The Legend of Zelda Part 4

THIS ENTIRE POST IS RIFE WITH SPOILERS!!!!!!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!!!!!

13. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (2004 Nintendo Gamecube)

I have extremely mixed feelings about Four Swords Adventures.  The part of my brain dedicated to the Legend of Zelda tells me that I shouldn't like this game.

It doesn't quite feel like a Zelda game in the traditional sense, and yet it doesn't feel completely separated either.  This game is the only other Zelda game (apart from Four Swords) that featured a dedicated multiplayer experience.  Unlike Four Swords, which could only be played with multiple players (this was before the 3DS version), Four Swords Adventures had a single player mode, allowing one player to control all four of the Links at once.

Controlling the Four Links with one player is surprisingly simple.  As you move throughout the game, the player controls one of the four Links while the others follow behind.  Throughout gameplay there are many instances where the four Links need to work together to solve puzzles, fight enemies, and move objects.  To do this, the player can cycle through and control each Link individually or the player can form the Links into 4 different formations: horizontal line, vertical line, diamond, and square.  While in these formations, the Links can all move and attack, proving quite useful when you are surrounded by enemies.

The game itself takes place after the events of Four Swords, where Link had successfully sealed Vaati back inside the Four Sword and returned things in Hyrule to normal.  In what I dub an extremely lazy move, Nintendo uses a very similar introduction and storyline in Four Swords Adventures to the one in Four Swords.  The story begins with Link outside of the Four Sword Sanctuary.  The six maidens that guard the shrine are all gathered around, waiting for Zelda to check Vaati's seal.  As Zelda opens the portal to the Four Sword Sanctuary, Shadow Link suddenly appears and kidnaps Zelda and the Maidens.  As he escapes through the portal, Link chases quickly after him, appearing in the Four Sword Sanctuary alongside a cackling Shadow Link.  The player is given no option at this point but to pull the Four Sword from its pedestal, releasing Vaati and causing mayhem throughout Hyrule.

Link is split into Four Links by the power of the Four Sword and charged with the task of collecting force gems, saving the maidens, saving Zelda, vanquishing Dark Link, and destroying Vaati; quite a lot to take in in the first 10 minutes (I would post a link to a video of the intro, but the only ones available have terrible commentary, search if you dare).

I love the inclusion of Shadow Link in this game.  His character appears many times throughout the game, setting fires, terrorizing citizens, framing Link for devious acts, as a mini boss, and as a main boss.  Shadow Link is probably my favorite part of this entire game.  I really wish his character could be explored more often because he really hasn't been explored in any kind of real depth in any Zelda game besides this one.

Apart from Dark Link, the biggest problem with Four Swords Adventures is its lack of any kind of deep story line or interesting NPC's.  Sure you occasionally have to help some of the NPc's with their problems, but all of it seems very rushed and disingenuous; quite forgettable really.  In my opinion this is due in part to what I believe to be Four Swords Adventures' biggest flaw, it's lack of a cohesive overworld.

  Instead of the traditional overworld that you can explore and travel around, Four Swords Adventures (much like Four Swords) has a map that you slowly progress through, picking an area simply by hovering over it with the cursor.  Now, this is not to say that this completely ruins the gaming experience, it just makes the game feel like more of a "challenge based" game rather than an "adventure" game.  Now, this might in fact be a somewhat unfair complaint.  After all, the game is meant to be played with multiple players,  perhaps Nintendo found it difficult to incorporate four players into a more open world environment cohesively?  I'm honestly not sure why Nintendo chose to go with the same structure as Four Swords for this game.  I feel like this experience could have been so much more if Nintendo had just gone for it and made it an open world four player experience.  Instead, we get a sort of strange stage by stage experience that to me, cheapens the pacing and the overall experience.  I will say though, this game is a lot more fun when you play it with more than one person; playing this game by yourself can make you feel like a mega loser sometimes.

The gameplay itself takes place over 8 areas, each with 3 regions, 2 lead up stages and 3rd consisting of a temple like stage.  During gameplay, the player will collect force gems (triangles of varying colors, a lot like rupees) and needs to collect at least 2000 of them to break Dark Link's barrier at the end each stage.  This mechanic is ok.  That's pretty much all I have to say about it.  Occasionally Tingle will show up and try to take some of the force gems but usually you can beat him to them with ease (he leaves in a funny dejected type way, I love it).  I kind of wish the game was less about collecting force games and more about solving puzzles and developing the story.  To be fair, I did enjoy several of the areas within the game, so it's very difficult for me to bash this game to pieces.  The village of the Blue Maiden is one that comes to mind.

While you are at the village, you are tasked with saving some of the village children from the dark world, their are secret police about, and you get to fight Dark Link.  That checks many of the awesome Zelda boxes in my brain.  I also truly enjoyed pretty much all of the last 2/3 of this game.  That's what makes this game so difficult for me to judge.  It doesn't feel like a Zelda game, and yet it does.  It doesn't seem to go anywhere, and yet we go to the dark world, we fight shadow link, there are 8 different areas, maidens, the lot.  Again, I think this game could have been so much infinitely better if it had originally developed as a much more open world environment.  I mean, look at the entrance to the Temple of Darkness here.

Does that not look super erie and yet awesomely inviting?

I also have to make note that several of the boss fights in this game are a lot of fun.  The Phantom Ganon fight inside the Temple of Darkness is pretty brutal, the Moldorm fight provides excellent multiplayer mechanics, and the Vaati fight at the end does not disappoint.

In addition to fighting Vaati, there is a twist ending and boss fight that truly makes the ending to this game awesome...

A very unexpected encounter with Ganon!(Link to Ganon Fight)  This fight feels a lot like the Ganon fight from A Link to the Past, it feels like a shout out to the old games and I really like it.  It's actually relatively difficult too.  I died several times before I was able to beat this stage.  But again, this game gets a bit easier and better with four people.

Four Swords Adventures really is a fun game.  If you are a fan of the Zelda series, it is definitely a game that should be a part of your collection.  I just wish that this game hadn't been burdened by the lack of online multiplayer.  If this game was rereleased on the Wii U eshop with cooperative multiplayer, where you could always have four people playing, than it would be a much better experience.  Playing this game with 2 or even 3 people is fun, but the game really does scream for that 4th player.  That in fact is why I can't put this game that high up the list.  Not only does it feel like a bit of a cheapened experience, it doesn't help the fact that to truly get the best experience possible out of this game, you need 4 people and a decent amount of time on your hands, a luxury that many of us do not possess.  I wish this game had taken more risks, and I wish that it had a more enjoyable single player experience, kind of the point of a Zelda game in my opinion.

Hopefully you enjoyed reading this post!  Which game will be at #12?!  The anticipation is killing you, I know it.