The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past - A Walkthrough with Dagger

[Dagger Dias]

This is the 2nd walkthrough topic in my Video Game Walkthrough series. I did one a year ago on Final Fantasy 4, and am way overdue for doing another one of these. Basically the way it works is that yours truly will make his way through the game providing tips, nostalgia, and general thoughts on it. The FF4 one did well last year so I am looking forward to this Zelda one. It was an extremely popular game for its time and is still looked back on very fondly. I hope that this thread will be nostalgic for those who played it back in the day, and informative for those who did not.

Unlike the FF4 topic, I will not be doing any video footage this time around. I plan to throw in some screenshots instead. I also plan on organizing it better. Posts will be broken up by locations/events and I'll include spotlights on various items, monsters, and NPC's.

You're welcome to chime in as well as much as you want with your own thoughts on the game and you can ask me any questions about it that you wish, provided you stay on topic and within the forum rules.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Alright, so the first thing we should cover is the controlls. Anyone who played this game back in the day should know this, but for those who never played it I'll include this. It's not a walkthrough without details on how to actually play the game.

Directional Buttons: Move Link around in the field screen, move cursor on item menu, move movable objects by pushing them in the direction you want pushed, leap off cliffs (depends on location), and go up/down stairs by moving onto the stairway.

A Button: This is the action button. You can use it to run once you have the Pegasus Boots. You can lift up objects (some require the Power Glove or Titans Mitt). It is also used to open chests, swim (after getting the Zora Flippers), talk to NPC's, read signs, and pulling some objects.

B Button: Swing your sword. Hold B down and then release to use the Whirling Blade Technique.

Y Button: Use your equipped item. More on items individually in the Item Spotlights. Some use up Magic Power, some do not.

X Button: Opens the map screen. If in a temple it opens the map of the temple, if anywhere else it opens up the overworld map. You'll see the Close Up Map first if on the overworld, then the Full World Map. Press X again to go back to the field screen.

L or R buttons: Switch between the Full Size or Close Up Map when viewing the overworld map.

Select Button: Brings up the Save option and the quit option. It is very important to save unless you have hours of spare time available to try to attempt the entire game in one session.

Start Button: Bring up the menu where you can change your equipped item for the Y button.



There are three different screen types you will be playing in. The field screen is where all the action takes place. Fighting monsters, exploring the world, talking to NPC's, and so forth all happens there. The menu is where you change items, and finally the map allows you a better look of where exactly you are in comparison to the rest of a temple or the overworld.

The field screen is divided into the overworld and the temples. You go through 4 temples in the Light World and 8 in the Dark World. Temples have great treasures to find and each has dangerous monsters led by a boss you will have to fight to clear the temple. Monsters still show up in the overworld too, but some areas such as NPC homes are safe from enemy attacks.

The game takes place in two different worlds. You start off in the Light World and the Dark World. The worlds are very similar, yet very different. One of the funnest parts of the game is seeing how a given location in one world changes in the other.

So, let's get started then? Let the title screen play itself out and then a demo will follow. The demo shares some backstory information for the game. A few random notes here.... I never could tell who that is on the throne. I think it's supposed to be the king but his face looks like a skull. Also, why is only one of the guards surrounding Aghanim red while the others are all blue?

So press start and you will need to make your character. Move the crosshairs so that they intersect at the letter you want and press A, B, X, or Y. Repeat until you have a name. If you make a typo there is a blank space next to END, select that until the name is empty and start over until you have a name you like. Now select your game file.

You are asleep in your house and get a telepathic message from Zelda. No, you don't play as Zelda. You play as Link. Any other Zelda fans tired of the people who think your character in Zelda games is "Zelda"? Anyway.... She tells you she is in the castle and needs your help. Your Uncle (who I'll refer to as Uncle Beyond, for reasons I'll explain in his NPC spotlight) leaves the house and tells you to stay there. Yeah, like that's going to happen. You now have control over Link (or whatever you renamed him). Press Right on the directional buttons to get out of bed.

Go lift the vases and press A again to throw them. There might be items inside such as hearts or rupees (this game's currency). Make it a habit to always search under any object you can lift/throw. You can never have too many rupees and this also keeps your health maxed out. The chest in the lower right corner of the house has a Lantern in it. You can avoid opening it, but you'll get two more chances to obtain it. In a chest in the path leading into the castle, and in the basement of the castle. The game forces you to get it eventually so you might as well grab it now.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Green Tunic

You start out with this. It does nothing relevant, it's just Link's clothing. You get two tunic upgrades later in the game with each offering better protection than the one before.​

 

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Lantern

This is important early on. It lights torches, which in some temple rooms will unlock doors that are locked. Later on when you get the Fire Rod this item gets outclassed, but until then you need it.​

 

[Dagger Dias]

Outside it is raining. Throw bushes and see what is there, you might find some rupees. You cannot lift the rocks yet, you will need the Power Glove item for that. Move one screen to the left to find guards who will not let you pass. Directly south of Link's house are more guards, as well as directly to the right. None of these guards let you pass but they tell you information about what some of the buttons do if you talk to them.

After some time has passed you might get another telepathic message from Zelda reminding you she is in the castle. I know that! I'll save you when I'm good and ready! Let me explore first! She will give you a hint about a path into the castle.

Go north. There is a sign that contains a message from the King that he wants the descendants of the Wise Men found for 100 rupees. The guard at the castle gates tells you to go home and sleep. Yeah, no. I think I'll explore the castle walls some more. To the left of him is more guards at the edge of the screen. To the right of him is a path that you'll need to take. The way to the following screen on the right is blocked by a large rock you need the Power Glove to lift. Go further up, throwing bushes on the way for more rupees, and at the end of this path you'll find a secret entrance under one of them that has a square surrounding it. A chime familiar to all Zelda fans will ring when you find this. That sound means you solved a puzzle. Jump down into the underground path.

You'll find Uncle Beyond on the floor. He gives you his sword and shield after saying the infamous line "Zelda is your ... ... ..." which the meaning of has been debated ever since this game was first released. So now you have a sword and shield. Uncle Beyond speaks no more and if you return to this room after having been outside, he is no longer there.

 

[Dagger Dias]

NPC Spotlight: Uncle Beyond

This is Link's Uncle. He gives you your first sword and your first shield. The game never actually says what his name was. I call him Uncle Beyond because of a silly thing my older sister told me when we first got the game. Keep in mind, I was 6 at the time. I asked if she knew what his name was and she pointed out a paragraph in the game manual randomly stating that this was a list of Link's ancestors (obviously it wasn't, it's just part of the story in the manual) and said "THIS is his uncle!" as she points to the word "Beyond". We jokingly called him Uncle Beyond after that and the name just stuck after all these years. Uncle Beyond does not serve much of a purpose in the game other than the fact that you get the sword and shield from him.​

 

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Fighter Sword

Just your simple ordinary sword. It's better than fighting using nothing. You will get three upgrades to the sword later on in the game and each is better than the one before.​

 

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Small Shield

Just a simple shield with nothing special about it. It doesn't really protect you more than the Green Tunic does, but you need a shield. You get two upgrades to the shield later on with each being able to deflect more than the one before.​

 

[Dagger Dias]

So now that you have a sword, you are able to fight. This is a good thing because.... in the very next room you get to fight some guards! They have knives and small shields, they also do not chase you unlike most other guards so they will be easy to defeat. Throw the vases in the right corner of the room and you might find magic power. You'll need this to use the Lantern to light torches. The chest above the jars has the Lantern if you did not grab it at Link's house. If you did, it has rupees. Practice using the Lantern on the torch next to the chest, but watch your magic meter. It depletes every time you use the Lantern. Go outside.

Outside it is still raining. Use your sword to cut the foliage and get into the castle garden. You never know what you may find. Magic power, hearts, rupees, bees, it's somewhat randomly determined. The guards with swords will chase you if you see them (unlike the ones with knives) and have better shields. Be careful around them since you still only have 3 hearts. You cannot leave through the gates as they are shut. Defeat the guards and enter the castle.

Now you're in your first temple and the goal is to find Zelda. We will pick up from there in the next post.

 

[Cena Is A Punk Rocker]

This is so funny because I just started playing this a week ago. The only Zelda game I had never played.

 

[Dagger Dias]

This is so funny because I just started playing this a week ago. The only Zelda game I had never played.

You were missing out, this is the best one. Feel free to use this for help if you get stuck. How far are you? I expect this to take a couple of months to fully put together so nothing relevant gets left out. I can beat the whole game in 2 to 4 hours in the same sitting, but I am looking more realistically at doing one temple/event/location per day to ensure I cover everything.

 

[Cena Is A Punk Rocker]

My friend put an emulator on my 360 so I get to go back to a lot of classics. I just beat the wizard and transported over to the dark world. Taking a little break to play some Chrono Trigger. I don't want to finish Zelda too fast so I'm jumping back and forth. Your timing on this walk through is great though. I'll use it for sure. Thanks.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Enemy Spotlight: Guards

These guys are all over Hyrule Castle and show up on most parts of the Overworld. The green ones are the weakest, followed by blue, and the red ones are the strongest. Some have knives and are very easy to defeat. The ones with swords will chase you which can get rather annoying. Some also have spears or bows. It's fun to knock them off platforms in Basement One of Hyrule Castle or in the Hyrule Castle Tower, they make a funny sound and have a silly looking graphic when they fall.

​

 

[Dagger Dias]

So we are inside Hyrule Castle. This place has awesome music, much better than the two themes used in the other temples. Right as you walk in there are already some guards to defeat past the row of torches. The north path goes to a stairway into the 2nd floor. The throne room is in here, with some blue guards that will chase after you. The curtains can be opened if you swing your sword at them. There's nothing else to do in here.... yet.... head back to the first room and go through one of the two doors to the left. There is a door leading outside to the south in the room you end up in.

Outside it is still raining. To your right is a door closed off by a barrier. Do not touch it or else you will take damage, even if you try to attack it with your sword. You cannot get past it until you get the Master Sword. On the right side of the path you find a guard who informs you that the guards were normal until Aghanim showed up. Interesting.... Ok go back inside, there's nothing else to do out here. Use the left door. You could use the one on the right if you wanted, but the room is larger and has a larger number of guards. There's nothing really relevant on the right side, I usually take the left but both will lead to a stairway going down to the Basement One. Head downstairs.

Defeat the blue guard to get a key. These are important in temples, some doors require these keys to unlock. Be sure to open the chest in this room too. It contains a Map! You can now see the floorplan of the temple. Use the key to unlock the door to the south. You no longer have the key, each one is lost after one use.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Map

There is one of these inside every temple. Once you find one you are able to view the floorplan for the whole temple by pressing X. Before obtaining the map you can only see the rooms you have been to previously when switching to the temple map screen via the X button. It makes exploring much easier. You have to find a new map each time you go to a new temple though. The one in Hyrule Castle's basement will not work in The Desert Palace, for example.

​

 

[Dagger Dias]

In the next room you can knock guards off the platform by attacking with your sword if they are standing at the edge of the platform, it's hilarious. Be careful to not fall off yourself though or you take damage. Make your way past this area and defeat the guards along the way. Go through the door to the north at the end.

In the next room the doors shut. For some reason the doors have monster faces on them. You'll find a lot of doors like these in the temples. Defeat the guard inside the room to unlock the doors. This is to show you that some rooms in temples operate this way. If you cannot get out of a room, try defeating all the monsters inside. Now you will want to go through the door to the right. In here, the exact same puzzle applies again. The guard leaves behind a key when you defeat him too, take this. Open the chest in the room to get the Boomerang! Equip it now since it is very useful.

Go back into the previous room and use the key to unlock a door taking you to stairs down to Basement Two.

Basement Two consists of a grand total of ONE tiny little room. Go downstairs into Basement Three. Your first boss fight takes place in here. He doesn't get the boss music, but he's strong enough to be considered a boss. Defeat the green guard first. The boss shows up when you walk to the right, he is guarding Zelda who you came here to save.

 

[Dagger Dias]

BOSS BATTLE: Ball & Chain Trooper

The easiest way to defeat this guy is with well timed throwing of vases at him. If you take damage there should be hearts under the vases. You can also attack him with your sword but he will start swinging his ball & chain, you do not want to get hit by it so be careful. Two thrown vases should take him down as opposed to using your sword which would take several slashes. He is the game's easiest boss, so enjoy the low difficulty while you can. When you defeat him you win this temple's Big Key.

​

 

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Big Key

Each temple has one of these. They open huge treasure chests and certain doors that only these keys will work on. Just like the map, there is only one of these per temple.

​

 

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Boomerang

This is one of my favorite items. You can use it to stun and/or attack some enemies. It also does not use up any magic power so you can use it as often as you want. There is a Red Boomerang you can upgrade to later on which has a further range than the blue one. This blue one will suffice for now. Here's some trivia for you.... I generally keep the Boomerang as my equipped item for nearly the whole game. I always prefer to not have an item equipped that can deplete the magic meter unless I have to for defeating an enemy or solving a puzzle, same goes for any item that can run out like Arrows or Bombs. I usually switch right back to the Boomerang after completing the task I needed the other item for.

​

 

[Dagger Dias]

NPC Spotlight: Zelda

The game and the series it is a part of share the same name as her, so.... she must be pretty important.... lol.... She spends the majority of the Light World at the Sanctuary after you save her in the Hyrule Castle Basement. Then you have to go save her again in the Hyryle Castle Tower after getting the Pendants of Courage, Power, and Wisdom. During the Dark World you won't see her until after you complete Turtle Rock which is the 7th of 8 temples in that world.

​

 

[Dagger Dias]

Use the Big Key to open the door to where Zelda is. She tells you that Aghanim is controlling the guards then asks if you understood her. Tell her no and make her repeat herself. You can keep doing this forever. Or you can say "Yes" and keep playing the game. The chest next to her contains the Lantern if for some reason you still don't have it. The game makes you grab it here if you do not. The next portion of the castle has dark rooms you otherwise could not see in. If you do have the Lantern the chest has rupees. Zelda follows you now. She takes no damage if enemies touch her or if you fall off a platform. Make your way all the way back to the entrance of the castle. Go up to the 2nd floor. Defeat the guards and over by the throne. Push the shelf from the left until a door opens. Go inside.

This room is dark and has mice who attack you. Go to the left side of the room and use the Lantern to light a torch. You can temporarily see the whole room but once the torch burns out you will have to light another to see better again. The stairs leading down into the next room are in the upper right corner of the room. You are about to be attacked by a bunch of snakes from the left, so be ready. I would stay still and keep attacking with the sword until they die. Go downstairs after you have defeated enough of the snakes to get past them. This next room has snakes, bats, and mice. Go to the left corner to light a torch to see. Light some more torches on the right side of the room and open the chest to get a key. Use the key to go through the door at the north.

Now you're in a sewer. Light the torch to the right of you. There's lots of mice in here and they move fast so watch out. The door to the left is where you want to go. In the next room there is a torch in the upper left corner but if you can make your way past the mice and bats without being able to see as well, the door is along the north wall toward the center. The next room has a locked door, you have to defeat one of the mice to get the key. Yeah, not sure what exactly a mouse is doing with a key, but he has it and you need it so defeat him. Go through the locked door.

The next room is not dark! You can see again without torches! There's some more mice and bats to defeat. The walls with cracks can be opened by using Bombs. You can return here later to do that since you don't have any right now. Move the block in the upper row on the left to clear a path to the stairs. Go upstairs. Up here you find.... more mice! You don't have to defeat them if you do not want to though. Zelda tells you to pull the switch on the wall. She means the one on the right. If you pull the one on the left a bunch of snakes fall into the room. Go ahead and defeat the snakes anyway for fun if you want. Then pull the right switch to open the door and you'll be in the Sanctuary. Congratulations on clearing your first temple in this game.

Zelda will now stay here for a while. Listen to what the old man tells you. Open the chest by the old man to get a Heart Container! You now have four hearts instead of three. You'll now be able to start from either the Sanctuary or from your house if you save and quit to play another time. Exit the Sanctuary to be on the Overworld and it is no longer raining.

Now you get to explore the world and the real fun starts!

 

[Dagger Dias]

Alright now I am going to cover some optional stuff you can do before the next temple, The Eastern Palace. The first thing the game wants you to do is visit Kakariko Village and speak with the elder there. I'd rather get some items and heart pieces first, so how about we do that? Let's go! You should have 4 heart containers. If you do not, open the chest to the left of the old man in the sanctuary. Once you go outside you get to hear for the very first time the best track in this game, the Overworld theme! It plays as you explore the overworld and even after playing this game multiple times in the past 20+ years that track never gets old. I'm not going to tell you literally every single thing you can do but I'll get you to all of the important items, all the really relevant locations, heart pieces, and such.

Go to the left of the sanctuary. Use your sword to cut all the foliage and try to get as many rupees as you can, you will be buying some things in town. Go left again following the instructions of the sign which reads "This way <- Kakariko Village". You'll find a fortune teller on this screen. You can go inside and get your fortune told to get a hint of where to go if you'd like, but it costs money whereas reading this walkthrough is free. I'd go with the latter. The fortune teller's house has an extremely strange theme music, this same song is played in most shops in the game. The fortune teller restores your heart containers though, so there is that as an incentive to visit one at least once. Even then, fairy fountains offer this same service for free too. There is a Cucco on this screen and chances are this is your first time to see one in the game. Attack him many times for a long time to see the Cucco Swarm! More on that in the Cucco NPC spotlight. Anyway, go north into the forest first. The town can wait.

 

[Dagger Dias]

NPC Spotlight: Cuccos

These are creatures resembling chickens that are in several Zelda games. If you attack a Cucco constantly for a long time, a swarm of them will show up and get revenge on you. While this is funny, you need to be careful, the swarm can damage you.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Go north into the forest to enter the Lost Woods. It is a forest maze where you eventually will find the Master Sword. This time around we are just looking for an item and a heart piece. Watch out for thieves who bump into you and try to take some of your stuff that falls out. If you see one, swing your sword at him or try to run in a different direction. You'll see a stump with an entryway in it. The thief inside tells you one of their former members is out in the desert. You'll run into him later. Cut the foliage north of the stump with your sword to find a secret entrance, jump inside to find your very first Heart Piece!

Exit the room by jumping down from the platform. You can do this by facing downward and pressing down on the directional buttons. Now you're where the thief was inside the stump. Exit the room. North of the stump are two logs you can go inside. Go through the left one and then cut through the foliage to your left. You'll see a Mushroom north of you. Go take this Mushroom. Once you have the Mushroom, you are done here. There's more exploring that can be done but you cannot do much else here that matters. If you go through the log north of where the Mushroom was, left through the foliage afterwards, south through the log and then enter the log immediately to your left.... You find a meadow with The Master Sword in it. You cannot pull it out yet though, you need the three Pendants first. You also cannot read the text on the monument yet, you need the Book Of Mudora for that. A bunch of birds and squirrels come out of the trees in here for some reason.

Ok, you're done here. Let's go back the way we came and go to Kakariko Village.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Item Spotlight: Mushroom

Even though it takes up a spot in your item inventory window, this Mushroom is almost useless. The only purpose it serves is to be given to an NPC in order to unlock a different item later on. I always go ahead and get it as soon as possible.​