Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

aka: Zelda II: A Aventura de Link, Zelda II: Link no Bƍken
Moby ID: 7296
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Description official descriptions

Link has just turned sixteen, and discovers a strange birthmark on his hand. With the help of Impa, Zelda's nursemaid, Link learns that this mark is the key to unlock a secret room where Princess Zelda lies sleeping. When young, Princess Zelda was given knowledge of the Triforce of power which was used to rule the kingdom of Hyrule, but when a magician unsuccessfully tried to find out about the Triforce from Zelda, he put her into an eternal sleep. In his grief, the prince placed Zelda in this room hoping she may wake some day. He ordered all female children in the royal household to be named Zelda from this point on, so the tragedy would not be forgotten. Now, to bring Princess Zelda back, Link must locate all the pieces of the Triforce which have been hidden throughout the land.

Each piece of the Triforce is in a temple guarded by a powerful monster which must be defeated. At the same time, Ganon's underlings are still around and gaining in strength and number. It is said Ganon could be brought back to life by sprinkling the blood of the one who defeated him on the ashes - which was Link himself.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is an action role-playing game, and a sequel to The Legend Of Zelda. The gameplay alternates between a top-down view (when traveling the land) and side-scrolling perspectives (when fighting, in a temple, or town). In the top-down view, Link cannot do much except for walking: in the side-scrolling action view, however, he can fight, cast spells, collect items and talk to people.

When Link encounters an enemy in the wilderness, or enters a location which contains enemies, he can fight them with his sword. If Link is at full health, his sword can be thrown, but when he is hurt, he can only fight in melee. Link has a shield which protects him against some of the enemies' attacks if they strike the shield. Touching an enemy or getting hit by their attacks decreases Link's health. If he runs out of health, he loses a life. If he loses all his lives, it's Game Over. Link can replenish his health completely by encountering a fairy in the wilderness, or by using the services of a healer in a town.

Link also has a "magic" meter. He can cast spells (as long as he has learned them) if he has some magic power left. Spells cost a various amount of magic power. They have various effects: they cure Link, allow him to jump very high, shoot fireballs etc. The magic power meter can be refilled by collecting blue and red jars sometimes left behind by enemies.

When Link slays an enemy, it might leave behind an item, or give Link some experience. When Link gains enough experience, he gains a level, which allows him to buy weapon power, maximum magic, or maximum health upgrades for his experience points. The player can also decide not to buy anything and stockpile his experience points for later use.

There are some items to be found that are necessary to get past certain points in the game. The Adventure of Link features a battery backup so games can be saved without needing a password system.

Spellings

  • ăƒȘンクぼ憒é™ș - Japanese spelling

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Credits (NES version)

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Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 52 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 183 ratings with 11 reviews)

Nowhere to run but left and right in this Zelda game--and it's a masterpiece

The Good
This Zelda broke with the last in that it is a side-scrolling platformer, and despite the howls of some, it is an excellent game on par with the original. In this game, strategy and skill are needed in equal measure to overcome the varied and clever foes that you meet in the lush gameworld. What makes it an unforgettable game is the tightness and reliability of the gameplay, the genius design, and the joy of beating the most fiendishly difficult Zelda game to date.

From towns, forests, plains and caves to palaces, graveyards, mountains and lava fields, Hyrule is a great place for an adventure. Each major location in the game has a group of new foes to test Link's mettle on, while old standards make constant reappearances in the palaces. Each town has a tone and personality all its own, and welcome diversions from the main quest can be found in every one of them. The design and artwork on your opponents is impressive, particularly on the large and well-drawn bosses, and multiple strategies are available for dispatching each one.

The main map of the game is viewed from overhead, and it encompasses many screens. Link can walk on the path with impunity, but enemies appear when he leaves it, and if he runs into one of these, a platforming scene filled with enemies appears, and Link must battle his way out. These enemies are often avoidable (unless one is in a swamp), but the palaces, towns and other special areas are all side-scrolling affairs.

One of the greatest additions is experience. Link actually improves beyond simply gaining life containers in this Zelda game--he can improve his vitality, his battle ability, and his magical skill. Each attribute can gain up to eight levels of experience. Link can also learn diverse magic spells from each town's wise man, and is even taught a few very useful swordplay tricks from knights he meets along the way. The downward and upward jumping attacks he learns open up a whole new world of strategy for defeating enemies, and some foes cannot be destroyed without them. Link in the beginning and Link at the end aren't differentiated only by heart containers and items in this game--the later Link gains inherent skills that do not rely on finite items. No bow exists in this game; no bombs either.

Magic makes up for these lost items. Having worries about being able to navigate an area without getting hit? Cast Shield on yourself, and the damage you take will be halved. Concerned that you need extra maneuverability to avoid dangerous foes in an area? Cast Jump, which doubles your jumping height, and leap circles around your opponents--or simply cast Fairy, which turns you into a tiny flying pixie, and soar above the trouble avoiding it altogether. The unblockable boomeranging maces of the Doomknockers getting you down? Cast Reflect and watch your shield stop a mace in its tracks, or cast Spell and turn the troublesome enemy into a weak and quivering pile of slime. There is always a place for magic in a combat situation, although the precious supply is often used on Life, the spell that recharges one's health.

That's because your confrontations with enemies will take up the majority of the game. And there are some memorable and devious foes to be had here. As far as ordinary enemies, in Parapa Palace you will face your first Ironknuckle. This armor-clad knight stalks inexorably towards you, and once in range proceeds to swing his sword high and low in random patterns, moving his shield intelligently up and down to block your sword. Early on, you will see one marching toward you and mentally count off a few of your precious health squares as you imagine the bloody battle ahead of you. It isn't attacking this denizen of the palaces that is difficult; it's doing so while simultaneously defending from his onslaught that causes the problems.

Later in the game, however, you will have developed your own tactics that turn this enemy, even his later blue incarnation that hurls knives as he stabs, into a pushover. And this can be done a number of ways. One might notice that stabbing high and immediately lowering one's guard in mid-stab will cause the Ironknuckle to drop his guard in unison and absorb the blow. One might discover that the Ironknuckle only unleashes his fearsome fusillade of blows after being struck, and then cools down. One might even develop a strategy of jumping and attacking to defeat these enemies. These tactics will be missed in the first several frenzied combats of both fighters stabbing and blocking, but they will eventually render a once feared enemy harmless. And that's part of the magic of this game design that is present throughout the game. Enemies are not dull patterns to be learned and disposed of in a single dull way so much as they are lifelike and random, and always potentially dangerous to any strategy.

As you progress, harder foes such as the fearsome, axe-wielding Dairas appear. These anthropomorphic, mohawked alligators only swing high and have no shield, but that matters little since their axes cannot be blocked by even a magic-enhanced shield--Link cannot stand off with them for long or he will be seriously hurt. One must stab and charge, stab and flee, or jump and stab to defeat these and suffer minimal damage. The red Daira throws axes, and it is nearly impossible to flawlessly defeat one. In fact, Link is unlikely to walk away from a dead red Daira without having lost a significant amount of health. Certain enemies carry and throw maces that can only be blocked after Link casts Reflect, certain enemies can only be destroyed by fire. Yet these each can be avoided or defeated without the use of magic. Only in a few situations is Link directly forced to encounter an ordinary enemy, and therefore if one strikes you as particularly difficult, it can be simply avoided.

If it is an Eagle Knight you've been cornered by, expect to be seriously injured. These enemies are like the Ironknuckle in that they use a sword and shield intelligently, but they also are acrobatic jumpers and throw knives furiously at all times, causing considerable damage. These, only found in the last palace, can confound any careful strategy because their patterns of attack are easily readable but extremely difficult to react to properly. Your brain 'knows' the proper reaction for defense or offense at any one time, but tying the two together against such an agile opponent can be very difficult.

Bosses are all fun, different, and well-designed. Starting with a giant horseheaded knight toting a large mace, there is a soldier with three heads, an Ironknuckle who thought to bring his horse along, a giant teleporting wizard, a clumsy ogre with a flail and impenetrable helmet, and a lava-dwelling dragon. That's just the ordinary palaces. In the final palace, you must face off against the mythic Thunderbird and of course, Dark Link. Dark Link was an ingenious bit of game design, as it has all the standard moves that you do, and yet it is somewhat more clever about using them than you are. Yet surprisingly simple strategies can be found to defeat this boss. I don't mean cowering in the corner and tapping a button, but rather an approach that would be unexpected based on all your previous encounters--it's great design to require a fresh look at the final boss, asking the player to throw out what he or she has learned and try something new.

The exploration, town scenes, and pure adventure in this game are all great, but the combat system is what really adds to the fun factor, and is so elegantly designed that it deserved the bulk of my remarks. It should go without saying that Link controls like a dream, despite a knockback when hit that Castlevania, Actraiser 2 or Ghosts 'n' Goblins fans will sorrowfully recognize. Those latter games also have something in common with this one--Zelda II is fiendishly difficult. Link has three lives, and after that must start all the way back at the beginning of the game map, which encompasses many screens. Extra lives are there to be had along the way, but that doesn't dilute the challenge of this game, and defeating Dark Link at the end after battling through dozens of Lizalfos and Eagle Knights, Ironknuckles and Darknuts, Bits and Bots and Moblins and Goriyas, you'll feel a palpable sense of accomplishment.

And then, as in Chrono Trigger, the player is allowed to start again with the same stats, but with a greater challenge. This is a game I just recently replayed after defeating it at the age of seven, and it was as enormously satisfying now as it was then.

The Bad
The translation is poor, and speaking with the townspeople is rarely enlightening. Some secrets such as Bagu's Cabin or New Kasuto can be difficult to find or figure out. A few enemies virtually force you to take damage, because at times there is no proper way to dodge/block all the projectiles or foes that are coming at you. But these are just quibbles--this is a superlative game

The Bottom Line
Another great adventure in Hyrule. Side-scrolling and combat-heavy, this second Zelda game isn't a retread of the first and it doesn't suffer for it. Dust off your platforming skills and prepare your mind as well as your trigger finger, for there are puzzles and strategy to be found here in addition to the chaotic and first-rate combat.

NES · by J. P. Gray (115) · 2004

Clearly a separate WIP title with Zelda IP added in late development

The Good
Ever play Cadash? That's a great game. This is a passable Cadash that predates it by about a year, on an 8-bit system!

The gameplay, as previously mentioned, is sidescrolling, with an overland map interlude for getting from place to place. There isn't much else good to be said about this game, though. It is primitive at best, and is stuck somewhere between Phantasy Star and Cadash, without the horsepower in the NES to pull it off properly.

This kind of side scrolling RPG would become very common in the future. What Zelda 2 has going for it is that it is innovative, it's too bad Nintendo didn't release it with its original characters instead of adding a "touch of Zelda" when the real Zelda 2, which I'm convinced was scrapped, didn't work out.

The Bad
Remember Mario 2? Remember the story of how they took a game that was not Mario and overlaid a bunch of Mario sprites to make a funky game that didn't feel right?

I suspect that isn't the only time Nintendo made that mistake. They did it with Zelda, too.

What you have is a game that was clearly not designed as a Zelda title with Zelda sprites and the first 5 seconds of the overland theme grafted on to make it appear "Zeldaish."

The Zelda overland theme, the really cool one that sticks in your head, plays for about 5 seconds and then immediately and rather crudely dissolves into cheesy uninspired 8-bit kazoo box music. That progression in the music describes the rest of the game. 5 seconds of Zelda and 15 hours of some other game that the box lied about. As you go, it just becomes wildly less and less like Zelda until you start wondering how Link got so tall.

Give me a map, or a compass, or rupees or ANYTHING else from the original game and this criticism becomes invalid, but it isn't there. There's no "nightmare key," no master sword, no heart meter. You can't make a "departure" sequel and ditch nearly everything that made the flavour of the original.

This was the 80's, back when they were plastering Erno Rubik's name on every dumb puzzle they could find, yet none of them were "the cube." This kind of "Brand leveraging" proved to be very damaging to the companies that did it, and so you don't see nearly as much of it any more. Nintendo learned and now jealously guards its brands.



The Bottom Line
Zelda sprites added to a perfectly good RPG to increase sales.

You can play the original Zelda and it's all there, in crude form. Everything that would become the rest of the series.

This game doesn't represent a "departure" as so many apologists will tell you. It's a completely different game. It's very difficult, and by today's standard's not terribly innovative, but okay to play if you like a sidescrolling RPG like Cadash. It's amazing they pulled this off on the 8-bit NES.

So when you hear this game get badmouthed, it's mostly because of people who expected a Zelda title and didn't get one. It's Super Mario Bros. 2 all over again. The good news is that there is a title.

Remember, it predates Cadash by a year, is playing on 8-bit hardware, and is a perfectly good RPG.

(Just watch out for the guy who tells you to get the candle at the palace by going "West." The palace is to the NNE.)

Production standards have improved since these days...

(Reviewer played this off the Zelda Collector's Edition GC disc. There may have been a map showing exactly where the candle palace is in the original.)

NES · by Zaghadka (62) · 2006

The difficult nature of this game is proof that Nintendo are hypocrites

The Good
The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo’s popular franchises, with the first game selling over 6.5 million copies. It came as no surprise that a sequel was released a year later subtitled The Adventure of Link, containing similar gameplay mechanics as its predecessor, while introducing new elements that made their way into future Zelda games. As well as the mechanics, the game shares similar box art, similar objective, and similar game mechanics. To top it off, it was even released on a gold cartridge.

The game comes with a 52-page booklet which starts off with a well-written story complete with detailed illustrations. This is followed by everything you need to know about the game, including how to get around Hyrule, the controls and the basic gameplay. There are even a few maps thrown in in case you get lost. This booklet is excellent, I regret not reading it first.

Link is now a teenager who needs to wake Princess Zelda from her slumber, and to do this he must recover the Third Triforce sealed inside the Great Palace, located somewhere in the kingdom of Hyrule. To break the seal, Link must venture inside six other palaces and place crystals inside well-guarded statues. Zelda is also not the same one from the first game, which is probably why this is the only title in the franchise to have numerals.

You begin your adventure inside North Palace. The music here starts off similar to the first game, but branches off in another direction, and that’s the only time you hear that similarity. As soon as you leave North Palace, you are presented with a map of the “overworld” where much of your time is spent following a yellow road to towns, more palaces, or hidden areas. Step off the road and you eventually do battle with monsters in a third-person perspective in a variety of environments such as forests, deserts, plains, swamps, and even graveyards. The purpose of these battles is to gain experience points, and trust me: you’ll need all the experience you can get before you reach the final destination. The music in these battle scenes is great, and the way you can hear Link wad through the swamp water is a nice touch.

A new addition to the Zelda franchise is the addition of non-playable characters. They are usually found in towns, walking around and going about their business. Some of the inhabitants will give you advice that will help you later, while others shrug you off. But in almost every town, one of the inhabitants asks you to find something valuable to them in return for a magic spell that will help you in your adventure, You need all the spells to finish the game. I like that one of them transforms Link into a fairy, allowing you to fly along the top of the screen when you don’t want to deal with an enemy.

As I mentioned, Link must venture inside palaces scattered around Hyrule to reach the statues. Each of the palaces contains textures unique to them, and there are plenty of hallways for you to go through, some of them containing keys that are used to unlock doors. You always know when you are about to approach a boss if there are curtains on the ceiling. As well as taking down the boss, you also need to search for an item that will be used to bypass an obstacle on the overworld, such as the black river monster who is not a fan of music.

The enemies in both the palaces and in “Battle Mode” are similar to those found in The Legend of Zelda, but they take on a different appearance. A few of the enemies are new, such as the Bots, blue blobs that approach Link. Huge versions of the same enemy can be found in the last palace, and are invisible until Link walks under them.

The graphics are on par with the first game. The map of the overworld is a bit zoomed out, allowing you to see much more of it. There are some good animations as well, particularly for Link. It’s funny that he looks as if he is stabbing himself when he takes damage. Also, the game over screen with a silhouette of Ganon appearing below some text looks amazing.

The Bad
Zelda II is extremely difficult. The group of knights that you encounter in the game have the ability to block your shots, no matter where you aim; and Dark Link, the final boss, behaves much the same way. Also, near the middle of the game, you are expected to work through a maze, with each section containing at least three doorways. Take the wrong one, and you’ll be going round in circles.

The Bottom Line
This is the sequel to The Legend of Zelda, and it is impressive. The game mechanics that made the first game great make a return, but there are a few changes, with one being the introduction of non-playable characters that will help you and point you in the right direction; the other being the game changing to a third-person perspective whenever you go into battle or venture inside palaces. The only problem is the difficulty of the game that may turn off players new to the Zelda franchise. Nintendo banned the real version of Super Mario Bros. 2 in North America on the basis that the game was too difficult, so what made Zelda II any different?

NES · by Katakis | ă‚«ă‚żă‚­ă‚č (43092) · 2019

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
So this is the black sheep?.. Unicorn Lynx (181788) May 30, 2012
Only one who like this more than the first? Simoneer (29) Jun 15, 2010

Trivia

Cartridge

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was the only other Nintendo-licensed NES title to have the honor of being a gold cartridge besides the original Legend of Zelda.

ERROR

Inside a house within one of the towns is an NPC who simply says "I AM ERROR" when talked to. While many gamers at first found this to be a mistake in the code, there is another NPC later in the game that tells you Error knows a secret, proving that Error is his name and not an error.

It is possible that Error’s name was originally "Errol" (like the Australian-American actor Errol Flynn), but due to the letters "R" and "L" being allophones in Japanese, the programmers mistyped the name as "Error" in translating the game to English.

Platforming

As of 2005 Zelda II is the only game in the series to use a standard jump button that doesn't require the use of a power-up, or running off the side of a ledge to clear a gap.

Town names

Many of the villages share their names with characters from Ocarina of Time (Ruto, Rauru, Mido and Saria, etc.)

Interestingly enough, Ocarina of Time is considered to be the first Zelda game continuity-wise, so it's possible the villages are named in their honour, at least in the case of the Sages (Rauru, etc.).

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #72 (Best 100 Games of All Time)

Information also contributed by CaptainCanuck and Mark Ennis

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Servo.

Nintendo 3DS added by ResidentHazard. Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Game Boy Advance, Wii added by gamewarrior.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, Jeanne, Guy Chapman, NH, Alaka, monkeyislandgirl, Pseudo_Intellectual, LepricahnsGold, Perfil Falso, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson.

Game added September 28, 2002. Last modified February 1, 2024.