History VideoGame / TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast

* CompanyCrossReferences: A portrait of [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] can be found inside some houses throughout the game, and there are also two Chain Chomps that appear in Turtle Rock.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:Due to the timing of when Ganon reveals himself, the nature of his and Agahnim's identity is ambiguous. On one hand, Agahnim is trying to break the seal on Ganon in the Sacred Realm, but as Ganon reveals Agahnim to be his "split soul" in the Japanese script or "alter ego" in the English translation, Ganon is somehow able to send a fragment of himself out of or escape the Sacred Realm. This leads to two possibilities: 1. That Agahnim was possessed by Ganon with some power that could leak out of the Sacred Realm, or 2. That Agahnim is an alternate body created by Ganon that can escape the Sacred Realm but with limited power. Neither explanation is used in-game, but the comics and two mangas use the former explanation.]]

* PlotHole: Due to the timing of when Ganon reveals himself, the nature of his and Agahnim's identity is ambiguous. On one hand, Agahnim is trying to break the seal on Ganon in the Sacred Realm, but as Ganon reveals Agahnim to be his "alter ego", Ganon is apparently able to escape the Sacred Realm. This leads to two possibilities: 1. That Agahnim was possessed by Ganon with some power that could leak out of the Sacred Realm, or 2. That Agahnim is an alternate body created by Ganon that can escape the Sacred Realm but with limited power. Neither explanation is used in-game, but the comics and two mangas use the former explanation.

There is also a [[ComicBook/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast1992 comic adaptation]].

* ComicBookAdaptation: Three of them:

** The first [[Manga/TheLegendOfZelda manga adaptation]] by Ataru Cagiva published in Japan after the SNES release.
** A second manga adaptation, this time by Akira Himekawa. It was originally published after the GBA release and was released in North America in 2010.

* AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler: Due to the timing of when Ganon reveals himself, the nature of his and Agahnim's identity is ambiguous. On one hand, Agahnim is trying to break the seal on Ganon in the Sacred Realm, but as Ganon reveals Agahnim to be his "split soul" in the Japanese script or "alter ego" in the English translation, Ganon is somehow able to send a fragment of himself out of or escape the Sacred Realm. This leads to two possibilities: 1. That Agahnim was possessed by Ganon with some power that could leak out of the Sacred Realm, or 2. That Agahnim is an alternate body created by Ganon that can escape the Sacred Realm but with limited power. Neither explanation is used in-game, but the comics and two mangas use the former explanation.]]

** If you try to upgrade your bomb or arrow capacity while they are fully maxed out, the fairy will return the 100 rupees you spent.

* BanditMook: There's a thief enemy in the game. While he never steals anything of great importance (just bombs, arrows, rupees etc.), he can't be killed or even ''stunned''. There's also Pikits, who hop around and attempt to snatch rupees, arrows, bombs, and even your ''shield'' from you with their tongue.

* BondVillainStupidity: Justified. The maidens are a major threat to Agahnim's plans since they are the only ones capable of sealing Ganon or countering his evil magic. This obviously raises the question of why Agahnim only teleports the maidens to the Dark World instead of killing them. The first maiden explains that this is because [[spoiler: they are also the only ones who can ''unseal'' Ganon, so he has to hijack their powers to free himself from the Dark World.]] [[ZigZaggedTrope However,]] one of the maidens implies that [[spoiler: Ganon already siphoned all the power he needed from them,]] which does raise the question of why he's still keeping them around.

** The Zora's Flippers. At 500 rupees, it's by far the priciest of the required expenses.
** Kiki the Monkey. You have to pay him 10 rupees to follow you to the entrance to the first Dark World dungeon, and if you get hit by an enemy along the way, Kiki flees and you have to pay him another 10 rupees to follow you again. Once you reach the dungeon entrance, you have to him 100 more rupees to open it.
** The Super Bomb. After at least the sixth Dark World dungeon, you have to buy one of those for 100 rupees and drag it to the Pyramid to blast open the cracked wall to reach the Great Fairy that gives you the Silver Arrows necessary to defeat Ganon.

* DecoyDamsel: [[spoiler: Blind]]. You really ought to know better though; Unlike the other Maidens, 'she' is trapped not in a crystal, but a dingy cage, without even bothering with an explanation as to why she isn't in a crystal to boot.

** The Swamp of Evil in the Dark World, which even has a sign indicating "No Entry, No Escape." [[spoiler: You have to reach it via a transporter tile in the Light World, which can only be reached via Flute[=/=]bird transport. The Ice Palace requires a similar trick.]] [[AllThereInTheManual According to the lore]], it's because the swamp was overflowing with rainwater that threatened to flood the rest of the land, so a mountain range was put up to prevent that from happening.

* TheDragon: Agahnim, the first time in the series that Ganon has someone doing his dirty work for him. [[spoiler: The Japanese original implies that he is some kind of offshoot (the word used is ''bunshin'', "split soul") of Ganon similar to the Phantom Ganons from later games. The English translation suggests that Agahnim is actually Ganon in a form that can travel to the Light World, though only with limited powers. Adaptations in either language tend to make Agahnim a separate entity from Ganon.]]

** This is the only game to refer to the Seven Sages as the "Seven Wise Men"[[note]]Rendered somewhat awkward after ''Ocarina of Time'' revealed that most of the sages were in fact women[[/note]] and the Hylians as "Hylia"[[note]]Rendered awkward after ''Skyward Sword'' revealed that Hylia is the name of the Hylians patron goddess[[/note]]. These terms were updated when the game was re-released for the Game Boy Advance.

** This is the first ''Zelda'' game to feature the Sacred Realm, but due to Nintendo's censorship policies at the time, the translation refers to it as the "Golden Land", which carries over to the GBA port apart from one early mention of it as ''a'' "sacred realm". Later games and ''A Link Between Worlds'' use the proper translation.

** This is the only game where the Big Key is necessary to open the Big Chest containing a dungeon's special item, while some of the boss rooms aren't even locked if the item in the dungeon is crucial to reaching the boss. In later games, boss keys only open doors leading to the boss' chamber.

** The "Essence of the Triforce" talks to Link at the end. It only happened once again in the series at the beginning of the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle games]] ("Accept our quest, hero!") but, otherwise, the Triforce is silent and seemingly inanimate in all its appearances.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Everyone who was killed because of Ganon is brought back to life and every single person you meet in the game goes on to have happy lives, even the random thief that hangs out in the forest!]] {{Justified|Trope}}, though, given that at the end the pure-hearted Link [[spoiler: reaches the united Triforce and wills everything right.]]
* EasterEgg: The [[http://zelda.wikia.com/wiki/Chris_Houlihan Chris Houlihan room]], an extremely well-concealed [[note]]The game only sends you there when an error occurs in sending you to wherever you were supposed to go[[/note]] chamber filled with rupees that was named for [[ContestWinnerCameo the winner of a contest]] in ''Nintendo Power''.

** [[spoiler: The disguised thief Blind]] has elements of an escort mission. One of the rare examples of the player [[spoiler: escorting ''an enemy boss'']].

** There is also the monkey that is needed to open the Palace of Darkness. While not a horrible example of an escort, he does [[CashGate require 10 rupees to just have him follow you and another 100 to open the palace]]. Compared to the other escorts, getting hurt does cause the monkey to run away. This means having to pay another 10 rupees just to get him back. Thankfully, there are about three enemies between finding the monkey and getting to the palace entrance, and it is possible to deny the monkey at first, then go ahead and kill the enemies before coming back.

** The thieves can at best be stunned, but not killed as they try to ram into you to knock away items and rupees.
** The Anti-Faeries that circle around blocks or walls in the dungeons [[spoiler: though Magic Powder can turn them into normal Faeries... ''Except'' the four in a particular room of the Eastern palace, who are immune]].

** There's a buried Heart Piece that costs 80 rupees for 30 seconds of digging in a vast field. Thankfully there ''is'' a good source of income in the Light World version of the nearby village, and it's not uncommon to find more than your 80 rupees back. And if you're not above [[GoodBadBugs glitching]], you can speed up the process [[http://www.jaytheham.com/zcw/A_Link_to_the_Past_Glitches_-_Shovelrang with your boomerang]].
** There's a Heart Piece in a treasure chest game: open 2 of 16 chests for 30 rupees a try.

* MedalOfDishonor: ''A Link to the Past'' is one of the first games to include a counter for player deaths, "charitably" labelled as your score. The credits will list all of your deaths in each dungeon before displaying your grand total, which will be tacked onto Link's character sprite in the file select screen after resetting. A perfect game should have a score of zero. And no, you can't cheat the counter with a Fairy to resurrect you, the game counts those too. [[spoiler: You can, however, reset the game during the death animation to trick the game into not counting it, but [[YouBastard that's not very sporting]].]] Also, due to a glitch in the original SNES version, doing a normal Save and Quit without dying first ''still counts''. The only way to get a perfect score in the SNES version is either to complete the game in a single session or pause the game and leave it running if you need to take a break.

* MoneyForNothing: The game can be finished with a minimum of 710 rupees,[[note]]500 for flippers, 110 for the first Dark World dungeon, 100 for the super bomb[[/note]] but the game loves giving out huge sums of money in treasure chests and dungeons throughout the second half. On the other hand, convenient healing in the midst of dungeons can be rather expensive, with a HealthPotion costing 150 Rupees in most places.

** The Pond of Happiness, where Link can toss in rupees in increments varying from 5 to 50 at a time. For every 100 rupees he throws in, a fairy will increase the maximum amount of bombs or arrows he can carry. Since most of the [[CashGate Cash Gates]] are cleared within the first half of the game, this gives the player something useful to do with the rest of it. Seven upgrades (six at +5 each and one at +10) can be "bought" for each item, allowing you to spend a maximum of 1600 rupees to bring your bomb and arrow capacity up from 10 and 30 respectively to 50 and 70.

* NoEntrance: The Swamp of Evil, which houses the Misery Mire dungeon, is completely blocked off from the rest of the Dark World by impassable barriers, with a sign warning Link that there is no way in and no way out. [[spoiler: Within the limits of the Dark World, it is indeed completely unreachable. However, Link is able to get in by traveling to the Desert of Mystery -the swamp's Light World counterpart- and finding a portal between the worlds there that crosses into the swamp]].

* NowWhereWasIGoingAgain: The fortune teller provides hints concerning the main plot, and refills your LifeMeter, for a few rupees. The game provides [[MoneyForNothing plenty of easy money]] anyway, so go right ahead.

* RedOniBlueOni: Ganon was a bloodthirsty king of thieves, while Agahnim gains the trust of the King before [[TheUsurper killing him]] and sacrificing the Maidens. [[spoiler: It becomes funnier once the player learns that Agahnim is the alter ego of Ganon.]]

* RewardingVandalism: There are thieves who, if you use a bomb to destroy a wall and reveal their hiding place, will give you 500 rupees and the words "Let's keep this between us, okay?"

* SchmuckBait: "Curses to anyone who throws something into my circle of stones." [[spoiler: You have to do it at least once to beat the game, [[TemptingFate though doing it again is rather funny.]]]]

* SecondComing: Agahnim sets himself up as this [[AllThereInTheManual in the back story]]. In a period where Hyrule is simultaneously ravaged by plagues, famine, drought, and other hardships, he appears out of nowhere and works miracles to set things right. He becomes a hero to the people and the King declares him to be the second coming of the Sages of old and appoints him his priest and second-in-command. Granted, he does herald the return of ''someone'' from the past, [[spoiler: that being Ganon]].

* UnendingEndCard: You defeated [[spoiler: Ganon]], harmony is restored to the world, the credits roll, and you're stuck looking at The End in the corner. The Game Boy Advance port provides a second example if you play and clear [[spoiler: The Palace of The Four Swords]].

* UnsafeHaven: We have the aptly-called Sanctuary, where Princess Zelda takes refuge after Link saves her from confinement in Hyrule Castle. It's supposed to be a safe place, even though it's kind of in the open and that enemy knights are kind of ''on patrol'' outside. Why Ganon didn't find it and capture Zelda ''sooner'', like before Link got the Master Sword, is anybody's guess.
* UpdatedRerelease: The Platform/GameBoyAdvance version released in 2002 added voice bits for Link (taken from Young Link in ''Ocarina of Time,'') and a BonusDungeon unlocked after beating ''Four Swords.'' Also a new riddle sidequest for the Hurricane Spin.

* VictoryPose: Link does a spin attack and ends by holding his sword up after clearing a dungeon.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: After draining the lake in the swamp south of Link's house, you'll see fish flopping around on the land left behind. Pick one up and throw it into another body of water and it will reward you with some rupees as thanks.
* VideoGameCrueltyPunishment: The chickens found in the village are harmless when left alone, and will retreat with an agitated cluck when attacked. ''Keep'' attacking them, though, and eventually they will get fed up and summon a swarm of killer chickens to peck Link to death.

* WishingWell: There is a fountain at the center of Lake Hylia where Link can throw in rupees. If he throws in a certain amount, a Great Fairy will appear and grant his wish, which is limited to either the ability to carry more bombs or more arrows.

* InvincibilityPowerUp: The game has the Magic Cape and Cane of Byrna, both of which make Link invincible but consume magic at an incredible rate. The Cape also makes Link invisible and capable of moving through certain obstacles, while the Cane gives you the TouchOfDeath properties, and can be useful in the final dungeon.

* MagicKnight: Link can cast a bunch of spells in this game, probably to emphasize the [[TheChosenPeople Hylian blood]] in his veins; though his Magic Power starts out empty, he can drink green potions to restore it, and is gifted with full Magic Power for furthering the plot. The power level of Link's spells varies wildly, and all of them are sourced from items; for example, Link has a magic Lamp in his house, a [[{{Nerf}} damage-less]] version of the Candle from the first ''Legend of Zelda'' that lets him light torches.

* MoneyForNothing: The game can be finished with a minimum of 710 rupees,[[note]]500 for flippers, 110 for the first Dark World dungeon, 100 for the super bomb[[/note]] but the game loves giving out huge sums of money in treasure chests and dungeons throughout the second half.

* MoneySink: The Pond of Happiness, where Link can toss in rupees in increments varying from 5 to 50 at a time. For every 100 rupees he throws in, a fairy will increase the maximum amount of bombs or arrows he can carry. Since most of the [[CashGate Cash Gates]] are cleared within the first half of the game, this gives the player something useful to do with the rest of it. Seven upgrades (six at +5 each and one at +10) can be "bought" for each item, allowing you to spend a maximum of 1600 rupees to bring your bomb and arrow capacity up from 10 and 30 respectively to 50 and 70.

* ReforgedBlade: The Master Sword is the TropeCodifier for the way it's used in video games (as a way to [[AvertedTrope avert]] the [[GameplayAndStorySegregation ludonarrative dissonance]] of the SwordOfPlotAdvancement becoming the PenultimateWeapon after being replaced by a [[InfinityPlusOneSword better one]]). It's reforged by a pair of dwarven blacksmiths, and later magically upgraded by a faerie.

* DropTheHammer: The main item of the Dark Palace is the Magic Hammer, which not only can stun enemies with high defense but also open up paths in both the dungeons and the overworld.