The player assumes the role of Link as he journeys to save Hyrule, defeat the demon king Ganon, and rescue the descendants of the Seven Sages.

A Link to the Past is widely considered among the greatest video games ever made, with particular praise for its presentation and innovative gameplay.

It was ported to the Game Boy Advance as A Link to the Past and Four Swords in 2002, and sold 6.5 million copies across both platforms by 2004.

[5] The player explores the overworld of Hyrule while entering dungeons in order to defeat bosses and receive items necessary for completing Link's quest.

This leaves a special portal behind that allows him to return through it, though it is erased if Link uses the Magic Mirror in the Dark World.

[6][page needed] [7][page needed] [8][9][10] A Link to the Past is a distant prequel to the original The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link,[11][12][13] and, within the official chronology, is the first game in the "Defeated Hero" timeline that connects to an alternate reality scenario where the Hero of Time does not succeed in Ocarina of Time.

[5] Before the events of the game, the descendants of the Seven Sages who imprisoned Ganon are captured, Princess Zelda included, and, one by one, sent to the Dark World.

[15] Zelda remains in the Sanctuary with the priest, who tells Link that Agahnim is a powerful wizard planning to free Ganon from the Dark World, after he was imprisoned for attempting to use the Triforce for evil purposes.

In the ending, his uncle, the priest, and the King of Hyrule are all resurrected, everyone trapped in the Dark World comes home, and Link later puts the Master Sword back into its pedestal.

This game broke the trend by using 8 Mbit (1 MB), allowing the Nintendo development team to create a remarkably expansive world for Link to inhabit.

Producer Shigeru Miyamoto originally intended the game to feature a party, "one that consists of the protagonist, ... a magic user, and a girl".

[19][20] The script was written by series newcomer Kensuke Tanabe,[20] while Yoshiaki Koizumi was responsible for the background story explained in the instruction manual.

[21] Due to time constraints, certain features were cut from the final release, such as the ability to cause wildfires in grassy areas (which would later be incorporated into Four Swords Adventures).

The overworld theme of The Legend of Zelda ("Hyrule Overture") returns in A Link to the Past, redone in S-SMP style.

A soundtrack to Kamigami no Triforce, entitled The Legend of Zelda: Sound and Drama, was released by Sony Records in Japan on June 22, 1994.

The first disc is 44 minutes long and features rearranged versions of a selection of the game's themes, along with a bonus drama track.

The font used to represent an unreadable language, Hylian, was based on Egyptian hieroglyphs, which carry religious meanings, and it was altered in the English version.

[30] There was no wide awareness of the room until the 2000s, more than a decade after the release of A Link to the Past with the increased popularity of the Internet and Super NES emulators.

[33][59] Famitsu's four reviewers Tofuya Famibou, Muzno, Mariko Morishita and Giorgio Nakaji gave the game high scores.

He also praised the overworld for its secrets and "quirky random characters", adding that playing it required patience and exploring.

[29] A comic book adaptation of A Link to the Past illustrated by Shotaro Ishinomori was published in Nintendo Power that was serialized for 12 issues from January to December 1992.

Both follow the game's plot more closely, and the latter introduced a new character called "Ghanti", a thief with a single devil's horn and a star under her eye.

[104] Beginning on March 2, 1997, a simple unaltered re-release of the original Japanese version of A Link to the Past was broadcast via Satellaview.

Designed exclusively for the Super Famicom's Satellaview peripheral, BS Zelda made use of a voice broadcast system, SoundLink, to provide voice-acting for several characters.

[111] The game takes place six years after the events in A Link to the Past and is set in Hyrule's Light World.

These episodes were played live, and a voice-acted soundtrack simultaneously ran on the satellite network, sometimes containing suggestions, clues, and plot development for the game currently being broadcast.

[114] The port of A Link to the Past contains minor changes from the original, including the addition of voice clips and other sound effects taken from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

[117] In 2011, Shigeru Miyamoto expressed desire to have A Link to the Past remade for the Nintendo 3DS, stating how attractive the two layers would look.

Height and depth play a large role by taking advantage of the 3D feature of the 3DS, while maintaining the traditional top-down perspective.

[120] A Link to the Past has been prominently represented in other Zelda-related media since its original release, chiefly the Super Smash Bros. series.