The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Main game
4.41 average rating based on 4481 ratings
- Developers
- Nintendo EAD
- Publishers
- Gradiente, Hyundai, Nintendo, Playtronic, St. GIGA
- Franchises
- The Legend of Zelda
- Series
- The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- Platforms
- New Nintendo 3DS, Satellaview, Super Famicom, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Wii, Wii U
- Genres
- Adventure, Puzzle
- Themes
- Action, Fantasy
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past?
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Trash game totally blinded by nostalgia, or so I thought
This review is for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version
Game is too frustrating to be enjoyed on a leisure day.
I just cant comprehend why people call this fun when all it does is rage inducing.
This game is the bane of my existence
Edit: Well, I just beat it. The game have redeemed itself in the later dungeons. +3 Stars. Not 5, because the game still frustrate me.
Legend of Link
This is truly a link to the past as the game first came out in the 1990's, an era where games weren't money grabbing schemes and players weren't leashed along the game. As a recent player, I must say that in the contemporary setting, this is still a beautiful game. The pixel art is colorful, the gameplay is fun and the story captivating enough. As the hero of two worlds you're unsurprisingly tasked with saving the princess. A thematic recurrence of the time. It's how you do it where the game really shines. Dungeon crawling through grand labyrinths filled with monsters and puzzles, you, as Link, slowly gain new powers, abilities and weapons. There's not really any inventory management in the game as the number of differing objects is quite low. But there's still room to use imagination in how these objects are used. The quests to proceed are mostly straightforward enough. You are hinted where to go and in the map there's useful bookmarks to help find the most important spots. However, some side quests, mostly necessary to beat the game, are not so direct with some NPCs giving misinterpretable, not so precise hints to where you should probably …
Read MoreThis is truly a link to the past as the game first came out in the 1990's, an era where games weren't money grabbing schemes and players weren't leashed along the game. As a recent player, I must say that in the contemporary setting, this is still a beautiful game. The pixel art is colorful, the gameplay is fun and the story captivating enough. As the hero of two worlds you're unsurprisingly tasked with saving the princess. A thematic recurrence of the time. It's how you do it where the game really shines. Dungeon crawling through grand labyrinths filled with monsters and puzzles, you, as Link, slowly gain new powers, abilities and weapons. There's not really any inventory management in the game as the number of differing objects is quite low. But there's still room to use imagination in how these objects are used. The quests to proceed are mostly straightforward enough. You are hinted where to go and in the map there's useful bookmarks to help find the most important spots. However, some side quests, mostly necessary to beat the game, are not so direct with some NPCs giving misinterpretable, not so precise hints to where you should probably go to find something that you may probably need. This is where the game demands the player attentions. Everything in the game has a purpose. No side character is there without a reason and thus the player needs to pay attention and remember the various details that are given and found. And this is also where the game might become frustrating. If you need something and you don't know where to find it, expect a lot of wandering and searching. This isn't made easier by the game limitations in design where upon reaching the end of the screen, or traversing a door, the game scrolls to the next part of the stage. Overall the game is enjoyable and an adventure to be experienced. But it is a hard game where deaths are punished and when you die, you have to restart the dungeon. So be ready for possibly a bit of frustration if you're playing it the pure original way where no state saves are available.
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I have almost completed all the dark world dungeons. Currently, I am near the end of the 6th dungeon that is in the swamps. So far I have to say I'm enjoying this less than Link's Awakening. The types of puzzles I associate with Zelda games aren't a major aspect of the experience. There is much stronger emphasis on creating a mental map of spaces that the dungeons occupy. Such as checking the map to figure which hole I need to drop from in order to reach a chest or push a block from the desired direction. Most times acquiring the item barely changes how you view the space. The sense of exploration is still great, but there is no big AH moment of the dungeon item changing how I view everything. The game is more about exploring the dungeons and surviving the combat challenges the game puts in front of you. I was very focused on making sure that I didn't lose any of my hearts or magic of the way to the boss (especially important in the ice dungeon). Fighting enemies can be frustrating and there isn't a lot of depth to it. Its feels like a chore …
Read MoreI have almost completed all the dark world dungeons. Currently, I am near the end of the 6th dungeon that is in the swamps. So far I have to say I'm enjoying this less than Link's Awakening. The types of puzzles I associate with Zelda games aren't a major aspect of the experience. There is much stronger emphasis on creating a mental map of spaces that the dungeons occupy. Such as checking the map to figure which hole I need to drop from in order to reach a chest or push a block from the desired direction. Most times acquiring the item barely changes how you view the space. The sense of exploration is still great, but there is no big AH moment of the dungeon item changing how I view everything. The game is more about exploring the dungeons and surviving the combat challenges the game puts in front of you. I was very focused on making sure that I didn't lose any of my hearts or magic of the way to the boss (especially important in the ice dungeon). Fighting enemies can be frustrating and there isn't a lot of depth to it. Its feels like a chore anytime I'm fighting most enemies. You don't feel skillful for overcoming them and messing them up you feel like a bumbling idiot just running into them. I think Tunic is the best version of what the developer may having been going for in this game. Finding the dungeons can be difficult. The main issue is remembering something an NPC told you 10 hours in gameplay ago and maybe weeks ago in real time. I had to look up how to reach the swamp dungeon because I completely forgot about the boy in woods saying the play the flute for the sleeping man. Once I saw it online I remembered, but it was on the first things I did once I unlocked the dark world. The overworld can be a fun experience of discovering new items, side quests, and heart pieces at your own pace. It can get you into trouble when the fun side content can't be differentiated from the main path. It felt empowering to grab items earlier than expected and felt awful when I'm traveling through both versions of the overworld trying to figure out what I'm missing to get to the next dungeon. This usually involves talking to every NPC and trying to remember every area I couldn't explore before getting my most recent item. I have been talking about issues with this game more than anything else in this little update. The game is so foundational for Zelda and gaming in general that it causes the issues here stand out. Generally, I am enjoying the game and it has to be acknowledged that this came out in 1991. Excited to finish this classic game in the coming days.
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Just started a playthrough of this game last night and finished the first dungeon. The only other "old school" Zelda I have played is the Link's Awakening remake for the switch. The combat feels about as good as that game and I was honestly shocked that the game marked my map for objectives. It still took me a minute to remember that I didn't talk to the one kid sitting by the chickens. Its been interesting hearing all the songs I remembered from playing Ocarina of Time with the SNES sound chip.
A Zelda fan named Justin Bohemier created a dungeon crawling rogue-like from LTTP assets called the Legend of Zelda: Dungeons of Infinity. Seems pretty neat.
Wow! What a step up from the first zelda. The most dungeons in any zelda game, all very different and very challenging. All the items in this game are so unique and I love the artstyle. The music is also so great!
How did people back in the day ever beat this without save states? I'm in the Dark Dungeon and can't even get to the boss without going through waves of enemies. There's no way someone should be expected to travel all the way through the entire dungeon with limited healing just to fight the boss again.
I can't believe it took me a whole month to reach Ganon. very impressive for a SNES game, tbh.
The Ice Palace is by far THE best dungeon in the game. good amount of back tracking, not frustrating, requires critical thinking and logic to solve puzzles, enemies are not bat-shit all over the screen continuously respawning, and the boss fight was quite fun and challenging.
Played it for about an hour and would play again!
So far I've enjoyed the hero (light) world dungeons more than the dark world. the dark world dungeons are a bit frustrating. a small mistake in them could ruin the whole dungeon run and makes you restart all the way from the start.
They're not hard, just frustrating. made to increase playtime rather than a challenge.
played Zelda 3 - Parallel Worlds (LttP romahack for a few hours. Manged to get the big Key. Did not get to the "uncle" to get the sword. This hack requires me to get at least more 2 keys to get to my uncle... Very annoying to play so much of this game and get no sword, but I can only imagine what i'll be in for if the game starts off like this.
Went back to play A Link to the Past, again, and holysh!t I've been missing out on a lot. I'm putting myself on discipline mode to try and finish it since the past week, and I'm shocked more than enjoyed with how much a game from 31 years ago is offering.
Maybe not the Zelda that everyone else is playing, but while I wait for my chance on the household copy of TOTK I figured I'd play one of the only Zelda's I haven't played.
So far this is an all-timer - more straightforward than the original NES Zelda with a bit more story. The dungeons are challenging and fun, but I find myself just boomeranging and swording rather than use all the unique items you get here.
It's amazing how well Zelda has always done the pleasure of exploring, with heart pieces and secret grottos in A Link to The Past feeling just as rewarding as Breath of the Wild. This is something I think I didn't feel quite as much in Ocarina of Time
