As you may know, Nintendo is working on a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for Nintendo 3DS. It’s going to be called A Link Between Worlds, and it’s due to be released this November. With that in mind, I thought this would be a great time to revisit A Link to the Past on SNES. It’s my favorite Zelda game, and I’ve played through it multiple times before. But classics like this are worth playing over and over again, especially when a number of years have passed.
So I started up a new game, with my character named Link, of course. The game has a memorable opening scene, which takes place on a stormy night. Link seemingly receives a telepathic message from Zelda, who is being held as a prisoner in the castle. Link’s uncle, after warning Link not to leave the house, sets off to the castle.
Link, after collecting all the goodies from the house, also heads off to the castle. After stumbling into a secret entrance, Links finds a passageway to the courtyard. There, he sees his dying uncle, who gives Link his sword and shield, and tells Link to save the princess.
Link then enters the castle and makes his way down to the dungeon. After defeating a mini-boss, Link rescues Zelda.
The pair then make their way to the throne room, where a secret passageway can be opened.
After fighting through dark, rat-filled sewers, Link and Zelda end up at the sanctuary.
Zelda stays at the sanctuary for now, while Link seeks out the village elder. One interesting thing about A Link to the Past is that Link receives items, such as the boomerang and bombs, very early on. Most later Zelda games have you playing for many hours before you acquire weapons like that.
In Kakariko village, Link finds that not all of the villagers are on his side.
But Link does receive information about the location of the elder. That’s where Link will be heading next.
To be continued…
Here is a video showing the beginning of the game, up to the sanctuary: