I just beat The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (Japanese version) for Cube. 😀 I got it last Thursday (April Fool’s Day) and beat it Sunday night (April 4th). What an awesome, awesome game! It was really highly addicting for me. I just couldn’t stop playing. I’d turn off my Cube to go do other things around the house and a few minutes later, I’d start playing again.
It’s completely playable with just one player. You can make your 4 Links go into formations with the c-stick, control one Link and have the rest follow you, or use the X button to control one at a time (all other Links become inactive). The Link you’re in control of can pick up other Links and throw them or take them to places that they’d otherwise wouldn’t be able to get to. It really made me think a lot on how to use all 4 Links that are available to you. The puzzles were sometimes really challenging.
There are some really nifty item upgrades (“level 2” weapons) that you can do. The upgrades only last for as long as you’re holding the item and if you change items, you’re back to the standard bombs, arrows, slingshot, fire rod, etc.
Multiplayer is pretty fun, but for me, it slowed me down in the main quest because all people playing have to agree on when to move on to the next screen… you can’t just go exploring the other parts of the level on your own (except inside of caves, houses, and other things that take place on the GBA).
The two other multiplayer games on there seem like they would be more fun if you had more than two people playing, especially Shadow Battle mode. Navi/Tetra’s Trackers can also be played as a single player game. It’s basically just a scavenger hunt where you’re looking for Tetra’s pirates in numeric order… you just keep going on for 9 minutes looking for the current number. You can also pick up items to boost your score, but it’s mostly finding the pirates first that make up the bulk of your score. Very interesting game… and in Japanese, the voice acting just seems really hilarious. Tetra is mostly just saying the current number that you’re on (I know that much Japanese… LOL, numbers are easy). She kind of starts chanting them along to the beat of the music that plays in the background. It’s really funny to listen to. People are much too busy looking at their GBA’s to pay attention to what’s going on on the TV screen, but there are also some animations that play throughout the 9 minutes (like the game guy from Wind Waker who talks through paintings with holes in them for his face).
If you’re planning on importing and don’t know Japanese, the language barrier can hinder you at some points in the main Hyrule Adventure game. There are certain parts in the game where a character will ask you for an item, or give you hints about the level that are essential to moving forward. I was only able to get through some of the things that involved knowledge of Japanese from posts over at GameFAQs. I can think of at least 6 instances where you’d have to understand what the characters are saying. Other than that, you can figure things out if you’ve played other Zelda games before.
This is definitely a must-have, if you’re a Zelda fan. This game has just become my favorite of all the Zelda games I’ve ever played because the puzzles were a nice challenge. 🙂