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My Zelda: Four Swords Adventures bundle arrived yesterday just before I left for church. It was almost like I was being tested on whether I would still go, or stay home and play FSA instead, heh. (Just for the record, I still went).
After I got home, me and my brother stayed up till about 3:00 AM playing it; we got all the way up to the last stage in Level 3: Death Mountain. And now today, we've gotten up to the second stage in Level 5: The Dark World so far. We might play some more later, or I might play by myself if my brother isn't interested -- I may not have gotten the game right when it first came out, but I think I'm making up for the lost time, heh.
So far, though, I've only played two levels in single player, and those were the last two stages in Level 3: Death Mountain. Really, playing by myself seemed like a mixed blessing. One on hand, the puzzles seemed easier to do by myself, since I could control all four Links, but on the other hand, combat was harder. Trying to fight in formation can be really hard, since all four Links can take damage, but trying to fight out of formation is also hard because you've only got one Link attacking. Having even one more person -- to take control of two of the Links -- makes combat so much easier, since you've got half as many Links to keep track of.
All in all, I'm highly satisfied with Four Swords Adventures; it's delivered on everything it promised, I think. While it still isn't really a "normal" Zelda game, I think it has done a much, much better job than the original Four Swords in retaining that classic Zelda feel. There's certainly a much better balance between puzzles and combat, that's for sure; some of the fights in FSA are absolutely crazy, whereas combat in FS was virtually nonexistent outside of boss battles.
That, and the puzzles and enemies themselves aren't blatently focused on the use of multiple Links; very few things are color coded to require a certain color Link doing a certain thing, which I really like. The color coding in the original FS kind of annoyed me. I mean, really, why the heck would there be things that affect one Link but not the others? They're all still Link, they're just wearing different colored tunics. I much prefer the way FSA does it, by simply requiring the use of more than one Link to complete whatever puzzle; doesn't matter who does it, as long as it gets done, and they don't have many areas that practically scream "this area was specifically designed with the use of four people in mind." Overall, FSA feels much more like a real Zelda quest (which it is) instead of a mini-game.
In closing, I should mention that FSA is fast becoming my favorite GameCube game, and I've no doubt it will soon surpass The Wind Waker. Four Swords Adventures is the most fun I've had with a Zelda game since getting A Link to the Past on the GBA.
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