Why does A Link to the Past have a different name in Japan?

The game the West calls A Link to the Past is, in Japan, The Legend of Zelda: Triforce of the Gods, Kamigami no Triforce, released for the Super Famicom on November 21, 1991. Nintendo of America's content guidelines of the era barred religious references, and the subtitle was the first thing to go.

The same policy runs through the localisation. Agahnim is a priest in Japanese and a wizard in English. The building where Zelda hides is a church in Japanese and the Sanctuary in English. The Fat Fairy is a goddess, a megami, in the original. Even the unreadable Hylian script was redrawn, because its original letterforms borrowed the vulture and ankh from Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Japan's own official guidebook shows how different the home presentation could be: the Wonder Life guide for the game prints artwork of Link praying before a crucifix, imagery that was never republished in the West.

The boxes split the same way. Japan's cover is a full painting, Link standing in the Lost Woods with the Master Sword upright on its pedestal behind him. North America's cover removes the characters entirely and offers an emblem instead: the Master Sword over a gold shield on a dark ground, the red ZELDA lettering doing the talking. Same game, two philosophies of what a cover is for.