I have disliked parts of Zelda games in the past, but I don’t think I have ever used the word “bad” to describe an entire Zelda game before playing Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
The Adventure of Link has some very cool ideas in it and feels like Nintendo trying to make a 3D Zelda before they had the technology to do so. It’s their first attempt at having actual swordplay in a Zelda game. It’s their first attempt at having towns full of people you can interact with and get quests from. It genuinely has some really cool ideas in it, but holy crap none of it is actually fun to play. This was before the time of enemies having patterns so all enemy movements and attacks are random, making the already rough combat way more difficult. Enemies are incredibly aggressive, so the act of simply trying to pick up a key in a dungeon becomes tedious as flying enemies constantly swoop down at you over and over. The RPG-like overworld map full of random encounters is an interesting idea that quickly becomes annoying as you’re just trying to get from one location to another without getting constantly interrupted.
Honestly, for me, the coolest thing about this game, like the first Zelda, is seeing how this game impacted the Legend of Zelda franchise for decades to come. Not only is it fun to see some of your favorite elements in their earlier forms, but it’s also wild to see how much Link’s representation in Smash Bros comes from this game. Link’s upward thrust and downward stab attacks we know and love from Smash are from Zelda II. The Temple stage from Melee is based on the first dungeon from Zelda II. The Zelda fan in me is loving seeing the origins of the games I know so well, but the larger part of me who just likes playing good video games was miserable basically the entire time I played this.
+ Awesome seeing more origins of the Zelda franchise
+ Some really cool ideas that were ahead of their time
+ The Temple theme slaps
- Playing this game was a miserable experience
- Random overworld encounters are annoying
- Extremely difficult combat
- Very obtuse solutions to quests that feel impossible without a guide
The Adventure of Link has some very cool ideas in it and feels like Nintendo trying to make a 3D Zelda before they had the technology to do so. It’s their first attempt at having actual swordplay in a Zelda game. It’s their first attempt at having towns full of people you can interact with and get quests from. It genuinely has some really cool ideas in it, but holy crap none of it is actually fun to play. This was before the time of enemies having patterns so all enemy movements and attacks are random, making the already rough combat way more difficult. Enemies are incredibly aggressive, so the act of simply trying to pick up a key in a dungeon becomes tedious as flying enemies constantly swoop down at you over and over. The RPG-like overworld map full of random encounters is an interesting idea that quickly becomes annoying as you’re just trying to get from one location to another without getting constantly interrupted.
Honestly, for me, the coolest thing about this game, like the first Zelda, is seeing how this game impacted the Legend of Zelda franchise for decades to come. Not only is it fun to see some of your favorite elements in their earlier forms, but it’s also wild to see how much Link’s representation in Smash Bros comes from this game. Link’s upward thrust and downward stab attacks we know and love from Smash are from Zelda II. The Temple stage from Melee is based on the first dungeon from Zelda II. The Zelda fan in me is loving seeing the origins of the games I know so well, but the larger part of me who just likes playing good video games was miserable basically the entire time I played this.
+ Awesome seeing more origins of the Zelda franchise
+ Some really cool ideas that were ahead of their time
+ The Temple theme slaps
- Playing this game was a miserable experience
- Random overworld encounters are annoying
- Extremely difficult combat
- Very obtuse solutions to quests that feel impossible without a guide