Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Apr 17, 2019 14:11:28 GMT -5
Post by Sarge on Apr 17, 2019 14:11:28 GMT -5
I'm not sure this will ever see the light of day on Racketboy, so I'm going to post it here. I've got more that I've written about other NES RPGs, but Zelda II was actually my first NES game, so this goes first! I should probably also add screenshots, but I'm being lazy right now.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Debates rage on whether The Legend of Zelda games count as action-RPGs or not. And indeed, most of them lack the defining characteristics of many role-playing games, including a complete lack of a leveling system. Upgrades come more in the form of equipment and life-increasing items. However, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link leaves no doubt what genre it falls into; it’s an action-RPG through and through.
Of course, it doesn’t follow the template of the first game or follow-up games in the genre like Crystalis or Willow, with their overhead perspectives. Instead, it moves into the side-scrolling action arena, a marked departure for a sequel in a time period where sequels all seemed to be changing things up considerably. Faxanadu is a close cousin, but so too are games like Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest and The Battle of Olympus.
It doesn’t ditch the overhead view completely, though. Dragon Quest and its various imitators infiltrated many a game, and Zelda II was not immune. The exploration took place quite similarly to the overworld in other standard RPGs of the time, and even had encounters on the world map; they could be dodged, but encountering an enemy sent you to a small side-scrolling area to combat whatever enemy formation you’d encountered (strong or weak).
Zelda II doesn’t skimp on the exploration; the world map holds many secrets for folks to explore. Unfortunately, it can be a little frustrating to find them, because often no indicator exists that something resides on a particular tile. Instead, the player will be taken to the area upon stepping on that tile. So players that are being thorough will have to do a lot of metaphorical “mowing the lawn”. This can be more frustrating when looking for a particular character to advance the plot.
Speaking of plot, Zelda has fallen into a deep slumber, and it’s up to our intrepid hero to wake her up. This is a different Zelda than the first game; she apparently has been slumbering in the sealed temple where you start the game for quite some time. Apparently the mark of the Triforce indicates that Link’s job is to awaken her. But the forces of Ganon are also on the march, and in particular, they want to kill Link for the most macabre of reasons: sprinkling his blood on Ganon’s ashes will revive him. Indeed, when you die, the shadow of the revived Ganon laughs sinisterly at you; I can imagine quite a few children with nightmares from this screen.
To actually revive the princess, though, you’re going to need the Triforce of Courage. This is the first appearance of this third segment of the triumvirate, joining the Triforces of Power and Wisdom. But it, of course, is sealed away in the Great Palace; the only way to gain entry into there is to place crystals into statues in six palaces in Hyrule. This is where most of the puzzling will occur: discovering where these palaces are, how to gain entry, and navigating the maze-like corridors to find the boss, defeat it, and place the crystal. This gameplay hook ends up pretty satisfying, and finding the tools to access each one requires non-trivial tasks. You might need to find the Hammer to gain access to an entirely new region of the world map, a candle to light the darkness in caves, or a cross to reveal secrets that would otherwise remain invisible.
The palaces themselves prove to be a formidable challenge. The overworld certainly has its rough spots (Death Mountain springs immediately to mind), but in general, the palaces ramp things up another few notches. Death waits around every corner, particularly when you have to fight the armored Ironknuckles. There are techniques to deal with them, but the sword-tossing variants will always be the worst. (Until you find an even more agile variant on their style in the Great Palace; the best strategy there is to RUN!)
Side-view combat makes this markedly different from the rest of the games in the series, of course. You have a sword that shoots a beam when at full health, which is retained from the original game. However, this beam often will not damage enemies at all, and also does not have infinite range. Speaking of range, your sword itself lacks reach. Most combat will require close-in tactics, which makes things pretty exciting. Adding to that is the ability to use Link’s shield to block high or low, which will be absolutely necessary when fighting enemies with projectile attacks, or dueling with Ironknuckles. Provided, of course, you don’t just go with the well-timed jumping slash route. It should be noted that much of the sort of duel-like action in Ocarina of Time comes straight from Zelda II.
Spells also add to Link’s combat prowess. There are eight to choose from, and they all perform different functions. Most of them, however, are not offensive in nature. The Shield spell reduces damage, the Jump spell lets you jump higher (key to progress in certain places), the Fairy spell will let you fly to places the Jump spell won’t (and fly through locked doors!), and so on. Really, it’s just Thunder and Fire, the former of which should only be used when necessary given its cost, and the latter only in specialized circumstances. Better to save that magic charge for the all-important Life spell, which will recover a decent chunk of your health.
All of these things are affected by your level as well. When you hit certain thresholds, you can upgrade your attack, magic, or life. You can also defer levels if you want to gun for a different category first. Perhaps you’re at 1000 EXP, but the next attack level is at 1500 EXP; you can defer the level to get 500 EXP more for the attack bonus. Magic reduces the cost of your spells, attack strengthens the sword, and life improves defense. To actually increase the life and magic meters themselves, you’ll have to discover Magic and Heart Containers scattered about the world.
One drawback to the game is that, while there are some puzzles, many of them are navigational in nature, unlike the puzzle-style rooms in later Zelda titles. But those navigational puzzles can be really tough for a first-time player. On top of that, the palaces themselves have a sort of nondescript look at times. This was extremely common in the NES era due to lack of memory, and increases the difficulty of navigation while in labyrinths.
Also, much like many NES games, difficulty is baked right in. Zelda II may well be the most difficult game in the series, probably only really rivaled by the Second Quest in the first game. This probably doesn’t help the game’s reputation; players likely die a lot, and guidance is limited at best. Still, if you can hack it, Zelda II is probably the best side-scrolling action-RPG of its type on the system.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Debates rage on whether The Legend of Zelda games count as action-RPGs or not. And indeed, most of them lack the defining characteristics of many role-playing games, including a complete lack of a leveling system. Upgrades come more in the form of equipment and life-increasing items. However, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link leaves no doubt what genre it falls into; it’s an action-RPG through and through.
Of course, it doesn’t follow the template of the first game or follow-up games in the genre like Crystalis or Willow, with their overhead perspectives. Instead, it moves into the side-scrolling action arena, a marked departure for a sequel in a time period where sequels all seemed to be changing things up considerably. Faxanadu is a close cousin, but so too are games like Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest and The Battle of Olympus.
It doesn’t ditch the overhead view completely, though. Dragon Quest and its various imitators infiltrated many a game, and Zelda II was not immune. The exploration took place quite similarly to the overworld in other standard RPGs of the time, and even had encounters on the world map; they could be dodged, but encountering an enemy sent you to a small side-scrolling area to combat whatever enemy formation you’d encountered (strong or weak).
Zelda II doesn’t skimp on the exploration; the world map holds many secrets for folks to explore. Unfortunately, it can be a little frustrating to find them, because often no indicator exists that something resides on a particular tile. Instead, the player will be taken to the area upon stepping on that tile. So players that are being thorough will have to do a lot of metaphorical “mowing the lawn”. This can be more frustrating when looking for a particular character to advance the plot.
Speaking of plot, Zelda has fallen into a deep slumber, and it’s up to our intrepid hero to wake her up. This is a different Zelda than the first game; she apparently has been slumbering in the sealed temple where you start the game for quite some time. Apparently the mark of the Triforce indicates that Link’s job is to awaken her. But the forces of Ganon are also on the march, and in particular, they want to kill Link for the most macabre of reasons: sprinkling his blood on Ganon’s ashes will revive him. Indeed, when you die, the shadow of the revived Ganon laughs sinisterly at you; I can imagine quite a few children with nightmares from this screen.
To actually revive the princess, though, you’re going to need the Triforce of Courage. This is the first appearance of this third segment of the triumvirate, joining the Triforces of Power and Wisdom. But it, of course, is sealed away in the Great Palace; the only way to gain entry into there is to place crystals into statues in six palaces in Hyrule. This is where most of the puzzling will occur: discovering where these palaces are, how to gain entry, and navigating the maze-like corridors to find the boss, defeat it, and place the crystal. This gameplay hook ends up pretty satisfying, and finding the tools to access each one requires non-trivial tasks. You might need to find the Hammer to gain access to an entirely new region of the world map, a candle to light the darkness in caves, or a cross to reveal secrets that would otherwise remain invisible.
The palaces themselves prove to be a formidable challenge. The overworld certainly has its rough spots (Death Mountain springs immediately to mind), but in general, the palaces ramp things up another few notches. Death waits around every corner, particularly when you have to fight the armored Ironknuckles. There are techniques to deal with them, but the sword-tossing variants will always be the worst. (Until you find an even more agile variant on their style in the Great Palace; the best strategy there is to RUN!)
Side-view combat makes this markedly different from the rest of the games in the series, of course. You have a sword that shoots a beam when at full health, which is retained from the original game. However, this beam often will not damage enemies at all, and also does not have infinite range. Speaking of range, your sword itself lacks reach. Most combat will require close-in tactics, which makes things pretty exciting. Adding to that is the ability to use Link’s shield to block high or low, which will be absolutely necessary when fighting enemies with projectile attacks, or dueling with Ironknuckles. Provided, of course, you don’t just go with the well-timed jumping slash route. It should be noted that much of the sort of duel-like action in Ocarina of Time comes straight from Zelda II.
Spells also add to Link’s combat prowess. There are eight to choose from, and they all perform different functions. Most of them, however, are not offensive in nature. The Shield spell reduces damage, the Jump spell lets you jump higher (key to progress in certain places), the Fairy spell will let you fly to places the Jump spell won’t (and fly through locked doors!), and so on. Really, it’s just Thunder and Fire, the former of which should only be used when necessary given its cost, and the latter only in specialized circumstances. Better to save that magic charge for the all-important Life spell, which will recover a decent chunk of your health.
All of these things are affected by your level as well. When you hit certain thresholds, you can upgrade your attack, magic, or life. You can also defer levels if you want to gun for a different category first. Perhaps you’re at 1000 EXP, but the next attack level is at 1500 EXP; you can defer the level to get 500 EXP more for the attack bonus. Magic reduces the cost of your spells, attack strengthens the sword, and life improves defense. To actually increase the life and magic meters themselves, you’ll have to discover Magic and Heart Containers scattered about the world.
One drawback to the game is that, while there are some puzzles, many of them are navigational in nature, unlike the puzzle-style rooms in later Zelda titles. But those navigational puzzles can be really tough for a first-time player. On top of that, the palaces themselves have a sort of nondescript look at times. This was extremely common in the NES era due to lack of memory, and increases the difficulty of navigation while in labyrinths.
Also, much like many NES games, difficulty is baked right in. Zelda II may well be the most difficult game in the series, probably only really rivaled by the Second Quest in the first game. This probably doesn’t help the game’s reputation; players likely die a lot, and guidance is limited at best. Still, if you can hack it, Zelda II is probably the best side-scrolling action-RPG of its type on the system.