I've doubted that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past really DESERVED that "Great" I gave it. But considering how many times I've played and re-played it, I don't doubt it anymore. I've been playing it this time around with the decomp/PC port which adds some quality of life features. Some of them are neat, but not all of them (widescreen doesn't draw new tiles when you get to the edge of the screen) and the text runs a bit fast. In the end, I wouldn't recommend it in the end due to how it screws up the credits timing and cuts off the last few second's of the ending's music (I reported this back in February and it still hasn't been fixed). Perhaps a ROM hack like this one might be preferable instead but I've never tested it. Other than the credits issue, much like the PC port of Ocarina of Time it's a generally superior experience to an emulator. Yet, even with the decomp port, there's still things you can and can't do. You can't re-enter Hyrule Castle after beating Agahnim the first time, for instance. You can, however, reach rupees and other items with the sword. That was one QoL improvement that was implemented in later games, including the GBA port, as well as fixing a bug that had made Mothula immune to damage from the sword (and it's a HARD boss to beat even with the sword, much less without one).

At this point, there's no story beats that I'm missing, yes, Zelda is fine in the Sanctuary up until the moment you get the Master Sword, and no matter how long you fool around in the Light World after world, you're just "seconds too late". Heck, you don't even have to talk to the Priest (localized as the Sage) anyway. He disappears and goes off to the Dark World, though his counterpart in the same location doesn't seem to be him.

Speaking of counterparts, when Link first arrives in the Dark World, he is a pink rabbit. A line in the game, when you talk to one of the people transformed up there, "Oh? Who are you, Mr. Bunny? This world is like the real world, but evil has twisted it. The Golden Power is what changed your shape to reflect what is in your heart and mind. I am always changing my mind, so I turned into a ball... But if you have a ball called the Moon Pearl, you can keep your original shape here" which indicates that Link's heart and soul is one of those garden-ruining pests, though apparently it's supposed to represent Link's innocence. Yes, Link's innocence...a boy who willingly slaughters soldiers who are out of their minds, terrorizing poultry, walking into peoples' houses and looting their belongings (and destroying every pot they have), and generally making a mess of things. (Appropriately, the comic that ran in Nintendo Power for several issues had Link turn into some sort of wolfman in the Dark World).

There's also a few things that I wanted to address from the original reviews. It really is a "vital 'link'" between the 3D Zelda games and the NES Zelda games because of the way dungeons are structured. There's themes and the use of the dungeon's items to venture further, but very few puzzle rooms, and many "trap" rooms (just a dead-end with enemies and the door locks behind you). Link's Awakening is really the one that moved the series forward with that.

Another thing I should note that when I said I "died no more and no less than 100 times" that's not quite accurate, the original SNES game treats saving and quitting as a Game Over and count that against you, something I didn't really realize until later.

About that translation in the original SNES version, too...Link's uncle dies saying "Zelda is your ..." which of course was popularly thought to be "sister". Everyone had Star Wars still on their mind in 1992, and even now it's the first thing that comes up in this YouTube video. Even knowing the end of the game and realizing it doesn't make sense (Link is the lineage of the Knights of Hyrule, Zelda is lineage of royalty), it's still fun to think of "sister" as the missing word. The GBA version changes this so he outright says it is our people (the Knights of Hyrule lineage) fated to rescue Zelda. And no, he doesn't have pink hair.