A Link to the Past What the Heck Just Happened?!

[zeldafan123]

I just finished ALTTP just a few minutes ago and now I am so confused. I tried to do a 100% run of the game but I didn't manage it, but one thing I did manage was get all of the sword upgrades. I got the two sword upgrades into the Golden Sword and it made most of the enemies in the game really easy to fight, but as I watched the ending cutscene something really confused me, well I say confused but I mean I found it really dumb. When Link puts the Master Sword to rest it has returned to its normal appearance. I know that Nintendo made it return to normal because they wouldn't want to replace the Master Sword, but it just made me wonder, why would they let you upgrade the sword if they were just going to return it back to normal at the end of the game? Nintendo logic I guess.

 

[MW7]

Yeah it doesn't make sense. The appearance should be whatever you upgraded to in theory, but I think for the purposes of the story they just simplified it (for themselves by making only one version of the sword for the ending) and in doing so made it more confusing for the player. At least it is still technically the Master Sword because you only find two swords in the game- the one your uncle gives you and the Master Sword- but upgrade the Master Sword.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

It know, it makes no sense!! Maybe because appearance doesn't really have any real importance in the story, or it could just be a game mistake.

 

[Ronin]

Well, perhaps even if it wasn't shown, the Master Sword reverted back to its original form because the purpose of the Golden Sword was complete. They just didn't show the reversion since it wasn't all that necessary. After all, the MS needed to go back to the Blade of Evil's Bane so that it could continue to be that. The way I see it (or more correctly, understand it), the Golden Sword was simply required to help defeat the antagonist (Agahnim I believe) of that time.

 

[Mr.Alttp]

My memory is a bit cloudy, but didn't one of the ports fix that? like the virtual console port?

 

[Phantom Roxas]

Probably because upgrading the sword has nothing to do with the actual story of the game. It's just an addition that players can choose whether or not to receive.
It also wouldn't make sense from a timeline perspective if the Master Sword was changed and didn't return back to normal.

The only way it wouldn't make sense from a timeline perspective would be its appearance in the Oracle games.

 

[guapo2003]

Yeah that's Nintendo logic for you, unless the programmers didn't think when they were scrypting it.

 

[Kprizzy]

i thought the majority of gameplay mechanics were not considered canon?
the game revolves around the master sword and getting it upgraded is not needed to complete the game. the logic is that although it can be upgraded, its not canon.

 

[linebyline]

I suppose it could be spackled or handwaved as a result of the Triforce rebooting everything at the end of the game. But then why did Link still have it?

It's probably just a sprite issue, like Eggman in Knuckles' story in Sonic & Knuckles where they didn't have a front-facing Egg Robo to put in the cockpit of the Flying Battery Zone boss. They probably just didn't make a sprite of the upgraded versions of the Master Sword in that particular position, whether for technical reasons, time/budget constraints, or they just decided it wasn't important.