Ahh~ The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords- probably my most played Zelda game of all time. Despite its simplicity, the change from the gameplay styles of the 2D Traditional Zelda games before this one have been an interesting one to say the least. While I’ve never played the Game Boy Advance original (where it required 2 or more players), I did play the DSi Anniversary Edition where, for the series’ 25th Anniversary, it included a new Single Player Campaign and the Realm of Memories + Hero’s Trial, adding a completely different experience to the game that such limited people had their hands on. I believe that it’s a crime that Nintendo didn’t bring this game onto modern platforms other than the Switch Online with the Game Boy Advance original, I believe that they wanted this game to come and go, and even though I remember them vaguely having it as a tabletop game in the Nintendo Store in 2011-2012-ish, they forgotten the game quickly and its if they meant it. It was an exclusive on the DSi for a short period of time before it got canned by them, and for the release of The Legend of Zelda: Q Link to the Past 2.0, or A Link Between Worlds, they ought to bring it back again just because. Me and my family tried to get the game, but it ended up with everyone but my brother getting it because his entry to the world of the 7th Generation was handled a lot differently than the others. He did eventually get the game… through other means of course.
As we dive into the first multiplayer Zelda game, we’ll learn about the story, the gameplay and its Anniversary Edition changes, the graphics, the Replay Value and what other things I can discuss about this game through this review.
Story
Vatti never learned his lessons from his last appearance...
Gameplay
Four Swords departs from the traditional 2D dungeon designs previous Zelda games had and gives the entire layout of the map for you and/or your friends to complete. With this means is that instead of having a level where a room can solve a puzzle to the next one or multiple of them unlock another part of the dungeon, the entire dungeon is available for the players to explore, find items 'n rupees, and solve. Although there are some differences to make up for this style of gameplay: Because there isn’t no open area like Hyrule to explore, once you obtain your Key of your choice (Grass, Ice, and Flame), your items don’t carry onto the next stage, always defaulting to the shield for it to be replaced with the other items that the game has. Rupees also have more of a purpose: Instead of acting as a currency to purchase items to make your playthroughs better in traditional Zelda, your Rupees act like a pseudo-health system: Once you die, you lose 50 of them, and it gradually increases up to a cap of 500 of them. This isn’t a huge dealbreaker, but once you hit the harder versions of the stages with the golden/hero’s key, the second and third doors of the Realm of Memories and Hero’s Trial, you’re going to keep your strategic skills to the absolute best because wrong coordination can equals instant death amongst your peers.
The way the levels work in Four Swords is that there are three stages, save for Vatti’s Palace, Realm of Memories and Hero’s Trial: Sea of Trees, Talus Cave, and Death Mountain. Upon entering the stage, the stage’s format goes like this: There are 2 levels that are randomly generated with three difficulty sets for for the type of key you’ve unlocked (that being silver, golden, and hero’s), and the last one being a boss which usually remains the same on all difficulties.
To unlock Vatti’s Palace, you’ll need to collect three silver keys, which will open the left room in the palace formatted like the three stages, culminating in a final battle against Vatti. When you collect the gold keys, you can open the right door. This door’s challenges are similar to those of the silver door but more difficult. The middle door presents the entire gauntlet of the three stages, but in their most challenging forms. To access this door, you’ll need to obtain the three hero keys. These keys come from the same stages, but each level design becomes increasingly difficult, with tougher enemies appearing. You’ll need to collect a maximum of 3,000 (golden) or 6,000 (hero) rupees while dealing with these added challenges, making it a demanding task.
These mostly stay the same for the GBA original, but the Anniversary Edition includes a whole single-player campaign for those that had missed out on playing the GBA original with 2 or more people. It rebalances everything to accommodate for one person playing the game, and this is the one where most players would get their experiences playing the game with. this edition also includes two more stages: The Realm of Memories and Hero’s Trial which can be unlocked by beating the game once, and having a total of 3,000 rupees/5 Hero Medals collected overall. These follow a different format though: For Realm of Memories:Each door corresponds to a timeline with some notable locations in 2D Zelda: silver door is A Link to the Past, golden door is Link’s Awakening, and the hero door is The Hyrule Fantasy: Zelda no Densetsu. Upon completion of RoM, you’ll unlock the master sword, in which that upon full health, you’ll be able to shoot an additional beam towards enemies and the environment. For Hero’s Trial, The stage to tests your knowledge of the game, with set limits that makes the game generally harder, and depending on the person, can see it as fair or unfair.
The many times that I have seen this during my Hero's Trial Runs is INSANE. It's borderline impossible!
Replay Value
My experience with the game has mostly been the usual: Boot this up, play the single player campaign once, then drop. I gotten down to beating RoM once, but that save file of me completing it is long lost. As for Hero’s Trial, I honestly didn’t even bother with it because the way they handle the game doesn’t fit me at all, and it’s disappointing that completing it just gives you the hurricane spin: Something I didn’t even know for a while until recently. I even remember attempting to get the gold and hero’s keys but that just made the game harder and much more of a hassle to play. I also never really played this game multiplayer: I had completed the main campaign with family once and even attempted Hero’s Trial, but those days are long gone, and I even attempted to play the game with some fellas but due to time constraints and scheduling issues, this never really transpired to what I wanted to initially do for a replay of this game, and reviewing this game overall. Doesn’t stop me from replaying it though. In fact, I have played this game thousands of times, so I can definitely say for sure that the replay value of this game is very high. While some people might not get the memo of this game, I think otherwise, and I would consistently play this game over and over again, even if you’ll eventually get the layouts of the stages and everything. However, the replay value is further extended when you play with some people who have mixed knowledge of the game because at the end of the day, the goal is to get everything done with one or more people, what the GBA version had. And luckily I’ve reviewed the anniversary edition because that has the two extra stages that I’ve mentioned for a much more streamlined experience. It’s such a shame that the DSi version if you haven’t pirated it is borderline lost media because Nintendo made it extremely difficult to get this game if you haven’t gotten it on DSiWare when it was available and the FOUR DAYS that it was available when A Link Between Worlds launched. I just didn’t think that Nintendo liked the idea of making Zelda four player and wanted everyone to focus more on their single-player experiences… But then they would then go to make Zelda: Three Swords.
Graphics
While most of the graphics for this game has been borrowed from the GBA original, I think that they mastered the graphics for this game for it being the first original Zelda game–yeah this game came before The Minish Cap, and I think it looks pretty great! They managed to tackle the traditional art style with a bit of something whimsical like Wind Waker. My only complaint is the style clashing in the Realm of Memories where it’s using the default sprites for every stage but an ugly looking palette swap for the Link’s Awakening and NES Zelda stages.
Soundtrack
I would say that the soundtrack for Four Swords isn’t that bad! While I don’t find any of the melodies that significantly memorable compared to other tracks in the Zelda series, Vatti’s Palace and the final boss are some damn good themes for the games. This game also suffers soundtrack reuse where the three stages would be used in primarily Hero’s Trial and the final door of Vatti’s Palace. The Anniversary Edition though adds tracks back from older games through the Realm of Memories and they’re DAMN accurate to how they’ve sounded despite the chip from the DSi reusing the same sound hardware that the DS had. Just take a listen to Tal Tal Heights, ALTTP’s Hyrule Castle Theme, and the overworld from NES Zelda! It’s almost as if they’re playing an MP3 version of the original songs through the game because they’re accurate as hell, on original DSi hardware. I didn’t even mention how the music from the original game has been translated into the style of the DS itself! I get it, most GBA-DS games like the Mega Man Zero series, and Ace Attorney have a perfect transition to the next gen system due to how similar the sound chip is to the GBA, but the way that they changed a bit of how some instruments sound to make the song just sound much better makes me have a smile on the composers of the original game for making such changes. This game also has unused music that didn’t make it into the game, suggesting that the game might’ve been a longer game similar to Four Swords Adventures, but I think the shortness provided with 100%ing the game being pretty long is okay for a game that’s trying to be a remaster and not a completely a different game.
Pros
- + A fun multiplayer experience to play with friends
- + Single player campaign makes the game not only playable but worth it
- + The soundtrack is wonderful
Cons
- - Hero's Trial's differences between the rest of the stages can make the trial harder than it needs to be
8
out of 10
Overall
“Four Swords” represents a simplified multiplayer interpretation of “The Legend of Zelda,” yet it appears that Nintendo has relegated it to relative obscurity. Although I had others to play with, It wasn’t much and it definitely wasn’t consistent. I believe that Nintendo wanted to forget about this game because they believed that bringing it back was unnecessary especially since there wouldn’t be a way for other people to easily play this game with: Everyone had to have this game on the DSi/3DS, and even if during this time was a generation where everyone was holding the system, not a bunch of people would’ve likely had it. Tbh, I don’t even think Nintendo is really into making “Zelda” games multiplayer: They’ve since been single player experiences and for almost every multiplayer Zelda, it hasn’t achieved a bunch of success like the other games. . The only ones that have gone that route are “Four Swords,” “Four Swords Adventures,” “Tri Force Heroes,” and “Hyrule Warriors,” plus its sequel, “Age of Calamity” on the Switch. They’ve tried to fit “Four Swords” and “Four Swords Adventures” into the main timeline, but they just don’t have the same vibe as the single-player games; I couldn’t believe that the Ganon featured in Twilight Princess was probably one of the best antagonists featured in any Nintendo game, and if the Zelda timeline is correct, that same Ganon got reincarnated into a giant Discord mod pig just like the older Zelda games but a itty bit bigger. Plus, the way you play multiplayer is super limited; for example, “Four Swords Adventures” needs four Game Boy Advances just to play with one person. Sure, you can use emulators like Dolphin and mGBA, but we’re talking about regular ways to play, and getting into the first three games was a real hassle. Nowadays, it’s just a game that people can gather by using the above, MelonDS, or Nintendo Switch Online for these Zelda games, otherwise, I think it’s best that I’m the only one that really, really likes Four Swords.
