The Legend of Zelda: Linked Through Time

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A franchise as big as The Legend of Zelda deserves a proper celebration of its history. There have been many highs and lows, fun times and hardships over the years, and there's only one way to do this series the justice it deserves. By revisiting the entire Zelda lineup in a way that's both nostalgic and refreshing, all in one massive game.
== Prologue ==
The game begins with a simplified, top-down recreation of the Ganondorf battle at the end of Ocarina of Time (not to be confused with Ganon, this is specifically referring to Ganondorf's original Gerudo form), where the player controls Link and must deflect Ganondorf's projectiles back at him in the typical style of Dead Man's Volley, followed by firing a light arrow when he's stunned and subsequently striking at him up close with the Master Sword. When approaching Ganondorf the camera shifts to appear similar to Z-targeting, reminding the player that this game still has 3D depth to it, and a prompt to mash the sword button appears.
After dealing enough damage, the cutscene right before the tower collapses plays... but something different happens. Rather than cause the tower to crumble, Ganondorf brandishes his Triforce of Power and begins making a brief speech:
"You think you're some kind of hero, don't you...? You think you're saving people... Saving the world... But I know better. You're just some little brat who thinks he's special, and you see all of this as nothing more than a game. Well, I've got news for you, kid... This game's over. It's time for the grownups to take serious matters into their own hands."
Link and Zelda look at each other, completely awestruck. Navi is just as clueless as the other two, and lets out a defeated twinkle. Ganondorf gets up to his feet and laughs with a bloody cough.
"You seem surprised... As to be expected. But I don't need to waste my time explaining everything to you. If you're such a hero, if you think you can save everything and everyone... Why don't you see if you can't save yourself?"
Link stands in front of Zelda to protect her before the screen gets filled with a white light, which then fades to black.
The camera pans back to reveal a stone brick wall, which has a crack in the middle with a black aura emanating from it. The scene is depicing Zelda's quarters from A Link Between Worlds, and Yuga runs to the wall to escape through that crack. The Link from A Link Between Worlds folows after him, and when he enters the room is also when the player gets back control in the same top-down perspective, followed by a prompt telling the player how to wall-merge.
Link automatically enters the crack, triggering the transition to Lorule Castle, and the player is given the prompt to un-merge. Link then automatically goes to the room with Yuga and his sage paintings, though unlike in A Link Between Worlds, Yuga is still in the process of summoning Ganon (not to be confused with Ganondorf, this is specifically referring to his beast form). Link fires an arrow at Yuga, making him stumble and slowing the summoning process.
A boss battle against Yuga begins, partially mimicking his Hyrule Castle fight from A Link Between Worlds, but this time he can summon walls that Link must merge with to navigate a maze. The fight ends with the two entering a wall with a layour similar to some dungeon rooms in the original Legend of Zelda - four flaming heads in the corners of a large rectangular room that spit fireballs at Link. Link's merge meter becomes a timer for the final phase, though failing simply leads to a different cutscene where Yuga mocks Link for being too brash and facing him without thinking of the consequences.
Yuga gets launched out of the wall, careening into the back of the chamber. Muttering insults under his breath, he surrounds Link with walls so he can't be interrupted. But Link fires one last arrow, misaligning one of the paintings, and Yuga and Link are consumed by a white light.
This entire sequence can be skipped by pausing the game at any point and selecting "Skip prologue," at which point the player will be asked twice to confirm.
== Chapter 1 - Link's Awakening... And Link's, Too ==
The two Links - who shall be called Link of Time and Link of Worlds respectively to avoid confusion, with their name being from the name of their game of origin - find themselves washed upon a beach, and when they see each other they become confused, inspecting one another cautiously. But before things get too weird, Navi flies in and greets Link of Time, but gets just as confused as Link of Times did when she sees Link of Worlds.
After they get introduced to one another, Navi explains she found herself on this beach a few minutes prior to them, and that she had met a young girl with red hair before she came out looking for Link of Time. Link of Worlds dash-charged in the direction where Navi came from, to which Navi and Link of Time stare in awe before following after him.
Eventually the three reunite in a small village, and in one house was the girl Navi spoke of; wearing a hibiscus flower in her hair, a long blue dress and a pair of sandals, she was singing at a table while she was cooking. She stops and turns around when she hears the door, and her demeanor changes to be even more excited when she sees she has visitors. She introduces herself to them that her name is Marin, and invites them to stay for dinner.
The game fades to Marin and the Links eating soup at the table, and Navi asks Marin questions about the island. It's called Koholint, she's lived here her whole life and a lot of weird things have been happening as of late. The island started warping around her, and it's the worst by the Wind Fish's Egg at the top of Mt. Tamaranch. Link of Time stops eating and stands on his feet, and Navi says he wants to check it out. Marin shakes her head and says it'll be dangerous to go alone - an obvious Zelda 1 reference - and Link of Worlds follows Link of Time's lead as if to say he won't be alone. Reluctantly, Marin agrees to show them, saying it's to the north.
This is when control finally returns to the player, and as with the previous cutscene, it's entirely skippable.
== Chapter 2 - Control Schemes and Multiplayer ==
The two Links can be controlled in two different ways - Traditional and Simultaneous - and after Marin's introductory cutscene concludes, the player can decide which control scheme to use. This can be changed later in the options menu.
If Traditional is selected, the player is in control of only one Link at any given time, and can freely switch between the two. Either analog stick will move the controlled Link, and two buttons will be assigned for each action. This is to accommodate for JoyCon controls, as a single Joycon only has half the buttons as two paired JoyCons and slightly more than half of a Switch Pro controller. Pressing the left shoulder button - or ZL, for simplicity's sake - will switch control to Link of Time when in control of Link of Worlds, pressing the right shoulder button - which will be referred to as ZR - will do the inverse, returning control back to Link of Worlds. Pressing both triggers simultaneously - or alternatively, L and R - will achieve the same effect. Pressing L or R separately causes the controlled Link to do their respective unique abilities; Link of Time will strafe as if Z-targeting when held, and Link of Worlds will merge with the nearest possible wall. Pressing ZL as Link of Time or ZR as Link of Worlds will achieve the same effect.
Alternatively, the Simultaneous control scheme is designed moreso with cooperative multiplayer in mind. The left analog stick moves Link of Time, while the right analog stick moves Link of Worlds. L and ZL correspond to Link of Time's strafing, and R and ZR trigger Link of World's merging. The game will also detect whether the controller connected is a pair of separated JoyCons, and will automatically change their input mappings internally to register R on the left JoyCon as ZL and L on the right JoyCon as ZR. This does not affect the input mappings for anything else on the system.
There is, however, a third control scheme only accessible if two controllers are connected as separate players: Split. Split functions identically to Traditional, except ZL and ZR perform the exclusive action at all times and do not switch which Link is being controlled. Instead, if both players wish to exchange control between the Links, L and R must be pressed on both players' controllers simultaneously, similar to how players must press Z simultaneously to swap positions in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.
Category:The Legend of Zelda (series)