The Legend of Zelda (NES) Second Opinion Review

There are a number of ways to evaluate The Legend of Zelda based on what it is, rather than its legendary legacy: some may be able to play the Second Quest, having little to no experience with it, and others may have to play one of the many romhacks to get a fresh look at the game. Whatever method works best, the conclusion reached will be something along the lines of: "This is unplayable."

For nearly twenty years, the idea that The Legend of Zelda was superior, in every way, to A Link to the Past was allowed to persist. This is, to be frank, utter madness, though the belief holds in a more limited capacity, and then only for players intimately familiar with the game, aware of all its secrets, and knowing where to go and what to do. When that mass of knowledge is stripped away, what is left is a cryptic mess of virtually unplayable proportions.

The biggest problem now was, once upon a time, one of its greatest strengths: Link is dropped into a large fantasy world filled with enemies, and is left to explore the entire world and search for its dungeons, Heart Containers, and secret items. Back when kids discussed this game and secrets that they had uncovered on the playground, this was fine—one kid would share the location of a Heart Container, while another would share the location of a free stash of Rupees, and, between everyone, enough secrets were discovered to satisfactorily complete the game.

Without that, there is no alternative but to use guides and walkthroughs, so players aren't exploring as much as they are just… following a walkthrough. Since walkthroughs are usually "all or nothing" affairs, generally, trying to learn the location of the next dungeon leads to a flood of information that the player may not have wanted, such as what item is obtained and what uses that item has. Walkthroughs leave nothing for players to discover, and this is a game of discovery.

A Link to the Past is The Legend of Zelda done right. The game itself provides almost all critical information, but there is still room for exploration; indeed, exploration is required. The Quake Medallion, for example, is needed to enter one of the dungeons, but there is no icon on the map to reveal its location. Dungeons are still complex, yet bombable walls are clearly denoted with cracks, keeping players from having to bomb every single wall in every single room of every single dungeon.

It's probably true that the original can be completed without any outside assistance, but doing that is a monumental task that will take hundreds of hours, if it's actually possible—and it may not be. Assuming that someone lacks the knowledge and wants to explore rather than use a guide, finding Level 8, which is located under a random bush that can be burned on a random screen in a random forest, while nothing marks it as significant, is a task that will take dozens of hours by itself.

Level 7 is a particular nightmare, because every Dungeon Map previously is accurate. Suddenly, however, there is a room that does not display on the Dungeon Map, and it can only be entered by bombing one innocuous wall in one undistinguished room. This assumes that players interpret "Grumble, Grumble" to mean "Give this guy some food" and spends the Rupees to buy the Food to get that far at all. It also assumes that players even find the clue "There are secrets where fairies don't dwell" and realise that this refers to a fairy pond that appears empty, and then screw around long enough to blow the Whistle and reveal the location of the dungeon.

The Master Sword is hidden under a random grave in one of the several graveyard screens, and the only clue is that no Gibli rises from the grave when Link touches it. While the Master Sword isn't strictly necessary, the White Sword is also found in an out-of-the-way cave on Death Mountain. Meanwhile, Level 9 can only be found by bombing a certain rock that doesn't really look very special—and certainly doesn't look like the entrance to the final dungeon.

The point of all this is to say that The Legend of Zelda is cryptic—ridiculously cryptic, and even unacceptably cryptic. The gameplay is fun and engaging, but the mystery begins almost immediately: the opening screen has three branches out of it, and the overworld isn't sectioned off by plot elements, or by the Zelda items we know and love. The Dark World of A Link to the Past can't be fully explored until Link has gotten the Magic Hammer to get past the spikes on the bridge, but there's no similar obstacle here; Link can wander in any direction, and there's really nothing stopping players from accidentally stumbling into Level 6 as the first dungeon.

While it's fun to run around and stab enemies as Link, and while the world is rather large and full of secrets to be discovered, that doesn't change the fact that becoming lost and confused are certainties, and there is never an appropriate clue to proceed. Items are rather limited, lacking the diversity and utility we'd find in later games, and it's easy to see how this game spawned the franchise that we know and love: the potential is clearly there for a masterpiece. This, however, does little more than pave the way for A Link to the Past.