Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past

[joehero]

How long did it take you to beat the game? What is the average time it would take someone who has never played it to beat it? Just wondering, I'm considering giving it a try.

[Frag Mortuus]

My first time (when I was about 11) took me about 7 days with about 4-6 hours of playing a day. That was doing everything, finding every heart container piece and secret in the game.

So a complete run through will take you about 28-42 hours for your first time. It gets considerably shorter on your following play through. Mainly because you have already figured out the trick to beating the bosses.

It is worth every second of your time though!

[Breetai]

Zelda 3 is the one of only two games that I was home "sick" from school so that I could play it. It's definitely worth playing. The time Frag gave you is about right.

The other game is Lunar: The Silver Star on the Sega CD.

[Ziggy]

I've been playing LttP last few days, I'm at Ganon's Tower now. This is my third or fourth time playing through it, and I can usually get all the heart pieces from memory. I'm missing ONE heart piece and I can't find it. Even looking at a guide, and I can't find the missing one. Awwww, it's so frustrating!

[jmanx81]

Def one of my favorite games! Ive played through it so many times. I even bought it on Wii channel. The heart piece I always forgot about was up in Death Mountain where you have to wear the cape across the spike floor. I remember it all the time now if I were to play. It could one where you play games for rupees too.

[Myollnir]

Quite a while the first time through (maybe up to a year?). I wasn't very fast in beating games in my youth and if I really enjoyed a game I'd try to draw the experience out so it wouldn't be over too quickly. Nowadays I can blitz through it in a few days if I wanted.

[noiseredux]

I just started playing Link's Awakening again. I hadn't played it since it was originally released on GB. Right now I'm playing the GBC DX re-release, and it looks really amazing I must say. I had half-forgotten how incredible this game was.

[Ziggy]

Here's a little known fact, there's a Zelda BS-X game that is a direct sequel to Link to the Past. It's called LoZ: Ancient Stone Tablets.

Semi-spoiler alert: At the end of LttP, Link returns the sword to the pedestal. Ancient Stone Tablets is said to take place during Link's Awakening, so when Hyrule is in trouble, Link is MIA. So the elder zaps in an hero from another world (Earth) to save Hyrule. You're goal is to collect 8 ancient stone tables (from 8 dungeons, just like you collect the pendants and crystals in LttP).

The overworld is heavily modified, and the dungeons are all completely new. This game is great for some one like me, where every time I beat LttP I wish there was more games to play.... well, there is!

So since it was a title for the BS-X, it wasn't very playable until recently. Luckily, a team of people have worked to restore it. The game has been translated and most of the bugs have been fix. As of right, the game is playable on emulators. The problem is, since the game was original broadcast in four episodic parts, there are four separate ROMs that make up the entire game. They're looking for some one to combine the four ROMs into one, making it a complete game. I'll have to wait until they do to be able to put Ancient Stone Tablets on a cart so I can play it on real hardware. At least it's playable, from beginning to end, on an emulator.

Here's lots of pics of the game:
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/bszelda.shtml

And you can read more info about it here:
http://bszelda.zeldalegends.net/info.shtml#02

[fastbilly1]

Ziggy, as soon as you get that working, you tell me. Hell can you do an episode per cart?

[noiseredux]

Zig, I remember reading about this about a year ago. Very cool. Keep meaning to check it out for myself.