Description:
A Link to the Islands is a Wind Waker-inspired hack of A Link to the Past. It was originally called Lyra Islands and developed by SePH in 2004-2005, but it wasn't finished. In 2015, the Lyra Islands project was once again restarted with the goal of finishing the game one day. New overworlds and dungeons were made, and the original LTTP graphics were restored. The project was eventually renamed A Link to the Islands.
Expect to see:
- New overworld designs and maps.
- New Dark World design (Areas 43, 45, & 47 ONLY!).
- Hyrule Castle re-located.
- Kakariko Town re-located.
- New Lost Woods-style puzzle.
- Eight new dungeons and one mini-dungeon.
- Ganon gets his own tower in the Dark World.
- New monologue and in-game clues.
- New sprites.
- MSU-1 support.
- ASM hacks added.
- New ending cutscenes.
- Customized ending credits.
Unlike Parallel Worlds and Goddess of Wisdom, both of which are notorious for their unforgiving difficulty levels, A Link to the Islands is a game that's fair to everyone. There are no super tricks, stunts, or logic (i.e. masked objects, bomb jumping), while still having a decent level of difficulty. Though, some backtracking may be required at times. Still, you won't ever have to use save states. You will not be frustrated while playing.
Update 1/5/2021: A review pointed out three rooms with bridges in the forest dungeon (Level 4) where it was possible to go out of bounds because there are unintentional openings in the lower level under the bridges. This has been fixed. I also added an in-game hint on what to do if there are no switches or levers to blow up an exploding wall.
Update 1/10/2021: I fixed a softlock that I apparently overlooked in the Royal Crypt (graveyard mini-dungeon). It was possible to run out of keys and get stuck with nowhere to go not only due to a one-way shutter, but also because of the absence of the Magic Mirror. During development of this game, I stupidly placed the Magic Mirror next to the "stolen" Master Sword at the end of the Royal Crypt, which in turn created the softlock. I ended up moving the Magic Mirror to Level 3: Sky Tower (it was placed in a big chest next to the Magic Cape) to fix the softlock. Other than that, no other changes were made to existing rooms in the Royal Crypt.
Update 1/13/2021: I disabled the MSU-1 introductory video to fix a critical bug involving the L&R item switch ASM feature. This bug would occur when playing with MSU-1 and starting a new file, and the screen would glitch out if the player tried to use the shoulder buttons to switch items (this bug would go away with the player saving & quitting).
Update 1/31/2021: A buggy staircase in the Ice Palace that I apparently overlooked has now been fixed.
The MSU-1 soundpack for A Link to the Islands can be downloaded here: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ai3idpRXoXu17Xpmwxg5frUy8Q0k?e=uBKn8R
Screenshots:
