Though it may be one of the lesser-known members of the Zelda family, Four Swords Adventures is a unique one that has always been a personal favorite of mine. Released after The Wind Waker and before Twilight Princess, this game was the product of an era where Link from The Wind Waker was the most widely recognized incarnation of the character. However, while the final version of Four Swords Adventures ended up being aesthetically similar to The Wind Waker, the history of the game shows that it may have originally had a more traditional design.
The Minish Cap and the original Four Swords share an art style that is somewhat reminiscent of The Wind Waker. But strangely, Four Swords Adventures, despite being a sequel to Four Swords, doesn’t share this style; instead, it goes back in time by reusing some sprites from A Link To The Past. Cliffs and several enemies in Four Swords Adventures originate from A Link To The Past rather than Four Swords. I always thought this was weird, but it does give the game a unique look, so I never thought too much about it. As it turns out, this inconsistency may actually be a sign indicating which direction Four Swords Adventures was originally going to take.
Early footage of Four Swords Adventures shows that the similarities to A Link To The Past used to go even deeper. The four Links all resemble Link from A Link To The Past instead of Link from Four Swords, and even more visual assets from the former can be seen in the overworld, such as the pillars from Eastern Hyrule. It’s also worth mentioning that Four Swords was released about a year prior to Four Swords Adventures, meaning that the Four Swords art assets were available for use; therefore, their absence in the game was likely intentional.
While the game definitely looks more like A Link To The Past, there’s still evidence to suggest that the art style of The Wind Waker was being considered during the development of Four Swords Adventures. From the Rupee icon to the iconic smoke clouds, it seems that the Wind Waker aesthetic was always meant to have a presence in Four Swords Adventures.
Imagining a version of Four Swords Adventures that fully emulates A Link To The Past’s art style is fun, but the reality of the situation is probably far less interesting. While it is true that the assets for Four Swords were likely available to the developers of Four Swords Adventures for a decent amount of time, there’s a good chance that the sequel’s development began before those assets were even created, so the sprites from A Link To The Past that remain in the final version may just be placeholders that never ended up being replaced. It’s also possible that there wasn’t even a discussion about which style to focus on, so they used whatever was available at the time and things just fell into place. But regardless of the history behind Four Swords Adventure’s art style, the end result is a lovable combination of two iconic visions of Hyrule, which is fitting for a game that exists as a combination of two iconic consoles.
