less than four players, all four Links are present, and for a single-player game, the player has three basic modes of control: control a single Link with the other three following, control a single Link with the others not moving, and march all four Links in formation. The formations are useful for quickly clearing grass/trees/other destroyable objects or keeping enemies from sneaking up behind the Links.
There are some multiplayer-only features I’m not going to get into, like the Shadow Battle game mode and Tingle’s Tower minigames. Multiplayer is done by connecting GBAs (one per player; no one can use GameCube controllers) to the system. The idea, and especially using the GBA screen to show the players information specific to their character while keeping the main screen for communal information sounds interesting but I can’t imagine asking players to buy an extra game system to play a game went over well. (It seems like the DS line would be a good chance to revive the concept; maybe the Wii U gamepad, although I don’t know how many gamepads the system can support at once, and they’re pretty expensive too.) For single-player, the GameCube controller can be used, with an emulated GBA screen popping up on the main screen when control would transfer to the GBA.
The game’s aesthetic seems to be mostly inspired by A Link to the Past, with some Wind Waker touches (in particular, the same font is used to display locations, and wisps of energy/smoke/etc. use a 2D form of Wind Waker version). The music is also reminiscent of A Link to the Past; the title theme sounds a lot like the version of the series’ main theme that closes out that game’s credits (minus the final flourish).
Story
Long ago, in the kingdom of Hyrule, a wind sorcerer named Vaati appeared.
Vaati terrorized the people and kidnapped many beautiful girls from their homes.
When all hope seemed lost, a young boy carrying little more than a sword appeared.
According to the legends, when the boy drew his sword, he split into four, the four-who-are-one worked together to vanquish Vaati.
The hero used his sword to bind Vaati in a remote area of Hyrule. The people christened the blade the Four Sword and built a shrine around it. There it remained undisturbed for many years.
Ages flowed by…
The wind sorcerer Vaati broke free of his prison and kidnapped Zelda, the princess of Hyrule.
Princess Zelda’s childhood friend Link [1] used the power of the Four Sword to defeat Vaati and seal him away once again.
And, for a time, the people of Hyrule believed their land was safe.
Until…
A powerful storm comes to Hyrule, and Link is summoned to Hyrule Castle. There he meets Zelda, who says that she’s worried about the seals protecting the land from Vaati. She’s brought in the six shrine maidens who guard the portal to the Four Sword shrine. Zelda and the maidens open the portal, but before she and Link can pass through, shadowy fog pours from it and a Shadow Link comes through. He kidnaps Zelda and the shrine maidens, then heads back through the portal, with Link following. At the Four Sword Sanctuary, Link confronts Shadow Link, but is unable to harm him. So, with no other options, he draws the Four Sword, splitting himself in four and freeing Vaati from his prison. Vaati summons a cyclone that throws the Links elsewhere.
Shadow Link’s plan has worked for now, with the shrine maidens kidnapped and Vaati freed. But there are four Links, armed with the Four Sword that’s stopped Vaati twice before, so maybe he didn’t think things all the way through.
Next: First stage and basic mechanics.
[1] It occurs to me that I never wondered how Zelda and Link of Four Swords knew each other. I suppose I had just assumed, given the game’s ties to A Link to the Past, that it was the same Link from that game, even though in the version that added Four Swords that Link had his own adventure with the Four Sword, fighting a bunch of Shadow Links to reclaim the sword from them. This Link’s relationship with Zelda is just as undefined.
