What’s The Game? A Link To The Past.
How Much Did You Know About It Before Playing? 100% of nothing. I’ve been corrupted persuaded to play these by my fella. They are something that have been a huge part of his life and he wanted to share them with me. I’ve been meaning to get into gaming in some kind of form again for simply ages. I always loved playing video games when I was a teenager (Elite, the best game ever, was a favourite, which nicely dates me) but come university it fell away never to re-emerge. Since this was a good chance to get back into it, and also share something important with the love of my life, here I am gaming again.
How Was The Experience? Initially frustrating. That’s not the fault of the game but rather the fault of me. The limited amount of gaming I have done has been keyboard-and-mouse basd. Getting used to a controller took (and indeed, is taking) a lot of effort and since I’m not the most fantastically co-ordinated person in the world getting used to the joystick, D-pad and buttons took a lot of effort. I’m still not massively fluent, even having completed the game, but I would venture to suggest that I am, at least, better.
Still, when you’re used to playing with a keyboard and mouse (I’ve logged a lot of Call of Duty 2 hours back in the day) shifting to something like a controller takes a fair amount of effort and often feels rather counter-instictual. Again, that’s not the fault of the game, it’s entirely a me-thing.
Once that was underway though, it was very, very easy to fall into the world and get caught up in it.
Random Collection of Thoughts:
Well, I’ve finished it now. So that’s an achievement. Yes, that’s right, just like everyone else about twenty years ago!
Anyway, shocking literally nobody, it’s fantastic. Not, I would say, flawless, but a really meaty, satisfying game. There’s more than enough to explore without there being so much that it becomes difficult to keep track of stuff and the Light World / Dark World split is a really inventive way of expanding the game’s horizons and exploiting the limited memory of the original console to its absolute maximum (a method very familiar to those of us who grew up with 8-bit computing). And using the shift between worlds to access otherwise-inaccessible locations is a really inventive way of using puzzle-solving without the need for (again) a lot of extra programming.
The plot is pretty standard fantasy-lite stuff but there’s more than enough to keep things engaging and to give a sense of purpose and direction to Link’s wandering.s That’s not to be dismissive of them and I know there’s a lot of lore like the Master Sword, the gameplay structure, the hookshot, magic rods, and so forth that first feature here. What’s interesting to me, as a complete noob to this world, is that these details are parcelled out with enough detail to keep the player engaged but there’s not so much that it becomes overwhelming. That’s a good balance to strike and it makes every discovery feel like it actually is a discovery and not just Another Bit Of Plot the writers need to deply in order to get you to the next bit of the action. I know that much of this will be built on going forward and I’m eager to see to see where it all goes.
The side-missions – is that the right term for them so early or am I retconning that term on to them? – are comparatively slight but still entertaining enough to give a bit of variety and mean you’re not just permanently trying to find the entrance to whatever dungeon you need to hack your way through next. The helps with making things feel organic as well. It’s nice to have a bit of distraction away from the main action and these are almost always enjoyable, if occasionally frustrating. One thing that A Link To The Past does sometimes struggle with is helping the gamer actually figure out what they’re meant to do. There were a lot of “if you don’t know this, how the hell are you supposed to figure it out?” moments and though the controller never found itself airbourne in frustration, it may have been an occasionally close-run thing.
The graphics are absolutely charming. And I don’t just mean, “aww, that reminds me of my childhood” charming – though there’s that too – but it’s clear that real thought and effort has been put into trying to construct characters, backgrounds, environments, and bosses that really make full use of the capabilities of the console and manage to remain distinct enough to be immediately identifiable. Link himself is a delightful little sprite – a long way from the hot-shirtless variety we have these days but it really is amazing how much can be conveyed with so few pixels. Every time I got a crystal and released a maiden and Link held his sword above his head I grinned like an absolute lunatic because it’s all just so delightful! And I definitely didn’t hold the controller about my head in a copycast gesture. Cough. That would be a ridiculous thing for a grown human adult to do..Moving on…
The soundscape is properly impressive too. There’s obviously a limit to what can be achieved with a soundcard from that vintage but the main theme comes across lovely and clear and it’s pleasingly distinct. I’m informed – thanks, fella! – that as far as the original Zelda game went, the the Bolero was meant to be used but turned out to be unexpectedly still in copyright. Well, the game benefits from that because, good piece of music though it is, the Bolero is a cliché and already was by the early 90s too.
By dodging that bullet and giving the Zelda series its own theme the game not only managed to retain its distinctiveness, it’s also blessed with one of the great themes of the age. I’ve heard that theme in a number of different styles now, from the chiptune versions through to the full orchestral rendering and – oh brace yourself for a surprise – I love it. Saying that, while the main theme is brillaint, I am supremely glad I never have to hear the fucking dungeon theme again – a little can sometimes go a long way. Oh, the trauma. As for the sound effects – yep, all exactly as they should be, all exactly as effective as they should be. Not a lot more to add there, really, beyond repeating what I said before about really getting the maximum out of the capabilities of the time.
As for the actual gameplay, some of the challenges are absolutely fantastic, some of them are beyond impossible. Most of the dungeons are really well laid-out and ingeniously constructed to take full advantage of the setting. But there’s definitely odd things that simply make no logical sense at all. One of the warp tiles to reach (IIRC) the seventh dungeon can only be found under a rock where you have to hit three stakes in the ground in the correct order with literally nothing to indicate that’s how you find it. How is anyone meant to work that out? You could be wandering round pretty much forever in the faint hope that maybe, somehow, some day, you might find it. Without either a walkthrough, cheat sheet, or handy partner with access to Google, it really is absolutely impossible. Maybe I missed something – always a possiblilty – but those kind of things are a level of frustration that isn’t really required. There are one or two of those and they do slightly detract from the overall playability of the game, albeit in a fairly minor fashion.
Also infuriating to the point of tears are a couple of the dungeon bosses. Some of them are excellently designed, and Ganon himself is brilliant final boss – difficult enough to prove a real challenge even at that point in the game but not so hard that it becomes an exercise in frustration trying to defeat him. Unlike, say, Moldorn where a slight nudge sends you careening into a bottomless pit and you have to start from scratch. That one just royally pissed me off. Most of them are great though and the difficulty level is generally pitched exactly where it should be (and a quick extra shout-out to Gleeok, who was a fantastic challenge). If you’re coming to these as a fresh noob, as I am, then it’s important to get that balance right and though the occasional helping hand was required, it mostly is.
So overall? Well, just a very satisfying game overall and one that has really led me into the world of Zelda. It’s a great introduction – my fella specifically chose this game as an introduction and it was an inspired choice, so well done him. All the key elements of a great game are there, they are executed about as well as they could be and, a few minor frustrations aside, this pretty much ticks every box I could want to be ticked. We’ve already started having a go at Link’s Awakening, which is a whole new level of cute and charming. Inevitably, that write-up will follow.
But at the end of my first Zelda game I can rest satisfied. This was a great experience, a wonderful game, and a terrific way into a huge, sprawling series that I am going to take immense pleasure in exploring and enjoying. Onwards to Koholint Island, I say!
Scores On The Doors: 9/10
Oh, and a quick P.S. – the closing credits are downright lovely, first with a lap of victory around Hyrule to ensure everything is back where it should be, then an extended daybreak while the actual credits roll and we get yet more top-tier music. Just a delightful way to finish the game. And I always appreciate anyone taking the time to put “The End” when it actually is. Delightful!
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