Four Swords Adventures is an incredibly unique game in the Legend of Zelda series. The focus on multiplayer and puzzle-solving led way to the creation of many unconventional and entertaining regions, levels, and dungeons. Among all these interesting locations, the Village of the Blue Maiden stands out as one of the most engaging and challenging.
The second level of the second chapter, t
The Links learn
In order to solve the mystery and help the village, the Links need to enter the Dark World to solve the mystery. To do this, they must find Moon Pearls and use them to activate the portals to the Dark World, the Moon Gates.
Once they use the first Moon Pearl and visit the first part of the Dark World, the Links are free to explore the entirety of the town. The layout of the village is incredibly simple, being comprised of only five main residential areas, but the supposed sorcery at play makes each section a challenge. Nothing is as it seems, and every part of every section has a purpose.
There is panic in the air over the disappearances, so the villagers turn to Seeker’s Guild, a group of do-gooders and investigators, to find (demand) answers. Upon speaking with the leader of these Seekers, Link is given the task of communicating with the other members of the group to find out what they have learned about the town’s problems.
To meet the leader of the Seeker’s Guild the Links must first solve the puzzle of how to skip the line and use the obvious secret entrance.
Once the mission is underway, it’s time for the Links to explore the village, find the clues, and rescue everyone. There are puzzles to solve, though they are unorthodox for a Zelda game. For example, this is the first time Link has needed to use the Pegasus Boots to shake a crowd of people out of the way in order to get to the other side of a field. Out-of-the-box thinking is essential for completing this level.
They start out somewhat convoluted, but the puzzles are simple once it’s clear what needs to be done. How some of these challenges are linked (pun intended) is very clever.
At a certain point, the Links need to help a man find his house and girlfriend, both of which have literally vanished without a trace. To solve this problem they first need to find another Moon Pearl to gain access to the Dark World. Once in the Dark World, they meet a young mage who has lost her magic book and needs it back in order to return to the light world. She tried to figure it out on her own but only ended up summoning a tiny, doll-sized house (c
Eventually, the Links figure everything out, find all needed items in an almost-trading-quest sequence, give the book to the mage, and reunite the man with his house and his girlfriend. The Links then enter the house to access a secret passageway that leads to the eastern end of the village so they can confront and defeat the true villain responsible for all the bad happenings: the ever-persistent and malicious Shadow Link.
The village and its inhabitants — freed from their misfortunes in a convenient, almost sitcom-style manner — thank the Links for their help and bid him farewell. The Links depart the village as the good Samaritans they are and proceed to their next destination.
The Village of the Blue Maiden is amazing in regards to how well it plays to Four Swords Adventures’ strengths. The mystery of what is unknown and the lack of clear direction makes this level a puzzling challenge and a great change of pace from what is typically seen in many Zelda games.
