Remaking The Legend of Zelda

A week ago the original The Legend of Zelda has entered its 40th year of existence, and maybe Nintendo is about to give fans a whole new way of experiencing the classic to celebrate this special anniversary. So, let's take a deeper look of how this could look like.

Of course, a remake always has been a possibility, but one that got dismissed by this blog several times. And there have been good reasons... The NES classics are rather bare-bones and if you start infusing elements from later Zelda games, you will eventually end up with a re-imagining, instead of a remake. And then this may as well become a whole new game of its own.

That's exactly what has happened with Oracle of Seasons. When Capcom was working on Zelda projects for the Game Boy Color, they first had pitched a remake of the first game in the style of Link's Awakening. But before you knew it, you were able to ride on a Dodongo and the project evolved into something else.

Source: VGMaps.com

You can even see where the idea of changing the seasons may have come from, by looking at the game's world. There is this Akkala-like area of autumn trees to the southwest, while the graveyard to its north is surrounded by white trees and rocks, almost like it has been snowing there. And this sudden change of scenery could have been an inspiration for the game's core mechanic.

Anyway, this perspective has changed with the Link's Awakening remake, which is currently leading to whole bubble of potential follow-ups. There are even rumors that GREZZO has been busy with a third game already for a while now, a project called "Bernard", following "Richard" (the Link's Awakening remake) and "Edward" (Echoes of Wisdom). But we have no idea what "Bernard" actually is, where there are a number of possibilities, like a new coop Zelda game or even a dungeon maker.

But on top of the list is certainly a remake of the two Oracle games, which turned 25 years old just yesterday. However, Echoes of Wisdom came out only one and a half years ago and remaking two whole Zelda games since then is rather ambitious. Maybe a little too ambitious to make it in time for the 40th Anniversary. And that's why they could have considered something simpler: the original The Legend of Zelda.

Now, remaking the first Zelda in the new Link's Awakening style makes sense for a number of reasons. There is the aforementioned history of how Capcom was trying to achieve the same on the Game Boy Color, where this could be finally be realized. It could even serve as an interim step for remakes of Oracle of Ages & Season, since they could re-use new enemies (like the Bubble) and all of the bosses, where Aquamentus, Gleeok and co. were featured in the Oracle games as well.

It also makes sense in the context of Link's Awakening alone. While the Game Boy classic was originally meant to bring A Link to the Past to the handheld, it also looked back at the NES original to make it happen. You have the same screen-transitioning system, and as a result dungeons were constructed in a pattern of square rooms, which ultimately led to the Color Dungeon in the DX version as a homage and the whole Chamber Dungeon feature in the remake. Certain enemies, like the Pols Voice, Vire or even Gohma, also returned for the first time since the original.

And by re-using the assets of the Link's Awakening remake, as well as Echoes of Wisdom, they could actually cover quite a lot already. Most of the normal enemies would already have models. Items like Bombs, Boomerang and Bow have already been implemented before. And they could even re-use the meat echo for the bait item... The more you think about it, the more it feels like the game is halfway remade already.

Keep in mind, though, that such a remake would mainly be about modernizing the visuals and the combat in the current top-down Zelda style. But this alone would already make it much more accessible and fun. Some enemies, like Darknuts or the Wizzrobes, could become less aggravating, while others may even become more challenging, first and foremost the Lynels.

The world and the dungeons should stay the same, however, as it was intended. The overworld would become seamless, just like with Link's Awakening, and they may add some visual clues as to what trees you can burn and what rock walls can be blown up, because nobody got time for that nonsense today. But there is no reason to fill it with stuff that wasn't there before, unless they want to go down the same route as Oracle of Seasons.

You would also now be able to assign items to both the X and Y buttons, while the letter and potions may even work fully automatically, so you don't have to put them on a button at all. And for the remaining seven items the game could make use of the Breath of the Wild quick select, without it being a pain, since there are only so few.

One of those items could even get a dedicated button, where the best candidate is probably the Candle. You needed it all the time in dungeons to light up the dark rooms and this could get annoying very quickly, because it forced you to swap items every so often. Also, the screen-based usage of the Blue Candle won't make any sense when there are no transitioning screens any longer, so it may simply have a cooldown, which gets shortened by the Red Candle. And it should create a sphere of light around you inside dark rooms when you haven't used its fire yet, so you can still see a little bit.

The Bow could also be overhauled to use actual arrows as ammunition. And the shops that offered you an arrow now simply sell bundles of them for a refill. However, to still offer the classic functionality, the Magic Book now also upgrades the Bow (in addition to the Magical Rod), so that it still uses up Rupees when you're out of arrows. Kind of like how the Magic Armor in various Zelda games lets you deplete your Rupees instead of your health.

On the overworld the Clock power-up would probably freeze all enemies in sight or within a certain radius, like it does in Hyrule Warriors on the Master Quest map. And with the Bait it would be nice if you could carry more than just one at a time, so you're not just keeping it to bribe certain Goriyas.

Finally, the Compass would be another good candidate for a revision, because all it did in the original was showing you the location of the Triforce in a dungeon. It should still do that, of course, but it could also give you a signal in dungeon rooms that have a key, just like in Link's Awakening. Or it may even give a general signal whenever there is a secret related to defeating all enemies in a room.

And that's pretty much it. No fuzz, no nonsense, just the original game modernized. However, to make this a bit more interesting and to offer something new for most fans, this should also come with the maps and dungeons of the first BS-X Zelda game, released in the 90s for the Satellaview peripheral for the Super Nintendo. It was essentially a 16-Bit remake of the original, but it got broadcasted like a TV show with time-based events, where in each episode you were playing two dungeons.

Because of their unusual nature, these games have never been re-released by Nintendo in any way or form, but they still could remake the two maps and their unique dungeons without any of the event stuff. Fans have done it before, so it's entirely possible. In the remake it could look like this:

When you start the game you get a choice between four different quests. The "Classic Quest" is the game as you know it. The "Second Quest" lets you play the devious altered version of the original, without naming yourself "Zelda" or beating the normal game first. And the "Lost Quest", which comes in two variants, would bring you to the maps from the BS-X Zelda.

This could even be seen as difficulty modes. The Classic Quest would be the normal difficult, the 2nd Quest hard, while the Lost Quests would be a lot easier, because their overworlds are only half the size and the dungeons were meant to be cleared within a short time. 

Of course, GREZZO could also add the usual Hero Mode option for those who are looking for a bigger challenge. But this probably should be implemented in the same way as in Echoes of Wisdom, meaning that you can just turn it on and off at any time.

Also like in Echoes of Wisdom, outfits could give Link a different appearance, to add some variety and novelty without altering the gameplay. This is where amiibo could come into the equation. For example, the 8-Bit Link could give you something like the Timeless Tunic from Tri Force Heroes, so that Link appears in a retro voxel style (and the music changes to the classic chiptunes from the NES). Or there could be a variant based on A Link Between Worlds, so he looks more like the classic Link, in case you don't like the toy style.

They should call this remake "The Legend of Zelda: The Hyrule Fantasy" to distinguish from the original – at least in the west, since this has been the subtitle of the Famicom Disk game in Japan. It should be available on the Nintendo Switch, but with a free upgrade for the Switch 2. And maybe this could even be something that they will simply shadow-drop at the end of a Nintendo Direct, where they will offer a physical release later on, similar to Metroid Prime Remastered. You know, as a surprise for the 40th Anniversary...

Replaying Ancient Stone Tablets, Dubbed

Well, this was certainly an interesting experience. I've played through Ancient Stone Tablets several times now, but never before with the full program. Thanks to the efforts of the BS Zelda Homepage you can now listen to an English version of the broadcast while playing the game, which includes orchestrated music from the Sound & Drama album next to the voice acting.

Unlike with the first BS Zelda game you get a larger cast of voice actors including Kira Buckland as the lovely voice of Princess Zelda, who has a lot more to say this time. (Kira is actually a professional voice actress, who already lend Zelda her voice in other fan projects, such as Zeldamotion or Four Swords Misadventures!) Even the Old Man in the form of Aginah (Sahasrahla's brother) isn't as bad as previously, but he creates a comedy duo with the really awkward sounding Fortune Teller. And this can be quite fun, even if some of the funnier parts may not be intentional.

"Master Aginah..."
"What is iiit...?!"
"I see something happening somewhere..."
"Is that sooo...?"

This dialogue gets repeated so often that you could turn it into a drinking game. The Fortune Teller always talks in a very strange voice that you just want to mock and Aginah seems constantly annoyed by everything and everyone. It gets even sillier, when Zelda takes over Aginah's role in the 3rd week and then suddenly adopts his "Is that sooo?" catchphrase. It's essentially the "Excuuuuse me, princess" of the BS Zelda games and thanks to Aginah's gambling addiction it's not even the only running gag in this. Also, just like in Hyrule Warriors you have useless soldiers calling for help. Better let a kid with a sword do the job!

Anyway, with the audio they do give you a five second countdown before the Bombos and Ether power-ups, they explain other power-ups like infinite Bombs/Arrows and they will tell you, when the Gold Potion becomes available and when the weekly minigame is open for business. The rescue missions are also part of the broadcast, so you can hear Zelda scream, when she's in danger...

They won't tell you about the Mole, however, so that's probably just something you're ought to discover at random. His position will be at a random location, but I would have expected to at least learn about his existence and at what time he's going to appear. This is the one thing that you still have to look up to get it right, otherwise you now can play the game blind without missing anything important.

The Mole on the 4th week is the worst, however, because he doesn't appear until the 34 minute mark. There is no warp point at the summit of Death Mountain (where the Mole opens a cave with 1400 Rupees inside), so you can't just go back later. You have to find the Mole and then start the Level 8 dungeon, which cuts things extremely close.

In fact it was so close for me that I experienced a very weird scenario. I beat Ganon, but right after he was defeated, the time ran out and the bad ending of the game played, where Ganon laughs maniacally about having conquered Hyrule. But he was killed! I saw it! Game, what are you doing...? Well, at least I could take a look at the funny Game Over screen:

Luckily I had a quicksave right before Ganon's Tower, so I could just try again and beat the giant pig a little bit faster, which then counted. It's my own fault, however, because I'm really obsessed with getting everything in this game, opening all the chests in all the rooms, even if it's just for a silly highscore. I didn't manage to beat my score from the last time, but it was close:

As you can see, I played as the girl and if you think about it, this game was ahead of its time in so many different ways, not just the orchestrated music and the fact that you were downloading content onto a video game console in 1997. Exactly 20 years before the release of Breath of the Wild you already got voice acting of important (and less important) characters and the choice to play as a female hero.

I can only advise everyone, who's reading this, to try out the BS Zelda games for themselves. With Nintendo's current habits of "intellectual property enforcement" they may not be available in their current fan-restored form forever.

Now the Master Sword really sleeps forever... until A Link Between Words!

Replaying BS The Legend of Zelda, Dubbed

Originally I didn't have the BS Zelda games on the list of my 30th Anniversary replay session, but things changed with the BS Zelda Homepage finally releasing the pinnacle of 17 years of amazing restoration work: fully dubbed versions for BS The Legend of Zelda MAP1 & MAP2 and earlier this month also for Ancient Stone Tablets.

In case you don't know, what I'm talking about, let me give a short summary. In the late 90s the "Broadcast Satellaview" add-on for the Super Nintendo existed (yep, "BS" doesn't stand for what you might think at first), which let you receive satellite data. And with this came actual video game broadcasts, where for a fixed time you could play different Zelda episodes from three games in total:

• BS The Legend of Zelda (MAP1)
• BS The Legend of Zelda (MAP2)
• Ancient Stone Tablets

They were divided into four episodes each, with each episode featuring two dungeons. If you want to know more, just check out the links above. The important thing is that these are in fact official Zelda games made by Nintendo with the usual level of gameplay quality. The way of presenting and distributing the games just was very unusual and they would be completely inaccessible today, if it wasn't for the team of the BS Zelda Homepage.

Well, I played their restoration project several times now, last time back in 2011 for the 25th Anniversary, but this time they outdid themselves by also adding fully translated English voice acting based on the original broadcasts. Now you finally are able to experience the games exactly like they were supposed to be played in full glory. If you play 16-Bit Zelda with the Legend of Zelda song from the Akihabara Electric Circus playing in the background and some Old Man talking to you, this will you magically teleport you back into the 90s.

However, this can also be as annoying as the annoying Bubbles that constantly get mentioned by both the Narrator and the Old Man to tell you, how annoying they are. "Those Bubble, they are the most annoying thing..." - I get it, Old Man! With important information the game even pauses and makes you listen to the sloooow and obnoxious talk from some person, who is obviously not old enough to dub an Old Man. I guess, he has to talk so slow to stay in sync with the original broadcast, but it's a little nerving. The Narrator dubbed by RetroDan, however, does a great job, his voice is pure gold, I could listen to him all day. Zelda also seems to have gotten a lovely voice, but sadly you can only hear her talk one sentence in the beginning of the game...

Good thing about with the narration and the calls from the Old Man is that you get a much better sense at what's happening in the game world. When I first played the BS Zelda games I heavily relied on the available guides, so I wouldn't miss anything, like the Heart Container washed ashore at a certain time on the first episode. But this time I could go in "blind" and still find everything. Of course later versions already added text boxes for the announcements, but here you get all the info. The whole game feels more "tutorialized" with the broadcast in the background, where everything gets explained quite well, even the hidden locations of some items in the dungeons, so you're not missing anything important in the limited time frames.

The biggest advantage, however, is gained with the announced Power-ups that happen at certain times. One of them destroys all enemies on the screen and this felt rather random before. But here the Old Man gives you a warning upfront, so you can potentially use it on some Darknuts or whatever.

Of course the timing of these Power-ups can also be rather comical. For example, when I reached the end of Level 8 on the first Map, I had to defeat a set of Triple Dodongos with only six Bombs left, so there was no room for mistakes. I somehow made it, but my victory became meaningless about ten seconds later, when I suddenly got the Infinite Bombs Power-up among others. Or the Old Man might send you fairies, when you're at full health, etc.

One Power-up I liked was the "people sensor", which basically worked like the Compass from Link's Awakening on the overworld - it plays a tone, whenever there is a hidden cave nearby, so you can potentially find all the caves behind walls and under trees just by listening. Together with the infinite bombs and Red Candle you can easily uncover everything within the time limit.

I also discovered that you can actually bypass the "desert storm" west of the Lost Woods to get the White Sword early in the 2nd chapter. You have to dodge the whirlwinds and it might take you a couple of tries, but after hours of practice from the Endless Cucco Rush, this comes off rather natural...

However, it's not so easy on MAP2, because there you have little to no room to dodge, and ultimately it comes down to luck, where in this case you're literally wasting your time and should just wait until the end of the chapter, where the Old Man makes the desert storm disappear.

Apropos wasting time, if you're worried about the time limit in this, don't be. Overall there's more than enough time to beat two dungeons and collect everything within the 50 minutes that you have per episode. Usually I even go grind Rupees to kill the time at the end of an episode. Only with the 4th chapter of MAP1 I was having some trouble, because Level 7 turned out rather large and disorienting compared to the rest. Often with these dungeons you also won't find the Map early on, which can get frustrating, if you have no clue, where the hidden rooms could be and you're short of bombs (and time). And some stuff is easy to miss, where you then might lose a lot of time later on to track it down. But otherwise it's quite enjoyable to play and also much easier than the NES counterpart.

I've played through both Map 1 and 2, where the voice acting and narration didn't seem to be much different between the episodes. It's the same events and the same hints, it's just that the layout of the overworld is different, which doesn't have any impact on the narration (e.g. the Lost Woods are still in the East). Considering that you actually have to download 4,4GB of pcm video files in order to play this, things could have been made more compact, maybe...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to play Ancient Stone Tablets in its dubbed state next, because this game was a lot more fun and had quite some interaction with Zelda.

Hyrule Warriors: Ideas for new Adventure Maps

So, they announced that there's going to be three more Adventure Maps with the upcoming DLC packs. They are most likely going to be used to provide missions, where you can get Heart Containers and Heart Pieces for the new character, as well as upgrades for the new weapons.

So, with that we need smaller maps. Of course they could just design their own environments like they already did in the small Rewards Map. I could imagine their own 8-Bit version of Termina in the Majora's Mask pack for example.

But another nice possibility, which also works with the current item card system, would be the dungeons from The Legend of Zelda:

This is actually the perfect size. For Cia, Volga, Wizzro and Epona we would need space for 24 Heart Containers, 24 Heart Pieces and eight weapon upgrades. Some of it might go into the new scenario, but overall this easily fits all of it, without being too large. The first dungeon has 17 squares in total.

The item cards would work differently here:

• Compass: reveal secrets (as before)
• Bombs: proceeding to the next area
• Candle: light up rooms to reveal enemies
• Power Bracelet: moving blocks to unlock rewards
• Ladder: moving to the next area
• Flute: making enemies vulnerable, so you can fight them
• Ice Arrows: destroy flames
• Hookshot: move over certain walls

The other item cards will probably not be used here, but it's actually a nice system, where items are utilized in a different way. For example you rarely ever need the Ladder, Flute or Hookshot on the overworld. In dungeons they could be a lot more useful.

The game offers 18 different dungeons, so they would have more than enough maps for all future DLC of Hyrule Warriors.

Update: Every character gets five new Heart Containers and at least one costume per Adventure Map, so we need about the same size as the original map. They could, however, use the combined grid:

But in a sequel they probably might go for another game and provide different items and visuals. Of course it would be cool, if they used Zelda II or A Link to the Past, but it makes more sense to use a game with an actual grid. Because how else would distribute the missions? With that in mind, not many games come into question:

• BS The Legend of Zelda
• Link's Awakening
• Oracle of Ages
• Oracle of Seasons
• The Wind Waker

Those are the games, which use a grid for their overworld. And there's certainly some potential here.

The BS Zelda games would be more of a weird choice and they provide only half the size:

Probably not going for that.

Link's Awakening's Cocolinth on the other hand has twice the size of the current Adventure Map. But this might be a good candidate, if we get twice as many characters at some point...

In addition Link's Awakening offers a good item system (Roc's Feather, Pegasus Boots, Mirror Shield, ...), as well as nine very nice dungeons that could be used for expansions. So, Hyrule Warriors 2 might opt for Cocolinth! However, Cocolinth is not as iconic as Hyrule of course, it only was the land for one game. And with this it's not really fitting the magnitude of Hyrule Warriors and I'm saying this as a big fan of Link's Awakening.

I doubt that we will see anything from the Capcom Zelda games in Hyrule Warriors ever, because Capcom. Not after they sued Koei. And of course Holodrum and Labrynna are even less popular/know than Cocolinth. As much as I'm a fan of the Oracle games (study my blog, if you have any doubts), I already made my peace with those games never being a part of Hyrule Warriors. The same goes for The Minish Cap.


But what could be really nice is the ocean from the Wind Waker. Imagine small toon versions of all the characters going around on the Red King of Lions!

Of course this not even offers half the size of the current map, but they could easily expand the ocean with many new squares. But using the map from the Wind Waker probably would be the most charming way of creating an Adventure Map in Hyrule Warriors 2. This way you could also give the Wind Waker some love, since the art style otherwise would prevent bigger cameos in Hyrule Warriors.

Replaying BS Zelda Map1 & Map2

After replaying The Legend of Zelda I thought it was only natural to also try the BS-X remake for another time. After all I also replayed Ancient Stone Tablets right after A Link to the Past, so here we go. Actually I hoped that there were some new developments after I've played the game the last time for my "BS Zelda Tour" in 2009. But this wasn't the case, the game was mostly the same as two years ago. I guess the guys from the BS Zelda Homepage already did their best to make their restored version of the game as original as possible. And we can't thank them enough for making it possible for all Zelda fans out there to experience these lost tales of the Zelda saga.

This time I swapped genders, I used the girl for playing Map 1 and the boy for playing Map 2. It's nothing special, I just did for the sake of having some variety.

Well, after playing Zelda I just yesterday the collision detection of the BS-X remake felt a little "off". You get hit easily if you're too close to an enemy, but the stabbing of the sword doesn't have a wide range, so you have to get close... I got quite some problems to adept and even died two times in the first dungeon. I never died while replaying Zelda I. And while got used to fighting Darknuts there, they gave me a lot of trouble again in the BS Zelda version.

What I loved on the other hand was switching items by using the L and R buttons. Really cool feature, it's much better than having to go into the menu each time you want to change your item.

But what sucks are the waiting times. Well, you have 50 minutes per episode and each episode covers two dungeons. But believe, the 50 minutes are more than enough for veteran players, you should never get into time trouble, actually you have plenty of time left that you will spend with waiting for the next event or episode. Sometimes I would just grab something to eat or surf in Zelda Universe Forums, while the game ran in the background. Or I used the time to harvest some Rupees. At the end of the first episode, there's a power up, where every killed enemy would leave a fairy or if you got full health a blue Rupee. That felt like Rupee Fever from Four Swords and was ideal to stock up as much money as possible, because in the second episode you would have to buy the Blue Candle and the Blue Bracelet, the latter one being rather expensive. The enemies respawn every time you reenter the screen and while this can be very annoying in dungeons, it's very cool during "Rupee Fever". There is also a power up that gives you infinite bombs and I would spent the time playing Bomberman with Oktoroks.



What also sucks are the announcements from the old man. They would pop up, fill the whole screen and they won't go away for at least 30 seconds. It interrupts the game and the BS Zelda team should have made them skipable by pressing a goddamn button.

Having four different maps for the same game basically gets a little confusing after a while... especially when you play the games one after another. You would think at a certain place you can bomb a wall to reveal a hidden cave, but as it turns out that was only in the 1st Quest of TLoZ, or only in the 2nd Quest or only in the BS Zelda game, but definitely not in the game which you're currently playing...

Well, I told you all you need to know about the BS Zelda games in my BS Zelda Tour. So, I suggest to check out the articles from 2009, they're really cool. But replaying this game wasn't all too satisfying, I just did it for the sake of completion mostly.

Replaying A Link to the Past and Ancient Stone Tablets

It's replay time. After replaying Spirit Tracks I thought I should go through some other Zelda games again as well, mainly as a preparation for Skyward Sword and to refresh some memories. My first choice was A Link to the Past, I never really touched my copy of the Virtual Console version and I thought this would be a nice reason to beat this game again. Also, A Link to the Past is turning 20 years old this year and this is my way of celebrating. Unlike Ocarina of Time and Link's Awakening I haven't played this game all too often, so it also refreshed some memories here and there.

But the game is really inviding you to replay it. The start in the Light World is awesome, exploring the areas and getting additional items like bottles, the Magic Shield or the Ice Rod is fun. And the second half of the game is pure and intense dungeon crawling. You can play the dungeons in many orders, which adds to the replay value. For example this time I played Thieves' Town right after finishing the Dark Palace to get the Tempered Sword early. And the classic SNES version still let's you use the Cane of Somaria in the Ice Palace to avoid the massive backtracking before the boss, in the GameBoy Advance version you can't do that anymore. But concerning everything else I actually prefer the GBA version. Primarily because it doesn't count saving as Game Overs and the item menu was handled much nicer with the bottles. And I really miss the additional ninth warp point on top of the hill with the portal that leads to the Turtle Rock dungeon. If you decide to take a break or get some potions, you have to get all the way up on the mountain again...

Well, there isn't much to say about replaying A Link to the Past, except that it's fun. However, after beating the game today I thought I should also play the BS-X add-on Ancient Stone Tablets for a third time. I mean it suits, since it's practically a 2nd Quest for A Link to the Past. And replaying the BS Zeldas after a while is nice, because the BS Zelda team always works on patches and upgrades. So, it adds something to the experience. Since my last playthrough for the BS Zelda tour in 2009 they've added intro and outro sequences for each chapter as well as "sublines" which display the spoken Japanese from the original broadcast in English. That way the game informs you about all important timed events except for the hidden mole and thanks to that the game is actually playable without a guide giving you information about what happens when. There's also some official artwork shown at the end of each chapter and they added a result screen - in the following picture you can see how I performed:



I don't know if this is actually a good score, but I got all hidden treasures in the game as well as more than 12.000 rupees (try to cumulate that much in any other Zelda game :D). But I got hit by enemies 147 times (I'm always so careless...), which got quite some minus points. I never died, however, but that's really hard to do, because the bosses die very fast unlike the original versions in A Link to the Past. If you play both games one after another you really notice the immense differences in the difficulty level between both games. The dungeons in Ancient Stone Tablets are a rush and the bosses get blasted away like nothing. I never used a potion in the entire game. However, the real difficulty is the immense time pressure, completing two dungeons and clearing all sidequests in 50 minutes requires perfect timing. (Luckily in the ROM based version you can easily repeat a chapter if you've missed something, which I had to do for chapter 3.)

I'm not sure which Zelda game I should replay next. But I'm thinking about playing the Wii version of Twilight Princess a second time, it fits the idea of preparing for Skyward Sword the best. However, playing this version of the game always is very confusing for me, because I'm used to the GameCube version. The mirroring gives me a headache, so I'm not sure yet. But in case I play Twilight Princess it would be just fitting to replay Link's Crossbow Training right after that, the games actually have a similar relationship like A Link to the Past and Ancient Stone Tablets...

More BS Zelda Curiosity

Clan of the Gray Wolf (some sort of AVGN team) released a nice review video of all the BS Zelda games:

They explained the whole BS-X and St. Giga mechanics a lot better than I ever could in my BS Zelda Tour, so you should definitely take a look at this video, if you're interested in the BS Zelda games. Interestingly they also think those games would be a nice way to celebrate the 25th anniversary, I can only approve. And again this should prove that there's quite some interest in these rare Zelda games, Nintendo would get a lot of Zelda fans excited by re-releasing this content.

Thanks to Zelda Dungeon for the news.

25th Anniversary of Zelda: Speculations

Last year Nintendo celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. with red colored special editions of the Wii and the Nintendo DSi XL, as well as the Super Mario Allstars box for the Wii, though the latter one was rather disappointing with a mere Virtual Console game being released on a disc and some boring bonus material.

Still, you might wonder, if Nintendo plans to do something for Zelda as well. The original release date for the Famicon Disk System was at February 21st 1986. That date is close and nothing official has been announced yet. Of course all the celebration won't happen on the exact date and NES release date was more than a year later. Well, but we'll have quite some Zelda releases this year, including Ocarina of Time 3D, Link's Awakening DX for the Virtual Handheld and of course Skyward Sword. Any of this could be labeled under the 25th Anniversary banner, well maybe not Skyward Sword itself, since it would look like they made this game for the anniversary, which definitely isn't the case. But for example there could be a golden Wiimote bundled with the game in a 25th Anniversary package. Or aspecial 3DS bundle, a golden 3DS coming with Ocarina 3D and a preinstalled Link's Awakening DX, I would probably buy this. And this is probably one of the most likely things, if we get anything for the anniversary.

Well, I recall, that there was also some showcasing of a "3D" version of the original The Legend of Zelda game at one point. Just imagine that the dungeons have some depths to them and that the sprites are on different depth layers, something simple like that. This probably would be the perfect choice for the anniversary of this game. The game should stay the same of course, but the graphics would be sharper and in 3D. Additionally they could also add the levels from the first BS Zelda game as additional quests. So far Nintendo hasn't shown any interest in remaking any of the BS-X games. So far. One interesting news from the E3 2010, which I haven't covered here yet, was that Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow for the Nintendo DS will include remakes of the levels from BS Fire Emblen: Record of Akeneia Wars as a bonus. That's pretty amazing and the first time that Nintendo touches any of the BS-X content. And maybe it's not coincidence, maybe Nintendo heard all the curious fans, who want a remake of the BS Zelda games or BS games in general.



Whatever they'll do, Nintendo should know, that there's still quite some demand for and interest in the BS Zelda games. There's always a huge curiosity when it comes to Zelda, which is why some fans even play the CD-i games. The BS games were a hit on the BS-X system and if they were remade somewhen somehow every Zelda fan would definitely be interested.

BS Zelda Tour: Ancient Stone Tablets

Ancient Stone Tablets (Kodai no Sekiban) is by far my favorite of the three BS Zelda installments. It's charming, has some replay value, fun dungeons and is pretty much the perfect Zelda game for playing in between. It's basically like a mod or a 2nd Quest / Master Quest for A Link to the Past, but the game is much shorter and easier than the original. With the exception of the game's end it takes entirely place on A Link to the Past's Light World, but there are eight new dungeons and several other modifications.



Like the previous BS Zelda game(s) this one comes in four episodes. Each episode places you in another part of Hyrule and you only have one hour time to finish all the objectives, which includes two new dungeons per episode. But the most important difference between A Link to the Past is that you're not playing as Link, but as yourself. You're referred to as the "Hero of Light", who enters the realm of Hyrule in each episode and then magically disappears again. Link himself is on a journey (probably a reference to Link's Awakening) and you have to save Hyrule in his place. You're collecting eight mysterious Ancient Stone Tablets (hence the title), that have the power to open a portal into the Dark World.



Every episode has a set of special events and sidequests. In each episode you will find a stronger sword, a new bottle, eight Pieces of Heart, a minigame, a Rental Shop and a Mole. The Rental Shops let you rent a stronger sword (unless you already have the Master Sword) and a shovel for 100 Rupees. With the shovel you can dig up a Piece of Heart, whose position is marked on your map. The Mole appears at a specific time in a specific place and when you talk to him, he will open a mole cave somewhere else. Those caves have tons of rupees, so you shouldn't miss this. Also, every dungeon has an "Upgrade Thief". Somewhere inside the dungeons one of those thief characters from A Link to the Past is hidden and he offers you the ability to carry more bombs or arrows. In each episode this offer will cost twice as much as before, it starts with 50 and ends with 400 Rupees in the last episode. But by then this amount of Rupees can be considered as peanuts. Furthermore the potion shop will offer a Golden Potion once per episode. This one works like a Blue Potion, but it also makes you charge your Spin Attack faster. And it's quite cheap, much cheaper than all the other potions, but you can only buy one per episode.

The dungeons are the most fun in this game. They are small and short, but they have lots of hidden rooms with treasure chests full of rupees. Opening those treasure chests was part of a highscore system and your goal should be to find as many of them as possible. Normally you have to blow up a wall to get into the hidden rooms, but there aren't any visible cracks. However, all hidden rooms are visible on the dungeon map, so it's not as hard to find everything as you may think at first. But regulary about 50% of a dungeon is optional, which makes the dungeons quite special. Additionally the dungeons usually contain more than one new item. The bosses at the end of the dungeons are very easy, they have much lower health compared to their A Link to the Past counterparts, but you don't have much time for battling bosses anyway.



Overall you're collecting tons of rupees in this game, since the treasure chests were part of a highscore system. I got more than 10,000 in my playthrough today, the only game, that has more rupees, is Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. But you don't need all those rupees, only for the "Upgrades Thieves" and renting a shovel. Maybe also for the minigames, but those are optional and a waste of time.

Next to live voice acting Ancient Stone Tablets offered live music. CD-quality music from the "Sound & Drama" album was played during the game. This is why the original ROMs of the game don't have any music. When I first tried the BS Zeldas about two years ago, the game felt very empty because of this, but by now the BS Zelda Homepage team has included the music tracks from A Link to the Past to make the game more enjoyable and atmospheric.

The restored version comes in four ROMs, one for each episode. This has the advantage, that you can easily replay an episode in case you have missed an item. Since you carry over your SRAM, you only have to go for the missing stuff then. This might be necessary, because unlike in the first BS Zelda you're really short in time here. If you want to complete the dungeons 100% and collect all Pieces of Heart, you really have to hurry or else you won't make it. It's possible, but there's no room for mistakes. For example in episodes 3 and 4 I faced the second boss in the very last minute.



Let's take a closer look at the individual episodes.

Episode 1

• Broadcasted on March 30th, 1997
• New Items: Big Bag (Ocarina, Lantern, Bug-Catching Net, Bottle), L-1 Sword, Bombs, Small Shield, Bow, Pegasus Boots, Zora's Flippers, Magic Boomerang
• Level 1: Armos Knights, Level 2: Moldorm

You wake up in Sahasrahla's little temple in the Eastern Palace area. He gives you the Big Bag, which contains an Ocarina, the Lantern, the Bug-Catching Net and a Bottle with a Bee in it. He will give you the Big Bag at the start of every episode and it contains from now on all the items you have collected. You can use the Bee to fight enemies until you get the sword, which is a cool idea. And the Ocarina is very important, it's a time saver and in dungeons it works like the Magic Mirror in A Link to the Past. The first dungeon is where the original East Palace was, but it's quite different. Most of the rooms here have a square shape, which makes the dungeon look quite "classic". And it's the perfect example for how rich of items the dungeons are. In Level 1 you will get the L-1 Sword, the Small Shield, the Bow and the Pegasus Boots. The second dungeon, which is located behind the Waterfall of Wishing, on the other hand only has the Magic Boomerang, but it's the only dungeon with just one item. Before the second dungeon you have to get the Zora's Flippers, but Zora's Domain is a lot smaller than in A Link to the Past. And there's a special sequence, where Zelda gets attacked by monsters in the south of the East Palace. You can rescue her, bring her back to Hyrule Castle and get 300 Rupees for your efforts. The road to Lake Hylia and Link's house and the archer bridge are blocked by rocks, so you can't leave the eastern part of Hyrule. Another interesting event is the storm, during a storm Zoras wander all over the world homing at you and you can't use bombs to open caves. Before and after a storm the world is clouded in fog, which is similar to the Lost Woods at the beginning of A Link to the Past.

Episode 2

• Broadcasted on April 6th, 1997
• New Items: Bottle, Magic Hammer, Blue Mail, Magic Powder, Tempered Sword, Large Shield, Hookshot
• Level 3: Helmasaur King, Level 4: Arrghus

This time you wake up in Kakariko Village and you can't leave the village and its perimeters yet, except for the small forest in the east of the village leading to Hyrule Castle (and the area from the first episode). In this forest there's a hidden entrance to the fourth dungeon, which looks like a small Dark Palace, where you can get the Blue Armor and the Magic Hammer and where you fight Helmasaur King. After that you can enter the Lost Woods with the help of the Hammer, where you will find the missing blacksmith dwarf. If you bring him back to smithery you will get the Tempered Sword as a reward. The fourth dungeon is in the northeast corner of the Lost Woods, where you normally would play the money making game. There you will get the Large Shield and the Hookshot and fight Arrghus.


Episode 3

• Broadcasted on April 13th, 1997
• New Items: Worn-Out Glove, Power Glove, L-3 Sword, Bottle, Red Mail, Fire Rod
• Level 5: Lanmolas, Level 6: Mothula

In the third episode you will wake up in Link's house. New areas include Lake Hylia, the Swamp and the Desert. Lake Hylia is smaller and doesn't have the Ice Rod cavern. At the beginning of the episode you will receive the "Worn-Out Glove", it works like the Power Glove, but you can only use it once per screen. You can rescue the Priest from drowning and bring him back to Hyrule Castle, where the King and Zelda reside. The fifth dungeon is inside the original floodgate shrine, it features the L-3 Sword, the Power Glove and surprisingly Lanmolas as the boss. It's surprising, because the dungeon is actually a water dungeon, but at the end you will enter a desert dungeon area similar to the Desert Palace. The actual Desert Palace is then the sixth dungeon, but it has more or less the opposite structure of the original version. The initial part is very small and the second part, which has three cave entrances, is the large one. The Red Mail and the Fire Rod can be found there and Mothula awaits you as the boss.

Episode 4

• Broadcasted on April 20th, 1997
• New Items: Bottle, Titan's Mitt, Cane of Somaria, Master Sword, Mirror Shield, Ice Rod, Silver Arrows
• Level 7: Kholdstare, Level 8: Trinexx

The last episode is very special, because Zelda follows you all the time. She isn't of any use and you don't have to protect her from the monsters, but it's still a nice situation. She even follows you through both dungeons and watches you battling Kholdstare and Trinexx. Additionally you can go to the Lost Woods and the Master Sword will accept you as your Master. (So, it didn't sleep forever, huh? :D) It's still gilded, the way you left it at the end of A Link to the Past. Epic scene. Well, the episode starts in the Sanctuary and at first you will visit the graveyard together with Zelda. The dungeon is inside the grave, where you originally found the Magic Cape. Talking about the Magic Cape, it's in the code of the game and there's even a spot in the menu reserved for it, but you can't find this item anywhere. You have to use Action Replay Codes to get it. The same with the Book of Mudora, but the book is even mentioned in the game and used by Zelda to decipher the eight stone tablets. I guess, it was planned to include both, but those items got cut out because of time reasons. Well, the seventh dungeon is an ice dungeon and you can find the Titan's Mitt and the Cane of Somaria there. With the Titan's Mitt you can finally enter the final area of the game, Death Mountain. Like Lake Hylia this area is smaller, only the west part of the mountain is accessable. The Mountain Cave, which leads up to Death Mountain, is now more difficult and the final dungeon of the game. This is quite annoying, because there's no warp point on top of the mountain. So, in case you want to go back, because you missed an item or because you want to call the Mole, you have to run through the entire dungeon again. Of course most of the obstacles are gone and you don't have to beat Trinexx a second time, but still it's a waste of valueable time. Also, Level 8 is the only dungeon, where the bombable walls are cracked and easy to spot. On top of Death Mountain Zelda will use the Ancient Stone Tablets to open a portal into the Dark World. (It's still there? Shouldn't it be the peaceful Sacred Realm again? Well, never mind...) There Ganon awaits you in his castle. You only have to go up some stairs, no huge dungeon this time. But the fight is the same with the exception, that he doesn't cause the floor to crumble. If you have beaten Ganon in time, you will place the Master Sword back on its pedestal and magically return to your world. Otherwise it shows you the bad ending, where you lie in front of the witch's hut.



A Virtual Console port is definitely possible. It would miss the live voice acting and music, but you can easily use the music from A Link to the Past and text boxes. The timed events aren't as strict as in the first BS Zelda game (like a Heart Container only availabe for eight minutes), it's more or less just made so that not everything is available from the start. But you could time everything with the help of the tablets. As soon as you have collected two tablets the next episode will start. The Mole will then appear in the old area and you should go back to find him. The special persons, who are following you, like Zelda or the dwarf should appear after the first dungeon and so on. Like in the first BS Zelda there are also power ups appearing in a certain time including unlimited bombs and arrows, the sword beam ability and the powers of the three Medallions. The latter could be included like in Four Swords Adventures as pick up items, that are randomly dropped by enemies. But overall you wouldn't need a clock to play the game. For the Highscore system, they should add something like a percentage meter in the Metroid games, which tells you, how many percent of all the secrets you have found.

As a conclusion, Ancient Stone Tablets is really nice. It's perfect if you're in the mood for some A Link to the Past, but don't have the time to play through the actual game. It's a short and nice dose of Zelda for in between. Of course the game is very easy and doesn't provide any challenge for A Link to the Past veterans, but still every fan of A Link to the Past should check it out.

Screenshots:

This was the last part of my BS Zelda special. The BS Zelda games are really the "Lost Zeldas" and they were definitely the best games on the BS-X system. Nintendo should really look into this, those games on the Virtual Console would be quite popular. Until then every Zelda fan should go check out the BS Zelda Homepage.