Game:

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 24:51

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What is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past?

Set in the land of Hyrule, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past sees the player controlling Link, who gets caught up in a plan by the Bishop Agahnim who is planning a coup and overthrowing the King of Hyrule to open a portal between the Light World and the Dark World to allow Ganon to escape and conquer both worlds.

Gameplay-wise, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the Zelda game that set up the formula that all other Zelda games would follow from this point on. Examples include finding three Macguffins that will allow Link to claim the Master Sword, then going on to find seven more Macguffins that will allow him to enter Ganon's stronghold or tower or whatever, and then Link and Ganon/Ganondorf will have their fated confrontation. Also, each dungeon in this game has an item that is required to beat the dungeon and allow Link to explore more of the Overworld than he could have before. It's an interesting little gimmick and just like the above-mentioned Macguffins, it would be an integral part of the Zelda formula, at least up until The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out.

Story-wise, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has a much better story than the original Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: Link's Adventure, but that's not saying much. Although I'm pretty sure this was Eiji Aonuma's first Zelda game to be in charge of, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of The Legend of Zelda has always hated storytelling in games as he feels that a story in a video game hurts the game or gets in the way of the gameplay, no matter how well it's told, although there are some exceptions, such as Fire Emblem and Xenoblade Chronicles and Golden Sun.

Music-wise, the game's music is fantastic, and it was this Zelda game that solidified the iconic Legend of Zelda theme and made it the main theme after we heard it in chiptune back on the NES with the original Legend of Zelda. It's so triumphant and energy-giving here (apologies, I can't think of a better way to put it) and the other songs, such as "Hidden Forest and Mountain" are excellent, too!

Graphics-wise, I'd have to say that this is my favorite graphics-style for the Legend of Zelda series. I can't really explain it all that well, and it may just be the nostalgia talking, but the tilesets and character sprites of this game are just so well done, that I don't think I could put into words just how good they really are. Maybe someone else can, though?

Replay Value! I really don't think this game has much in the way of replay value. I mean, when you get to the SPOILER ALERT Dark World, you can go halfway through the first dungeon there and get the Hammer, then you can do the dungeons in all sorts of out of order, but then if you have to go halfway through a dungeon just to get an item that you have to have just to explore, and you're already halfway through that dungeon anyways, why not just go ahead and finish it? Not that I have any room to talk on this point, and you'll see why in part 8 of the playthrough.

Anyways, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the game that set up the Zelda formula as we know it today, for the classic Zelda games, at least, that is to say, anything between this Zelda game and Breath of the Wild, and it's honestly still worth a playthrough today, if you ask me.

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