ZELDA NO DENSETSU: YOTTSU NO TSURUGI+
STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
2
RELEASE
May 27, 2005
CHAPTERS
12
DESCRIPTION
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.
CAST
Link
Zelda
Vio
Red
Blue
Green
Shadow Link
CHAPTERS
RELATED TO ZELDA NO DENSETSU: YOTTSU NO TSURUGI+
REVIEWS
ratbus
80/100A surprisingly good manga, for what it is.Continue on AniListMaybe this review is a little biased, but please bear with me. Hopefully I don't ramble too much.
A few years back, as I was both a fan of manga and the Legend of Zelda, I got the Legend of Zelda manga boxset. Of course, at the time I loved them all, especially Four Swords+. However, after playing quite a few more Zelda games and reading more manga, I can see just how mediocre almost all the Zelda manga are because of how condensed they are.
I say almost, because after many rereadings of the Four Sword+ manga, I still think it's well done.
One thing that makes this manga stand out among the others is the game it's based on, Four Swords Adventures. This game was very light on story, with the only noteworthy thing being the beginning of the game where Link is split in four. Because the story is so light, Himekawa Akira was able to use artistic liberty expand on the story, instead of condensed. They even put their Four Swords+ story in two volumes, instead of the usual one volume.
I also appreciate that the Link and the four Links he's split into (Green, Red, Blue, and Vio) aren't completely "good," per say, as other incarnations of him in the manga often are. From the beginning, Link is a bit rude and brash, and this is only further amplified when he's split into four people.
The fact that the Links can't cooperate with each other because of their wildly different personalities adds conflict within their group on top of the conflict that's already going on. They all show that they're each their own person, instead of a group of four slightly different Links. While one of the four Links (Vio) gets a bit more fleshed out than the others, I feel like this was fine because he's definitely the most "complex," personality-wise, anda lot more plot relevant in the middle of the manga than the others.
A final thing I like is how Himekawa fleshed out the villain, Shadow Link. In the games, he's just sort of there, but Himekawa gives him a personality and motives. He's not just a simple villain character, as in most of the other Zelda manga.And his complete face-heel turn at the end definitely gives him a lot more character than in the games.
Now, I guess it's time to talk about the problems. My main issue with the manga was how heavily they focused on Green, just because he was the "standard" of the four Links. There were certain other situations where I feel like focusing on a different Link would have been better.
The manga also could have been better if it had a few more volumes. I'm not talking a full series, just maybe one or two more, just to help flesh out our main villain, Vaati, and the blue and red Links a bit better.
My last qualm is that while Shadow Link is fleshed out well, our "final boss" is not. It's especially odd if you read the Minish Cap manga (which takes place before Four Swords+), where Vaati repents for his actions at the end. How did he go from Minish Cap to Four Swords+? I would have liked some explanation, even just a few pages.
Overall, while this may not be an exceptional manga comparing it to manga as a whole, it's really good for an adaption of a video game.
SIMILAR MANGAS YOU MAY LIKE
SCORE
- (3.5/5)
MORE INFO
Ended inMay 27, 2005
Favorited by 65 Users