Four Swords Adventures



The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures is the eleventh installment in the The Legend of Zelda series, released in 2004 for the Nintendo Game Cube. It is preceded by The Wind Waker and succeeded by The Minish Cap. The Hero of Light is the main protagonist and Vaati is the main antagonist. Vaati's minions are the villainous faction.

It is the eleventh game in the series, and the third and final game in the Child Timeline, set a great amount of time after the events of Twilight Princess. It follows Link, split into four by the Four Sword, on his quest to defeat Vaati and attempt to prevent the resurrection of the second incarnation of Ganondorf. At the end of this game, Ganon and Vaati are sealed in the Four Sword, seemingly for the rest of time.

Synopsis
''Hundreds and hundreds of years after the events of Four Swords, a new Link journeys to the Four Sword Sanctuary, and similarly to the Hero of the Four Sword, discovers that something is awry. Vaati has been released by the Four Sword and steals the Dark Mirror. Link draws the Four Sword and is split in four. The four Links journey across the land to free the Seven Maidens, which Vaati also captured, and finds Vaati in his palace. The Links defeat him, but it's revealed that all along he was trying to resurrect Ganon. This Ganon is not the same as his previous incarnation, as this one was born in the Gerudo Desert a hundred years ago and sealed in the Dark Mirror. The Links defeat Ganon as well, and seal Vaati and Ganon in the Four Sword for good.''

Summary
One night, an ominous cloud covers Hyrule, throwing fear into the people. Princess Zelda calls upon her most trusted childhood friend, Link. She wants to check up on the Four Sword, fearing that the seal that imprisoned the evil wind sorcerer Vaati inside of it at the end of Four Swords might have weakened. Inside the castle they meet up with the gathered six Maidens, whose purpose is to protect Hyrule as well as the Four Sword Sanctuary. With the help of the maidens Zelda summons a portal to the sanctuary.

However, before they get a chance to enter, a dark figure that looks like Link appears. The Dark Link seals away the six maidens and Zelda in a dark crystal, before he retreats into the portal leading to the sanctuary. Link is left with no choice but to follow. Arriving at the sanctuary, the dark Link taunts Link into pulling the Four Sword, resulting in Link splitting into four copies of himself. Likewise, the seal on Vaati is broken, and he slowly creeps forward with a maniacal laugh. The four Links do not get a chance to follow the Dark Link before being thrown away from the scene by Vaati’s magic.

The four Links are awoken by Kaepora Gaebora, who calmly informs them of the situation and what they must do, which is to first rescue the six maidens. Shadow Link, as he calls him, has spread chaos in Hyrule, scorching villages and throwing them into the dark world. Traveling across Hyrule they witness the chaos brought about by Vaati and Shadow Link, and in order to release the dark seals placed by Vaati, the four Links must collect force gems in order to properly power up the Four Swords and grant it the power to repel evil.

After rescuing the Green Maiden, she tells the four Links about the four Royal Jewels which is needed to reach the in Realm of the Heavens, where Zelda is being held. They were divided among four Knights of Hyrule, known to have valiantly defended Hyrule, but they have mysteriously disappeared. The four Links eventually find them, who reveal they have been cursed and thrown in the Dark World.

It is revealed that the one who is ultimately behind everything is a mighty foe who is not Vaati, but rather, someone using him. Once the four Links reach the part of Hyrule which has been transformed into the Dark World, they discover from the White Maiden that there was once a Dark Mirror in which an ancient tribe was sealed. The mirror was being kept away from the world in a "forest temple". They believe the mirror to be the source of the Shadow Links. Rumors also reach them of a King of Darkness named Ganon.

Upon reaching the temple where the mirror is being held, their suspicion is confirmed, as the Mirror has indeed been stolen. The Red maiden who is rescued there, reveals that she knows of a man named Ganondorf of the Gerudo tribe, but finds it unlikely that he is the cause of the recent events.Traveling to the desert, they find out from the peaceful Gerudo tribe that Ganondorf recently flouted their laws and left for the sacred pyramids. Following his footsteps, it is revealed that Ganondorf had obtained a powerful ancient weapon which would make him a King of Darkness.

After rescuing all six maidens, Link heads towards the Tower's location which has been cursed by the power of darkness, making it Frozen Hyrule. Pushing through the snow storm, they liberate the final Knight, who tells them to rescue Zelda and save Hyrule from the darkness, after giving them the last of the Royal Jewels. The Tower of Winds is called forth using the power of the jewels, giving the party entry to the Realm of the Heavens. Once the party has climbed the Tower, Princess Zelda is finally rescued. In the Realms of the Heavens, the four Links makes their final battle with their dark doppelganger Shadow Link as they secure the Dark Mirror. Princess Zelda uses her power to create a rainbow bridge, allowing them to enter the Palace of Winds.

Inside, they encounter Vaati, and after a great battle, they defeat him. With Vaati gone, the Palace of Winds starts to collapse, as it relied on his magic to keep itself in the sky. The party retreats back to the Tower of Winds. Once there, they hear the voice of the culprit behind everything, Ganondorf, who mocks Vaati attempting to stop them. The party escapes the palace and down through the Tower of Winds, which at this point has also started to collapse. Just before reaching the exit, the floor beneath them collapses, and they fall into a dark room. Ganondorf then appears as a patch of darkness. Zelda tries to seal him away but fails, and once again Zelda is taken captive. Assuming the shape of a pig and the final battle between the four Links and Ganon commences. Midway through the battle, Zelda is freed, and together they defeat Ganon. With the combined power of the six maidens, Ganon is ultimately sealed away in the Four Sword.

In the aftermath of the journey, the Four Sword is laid to rest again in the Four Sword Sanctuary, and the four Links join back into one single Link. The six maidens and Zelda form a pyramid-like barrier around the Sword so that no one might touch it again. Outside the castle, celebration is at hand, signaling peace, and Link seems to be greeted by the crowd as a true hero.

Trivia

 * Four Swords Adventures, like the original Four Swords, has no option of choosing a name for Link.
 * This is the only two-dimensional Zelda game to feature members of the Gerudo tribe besides Twinrova and Ganondorf.
 * This is the first two-dimensional console Zelda title since A Link to the Past.
 * Unlike traditional Zelda games, acquired Items cannot be kept.
 * The four Links can only have one secondary Item at a time and must sacrifice one secondary Item for another (e.g. dropping the Boomerang to acquire the Slingshot).
 * Power Bracelets and Heart Containers are only used for one Stage.
 * Hidden in the game's files is a streaming audio file named "smw.ast". Playing it with the appropriate Winamp plugins (vgmstream) will reveal that the file is actually the Super Mario Bros. theme, specifically the secret theme found in Super Mario World.
 * Contrary to popular belief, the Navi Trackers mode was, in fact, released outside of Japan, but only in South Korea. This is because the Korean version was a repackaging of the Japanese version, with only the region coding changed and the outer boxart and a card explaining controls translated.
 * The game, originally titled Four Swords for Nintendo GameCube, was first shown at E3 2003 alongside Tetra's Trackers (later renamed Navi Trackers) as separate games. It was announced later that year that both games, plus a new one called Shadow Battle, would be included in the same disc. However, only the Hyrulean Adventure and Shadow Battle modes were included in non-Japanese versions of the game.
 * The game was originally going to tell the story of the Imprisoning War set between A Link to the Past, but along the ways in development, Shigeru Miyamoto decided that the game's story should not be complex, and it should be cut down.

Continuity

 * The prologue of Four Swords Adventures recounts events described in Four Swords and the Four Swords manual, which led to Vaati being sealed within the Four Sword Sanctuary, establishing a period of peace until the events of Four Swords Adventures. Eiji Aonuma, the series producer, revealed upon the release of Four Swords Adventures, that Four Swords Adventures was a sequel to Four Swords, taking place sometime after it.
 * However, the timeline revealed in Hyrule Historia, despite what is stated in the game's prologue, places Four Swords Adventures after the events of Twilight Princess in the Child Timeline. Hyrule Historia describes Ganondorf to be different in Four Swords Adventures from his appearance in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, having been reincarnated after his defeat in Twilight Princess.
 * This is the first game to release to feature a different incarnation of Ganondorf, who otherwise is resurrected, rather than reincarnated.
 * Somehow, the Four Sword Sanctuary survived the hundreds of thousands of years between Four Swords and this game.