The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords is a multi-link video game for up to four players on the Game Boy Advance. The game does not have a single player mode, so it is required that one player plays with at least one other player, who must also own their own copy of the game. The game also does not come on its own cartridge; instead, it is more of a bonus for purchasers of the Game Boy Advance port of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Four Swords ostensibly belongs to the Legend of Zelda series, but its gameplay is significantly different. The game features Link in four different colored tunics. The player and three friends must work together to stop the evil wind mage, Vaati. Unlike most Zelda titles, Four Swords was designed not by Nintendo, but by Flagship.

Story
WDS4CquPCts According to the game's prologue, Hyrule was once attacked by a wind mage known as Vaati. He raided numerous villages throughout the country and kidnapped any maidens whom he fancied. Vaati then took the captured maidens to his palace. A number of heroes set out to defeat Vaati and to save the girls, but they all failed against him. That is until a young boy appeared from the deep forests of Hyrule and brought an end to Vaati's reign. When asked how a boy as small as he is could defeat such a horrible creature, the people turned to the rescued maidens for an answer. The maidens responded that the boy's cursed sword allows him to split into four copies of himself. Using their combined power, the four fought as one and sealed Vaati within the blade. Although the people did not believe the girls, they became intrigued by the story of this so called "Four Sword". While the boy had disappeared into the depths of Hyrule, the blade became legendary among people. Eventually, a large sanctuary was built around the Four Sword to protect the blade and keep the evil sealed within it. At the outset of the game, Princess Zelda senses a disturbance in the Four Sword, and she invites Link to come with her to the Four Sword Sanctuary to investigate. As they enter the room Zelda tells Link not to touch the Four Sword as he might "shatter to pieces" from touching the legendary blade. Just as Zelda goes to check the seal the Four Sword leans out of its pedestal and the room goes dark. Vaati is then unleashed and promptly absconds with the Princess. Boasting about his return to power he takes Zelda to his palace to make her his bride and knocks Link out cold before leaving.

As Link comes to, he is confronted by three Fairies, one blue, one red, and one green, perhaps representing the three Hylian goddesses. They instruct Link to draw out the blade and after doing so Link is split into four copies of himself. These clones are all indistinguishable from each other apart from different colored clothing and slight differentiations in the deepness of their voices. The different Links are colored green, red, blue, and purple respectively. The fairies instruct the four links to seek out the Great Fairies so that they can gain access to Vaati's Palace and save Zelda. They go on to say that by obtaining Rupees scattered across Hyrule, the Great Fairies will acknowledge Link's courage and grant him the three Silver Keys needed to enter Vaati's Palace.

After a short while of adventuring across Hyrule, the four meet the Great Fairies and are granted access to Vaati's Palace. Inside, Vaati and the Links confront each other, and a large battle ensues. Eventually, Vaati is weakened enough that he can be sucked back into the Four Sword and sealed up again. Zelda is then freed, and the Links become one again after the blade is put back into the pedestal at the Four Sword Sanctuary.

Gameplay
Creating a file for the Game Boy Advance game gives players a profile in both The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Four Swords. A Link to the Past is single player, but Four Swords is for two to four players. Some of the features in the two games are linked. For example, when players learn a new sword move, the sword move is transferred between games. Also, Link must complete both games in order to unlock a secret dungeon in the Link to the Past. Player one is the green Link, player two is red, player three is blue, and player four is purple. Once everyone is connected, player one gets to choose one of the four basic stages to play on. All of the stages require teamwork to complete them.

Each area (not including the Chambers of Insight) has three levels. After completing one of the levels, the players will find a portal. All of the players must reach the portal before they can warp to the next level. The first player to reach the portal will be rewarded with a Heart Container that expands and restores his life energy. The first two levels are randomly chosen out of three that can appear each time that the area is played.

The third level is not a regular level, but a boss battle. Each of the three levels has a unique boss that requires teamwork to defeat. After the boss is defeated, a portal will open up.

During the levels and boss battles, players might come across Rupees. A certain amount of Rupees is required to complete the level. If one of the players runs out of hearts, they will be revived at the cost of 50 Rupees. The cost goes up by 50 Rupees after every death. All Rupees go into the same wallet, and if the players go bankrupt, they will get a game over and will have to restart the level. The person with the most Rupees will get a special prize at the end of the level.

After players finish an area, they will be taken to the Great Fairy. She will give all players a silver key to add to their profile if they work together to get enough Rupees. After all of the players have all three silver keys, they will be able to go to Vaati's Palace, the final level.

The stages are the Sea of Trees, a forest type area with grass and shrubs; Talus Cave, an icy cave with bottomless pits; and Death Mountain, an active volcano full of fire and magma. The Chambers of Insight is an optional tutorial that covers most aspects of the game.

Bosses

 * Sea of Trees
 * Deguchitato is the boss at the end of the Sea of Trees. He attacks by swinging around dangerous flowers. These can be destroyed if the player with the right tunic color attacks them. After the flowers are gone, players must pull both levers at the side of him in order to expose the central flower. This can be destroyed if both players with the correct tunics hit the flower at the same time. Once the central flower is destroyed, Deguchitato is defeated.


 * Talus Cave
 *  Derazoru is the boss of the caves, but he first appears inside of a robot suit and attacks by bouncing around. The game periodically displays the message "Dash into the ice wall". Players must use the Pegasus boots to dash into the boss, knocking him into the ice wall. Once he's frozen, they can destroy the robot suit with their swords. When the robot suit is gone, he will be in his true form. This form has four light bulbs. Players can defeat him by striking the light bulb that matches their tunics. However, all except one bulb will appear grey to each player. The one bulb that is not grey won't match the players' tunics, so they will need to communicate with each other to figure out which light bulb matches them.


 * Death Mountain
 * Gouen is the boss here. In his main form, he attacks by throwing colored balls of energy. If a ball matches a player's tunic, he can hit it toward his fellow players. They will hit them back and forth until it starts flashing. If the flashing ball of energy hits the boss, he will explode into a bunch of tiny flame creatures. Players must find the creature that really is the boss in disguise, then hit it until the boss is defeated.


 * Vaati's Palace
 * Vaati is the boss, and he attacks with a cyclone. Players can defeat him by throwing bombs into the cyclone, causing them to hit Vaati and lower the cyclone. Once Vaati is on the ground, he can be defeated with sword attacks.


 * After Vaati is defeated, he will reappear and use attacks similar to the other 3 bosses. He can be defeated with the same strategies.

Items
Unlike most games, each Link can hold only one item. These items are found on pedestals scattered throughout stages. Most items appear in other Zelda games, but there are exceptions, like the Gnat Hat.

Connection to A Link to the Past
The games are connected in several minor ways. New moves learned in A Link to the Past are transferred over to the other game, though are available to only that player until the others unlock it themselves. Also, there is a bonus dungeon in A Link to the Past called the Palace of the Four Sword. It is only available after both Ganon and Vaati are defeated.

Sequels
Four Swords inspired another game that was released for the Nintendo GameCube called The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, which features similar gameplay elements. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks also have similar elements to Four Swords in their multi-player modes.

DSiWare Re-release
On June 7th, 2011, Nintendo announced that Four Swords would be released as a free download on the DSiWare service. The release is planned for September 2011. It has been confirmed that the re-release of Four Swords will, in fact, be a port of the original version; the graphics will remain the same. It is unknown if there will be any updates to the game.

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