The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Lore & Background

A Link to the Past is a distant prequel to the original The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Within the official chronology, it is the first game in the 'Defeated Hero' timeline that connects to an alternate reality scenario where the Hero of Time is defeated by Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time. This results in Ganon being imprisoned in the Sacred Realm in his Dark Beast form out of desperation. Having successfully gathered all three pieces of the Triforce, Ganon's evil desires have transformed the realm into the Dark World. The game is set in Hyrule, also known as the Light World, which parallels the Dark World. Before the events of the game, the descendants of the Seven Sages who imprisoned Ganon are captured, Princess Zelda included, and, one by one, sent to the Dark World. The King of Hyrule is murdered, and the wizard, Agahnim, takes over.

The game begins with series protagonist Link, the last descendant of the Knights of Hyrule, and his uncle being awakened by a telepathic message from Zelda, who says that she has been locked in Hyrule Castle's dungeon by Agahnim and requires rescue. Link's uncle goes to rescue her first, and Link follows, despite his uncle's orders to remain home. His uncle is mortally wounded and, before succumbing, Link receives a sword and shield from him. He infiltrates Hyrule Castle and successfully hides Zelda in the Sanctuary as his uncle's last wish. Zelda remains in the Sanctuary with the priest, who tells Link that Agahnim is a powerful wizard planning to free Ganon from the Dark World, after he was imprisoned for attempting to use the Triforce for evil purposes. Agahnim's weak point is the Master Sword, a relic weapon only the chosen hero can wield; to do so, the hero must obtain three pendants.

Link journeys to find the three pendants, aided by Sahasrahla along the way, and eventually obtaining the Master Sword. Zelda communicates her peril to Link telepathically and, upon returning to the Sanctuary, finds the priest dying, who tells him to rescue Zelda. He attempts to rescue Zelda, but to no avail, as Agahnim sends her to the Dark World. After defeating Agahnim, the wizard sends Link to the Dark World, where he must rescue the maiden descendants of the Seven Sages. He once again battles Agahnim and, upon defeat, Ganon appears from Agahnim's corpse and flies to the Pyramid of Power. Upon defeating Ganon, Link retrieves the Triforce and is given the chance to make a wish. In the ending, his uncle, the priest, and the King of Hyrule are all resurrected, everyone trapped in the Dark World comes home, and Link later puts the Master Sword back into its pedestal.

Reader's Guide

A Link to the Past is considered among the greatest video games ever made, with particular praise for its presentation and innovative gameplay. It was ported to the Game Boy Advance as A Link to the Past and Four Swords in 2002, and had sold 6.5 million copies across both platforms by 2004. It was subsequently re-released on the Wii, Wii U, and New Nintendo 3DS via the Virtual Console, the Nintendo Switch via the Nintendo Classics service, and the Super NES Classic Edition. A sequel, A Link Between Worlds, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. The game's development began in 1988 on the NES, but one year later the project was brought to the Super Famicom. Due to the success of previous Zelda games, Nintendo was able to invest a large budget and ample development time and resources into the game's production. The game used 8 Mbit (1 MB) of storage space, breaking the trend of 4 Mbit cartridges, allowing a remarkably expansive world. The Light World and Dark World are almost identical in layout, with the Dark World existing in the ROM only as an overlay of the Light World. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto originally intended the game to feature a party consisting of the protagonist, a magic user, and a girl. The script was written by series newcomer Kensuke Tanabe, while Yoshiaki Koizumi was responsible for the background story in the instruction manual. Certain features were cut, such as the ability to cause wildfires in grassy areas (later incorporated into Four Swords Adventures) and the ability to freely choose which weapons to hold and combine items. The score was composed, arranged, and produced by Koji Kondo, and the game helped to establish the musical core of the Zelda series.

Did You Know?

• A Link to the Past was the first Zelda game to introduce parallel worlds and the Master Sword.
• The game's cartridge used 8 Mbit (1 MB) of storage, double the typical 4 Mbit of most SNES games at the time.
• The Light World and Dark World share almost identical layouts, with the Dark World stored as an overlay in the ROM.
• A commercial for the game featured Link, Zelda, Gibdos, and Stalfos dancing to a Zelda-themed version of 'Game Boyz' by Scha Dara Parr.