The Master Sword being a sword that would get pulled out from its pedestal by those chosen appears to be derived from the Arthurian Legend of Excalibur, also known as the "sword in the stone". Similar to how King Arthur was divinely chosen to be able to pull out Excalibur, Link was given the power by the Goddesses to pull out the Master Sword. Because of these similarities, the Master Sword was renamed to "Excalibur" in the French localizations of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

In a 2020 interview about Luigi's Mansion 3, the game's lead producer Kensuke Tanabe (who was also the scenario writer for A Link to the Past) compared a shift during the game's development to an early idea that was scrapped during A Link to the Past's development, revealing that the game originally had multiple parallel worlds but it had to be cut down to just two—those being the worlds of Light and Dark.

"When that happens, I try not to cling to that initial idea too much. For example, this is when I was working on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. At first, we were thinking about structuring the game with numerous parallel worlds. However, in order to establish the gameplay in the end, we decided that it would be better to narrow it down to two worlds: Light and Dark. I think game development involves much work where you never know unless you actually test it out."

In a similar way that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link revealed that the entirety of the map from The Legend of Zelda was just a portion of the former game's map, the entirety of the first game's map makes up where Death Mountain is located in A Link to the Past.

In 1/92 interview with the game's producer Shigeru Miyamoto published in the edition of Famicom Tsuushin magazine, he was asked if the SNES version of Zelda would be the same as the Super Famicom version. He responded that him and his team thought about making some improvements to the SNES version, including a number of things they could not complete in time for the Super Famicom release. Zelda makes full use of the available 8 MB of ROM space, but they knew they were going to need extra space for the English translation. They initially planned to increase the ROM size by 1 MB to solve this, until the compression routine their programmers wrote actually allowed them to fit everything in the original 8 MB storage. Miyamoto joked that they would save those aforementioned improvements for the next game.

In 1/92 interview with the game's producer Shigeru Miyamoto published in the edition of Famicom Tsuushin magazine, he revealed that him and his team began developing the game at the same time as Super Mario World. Even back when they initially revealed the Super Famicom at the company in July, 1989, their plan had always had been to make and release the game alongside Super Mario World as a launch title for the new system. They were hoping to release the game in March of 1991, but it was delayed into the Summer, until it was finally released on the one-year anniversary of the release of the Super Famicom on November 21, 1991.

In a Japan-exclusive Shogakukan Wonder Life Special guidebook authored by Nintendo and Ape Inc., there is artwork depicting Link praying before a Crucifix, contrasting the game's origin story of the three Golden Goddesses, but also fitting with the Japanese version of the game calling the Sanctuary a Church. The Church's name was changed to the Sanctuary outside of Japan, presumably due to Nintendo's international policy on religious imagery, although this artwork and the rest featured in this guidebook were never republished internationally as other publishers released their own guides instead.

After draining the water surrounding the Swamp Dungeon, Link can pick up the fish that are flopping around as a result of the reduced water levels. If Link throws a fish back into the pond, it will verbally thank Link and give him some Rupees. However, if Link carries a fish to Kakariko Village and gives it to the Street Merchant, he will give Link an assortment of Rupees, Bombs and Arrows.

There is a texture for the sanctuary entrance that can't be seen in normal gameplay.

If Link possesses a red shield and the Ether medallion, Link can obtain an "ice" shield that has a blue palette swap in place of the usual red color on the shield. Link must use Ether while a Pinket takes Link's shield and then kill the Pinket afterwards. When Link picks the shield back up, it will turn blue. Using Ether again will return the shield to it's original red color.

If Link goes to the Master Sword pedestal before rescuing Zelda from the prison cell at the beginning of the game, he'll encounter a glitched enemy that resembles a bouncing head of a villager from Kakariko Village. The Master Sword is also not in its pedestal.

The Japanese release of the game was titled "Legend of Zelda: Triforce of Gods". The name was changed for the Western versions of the game for religious reasons.

During a Q&A on Nintendo of America's official Twitter account, CEO Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is his all-time favorite game.

In Kakariko Village, the player can enter the house of a blue dressed woman located at the northwest part of village. Inside, the player can find a Cucco underneath one of the pots. The player can sprinkle some Magic Powder onto the cucco, and it will transform into a woman. This humanoid version of the Cucco explains that it is the Weathercock in the center of village that watches Link harass the Cuccos. This means the Weathercock is responsible for sending Cucco's to attack Link if Link harasses a Cucco. She also tells Link that the human shape is uncomfortable for her.

The catfish in the Swamp of Ill Omen that gives Link the earthquake medallion is based on 18th century Japanese folklore. Namazu is a catfish that would wiggle its body in the water and bring chaos and destruction to the land. The skull shaped stones found on the screen to throw in the circle of stones represents the stone used by Kashima to pin Namazu down and the circle of stones around Namazu represents Namazu's prison (since stones do not float, what the player sees is the top of stones that go to the lake's bottom).

There is a boomerang glitch that can be performed in Kakariko Village that causes Link to not catch the boomerang, but causes the boomerang to go across the screen repeatedly. This can be done in both the SNES and GBA versions.

In the Western release's instruction manual, Ganondorf is addressed by the full name "Ganondorf Dragmire", while Ganon is addressed by the alias "Mandrag Ganon", which means "Ganon of the Enchanted Thieves". This was the result of Nintendo of America's translation team wanting to make their own contribution to the story. While these names do not appear in any game in the series, Ganondorf Dragmire has been used in Western promotional materials as recently as 2024.

It is possible to deflect Agahnim's magical projectiles using the Bug-Catching Net. While the timing is trickier than using the sword, the circular swing of the Bug-Catching net can also protect Link from the cluster projectile that scatters on being hit.

After Ganon has been defeated and the staircase to the Triforce has appeared at the end of the game, it is still possible to fall down the pits surrounding the arena. This will reset the boss battle, and the player will have to start the fight over from the beginning once they re-enter the pyramid, just like if they had fallen in the pit during the fight.

In the Swamp of Evil, where the Misery Mire dungeon is located, there are three enemies that do not load properly, rendering them invisible. Despite this, they can still attack and take damage, though will remain unseen by the player.

These invisible enemies are Ku, some of which can be seen in the Swamp of Evil. The ones that do load properly are positioned in the deep water of the swamp, while the invisible ones are located in shallow water. It's likely the enemies were only programmed to function in deep water, and thus either the terrain was different during development, or the enemies were simply misplaced.

There is an odd glitch that can be used in certain places to allows the player to walk through walls. This makes it possible to beat the entire game in under 3 minutes by simply walking to the end room with the credits.