An actually competent action-adventure marred by tedium and the odd asinine piece of "adventure-game-bullshit".
Once again, Zelda II is rather smooth sailing with only ingame hints until lategame. Wherein you have to "just know" that your hammer can clear these very specific unmarked forest tiles, one of which hides a village. Turns out the manual does actually mention this ability. Still obnoxious since every other hidden tile in forests so far has only required happening to walk over them.
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As it turns out it's even worse than I thought. You are completely blockaded from completing the game if you can't learn the Enigma spell in New Kasuto. Which you can't learn if you haven't scoured the entire map for Magic Containers. One of which I've missed because I've not been methodically walking over every single fucking tile in the game. It's one, ONE, tile in the labyrinth I never walked over. If you do not walk over this non-descript tile you cannot finish the game.
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Playtime is heavily padded out by mandating players perform a walk of shame back to each dungeon if they run out of lives. When Zelda II isn't pissing me off I found the moment to moment gameplay to be more engaging than that of its predecessor. If only there were an enhanced remake that refined the solid basegame into something less irritating.
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Believe it or not, being made to play through the same stretches of level over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. and over. Is not fucking fun.