This is the last of the mainline Zelda games I've never beaten. I was putting it off for years, and I honestly thought I'd just never get around to it, but I've been playing and enjoying so many similar games lately (like Wai Wai World or Getsu Fuuma Den) that I figured it was about time I finally sat down and gave a go to beat this white whale of a Zelda game. I even decided to make it extra difficult for myself and did it on my Famicom Mini, and I also streamed it on Twitch. I beat it on my Famicom Mini over the course of three weeks (three streams) over about 10 total hours.
Zelda 2 is an immediate sequel to the original Zelda, where Link learns that there isn't just that original Zelda to save, but an ORIGINAL Zelda to save as well, who's been sleeping for a very VERY long time. What's worse, if he doesn't go through the quest to retrieve the triforce to wake her, Ganon's minions are working to revive him! Link once again dons his trusty green tunic and sword to go out and stop Ganon's minions and get that triforce! Being a Famicom action/adventure game, the story is very light and generally just does mechanical legwork rather than telling any kind of larger or more meaningful story, but it does what it needs to and sets up the stakes and everything nicely enough. The gameplay is among that slew of 1987 and 1988 side-scrolling 2D action/adventure games on the Famicom, as Link goes around towns collecting spells and new moves as well as dungeons to collect new traversal items (which are really more like keys to access new areas, really) and fight bosses among the land's 6 temples. It's notoriously very different from the original Legend of Zelda, as where that was an overhead-perspective action/adventure game, the only overhead parts here are navigating the world map. The action and adventuring itself is pretty familiar among other games in the genre, but it's definitely more technical than many others I've played. Sure, Link has spells and a mana bar instead of his extra items like he got in Zelda 1, but the bigger difference here is how he fights. You have two tiers of height that you can hold your shield at, either high or low, and blocking enemy projectiles and sword swings is a big part of the combat with normal enemies. Killing enemies also gets you experience points which you can use to upgrade your magic (making certain spells cost lower mana amounts), your health (which effectively raises your defense), or your sword (which just makes you do more damage). This game also has quite the reputation for being a pretty darn hard game, even for a Zelda game, and I'd say it deserves that pretty well. Sure, you can find new heart containers to extend your health bar, and get level ups by killing enough enemies to increase your defense, but even then there are bottomless pits and you only have three lives. Lose all three and it's back to Zelda's palace (unless you're in the final dungeon). The combat is overall quite good and the game controls well, and I wouldn't really call it faulted at all in that regard. It's really just difficult and technically demanding in a way very few other Zelda games are, and, though my feelings towards this have weakened a bit now, I still maintain my position that Zelda 2 is at times difficult to a fault in just how punishing it often is. The signposting in the game is generally really good. There are a few places and things that I needed to look up (and one thing I remembered from watching Key play this game months back), but overall there's very very little that isn't very clearly told to you by SOMEONE, at least in the Japanese translation. I do question the decision to make all of the dialogue in katakana in this version, as it makes villagers much harder to understand than if they were given more conventional speaking styles, but the things they tell you are by and large very good hints and information that you likely would infrequently need a guide to suss out the greater meaning behind. As far as the Japanese version goes, there are actually quite a large amount of differences. There are some things relating to the disk system itself, like the title screen music being a bit different and the bosses doing monster roars thanks to the extra audio channel, but a lot of things are just outright revisions between the Japanese and English versions. Instead of a whole new boss in the 5th palace, it's just a harder version of the 2nd palace's boss, the dragon boss in the 6th dungeon is easier due to an exploit in how his arena is designed, but the final boss, Link's Shadow, is actually even harder in this version since his AI is smart enough to the point where you can't just duck in a corner to kill him really easy like in the NES version. The most annoying part of this version is that, even though you DO need less EXP to level up, when you die, your levels get reset back down to whichever of your three stats are lowest. If you have Magic level 2, Health level 3, and Sword level 8, they all go back to level 2 if you game over, because Magic is your lowest stat. I actually spent 3 or 4 hours grinding off-stream after my first stream to just get to level 8 in all of my stats so I wouldn't need to worry about it for the rest of my playthrough XD. The Japanese version is generally just different instead of better or worse, but that last point in particular makes this version of the game difficult to recommend. The presentation is as excellent as you'd expect from Nintendo. The graphics are great with well-detailed sprites and good combat animations. The music is excellent and iconic, and it's actually the reason I even considered going back to the game in the first place. One day I had the temple theme stuck in my head, but I just couldn't remember what game it was from XP. As soon as I did, I resolved to finally give this game another try to complete it X3 Verdict: Highly Recommended. It may be difficult to a fault, and the English translation does make some of the adventure aspects more difficult than they were intended to be, but this is still an excellent game in the side-scrolling action/adventure genre. I enjoyed this game way more than I thought I would, and while it certainly still isn't for everybody, it is well worth giving a chance if you're into these sorts of old games and don't mind a bit of a challenge.
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AuthorI'm an avid gamer who likes to detail their thoughts about what they play in the hopes it might aid someone else's search for a game to play. Archives
April 2024
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