The Links between pasts and worlds

Going back to A Link to the Past after playing a bit of A Link Between Worlds is odd. Most Zelda games are just the same thing over and over again. You're assigned some sort of quest (usually ending with "save the princess"), you go through dungeons, face bosses, and build an inventory that helps you to better navigate the world and the lair of the final boss. But when "the overworld is the same" gets thrown into that mix it's a completely different experience of same-ness.

Because of their shared overworld (in the first part of the game, anyway), A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds are a unique pair among the Zelda franchise. With the latter game taking place hundreds of years after the former it's neat to see what's changed and what's remained the same. For the most part, the changes are minimal, but there are a few. The missing chunk of land between Syrup's shop and the Zora's Domain, for example.

One of the weirdest things, though, is the fact that in A Link to the Past's Dark World, Link's house is a bomb shop and in A Link Between Worlds, Link's house becomes Ravio's shop. It's odd because Ravio's garb and strange animal companion look like they might have come from the Dark World. Though, the item renter looks nothing like the trunk-nosed imp that sells bombs in the 16-bit classic.

Link eludes capture

One of the reasons why video games entries have been spotty lately is because I was waiting.

Waiting for a good time to test out my video capture set up.

Unfortunately, it looks like there are a few bugs that need working out, particularly my program's telling me that there is no capture device attached in the middle of displaying what's being fed through my capture device. That device by the way is the Diamond VC500. The software I'm running is Ulead VideoStudio 10. And yes, I'm running it all on an old version of Windows (XP).

Another of the reasons for the scarcity of entries about video games is that I was waiting for an opportune time to marathon A Link to the Past, my favourite entry in the Zelda series. Since I don't currently own a 3DS (or a 2DS, for that matter), I can't play A Link Between Worlds just yet and so I figured that its predecessor is the next best thing. That time's not come up, but more important than marathoning it, I want to get through the game without dying a single time.

Unfortunately, all I have with me (aside from an emulated copy, either on the Virtual Console (VC) or through less legitimate means) is the GBA port. Since I've already played through it on the GBA, I figured why not put the old Gamecube Game Boy Player to use and play it on the TV (or computer monitor, as the case may be). The trouble with the game's GBA port, though, is that Nintendo either forgot or neglected to port over Link's grunts from the original game. Instead Link's cries and struggles call up the Nintendo 64 entries in the series thanks to the use of child Link's sound effects.

Not only does this ruin the charm of the original game, but it assumes that this game's Link is the same age as child Link. But what in the game itself even suggests that?

Is it that he's living with his uncle? That he isn't in the middle of military training?

Everyone in Kakariko seems to know Link - unless he's some sort of Dennis the Menace-type character before the game begins, it seems like he'd need to have been active around town before people would be able to know him. To do that, he'd have to be at least a little older than the Link of Ocarina of Time or Majora's Mask. I'd like to peg his age as that of the main character of a fun Zelda-esque Genesis game called Crusader of Centy: 14.

So, why am I playing this version when there's a perfectly good port on the VC? Because controlling it with the Gamecube controller's analog stick almost simulates walking on ice. It's just a little bit too sensitive. Considering I know the game well from playing through it several times, I welcome the extra challenge.