This is what games are meant to be! Its beauty is impossible to accurately portray in a mere sentence or two.
Before I begin, I would like to point out that almost all of my writings here will be a subjective one, and that it won't be a general review; I will provide details on few key points of the game that I think are worth noting, so I ask for the readers' understanding before hand.
If one was to ask the following question, "What is the greatest 'Legend of Zelda' game of all time?" it is most likely that the person will receive the following answer: 'Ocarina of Time'. As a matter of fact, if one was to ask what the greatest game of all time is, he/she will probably get the same answer, for the most part. While I personally love Ocarina of Time, if I was asked the same questions, I would unhesitatingly choose 'Link to the Past,' as the greatest of all time.
It is my personal belief that one of the best aspects in Link to the Past is its camera view. It plays in a traditional 2D top-down view, more or less, and at the time, developers didn't really have much choice as they do today. Even so, I stand by my opinion that for games like Zelda, isometric view just 'works' for number of reasons.
The main reason is due to the way dungeons are structured in Zelda. Zelda is a game where the player is challenged to overcome his/her environment; there are enemies to fight against, but enemies simply serve as the part of the puzzle in the environment, that is the dungeon, Link has to complete. The dungeons are intricately designed with various mind-boggling puzzles (this is the best aspect of Zelda games, and also what makes Zelda game, a Zelda game.) This is where eagle-eye camera view shines; because of the nature of the view, the structures of dungeons come more naturally to the players. It's similar to the way architects use the eagle-eye view blue prints to 'read' the layout of the building. As the players explore different areas of the dungeon, the brain can 'read' the dungeon more easily. It allows the player to appreciate the genius of the design, and allows the dungeons to be more complex. This advantage is applied not only on the dungeons but the entire world in Link to the Past.
Second reason, and this is even more subjective/personal, is the fact that players can see all sides of the character without having any disadvantages in the gameplay. Let's face it; Link is a pretty good looking lad, and a lovable character. Being able to enjoy the aesthetics of the character in all four directions and being able to watch him perform all kind of actions from all direction is definitely a plus. It gives a different feel, and certainly better than today's what I call "stare at your character's butt" third person view camera angle when it comes to the character view. I believe that if a game is focused around a character, it should provide the necessity to enjoy the character, and the isometric view certainly fulfills that need.
Another element that made me go "whoa! That's neat!" the first time I played through the game was the combat system. One can argue that there isn't much system to begin with, and for the most part it's true. However, when Link first picks up his blade, and fights against the soldiers with sword and shield in the castle, one realizes something that I think is truly breath-taking; one can't just swing blade randomly to win; the enemy's sword will parry the blade. This may not seem like such a huge deal, but it establishes two things that are crucial in a sword fight; direction and distance. The winner isn't decided upon who has the most DoT (damage over time) or who has the most superior equipment. In many games, the number of hits one needs to make on an enemy is almost fixed. Three attacks for a goblin at level one, two hits at level three so on and so forth. In LttP, that isn't so. Sometimes one may need two hits to take down an enemy; sometimes one may need as many as five or six, because the enemy's sword was in the way. The combat doesn't get trapped in an equation; it become live, becomes something that's dependent upon the player's skill. Of course, all of the Zelda game has the similar system, but personally, the isometric view shines here once again. Due to the camera view, one can easily see where Link is attacking, and how far the blade is reaching, letting the player's skill truly decide the victor, and not letting the game's system to drag it down.
The ingenuity of the dungeon's design, the great overall aesthetic feel and a rich world to explore and interact with are all part of what makes 'LttP' great, but those aspects are almost a given in most Zelda game, and most who have played or seen Zelda are familiar with it, so I'd rather not go into details about them. Plus, the review is getting a bit too lengthy, so I will discuss few things that I wished was in the game but wasn't, briefly.
There are really few details that I wished were fixed in 'LttP'; it doesn't affect the gameplay in any way, but it does make the overall artistic feel a bit different.
One of the things that I always have wanted was the two missing pixels in Link's face.
If one took a look at the profile view of Link's eyes in the game, one will
Notice two black pixels in vertical indicating his iris. However, in the front view, there is only one black pixel, which makes Link look a tad bit awkward. And I have always wished for those two black pixels to be added on the frontal view of Link. Call me pathetic, but those things apparently matter to me to some degree.
Another, and this one is really something the developers couldn't do anything about, is the perspective issue. If one enters a dungeon, one will notice that one can see all sides of the wall; this isn't quite like a top-down isometric view, and it certainly doesn't correlate with the perspectives of the characters. This was done so that one can see the hidden doors or cracks that can be opened with bombs with ease, for the dungeons in Legend of Zelda take players all over the place, but I always found it a bit awkward. It was a small price of artistic feel paid for gameplay, and I believe it was necessary to do it in such way at the time, but still can't help but wished that such was fixed.
The Final one, I may have a few agree with me on this one, is the fact that it's quite difficult to land a hit with the hurricane part of the hurricane attack. Sounds bizarre, but it's quite true. While Link is charging his blade to use the hurricane attack, he holds his sword out in the front; and almost all of the time, the enemy will get hit by the sword that's out in the front, and the actual hurricane misses, because the enemy gets knocked back. If there are multiple enemies it's possible to hit with the hurricane, but the enemy that one is focusing on, it's quite difficult to do so. Again, I couldn't give a scientific or objective reason as to why such feature upsets me, but it does.
If you have read this lengthy review all the way through, I truly appreciate you putting your time to read this subjective/amateur review. All in all, I have yet to stumble upon a game that had such a solid production of innovative ideas, great visual design, and overall enjoyment as much as Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past. Few have come close, but in my opinion, none have truly topped it. And to think that this game was released sixteen years ago, truly displays the genius of Sir Shigeru Miyamoto and the development team in Nintendo. Link to the Past is truly magnificent; it intrigues one's imagination, triggers their curiosity and let individuals explore, discover, and challenge the obstacles and to overcome them, interacting and performing variety of things that are non-existent in this world. Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is an instant classic, a work of art that shows what games are meant to be.