When Four Swords Adventures released in 2004, it was notable for being the first 2D Zelda console game in 13 years. The previous title to make this claim, A Link to the Past, appeared to be a significant source of inspiration for Four Swords Adventures’ graphical style, and the original Four Swords was
With all this in mind, it’s fitting that a reference Four Swords Adventures would hide a reference to A Link to the Past, considering how much the game owes to its iconic predecessor.
In the Death Mountain Foothills stage, there is an area called Hebra’s Hill. “Hebra” may sound familiar for players of Breath of the Wild, which had a region that went by the same name, but what does it have to do with A Link to the Past? Well, in the Japanese version of A Link to the Past, the original name of the Light World’s Death Mountain was “Hebra Mountain”.
Zelda Legends translated the Japanese and English manuals of A Link to the Past, noting the differences between the two. In their notes on the manual of Zelda no Densetsu: Kamigami no TORAIFO-SU (Triforce of the Gods), they explain:
“Technically speaking, in the Japanese version, it is Hebra Mountain in the Light World and Death Mountain in the Dark World.”
Another interesting bit from these Japanese translations is that there is apparently a “race of people in the high mountains” in A Link to the Past. It could just be nothing more than flavor text, but it’s possible that this shows signs of a very early concept of the Gorons, before their introduction to the series in Ocarina of Time.
