The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, known in Japan as zeruda no densetsu: yottsu no tsurugi + (lit. Legend of Zelda: Swords of Four +), 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. Navi 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. Normally, the extra Links just follow the player, but players can separate an individual Link and control it alone, or put the four Links into formations. These techniques are required to solve some puzzles and defeat certain enemies. 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.

Stages
In Hyrulian Adventure, there are 8 main worlds. In each world, there are 3 stages that players must go through from beginning to end for it to count. Each stage has a boss battle at the end. In each world, players will also be allowed to play mini-games at Tingle's Tower to gain extra lives.

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 almost the same as the first five, but the player has limited vision). In each stage, items randomly appear. These are usually similar to the items in Hyrulian Adventure. There are also many special objects in each stage. Players can use these objects to their advantage.

Stages
There are 5 stages in Shadow Battle that players choose to play on before they fight. The stages come in both light and dark versions, but the dark versions are not unlocked until the player has completed Hyrulian Adventure.

The Field
A small section in the Hyrulian field. It may look innocent, but it is full of booby traps, as well as switches and dangerous objects hidden in the house, cave, and trees.

The Tower of Flames
A small section home to many caves and switches, as well as a large pool of lava and lots of bombs. Most players would say that this is the most lethal stage in the game.

Hyrule Castle
An area in front of Hyrule Castle. There are lots of Darknuts in the light world, but players can travel to the dark world through a magic portal. The dark world is home to items, as well as an orb that has a rare item inside.

Tower of the Winds
A large tower. Players can enter the dark world through one of the many doors. They have unlimited time in the dark world, so they will have plenty of time to use the switches to drop giant bombs on the light world.

Above the Clouds
This stage takes place on a cloud. There is a flame jet that rotates, and players can go to the middle platform and control the flame jet with a lever in the basement.

Navi Trackers
Navi Trackers (formerly planned as a stand alone game titled "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 (except, to an extent, Kodai no Sekiban), 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&mdash;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&mdash;reportedly, one line was something like "Let's hear it for Mrs. A!"&mdash;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 written with the Latin alphabet and has much more complex spelling and phonetical constraints. 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.

Other Media
A manga novelization of the game was made by the manga-ka Akira Himegawa. One major bit is that each of the four Links was a distinct personality: the Link in green (Nicknamed "Green") acted similarly to his normal self, aggressive and brave, the Link in red ("Red") was portrayed as a childish optimist, the one in blue ("Blue") was quick-tempered and over-confident, and the one in violet {"Vio"} was aloof and self-possessive. This of course caused the four Links to argue amongst one another due to their conflicting personas. The four decided to use nick-names so they wouldn't confuse each other.


 * Volume 1
 * 1. The Four Links
 * 2. Hyrule Castle Falls
 * 3. Elne and Rosy
 * 4. The Separated Links
 * 5. The Pyramid Struggle
 * 6. The Temple of Darkness


 * Volume 2
 * 7. Climb Death Mountain
 * 8. Sad Shadow Link
 * 9. Next Stop, The Wind Palace
 * 10.The Duel With Father
 * 11.The Invincible Vaati
 * 12.The Four Sword Lives Forever