Through the looking glass? Let's Play The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past!

I hope no one minds if I go ahread with mine - I'm mostly taking a break from FES at the moment, since an ill-timed game over has left me literally shaking with rage. Anyway, time to move onto one of the most iconic titles in gaming history:



-Table of Contents-
Part 1 - Hyrule Castle
Part 2 - Eastern Palace
Part 3 - Desert Palace
Part 4 - Tower of Hera
Part 5 - Hyrule Castle Tower
Part 6 - Palace of Darkness
Part 7 - Swamp Palace
Part 8 - Skull Woods
Part 9 - Thieves' Town
Part 10 - Ice Palace
Part 11 - Misery Mire
Part 12 - Turtle Rock
Part 13 - Ganon's Tower
Part 14 - Pyramid of Power
Part 15 - Everything Else I
Part 16 - Everything Else II
Part 17 - Everything Else III
Part 18 - Everything Else IV

Oh yeah. This time around I'll be doing things this hard way, by opting for a minimalist run instead of a 100% run. For those curious, there are two rules to the minimalist challenge:

1] Only pick up what you need. This means that any extra heart containers, equipment, and upgrades are off-limits unless I'm absolutely forced to collect them, either for solving a puzzle or getting by an obstacle.

2] Don't cheat. This means that save-stating and the like are off-limits for the entire run, as well as glitches that let you sequence-break or otherwise let you get past obstacles without the necessary equipment.

This may not sound like much, but the lack of health and magic coupled with a shortage of equipment cripples you late-game when enemies are taking off six hearts and you don't have any means of healing yourself. This game is brutal when it wants to be, trust me.

Anyway, let's do this.



The story starts off with you soundly sleeping away inside your house, until Zelda rudely awakens you with a telepathic message. Seriously, couldn't this have waited until after I had gotten up? And it wasn't raining outside?

Thankfully, good ol' uncle goes on ahead, but this wouldn't be a Zelda game if the protagonist wasn't wearing green, right? Time to go after him!



But not until after looting that treasure chest, of course, which is where we find necessity #1: the Lamp. Since we need it to trigger a certain event at the castle, we'll be picking this one up right away.

Now, to the castle!



Oh, wait, it's blocked. Well I guess that's tha-



Seems like Zelda won't be letting us off the hook that easily. Time to find this secret entrance or whatever.



Well, down the hatch!



Good thing we went after ol' uncle, since it seems he's gotten himself thrown into the dungeon. He hands us the Fighter's Sword and Shield (necessities #2 and 3 respectively) and proceeds to give us one of the most misunderstood lines in Zelda history.

Now that we've got a means to defend ourselves, I guess it's time to enter the castle.



Now, of course, you may be thinking: what kind of idiot storms a castle by the front door? However, you have to remember that the guards inside aren't exactly sober, since they seem to be more interested in wandering around in a daze than going after you with those itty bitty swords of theirs. Though there are a few of them that seem to have held off on the liquor, as they at least remember that intruders = bad so it might be best to hang low for a bit while exploring this place.



Though not without some fun, of course.



After sneaking past the guards, we find ourselves in the underground dungeon... with a bottomless pit? I wonder how they financed that kind of labour? Seems kind of cruel for a king to force his servants to dig that deep. Not to mention short-sighted - if the floor above so much as caved in, you can say goodbye to your entire castle. Though I wonder if it's as deep as it looks... hmm...

I'm going to hell for this. I know it.

In any case, after some hard-core dungeon crawling, we find our way to the castle treasure: the boomerang!



...Except, since we don't really need it to beat the game, I'll be passing on it this time. Sorry about that.



Anyway, we didn't come here to loot and pillage, but to save a telepathic princess with a penchant for starting trouble by just existing. Seriously, you'd think that Hyrule royalty would clue into the fact that naming your daughter Zelda = sentencing her to a life of misery and imprisonment at the hands of a pigman.

Well, if I wasn't here to stop him, that is. By the way, that guard of hers is weak against pottery, so two shots take him right down, giving us the big key... which I forgot to screenshot. Goddamn it.



Zelda then clues us into the situation, which basically boils down to that Agahnim guy's a big meanie jerk and I have to stop him somehow, but not until I take her out of the castle first.



However, unlike last time I'll be taking a shortcut, thank you very much.



...What? What!?



For those of you wondering "why doesn't Link just kill Agahnim right now?", here's your answer. Because the jerkface put up a barrier, I can't slaughter my way to the top and off him right now, so all we can do right now is take Zelda out of the castle and find a way to break it later on.



Remember that Lamp we picked up back at Link's house? At this point, if we didn't have it, Zelda would've refused to help us pushed this thing aside since we couldn't see in the pitch darkness behind it, unfortunately making it a necessity to collect even though it goes obsolete later on.

In any case, since I do have it, it's pushed aside in no time and we find ourselves in a pitch dark room. Which is where the Lamp finds its first and only use:



Lighting torches. Though there's a small field of vision around you when they aren't lit, there are certain times where you don't want to be stumbling around in the dark.



Like this, for example. Oh no, it's a snake! Oh, a snaaake!!

I wish I had remembered to take a screenshot of the sewers, but... you don't want to know what's down there.

Really.

You may not know it just by looking at the picture, but there used to be a bunch of rats in this room scurrying around. Need an exterminator? Link's your man. Though you have to wonder why a rat would be holding onto a red rupee...



Before long, we find ourselves before two switches. Zelda says to pull one, but which one is it? Let's try the left one first-



Well, I guess it's not that one. I guess right is right after all, since it opens a door and leads us to:



Home sweet home. Never before has church looked so inviting. Of course, you may notice that treasure chest in the corner. Inside there's a heart container, but...



Alas, since we technically don't need it, we'll be passing on it this time around. Frustrating, isn't it? Wait until you get to some of the later dungeons, trust me.



Now that we've gotten out of the dungeon, it's time to press onto our next destination. Next time: The Eastern Palace and the Pendant of Courage. Be there!

why would you torture yourself? isnt it more fun to be a hardcore completionist? (still looking forward to this thread though!)


also, this game is one of my all time favorites. The strategy guide alone is a masterpiece. The nintendo power cover image is one of the best video game covers ever.

I did a minimalist run of LttP in the past, except I did pick up that Heart Container and the Boomerang, plus all 4 Bottles.

However, I did apparantly beat the game without dying, according to my Save File. So that's something, even if I do recall dying several times.

My point: Apparantly I shouldn't be bragging about that?

Don't you need it to beat the first dungeon of the Dark World? Or is it just that having the boomerang around makes the entire thing much, much shorter?

I'd be completely useless in this game without access to the magic powder.

was so inscrutable to me. I don't recall ever getting to the first dungeon even. All I think I ever did was rescure the princess. Come to think of it though I've never beaten any Zelda game... hmmm...

I've beat a Zelda-like, Soul Blazer, that counts?

wait, wait I beat the Zelda game on Gameboy... what was it called? You had to get instruments in it to wake the wind fish or something... I beat it

I'll grant you partial credit for that, yes. Soul Blazer was focused more on knockin' the stuffing out of monsters then solving puzzles though. Illusion of Gaia was closer.

That was Links Awakening. It was pretty boss.

I might have beat illusion of gaia as well, don't you spin a flute in that to make things move? So long ago...

Indeed.

The latter, pretty much. Everything that the boomerang does can be done by another piece of equipment, so by the end of the game it pretty much becomes obsolete.

Anyway, glad everyone's enjoying it so far. Now for part two.

Last we left off, I had just rescued the Princess from the evil clutches of the wizard Agahnim, and dropped her off at the Sanctuary with the Elder. Question is: now what?



The Master Sword? Hmm... sounds... familiar. Anyway, I guess that's settled, but where's the elder? Time to go search!



I guess I should be more careful when walking outside - thanks to the break-in and subsequent "kidnapping" of the princess, the royal guard is now out and about hunting for my head.



Sucks to be Link, doesn't it?

Thankfully, we don't have to search any longer, because the Elder's house is right there. Except there's one teensy problem: he's not there.



Yep, it seems he's just skipped town. Seems Agahnim was looking for the guy and he went and hid himself from the public eye. Not that I blame him - I'm on the run as well and I'm not exactly having the time of my life, am I?

Well, time to ask around and see if anyone knows where he's gone.



Well that was a bad idea.



Uh-oh, time to flee!



You know, it still amazes me just how much of this game the later entries draw on, even if it's just silly stuff like this. I guess it just goes to show just how influential and popular this game still is.



Anyway, after fending off the hoard of chickens, the little kid looking after them gives us information leading to the village elder. Apparently he's hiding out in the Eastern Palace, which is, er, east of here. After marking the location on my map, he sends me on my way to see him, and since there's not much else to do here, it's time to pay ol' Sarasrsalha a visit.

I guess this is the place. Looks kinda dumpy...



Yep, it's the guy. Nice of him to just out and tell me. Unfortunately, that's all the information I'm going to get ouf of him - until I get the Pendant of Courage from inside the nearby dungeon and give it to him, he won't say a word about the Master Sword.



Man, even the statuary are out to get me. This Agahnim guy must be really mad about the "kidnapping".



Well, here's the place. Time to head inside.



This is it, the Eastern Palace. Looks kinda unassuming, doesn't it?



Think again. There's a reason this place is uninhabited, and a cannonball spewing trap at the entranceway is one of them.



Fortunately, this place is loaded. Just around the corner leads to a stairway up here, where I find a hundred or so rupees. Looks like coming here was a good idea after all.

But first, we need a map of this place, don't we?



Actually, to be honest, at this point I'm not even sure I need a map of the dungeons anymore. I've played through this game so many times that everything's pretty much automatic.



In any case, it seems the traps are working to full effect after all these years, as I found out when lifting this one pot.



As with the map, this is mostly a formality at this point, since I've long since engrained into my mind where the boss is.

Anyway, back to dungeon crawling now.

Out of all the things in this game that carried over into the later installments, the bubbles probably rank as one of the highest things on the Do Not Want list. Not only do they take out an entire heart (something which can be fatal at this point in the game) but they also drain your magic meter as well, which can really screw you over later on when you need every drop you can get. What's worse is that they're invincible to everything except the Magic Powder, which is sadly forbidden in a minimalist run, so I have no way to deal with the bastards other than run like a pansy.

EDIT: As Tomm pointed out, they were not, in fact, introduced in Link to the Past, but rather in the NES game. Sorry about that slip-up.



What's worse is that the game throws these fuckers at you whenever it has the chance.



In any case, my exploring has paid off with the Big Key, which I can use to unlock things that small keys cannot. Now, what fits that description, you ask?



Why, that big chest in the middle room, of course. Behold the strongest weapon in the game, the Bow & Arrows! The damage varies from enemy to enemy, but for the most part it outclasses the sword in overall damage pretty much every way up until the fourth sword upgrade, and even then the Silver Arrows remedy that.

EDIT: Sorry, I meant until the third sword upgrade. I really should've double-checked that ahead of time.

But I'm getting a little too ahead of myself. Now that I've got the temple treasure, it's time to kill the boss. Onto the next room!



Which is... pitch dark. And filled with monsters. Thanks to the bow, they go down quickly enough.



Except for these guys, though. Remember when I said they throw them at you whenever they can? I wasn't kidding.



What a crappy trap. I mean, they can't even touch you when you're standing in the middle, for crying out loud.



Meet the sibling of the rockclopes from before, the Red Rockclopes. Unlike the other guys, they're immune to sword and pottery damage, but fortunately two shots from the bow are enough to put them down.

Anyway, after passing through the door, we finally reach our destination.

Finally, a boss fight! Except... they're weaklings, so not really. They're weak against the bow I found earlier, so the battle ends up taking less than half a minute to finish (I guess I could've made it harder on myself and fought them using the sword instead, but honestly, the only thing that would be challenged at that point is my patience).



Alas, I'm forced to collect the heart container, since the pendant doesn't drop until I grab it. Oh well, the more health the better.



There we go. Mission Complete! Time to report back to Sahasrahla and show it off to him.



Now that I have the pendant, he finally loosens his lips and gives me the whole story. Apparently the Master Sword is the only weapon capable to reflect evil powers, and it was forged during an ancient war when the original Wise Men sealed off the Golden Realm. However, to prevent just anyone from taking it, they sealed it off as well using the three pendants.

Translation: I have to find the other pendants. But first, I believe he owes me a prize:



Oh yeah. Now that I have these babies, it's time to tear across Hyrule for the second temple, which Sahasrahla thoughtfully marks down on my map along with the third one.

In case no one's noticed yet, there isn't really much of a challenge so far in the game, as the difficulty doesn't really pick up the pace until the Dark World. So please bear with me until then - you won't be disappointed.

Next time: The Desert Palace and the Statues of Doom.

I knew the Arrows were strong, but I didn't think they were THAT strong. Also, isn't the Ice Rod even stronger then the Arrows?

man, sometimes I forget that the compass in LttP doesn't show you where all the chests in the dungeon are. what a useless piece of crap!

it does make for a kind of cool twist when you finally meet Blind the Thief, though.

Dan Owsen's game translations is one of those things that you don't miss until you realise it's gone.

Well, it varies pretty much from enemy to enemy, but for the most part it doesn't get eclipsed by the sword until later on with the third upgrade, which is when the sword finally starts dealing more damage. However, even after the fourth upgrade the sword doesn't match up, as the Silver Arrows deals enough damage that everything dies in one shot.

As for the Ice Rod, it doesn't really deal damage so much as freezes them, so you can't really compare it to the bow or sword. It's definitely useful though, especially once you get the hammer.

And to a lesser extent, his voice acting. WING DAMAGE

Holy shit, I didn't know that. That's freaking awesome.

I call shenanigans, btw.

"anti-faeries" are in fact bubbles, which have been around since the original game.

Were they? I completely forgot about that. I'll go edit that info in right now.

I think in the original game, they didn't actually hurt you, they just disabled you for a little bit. As in, if you got hit by one, you wouldn't be able to use your sword, just when you're surrounded by a bunch of Darknuts.

Actually in the original game they stole your magic.

Prove me wrong.

does magic even exist in the first Zelda? this is a serious question, I haven't played it in a million years.

Surely the map and compass are barred from a minimalist run.

No, it doesn't--not in the same sense as the rest of the series, anyway. Bubbles originally robbed Link of his sword-swinging ability, which they continue to do in Ocarina and onwards. Their properties in A Link to the Past are unique to that game.

Meh.

In the original they robbed you of your sword use for a limited time. Then in the second quest, they introduced the red bubbles which robbed you of your sword use forever...well, until you ran into a blue bubble. But that second quest is devious in more ways that I can count.

Maybe later you can do a completist run. Or let someone else do it.

I believe the one time I tried this I got to the last dungeon and then an idiot friend of mine borrowed the game and grabbed some heart containers and the red sword... never had the desire to go back and see it through.