I wouldn't be opposed against Zelda trying out something like this again. From a presentation and concept standpoint, I really like Zelda II. The upgrades when you leveled up scratched the right parts of my brain, and I'm one of those weirdos that actually liked the weighty combat system. Each palace had a sizable amount of fun rooms to traverse, and I looked forward to tackling each one.
I can't deny though, without cheats, I don't think I would have appreciated this one as much. In particular, I used the Zelda II Redux hack which added a lot of QoL, most importantly better checkpoints and balancing. Without that, I have no doubt in my mind that this game is annoying as fuck.
One thing I sorely miss from Zelda 1 are maps. There are none here, and the palaces don't have enough distinct landmarks at times to prove memorable, so, online maps were in order.
My greatest mistake was heading into the final dungeon without realizing you needed the final spell to defeat the boss. Imagine doing that entire gauntlet, and then realizing you're gonna have to do it again.
The thing about Zelda II nowadays is that by itself, you're likely to play a gruellingly punishing game with dungeons that are more difficult to traverse than the likes of the first game. However, the Zelda community is lovely in this regard, as it has taken the painstaking task of providing you with many ways to fix this game into something fun. There's the aforementioned Redux hack, but there's also a fanmade PC version of the game, called "Zelda 2 Enhanced Edition" that brings similar QoL changes, among new ones such as a map system, and additional neat areas to explore. There's many good ways to play this game. But preferably, discount the original as one of them.
I can't deny though, without cheats, I don't think I would have appreciated this one as much. In particular, I used the Zelda II Redux hack which added a lot of QoL, most importantly better checkpoints and balancing. Without that, I have no doubt in my mind that this game is annoying as fuck.
One thing I sorely miss from Zelda 1 are maps. There are none here, and the palaces don't have enough distinct landmarks at times to prove memorable, so, online maps were in order.
My greatest mistake was heading into the final dungeon without realizing you needed the final spell to defeat the boss. Imagine doing that entire gauntlet, and then realizing you're gonna have to do it again.
The thing about Zelda II nowadays is that by itself, you're likely to play a gruellingly punishing game with dungeons that are more difficult to traverse than the likes of the first game. However, the Zelda community is lovely in this regard, as it has taken the painstaking task of providing you with many ways to fix this game into something fun. There's the aforementioned Redux hack, but there's also a fanmade PC version of the game, called "Zelda 2 Enhanced Edition" that brings similar QoL changes, among new ones such as a map system, and additional neat areas to explore. There's many good ways to play this game. But preferably, discount the original as one of them.