I don’t know if this is the right community for this, so I am sorry if it shouldn’t go here. I am currently playing through a link to the past for the first time and have noticed a steep increase in difficulty once I unlocked the dark world. The dark palace was okay but I am honestly kinda stuck at the swamp palace. I would love to play through the game because it was a lot of fun up to this point but I don’t feel like the game is mechanically fun enough to beat my head against the wall repeatedly. I have already noticed I can swap between the worlds with the mirror so I guess I could go to the normal world at any time to stock up on fairies. Are there any other tipps or hidden mechanics to make the game easier? I don’t really want to spend a lot of time aimlessly searching the world for heart containers and following guides to them also seems kinda tedious.
Do yourself a favour and read the manual and tip book that came with it. I wish I had read the manual before I started playing it. You were meant to read the manual for these older games.
This is very important aspect of games from this era and as a huge fanatic of Zelda games it is why Link to the Past is one of my faves.
On a related note, the game Tunic utilizes this game manual mechanic. It is a similar type game and part of the game is finding pages to the manual around the world that reveal game secrets, maps and mechanics. It’s an absolute delight!
Oh yeah tunic was a lot of fun. I did have to look up the solution to one or two of the more obscure puzzles but even then I wasn’t really frustrated. The soundtrack is also a blast and I still listen to it occasionally
Thanks for that, I already learned more about the story (and realised how it’s essentially identical to the one in totk!) Just from the first few pages. Will give it a read before continuing my playthrough :)
This is a side-quests sort of game, only you have to go and find the side-quest dungeons.
Don’t worry about the main story progression, go exploring, clear other dungeons. Can’t clear this one? then go find a different one.
You can get better gauntlets, stronger boomerangs and bows, bigger and different bombs, etc., and that is just off the top of my head.
I love ALttP, but watching my wife on her first playthrough recently reminded me how frustrating it can be so my heart goes out to you. Heck, whenever I play again I put off swamp palace until nearly the end.
ALttP is also from that generation of games where you needed to talk to every NPC to figure out the hints and locations to sidequests and items. There are a number of bombable caves that you can access in either the light or dark worlds, as well as some that are accessible ones you’re equipped with the gloves/mitts. Some others are accessible if you go to the dark world and get into position to transition back to the light world in a spot you couldn’t reach from the light world alone, like getting to the Tower of Hera.
I think a nice middle ground for you might be the ALttPR tracker. It’s made for the randomizer, but the chest locations are all the same (it’s just their contents that get shuffled) so you’ll have a visual representation of where items can be found but you can still work through getting to them on your own without spoilers.
Thanks for that link, I do think part of why the guide seems tedious is figuring out where things are in the game world and I vastly prefer just checking out the places with a map
Edit: wow, I just realised the map even lets you select which items you have picked up and then displays which places are actually accessible, that is extremely neat! I think this is the tool that will save this playthrough lol
It’s one of my all time favorites and I’d be stoked if I can help another person love this game as much as me. GLHF!
Honestly, without going into too much detail - aimlessly wandering and exploring is kind of a Zelda games thing. More so with the older ones. Trying to play the original NES with no guide other than my own notes is a lesson in patience, and I replay it every year. As well as ALttP here. You don’t need to find all the heart containers, so don’t spend too much time searching for them - a lot of them are going to be hidden behind items you haven’t unlocked yet. Save that for part of your final dungeon prep. Do look for the enhanced armor to take less damage though - however I’m not sure when exactly that unlocks to be found.
But the swamp palace is a PiTA. Those water skimmers are a giant pain always running into you, and all the various switches and backtracking. I don’t want to say that the dungeons get easier after this one - it’s just where the game really starts to Zelda and the mechanics of the game should start clicking as you go through and on to the next one, making them easier.
The 3D Zeldas rely a lot less on aimlessly wandering I think. And up to this point I was actually delighted at how easy it was to find the next objective, it just seems now that the side content is kinda necessary due to the difficulty. In a sense that is a nice thing because it makes finding heart pieces more rewarding, but it also makes it less appealing to those that want a bit more of a guided experience. Personally, I really love exploring in games, but only if I am absorbed in the game world and atmosphere. So far, a link to the past did not achieve this for me.
Yeah, unfortunately that’s kind of how it is. I don’t know how many SNES or earlier games you’ve played but it’s a similar design philosophy for that era of games. You were expected to be a kid with massive amounts of free time - and generally back then our game libraries were only a couple games.
When I had ALttP on the SNES my only other games were Wizardry 5 and Mortal Kombat - so it was easy to remain on-task with ALttP and not get frustrated/distracted by other games.
There was no handholding or guided-ness to games. Usually a notebook by your side to keep track of locked items, hand drawn maps, and etc to keep track of everything in between sessions.
It didn’t matter much as a kid back then because that’s just how games were. I mean look at the mega man games - those are brutal to try and play now. But for someone going in fresh, without the nostalgia factor, I can see how it would be considered difficult to get into.
But there’s no shame in not finding it enjoyable. Just because it’s a classic doesn’t mean it’s for everyone.
If you’re set on it though - and you have a 3DS - A link between worlds is a good medium. That’s a bit more modern and not as difficult, while maintaining the core gameplay. I think I died a total of 3 times on my first play through so it wasn’t difficult at all.
Playing through that then going back might make ALttP more enjoyable on a second attempt.
The only game from the SNES era (or before) I have played so far is super metroid. That game was a lot of fun though and I really enjoyed the exploration there. Other than that I have played the remake of link’s awakening, but I have an inkling that it may have been easier than the original?
I have actually played through a link between worlds without realising just how heavily it is inspired by alttp.
SNES had two of the best RPGs ever: Chronotrigger and FF6 (which was marketed as FF3 at the time outside of Japan). If you’ve never given them a shot, I highly recommend them.
So far I’ve always bounced off of JRPGs. Persona 5 was the last one I tried and tbf I actually kinda enjoyed the combat mechanics but I didn’t like the story. If I ever get into the genre I will definitely give a few SNES ones a shot (Earthbound and secret of mana are also two I have always heard good things about)
It is very much a thing in the new ones too, especially BotW and TotK
The game wants you to aimlessly search for things that are necessary to progress, and I didn’t care for it either. There are a handful of hard barriers to progression in the game until you find the one thing they wanted you to find at some odd corner of the map, and it sucked the fun out of the game that I was having with the dungeons. It feels designed to make you break out a guide, and given that hint hotlines and Nintendo Power were other revenue streams for them at the time, I’m not surprised.
I think this particular Zelda is especially focused on exploration (unlike the next ones until BOTW). There are many secrets everywhere, with a lot of hints given by the NPCs. When I did it for the first time 10 years ago, I had explored so much that I completed the 3 last dungeons in a raw.
If you don’t want to experience it this way, I guess you should follow a guide.
I had to take a break on it, personally. The only LoZ game I had through most of my childhood was Minish Cap, which (personally) felt like a really tight and clean cut game when it came to the combat. A Link to the Past has been a little more frustrating to play, mostly because the combat doesn’t feel quite as tight to me
ALttP is one of my favorite Zelda games but it is definitely from that era of when games were harder for no good reason. I think it would be a good idea for you to collect any missing heart pieces to buff up your health. There is no shame in using a guide when you are struggling.
Well it’s been a year or two since I’ve played through it, but you’re right the dark world is way harder. Running helps sometimes… hold down one of the buttons. Hold down the sword button to do this charged swing. Also, exploring isn’t just for heart pieces… eg, you get a magic medallion or something after tossing one of those skull-shaped rocks into a circle of stones in the water somewhere. There’s a little house you can buy potions from, but you need a jar. You can catch fairies with a butterfly net and you store them in a jar too iirc.
If there are too many enemies in the room, try and pick them off one at a time. Have patience though, this is just Link and he’s no Master Chief. If you think the dungeons are tough, wait till you get to the boss fights. There’s usually some trick to it you have to figure out
