The Legend of Zelda:A Link to the Past

Game

The game is an action RPG, in which an evil wizard is trying to release an evil power that has been imprisoned in a mountain range, you play as link and your role is to stop the evil power from being released. The game was made in 1991 and released for the Super Nintendo, and it has 16 bit graphics. Although an action RPG at the time, I don’t think it has enough features to be called a RPG in modern day gaming, more of an adventure game. The game is 2D, but uses a top down view, so it makes it feel like there is a lot more to explore, the game also has different levels to the maps by introducing stairs and ladders, by doing this it makes the 2D game feel bigger than it actually is and makes you feel like there is a larger world to explore.

How did it feel?

The game was made for the Super Nintendo, because of this and the limitations at the time it was made the controls and player movement aren't very smooth, but despite this I still think the game is fun to play, the more you play the game the easier the controls become to master.

The combat in the game is very one dimensional, and can get repetitive after a while, although you can use magic and different weapons I feel that the combat would get boring when you progress more in the game as all combat styles feel basically the same. This could be a problem when people play it who are used to modern games with lots of weapons and combat styles, the game is supposed to be an action RPG, a modern day equivalent would be Skyrim in that game you can use bows, swords and shields, two handed swords and magic this keeps the game feeling new and fresh because you can change to a new combat style when you get tired of another, something that you can’t do in this Zelda game.

The game has lots of different area’s at the start of the game you begin in Link’s house in his bedroom, you can then go outside of his house and explore the village he lives in, and into different houses in and around the area to explore your surroundings, apart from the village there is a castle at the top which has multiple levels.

Because the game was made in 16-Bit graphics, the detail in the game is very limited but I do like the look of the game and think that the music compliments well with the feel of the levels. Taking into regard the limitations of the time and 16-Bit graphics I think that the game is visually well made and would have been at the limit of what could have been done at the time of release.

The Story

The story starts with Link being awoken by a telepathic message from Princess Zelda, she has been imprisoned in a dungeon below a castle Link goes to the castle to save the princess, Link meets up with his uncle who gives him a sword and shield to help him in his mission of rescuing the princess, he then sets off into the depths of the castle past the guards to rescue the Princess from the jail.

Once he has saved the Princess they escape to a place called Sanctuary, in Sanctuary Link meets a man who tells him that Agahnim, an evil wizard who has usurped the throne, is planning to break a seal made hundreds of years ago to keep the evil wizard Ganon locked away, the seal was made by the Seven Sages.

Links mission is to save the decedents of the Seven Sages from the evil wizard as they are the key to unlocking the seal to the dark world and unleashing the evil power of Ganon, along his journey he meets lots of different characters who give him new quests that offer rewards to aid him in his overall adventure such as new weapons, abilities and armour.

Identify

I found the music and graphics to be fun and thought they complimented each other well, after playing the game for just 30 minutes I wanted to play it more; it was entertaining all the way through the half an hour that I played, and left me wanting to see how the story progressed and keep trying to get past the different stages of the level.

The controls weren’t great but I found them to be enough for what the gameplay mechanics were, the soldiers had a pattern and were easy to avoid after watching them walk their path once or twice. Although easy to avoid the combat in the game was at time quite difficult as you need to move around a lot with just the up, down, left and right controls instead of the 8 directional movements of modern games.

Evaluate

Overall I’d say the game was fun and entertaining, I enjoyed the story from what I played and felt that it would get more interesting and develop well if I carried on playing. Because the game is an RPG it makes you want to progress further and unlock different rewards from quests. The story starts off drawing you in by introducing new characters straight away; this drew me into the story and made me want to carry on playing.

I think that the average gamer who is used to playing RPGs like Skyrim and Fallout would find the game boring very quickly, as I said before the combat is one dimensional and probably wouldn’t appeal to a wide audience as much as it appeals to gamers who want to play retro games and find out what they were like at the time.I enjoyed the simple graphics and music in the game and thought that they complimented each other well, the graphics weren’t great but I felt that they were the best that they could be for the time and the hardware available.

Playing it for Myself

t is a photograph of me Playing: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, I played it on the super Nintendo games console.

Survey

I created a survey with questions based on the game, I passed this around to friends and family of varying ages, game experience and gender to get the most diverse results possible, below are the results of the survey.

Age “Do you consider yourself a gamer?”

Gender

24 No Female51 No Female27 Yes Male15 Yes Male18 Yes Male44 No Female17 Somewhat Male