The Legend of Zelda marked the beginning of one of Nintendo’s (and gaming’s) best and most successful series. While many can find it to be a bit too… archaic to be able to enjoy it today, this NES gem has every right to be regarded as a timeless classic, with the year of its release being irrelevant. The same cannot exactly be said about the sequel, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Widely regarded as one of the – few – black sheep of the franchise (Phillips CD-i instalments excluded for obvious reasons), the second NES Zelda ditched more than the top-down, bird’s eye perspective. The experience leans more towards the annoying rather the adventurous.
The following retrospective asks this simple question: was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link really that bad?
Zelda II begins and it pretty much provides the same kind of feeling of adventure the original did. A heroic tune, a beautiful vista of a distant sea, a star-filled sky, and at the centre of it all a sword embedded in stone. It’s somewhat less epic than the minimalistic waterfall intro of the first Zelda (mainly because of the music), but it’s definitely promising. Press Start, name your link to this world and off you go. The hero emerges in a temple of sorts, with a woman sleeping in her pedestal-looking bed. Creepy. Read the manual and you’ll learn that this gal is in fact Princess Zelda, who has been cursed, leaving the protagonist to save her by finding the Triforce of Courage.
Like all good NES games, apart from the info provided in the manual and in-game, this leaves a few gaps for your imagination to fill, which has always been part of the fun in old-school gaming. Zelda II, however goes the Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest route, by offering people to talk to and gather clues; clues that guide players in a variety of ways. From literally telling players where to go next or where an important item is, to offering world-building lore. This is no Final Fantasy VII, of course, so don’t expect tons of text. This is the NES after all. Having said that, it’s nice that the world has more NPCs than the original Hyrule, as it makes the world feel more real.
Sadly, this instalment is the perfect example of “one step forward two steps back.” The first thing that disappoints here is the overworld itself, which is no longer a place that the hero can explore and discover secrets on. This is basically a boring-looking map that you simply use to walk from Point of Interest #1 to Point of Interest #2. Even worse than that is the whole structure. Gone is the past feeling of freedom, with the hero now being pretty much forced to follow a specific path. Even the items that can be found work less than tools, and more like keys that open the next door in line. Once one finds the hammer or the candle, for example, there won’t be any way to use these tools creatively like in The Legend of Zelda. The hammer breaks obstacles in the overworld, and the candle lights up dark rooms. That’s. It.
The biggest change, of course, is that this is now a side-scrolling action-platformer. The change isn’t the problem. You can use the Zelda formula with a first-person perspective and it can still work like a dream. It’s all up to the execution. So, does it work here? Frankly, it’s no big deal. It doesn’t break the game, and it doesn’t make it better… but it is definitely a big change. You no longer move a small sprite around trying to hit or avoid other sprites. Zelda II’s action is a bit more straightforward. There are a couple of enemies that ask more from the player than simply swinging a sword, such as some knights that force Link to block low and high hits with the shield, while also trying to find an opening – probably some of the best fights in the game.
The side-scrolling nature of it all adds different challenges, with one notable example being insta-death pits, of which there are many. It brings us to what is one of the main issues here: the challenge. Zelda II is, without any doubt, the hardest Zelda instalment (CD-i titles, once again excluded). There are several reasons for that. For starters there aren’t many places to regenerate health, but there are many places to get hurt. Simply strolling in the countryside spews out random encounters in the form of small black sprites, which are pretty much unavoidable, and happen, way, way too often. As expected, dungeons are even more challenging, sometimes to the point of frustration, especially when endless pits get into the picture.
This adventure is particularly challenging in the beginning, where Link doesn’t have the resources to survive, and must brave a surprisingly tough part that almost feels like a late game area. The Life spell which regenerates health is not yet available, upgrading the stats isn’t exactly that helpful, and you are simply left with the Shield spell. It improves armour, but only slightly, and only for one screen, after which you have to use it again, and pretty much eat up all magic power. It should be noted that there are plenty of extremely irritating enemies (some of them coming in waves), and the reach of the sword is disappointing, making battles a bit more aggravating than needed.
This could go on and on about small pros and cons, but in reality there’s only one thing to talk about here: this isn’t really a Zelda game. It’s a fantasy action-adventure, alright, but one that leans more towards action rather than adventure. When it does let you be more… adventurous, it doesn’t do it that well. There’s a heavy focus on combat, and Link’s quest is quite linear. This isn’t what wowed gamers back when The Legend of Zelda was released. The classic original let you explore the world the way you wanted, and forced you to experiment with your powers in order to discover what needs to be done in order to win. This is an… ok Castlevania-like experience, with a little bit more exploration. It’s not Zelda.
Having said what has been said so far Zelda II is actually a fun title. Oh, it does have plenty of issues, never forget that, yet it has its own unique charm. It looks relatively good; it has nice sound effects and pretty neat music, especially the dungeon theme. The world is varied, and the closer you get to the Big Bad the bleaker it becomes; and, finally, the increased challenge actually make the whole thing feel more rewarding. The problem is that it has strayed very far from what makes a great Zelda game… well, great. All in all, do try it out, if only to talk to Error, one of the finest NPCs ever crafted.
