A long, long time ago the World was in an age of Chaos. In the middle of this chaos, in a small kingdom in the land of Hyrule, legends told of the Triforce, golden triangles possessing mystical powers. One day, an evil army attacked this peaceful little kingdom and stole the Triforce of Power. This army was led by Ganon, the powerful Prince of Darkness, who sought to plunge the world into fear and darkness under his rule.

Fearing his wicked rule, Zelda, the princess of this kingdom, split up the Triforce of Wisdom into eight fragments and hid them throughout the realm to save the last remaining Triforce from the clutches of the evil Ganon. At the same time, she commanded her most trustworthy nursemaid, Impa, to secretly escape into the land and go find a man with enough courage to destroy the evil Ganon. Upon hearing this, Ganon grew angry, imprisoned the princess, and sent out a party in search of Impa.

Braving forests and mountains, Impa fled for her life from her pursuers. As she reached the very limit of her energy, she found herself surrounded by Ganon's evil henchmen. Cornered! What could she do? ... But wait! All was not lost - a young lad appeared and skillfully drove off Ganon's henchmen, saving Impa from a fate worse than death.

The young man's name was Link. He had come across Impa and Ganon's henchmen in the course of his travels. Impa told Link the whole story of the princess Zelda and the evil Ganon. Burning with a sense of justice, Link resolved to save Zelda. But Ganon was a powerful opponent, for he held the Triforce of Power. To fight him, Link would need to bring together the scattered eight fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom to rebuild the mystical triangle. If he couldn't do this, there would be no chance Link could fight his way into Death Mountain where Ganon lived.

To help Link on his quest, Impa told him the history of the land of Hyrule, and the layout of the nine underground secret labyrinths. Link wrote down what Impa told him, drawing the layout of each labyrinth. Impa also recounted Zelda's parting words to Link. Princess Zelda had anticipated the difficulty of finding the entrances to the last three labyrinths. She gave clues to Impa, who passed them on to Link.