#Ocarina of time four swords series#

#Ocarina of time four swords series#

The series doesnвЂ™t shy away from bringing back familiar faces or alluding to past events, but always with an internal logic, FSA lacks. Four Swords Adventures looks, sounds, and feels like Zelda, but itвЂ™s not quite the genuine article. This in itself is part of the gameвЂ™s charmвЂ“ playing up the idea of a multiplayer Zelda by making use of as many familiar beats as possibleвЂ“ yet itвЂ™s at the expense of carving out a clear identity. Players need to rescue seven Maidens just like they did in A Link to the Past. Ganondorf is a Gerudo thief turned demon king because thatвЂ™s who he was in Ocarina. TheyвЂ™re loud and bombastic to the point of distraction. Four Swords AdventuresвЂ™ references arenвЂ™t subtle. Even the Oracle games, which were otherwise self-contained adventures, featured subtle references to A Link to the Past and LinkвЂ™s Awakening that chronologically set the duology between both titles.

Gameplay always comes before the story with The Legend of Zelda, but SuzukiвЂ™s disregard for continuity was unprecedented. To say nothing of Link & ZeldaвЂ™s familial relationship, along with the fact that in-game text acknowledges that Link knows heвЂ™ll be unsealing Vaati as he draws the Four Sword from its pedestal, heavily suggesting the events of the first Four Swords have happened recently. The Hyrule Historia has since retconned the plot to take place after Twilight Princess, but that raises its own issues: notably the centuries gap between FS and its direct narrative sequel. This is all fine enough, but that Ganon appears at all means FSA cannot take place right after the original Four Swords, despite the story clearly acting as if it does. Four Swords was explicitly the first game chronologicallyвЂ“ predating GanonвЂ“ so Four Swords Adventures naturally frames itself as a direct sequel, complete with references to a previous journey for Link. Not helping were FSAвЂ™s attempts at touching upon virtually every game in the franchise, leading to some of ZeldaвЂ™s first major continuity errors. Charming as Four Swords Adventures may be, the gameвЂ™s fan service borders on the derivative. As much as Aonuma boasted of what SuzukiвЂ™s perspective as a fan could offer, though, this shouldnвЂ™t be seen as a badge of honor. Toshiaki SuzukiвЂ™s interpretation of The Legend of Zelda serves as a love letter to all his favorite aspects of the series, even lifting puzzles from previous titles. The art style is The Wind Waker in 2D, a vast majority of assets are either taken from or directly inspired by A Link to the Past, and the story plays on lore otherwise exclusive to games like The Adventure of Link, the original Four Swords, & Ocarina of Time. Suzuki even went back to play previous games for inspiration, a fact that bleeds into Four Swords AdventuresвЂ™ overall design. Suzuki had also been a self-proclaimed fan of the franchise since its Famicom days, offering the series a fresh pair of eyes. Deluxe, Super Mario Advance, and The Wind WakerвЂ™s Tingle Tuner, SuzukiвЂ™s experience with the Game Boy line of handhelds made him an ideal director. Having previously worked on Super Mario Bros. As Shigeru Miyamoto wanted Four Swords Adventures to implement connectivity with the Game Boy Advance, Toshiaki Suzuki (current producer of the Mario Party franchise) was chosen to direct. Throwing something of a wrench into things was the fact that Eiji Aonuma had just promoted to series producer, and was overseeing three projects at once: The Wind Waker 2 (eventually Twilight Princess,) The Minish Cap, and Four Swords for Nintendo GameCube (retitled Four Swords Adventures.) With Aonuma ultimately directing Twilight Princess and CapcomвЂ™s Hidemaro Fujibayashi reprising his directorial role from the Oracle games for The Minish Cap, Four Swords Adventures was left without an established Zelda director. However, this mandate would do little to prevent Four Swords Adventures from developing into one of the oddest entries in the franchise. From the very outset, measures were being taken to ensure Four Swords Adventures held actual longevity as a video game. In fact, the importance of a strong single-player campaign was stressed by both Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma throughout development. Although the titleвЂ™s direct sequel does share similar issues regarding the accessibility of its multiplayer, Four Swords Adventures is arguably the game Four Swords should have always been. The first multiplayer Zelda, Four Swords demanded players have at least one friend with their own GBA, copy of A Link to the Past, and Link Cable to actually play the ninth canonical installment in the franchise. Bundled together with A Link to the PastвЂ™s Game Boy Advance re-release, Four Swords was a game few fans ultimately played.