The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo Template:Infobox/designer
Release date	March 18, 2004 (NA) June 7, 2004 (JP) January 7, 2005 (EU)
Genre	Action/Adventure/RPG
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Age rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone
Platform(s)	GameCube Template:Infobox/media Template:Infobox/input
Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures is a game in The Legend of Zelda series for the GameCube, released in Japan on March 18, 2004, North America on June 7, 2004 and Europe on January 7, 2005. It utilizes the GBA-to-GameCube cable. As with any game that uses this cable, it is incompatible with the Nintendo DS.

Gameplay

Four Swords Adventures is actually a collection of games. Hyrulean Adventure is an episodic, cooperative multiplayer adaptation of the conventional Legend of Zelda gameplay. Shadow Battle is a competitive multiplayer battle mode. Tetra's Trackers, present only in the Japanese version of the game (and displayed briefly at E3 before the US release), is a multiplayer stamp rally race.

Hyrulean Adventure

Hyrulean Adventure (previously known as "Hyrule Adventure" and "Four Swords") uses most of the same mechanics as the previously-released Four Swords for the GBA, but unlike its predecessor has a single player mode available. The multiplayer version requires each player to have a GBA, which is used as a controller and to which the action transfers when that player's character goes off the main screen, but the single player game may be played with either a GameCube controller or a GBA. There are always four Link characters (differentiated by tunic color) in play, regardless of the number of people playing; "extra" Links are attached to those directly controlled and positioned around the controlling character. The graphics are similar to that of the Game Boy Advance version, but the maps are static rather than randomly generated. Music is based on that of A Link to the Past but is rearranged in places.

Story

Princess Zelda asks her childhood friend, Link, to accompony her to the shrine where the Four Sword rests, as she's sensed a growing evil there with her psychic powers. Dark Link appears and attacks them, Link, without a weapon, pulls the Four Sword from it's pedastal, breaking the seal made by a different Link and Zelda at the end of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. The evil wind mage Vaati is released. When Link picks up the Sword, it's power is activated, and he is split into four people.

Zelda is kidnapped. She and Seven Maidens are trapped in crystals that are being guarded by monsters all across hyrule. The four Links now have to travel around Hyrule and rescue the maidens and Princess Zelda and use their power to defeat Vaati.

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Vaati's plan was to actually resurrect the spirit Ganon. Ganon's human form, Ganondorf, the evil Guerdo king, was killed at the end of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. But the Guerdo tribe birth a new male Geurdo king every few centuries, and the most recent ruler had come of age and stolen a sacred Guerdo artifact: Ganon's trident. Apparently, the trident housed the power to awaken Ganon's spirit. Asisted by Vaati's magic, Ganon is brought back into Hyrule. Just as the Links and Zelda are escaping Vaati's crumbling tower the floor breaks away and they fall into Ganon's lair. Princess Zelda uses her magic to seal both Vaati and Ganon inside the Four Sword itself, and put it back on the pedestal. So far, no other game in the series has explained how or when they escape.

Shadow Battle

In Shadow Battle, two or more players battle each other until only one is left standing. As in Hyrulean Adventure, each player uses a different-colored Link character and wields various tools to attack the other Links. Five bonus maps for Shadow Battle are unlocked upon completion of Hyrulean Adventure (these maps are the same as the first five, but the player has limited vision).

Tetra's Trackers

Tetra's Trackers is only on the Japanese version of Four Swords Adventures (Four Swords +). In this game, multiple players, using a combination of the television screen and Game Boy Advances, search for members of Tetra's pirate gang (Tetra is a pirate captain in The Wind Waker) to gain stamps from them, as many as possible within a given time limit. All action takes place on the Game Boy Advance used by each player, with the television screen showing a basic map and Tetra narrating the action.

Unlike most other Zelda games, players could enter their name as well as choose their gender; however they played as one of the Links regardless of this choice.

Unique in the Zelda series, Tetra and her pirate crew have full voiceovers in place of text-only dialogue, with Tetra also synthesizing the two-character name that each player inputs at the beginning of the session, possibly why this game was not localized for the English release. In an early version of the game showed to review sites Tetra apparently spoke English reportedly, one line was something like "Let's hear it for Mrs. A!" and was able to pronounce at least some synthesized phonetic letters, A, B, C, and D, as shown in screenshots (it is to be assumed the full alphabet was available).

However, while the two-symbol rule worked fine for Japanese players, English is a phonetic language, not a syllabic language. For example, if a player's name was Sarah that is two syllables, so if a soundalike equivalent of that name was entered via Japanese characters, Tetra could easily pronounce "Sar-ahh" as a fairly realistic representation of the player's name. But this would not work with the Japanese version's implementation of English characters. Each of the two permissible characters being pronounced, the aforementioned player's name could only be "SA". Since the English voice had already been added, this technical barrier is the likeliest reason for its omission.

A single player mode is also available, either collecting alone or in competition with Tingle, the aspiring fairy found also in Majora's Mask, Oracle of Ages, The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap.

External links

• [Official web site of The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures ]
• [Original Wikipedia article]