Comments on: Anatomy of a Game: Zelda IV

By: LBD "Nytetrayn"

LBD "Nytetrayn" — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 06:14:52 +0000

Ah, Gleeok and Manhandla… two of my favorites. Darknuts, too– I love fighting those guys.

I also dig the White Sword, for some reason… I kind of miss having the “intermediate” swords instead of just your starting sword and the many forms of the Master Sword, though Twilight Princess did deliver on that…

I thought it was cool that they crafted an origin for the White Sword to make it seem more significant and powerful in The Minish Cap, but unfortunately, Zelda Wikis make it sound like that isn’t quite the case…

Then again, Zelda timeline, lol, etc.

By: ruler26

ruler26 — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:58:42 +0000

Does anyone else think that, in retrospect, the fact that the raft can’t do what the ladder can seem silly? I always thought that the raft should be able to get Link across a single water tile just fine, raft-dock-be-damned.

Though, I just realized that maybe LoZ is intending the ladder to be used for climbing up to a higher area, like maybe the other side of a river always happens to be higher/lower than the other side. Also, there’s the possibility that LoZ intends for all rivers to be like a very deep ditch that would make raft use impractical or even impossible.

By: jparish

jparish — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 17:41:27 +0000

Should I be worried that your second paragraph reads like an excerpt from Rorschach’s journal?

By: cartman414

cartman414 — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:45:57 +0000

Level 4 was the first mean dungeon in the game. Not just for the Like-likes or Bubbles, but also that the Vires were introduced before you could obtain the Master Sword, depriving you of the ability to kill them outright for items without resorting to bombs.

Missed the Golvellius writeup. Boo. Fun take on the formula, but also lacks 8 directional movement, and the sidescrolling segments were oddly limited not only to forward scrolling, but facing. Would like a remake. At least it’s back on iOS.

By: Alex Scott

Alex Scott — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:27:21 +0000

I’m glad you mentioned Piranha Plants when talking about Manhandla, because I only found out a few days ago through Legends of Localization that the Japanese manual explicitly refers to it as one.

By: majutsushi

majutsushi — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:11:07 +0000

Does anyone else think that the level 4 map looks like E.T.?

By: Sanagi

Sanagi — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 08:47:41 +0000

For a long time I believed the stepladder should be brought back to the Zelda series, but then I realized that the winged boots in Ocarina were an update of that same idea.

By: MetManMas

MetManMas — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:21:22 +0000

Besides being a great tool overall, Like Likes are one of the biggest reasons why the Magic Boomerang’s my preferred side arm in The Legend of Zelda. Some later versions of them in the series are much nastier to deal with, but here you can boomerang smack ‘em to keep them at bay while picking them off one by one or waiting for your sword button to work again.

The raft itself is the initial example of a Zelda tool that’s just a funny shaped key for a funny shaped door, in this case being used at all of two docks in the game world to automatically travel to the fourth dungeon and an Idiot Test* room. It has no use beyond that, but the Ladder in Level-4 is by far one of the most vital tools for progression.

* The “Pick any one you like” with the Heart Container and 2nd Potion, of course. One permanently increases your life by one heart; the other is just two full life restores that can be bought from the old lady once you give her the letter from the old man in the mountains.