A review by blainembentley
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords -Legendary Edition- by Akira Himekawa

5.0

This legendary edition combines part 1 and part 2 of the Four Swords Manga. As both volumes combined in this edition makes a whole cohesive story, I won’t talk about each book separately in my review and instead talk about both together.

To start off, my only complaint is that this book wasn’t in full color. With Link separating into four different Links and the only differentiation is the color of their clothes, it would have been nice to have it in color to visually see who was who. The manga did a great job of giving each Link a different personality, so it was easier to differentiate in the dialogue and facial expressions of the Links. However, it still would have been really beneficial to have more of a visual indicator of color. 

I really liked this one when you look at it from an adaptation perspective. In past ones it was fun to have them incorporate the dungeons/bosses into the story. However, these felt very rushed in general. Other stories had tried to cut out the dungeons from the story, but they suffered from not having Link grow/progress. Link was just stronger at the end with no show of his progression. In this story, I feel they did a great job of leaving out the dungeons, which kept the pacing perfect for the story. At the same time, they added in their own elements that allowed Link to grow and progress and we could see that progression/growth. I think having the Links separate, although not in the game, so beneficial for the story and it really made a better story in my opinion. I also loved the idea that shadow Link would try to convince one of the Links to go evil. Overall this made for a really compelling story and it didn’t feel like I was reading a video game, as the others have.