Maybe this review is a little biased, but please bear with me. Hopefully I don't ramble too much.
A few years back, as I was both a fan of manga and the Legend of Zelda, I got the Legend of Zelda manga boxset. Of course, at the time I loved them all, especially Four Swords+. However, after playing quite a few more Zelda games and reading more manga, I can see just how mediocre almost all the Zelda manga are because of how condensed they are.
I say almost, because after many rereadings of the Four Sword+ manga, I still think it's well done.
One thing that makes this manga stand out among the others is the game it's based on, Four Swords Adventures. This game was very light on story, with the only noteworthy thing being the beginning of the game where Link is split in four. Because the story is so light, Himekawa Akira was able to use artistic liberty expand on the story, instead of condensed. They even put their Four Swords+ story in two volumes, instead of the usual one volume.
I also appreciate that the Link and the four Links he's split into (Green, Red, Blue, and Vio) aren't completely "good," per say, as other incarnations of him in the manga often are. From the beginning, Link is a bit rude and brash, and this is only further amplified when he's split into four people.
The fact that the Links can't cooperate with each other because of their wildly different personalities adds conflict within their group on top of the conflict that's already going on. They all show that they're each their own person, instead of a group of four slightly different Links. While one of the four Links (Vio) gets a bit more fleshed out than the others, I feel like this was fine because he's definitely the most "complex," personality-wise, and
A final thing I like is how Himekawa fleshed out the villain, Shadow Link. In the games, he's just sort of there, but Himekawa gives him a personality and motives. He's not just a simple villain character, as in most of the other Zelda manga.
Now, I guess it's time to talk about the problems. My main issue with the manga was how heavily they focused on Green, just because he was the "standard" of the four Links. There were certain other situations where I feel like focusing on a different Link would have been better.
The manga also could have been better if it had a few more volumes. I'm not talking a full series, just maybe one or two more, just to help flesh out our main villain, Vaati, and the blue and red Links a bit better.
My last qualm is that while Shadow Link is fleshed out well, our "final boss" is not. It's especially odd if you read the Minish Cap manga (which takes place before Four Swords+), where Vaati
Overall, while this may not be an exceptional manga comparing it to manga as a whole, it's really good for an adaption of a video game.
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