Video games - The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords

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	Video games - The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords is a multi-link video game for up to four players on the Game Boy Advance platform. The game does not have a single player mode, so it is required that one plays with at least one other player, who must also own their own copy of the game. The game also does not come on its own cartridge, instead it is more of a bonus for purchasers of the GBA port of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
.

Unlike most Zelda titles, Four Swords was designed not by Nintendo but by Flagship.

Four Swords ostensibly belongs to The Legend of Zelda series, but its gameplay is significantly different. Featuring Link in 4 different colored tunics, the player and 3 friends must work together to stop the evil wind mage Vaati.

Storyline

NOTE: The easiest way to tell the story is to quote from the game itself. The spoken parts (in quotation marks "") are directly quoted, verbatim, from the ingame text, the rest is not. The unusual capitals (after a "...") occurred in the original text whenever a screen of text was cleared and replaced with another, so this has been reproduced here as-is.

At the beginning of Four Swords, Princess Zelda has a bad feeling about the seal holding Vaati, the evil Wind Mage. She takes Link to the sanctuary and expains its history to him.

"We have arrived. That is the sacred blade I spoke of, the Four Sword. Sealed away in its forged steel is Vaati, the wind mage. Lately I have been sensing weakness in the seal. It worries me. That is why we have come here... Be careful. It is said that the body of one who touches this blade will be shattered to pieces. It has mysterious powers. Legends say that when mighty Vaati attacked, a hero arose and saved the people from destruction. They go on to say that by using this sword, the one was as four, and the four combined their strength! Let's check the seal... Step back a moment."

Zelda then approaches the sword, and it moves to one side! Suddenly it grows dark and an evil laugh comes from somewhere. While they look around for the source of the laughter, a hand comes down and grabs Zelda. Link looks up to see her held in the grasp of an indescribable monster. Then it speaks.

"Hoh hoh hoh hoh. Have you some business with me? So, you noticed that the seal was weakening?"

"How rude! Release me!" Zelda demands.

"Eh? I sensed a great power approaching, so I hid myself. But my, what a lovely catch! Surely you must be some noble maiden. My name is Vaati. I am the great wind mage! The seal is broken... so I shall rage yet again! Hoh hoh hoh hoh! And what a gift awaits my return! I shall make you my bride! Onward we go, to my palace of winds! Hoh hoh hoh!" Vaati flies away, then suddenly makes a return pass and knocks Link out cold. Then three fairies appear and call out to him.

"Open your eyes... Young hero... The Princess Zelda has been carried off to Vaati's Palace. Hurry! You must go to her... But you cannot go alone... You have need of the Four Sword... Draw out the blade..."

Link does so, and splits into four, Red, Blue, Violet, and his original Green self. The fairies continue.

"No matter how mighty the enemy, with the power of four, you can defeat it... The Great Fairies ahead know the path to his palace... If the Great Fairies acknowledge your abilities, they will show you the way. If you are able to gather many Rupees along the path to the Great Fairies, they will likely acknowledge your courage... Please rescue the princess..."

Sequels

Four Swords inspired another game that was released for the Nintendo GameCube called Four Swords Adventures
that features similar gameplay elements. In an interview, Eiji Aonuma, the director of Wind Waker
and Majora's Mask
, announced the tentatively-titled "Four Swords DS" for the Nintendo DS. In the interview he alluded to it being his own project, whereas the previous Four Swords games were all made by Capcom. It also bore a prequel, The Minish Cap
. Though unlike the other Four Swords games, it was exclusively single-player, and the gameplay returned to a style similar to the Oracle games and Link's Awakening
.

Gameplay

Creating a file for the Game Boy Advance game will give players a profile in both A Link to the Past
and Four Swords. A Link to the Past is single player, but Four Swords is for 2-4 players. Some of the features in the two games are linked. For example, when players learn a new sword move, the sword move is transferred between games. Player 1 is the green Link, player 2 is the red Link, player 3 is blue, and player 4 is violet. Once everyone is connected, Player 1 gets to choose one of the four basic stages to play on. All of the stages require lots of teamwork to complete them. The stages are:

Chambers of Insight -

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