Era of Myth to the Hero of Time
Four Swords
2002 · Game Boy Advance
According to the legend told at the start of Four Swords, a wind sorcerer named Vaati once terrorized Hyrule and carried off young women until a boy sealed him inside his sword. The girls said the boy had split into four to defeat him. So the people called the blade the Four Sword and built a shrine to keep it.
Princess Zelda, born with the power to sense approaching evil, is charged with guarding the shrine. When she senses something wrong there, she asks Link to come with her. Vaati breaks out of the sword and takes Zelda to his Palace of Winds. Link draws the Four Sword, splits into four Links and gathers the keys to the palace from the Great Fairies.
It follows The Minish Cap, where Vaati and the Four Sword first appear. It comes before Ocarina of Time. Four Swords Adventures, in the child timeline, returns to the same sword and the same sorcerer.
Starring
- Hero
- Link
- Princess
- Princess Zelda
- Villain
- Vaati
Where to play it
- Game Boy Advance2002 · the original
- Nintendo DSi2011 · Anniversary Edition
Its place in history
Also connected
- Four Swords Adventures (2004)Vaati escapes the Four Sword again and Link splits into four again
Sources
- Hyrule Historia (2011; Dark Horse EN 2013)
- Nintendo official Zelda chronicle (JP, updated Sep 2026)
- Zelda Wiki — Zelda Timeline
- Zelda Wiki — Four Swords