The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, known in Japan as The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Plus (ゼルダの伝説 4つの剣+, Zeruda no Densetsu: Yottsu no Tsurugi Purasu), is a video game in Nintendo‘s The Legend of Zelda series. It was released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan on March 18, 2004; in North America on June 7, 2004; in Europe on January 7, 2005; and in Australia on April 7, 2005. The Game Boy Advance handheld game console can be used as a controller when using the Nintendo GameCube Game Boy Advance Cable bundled with the game in North America.
The game takes Link on an adventure to restore peace to Hyrule after learning that an evil counterpart of himself, Shadow Link, has been created. He discovers that Ganon is the true villain and journeys to defeat him to retrieve the stolen trident. After defeating Ganon, Link seals him in the Four Sword and peace is returned to Hyrule.
Four Swords Adventures was considered the 48th-best game ever made on a Nintendo system by Nintendo Power, and received an aggregated 86 out of 100 from Metacritic. It is also the third-best selling game of June 2004 in North America, with 155,000 units, and has since sold 250,000 copies. It has also sold 127,000 units in Japan.
Plot
The game begins with the land of Hyrule in a state of fear because of strange happenings that have occurred recently. On a stormy night, Princess Zelda and the shrine maidens fear that the reason for these events is that Vaati’s seal is weakening. She summons Link and brings him to the castle so he can protect her and the other maidens while they open the portal to the Four Sword Sanctuary. When they do, however, a shadowy figure appears from the portal. This figure was Shadow Link, who then kidnapped the shrine maidens and sealed them in crystals. Link follows him to the sanctuary where he retrieves the Four Sword to destroy this doppelganger. The Four Sword is a magical sword that splits the wielder into four clones of himself. Vaati is once again released and wreaks havoc on the once peaceful kingdom.
As Link wanders the overworld of Hyrule Field on his quest to restore peace to Hyrule, he learns that the creation of his evil counterpart and the release of Vaati is only a small part in an insidious plot to take control of Hyrule. Things complicate as the dimension of the Dark World appears and people are being abducted throughout Hyrule. Link learns that not only have the knights of Hyrule mysteriously disappeared, but evil versions of them have been creating havoc. The castle has been taken over and monsters are appearing everywhere.
It is revealed later in the game that the true villain is Ganon, King of Darkness. He has stolen a powerful trident and used it to take control of parts of Hyrule. He stole the dark mirror and used it to create Shadow Link and then sent him to kidnap the shrine maidens and trick Link into releasing Vaati. In order to gain as much power as possible and build up his army, Ganon wants to take control of the shrine maidens’ power as well as abducting people and sending them into the Dark World where they would become part of his army. Vaati unknowingly furthered his plans by creating monsters to add to his army. It is revealed that the knights of Hyrule were murdered by Ganon and their souls were trapped in the Dark World where they became creatures of Darkness. Link eventually saves the shrine maidens, retrieves the Dark Mirror, destroys Shadow Link and Vaati, and faces Ganon in an ultimate showdown. Link defeats Ganon and seals him firmly in the Four Sword. Peace returns to Hyrule and the people celebrate as all traces of the evil that plagued Hyrule are vanquished.
(Source: Wikipedia)
