Zelda II: The Adventure of Link retrospective: Hyrule warrior | NES Works  

Fitting end to this with Link losing health as he collects a heart piece. Brutal game.

My mother, who plays approximately no video games except Tetris and Mrs. Pac-Man, was able to get all the way to Dark Link(!!!) before my wide-eyed almost two-year old self mashed that power button while she was focused and she could never do it again. Later on when I bought the GBA version, I had a brief issue with the Wizzrobe boss, and I relayed that to her and she said "Oh him? He's easy! Just stay in one place and crouch." Of all the things for my mother to absolutely school me on, that was quite a deep cut. I still have no idea how she's able to play it as well as she does and be so bad at basically most other games.

I remember my Mom managed to get a copy of Zelda 2 in 88' for Christmas. I still don't know how she pulled it off to this day. She also manged to get me an early copy of SMB3 because she met an importer at a trade show in vegas one year. I was a poor kid, so these moments really stick out in my memory.

This is one of my favorite Zelda games: It had quite a deep combat system with high/low/up/down thrusts and shielding. But the thing I loved most was its atmosphere. It is truly a more grown up and grimmer adventure.

I vividly remember the birthday I got Zelda 2. For some reason my family was super busy that day so I got to play all day uninterrupted. It was fantastic.

Zelda II has long been one of my favorites in the series. Always nice to see it explored in the context of its contemporaries.

I still have my copy of Fun Club for Zelda II. Thanks for closing out 1988, looking forward to what’s coming up!

You've somehow crafted the definitive Zelda II retrospective video. This is a must-watch for any fan/casual that wants a proper overview of the game's features and how it impacted everything around it. I feel like so much was covered here versus much of the other content on RU-vid that basically amounts to "this game is weird and then ALttP came out."

I definitely appreciate learning more about the historical context of this game, especially as someone born over a decade after its release. It's definitely difficult to sorta visualise what games had revolutionary design, even moreso than what games had revolutionary technology, with so much distance and time. So, super interesting to watch.

Zelda II was definitely available in November, a family friend had it Thanksgiving weekend in 1988, and we spent many hours using grid paper maps created through trial and error (no pun intended) to find the path to get the Hammer, the time spent that weekend led it to be at the top of my Christmas want list (and I got it that year).

Beating this game without save states on original hardware is one of my most satisfying gaming moment. Skills. Patience. Perseverance.

Oh, that puzzle to find the city hidden in the woods hindered me entire months in my quest to end the game...and I could only find the solution it in a NES strategy book.

Hands down one of my favorite games of all time. I’ve got great memories of playing Zelda II with my Dad after dinner when I was a kid. I even remember going to Toys R Us to pick up the game right when it came out. Used to love Toys R Us’ video game dept. back in the late 80’s early 90’s.

Random story here, but my mom was remarried on January 1st, 1989, and I was 7 at the time. I had just realized that I could record video game music to a cassette if I put our boombox near the tv, and then I could listen to it anywhere. This was easily the coolest thing ever and so I tried, over and over, to convince my mom to play my recorded zelda 2 music in her wedding, but she didn’t go for it. Point being, I can confirm having the game before their January 1st, 1989 wedding. I would bet I got it somewhere in late December, as I wasn’t too far in at the time of the event.

This takes me back. Zelda II was too difficult for me to penetrate as a 9 year old; but it sparked so much imagination and play (my step sister still remembers me chasing her around the yard with swords). Especially fuelled by all the coverage in Nintendo Fun Club, Nintendo Power, and The Official Nintendo Player's Guide--all of which I still have. I also appreciate you highlighting the story elements: back when instruction manuals served as rich troves of lore. That truly was THE Legend of Zelda. The third Triforce, the wizard cursing the original Zelda, the royal family naming princesses in her memory, plus the threat of Ganon's resurrection with Link's blood. It was only in adulthood that I realized, "Hold on. That means there's two Zeldas. Well that's awkward."

My parents had a tough time finding SMB 2 for Christmas. Dad and Mom both went to stores upwards of 60 miles away before they finally found it.

This brings back a lot of memories. I remember reading the players guide, fun club, and other mags promoting the game and desperately wanting to play it. By the time it finally released we didn't have enough money for new Nintendo games, so I would walk to my friends' house a couple blocks away and take turns every continue. I played Little Nemo and other games there also, and it was some of the most fun I remember having back then. Nintendo was everywhere so even growing up poor in the 80's you could still find a way to play the latest games as long as you had a friend or two. 🤗

Great history lesson, it brought back so many memories! I was 7 when Zelda II came out and all I knew at the time was that it was something *sacred* to the one kid in my school that owned it. He wouldn't let anyone touch, borrow, or play it, no matter what we were willing to trade. The chip shortage puts that all in perspective decades later. I remember seeing my first in-the-wild copy up for sale in Woolworths and my heart skipping a beat. I didn't finish it till I was 11 (no guides and that final Palace was HARD) but years later I'd amaze my college roomate by blasting though it like a pro. As unpopular as the opinion may be, it's still one of my favorite Zeldas (along side ALttP, Link's Awakening and BotW).

It's expected these days, but I'd once again comment I love your presentation and how you've kept it consistent over years. It's a marvelous feat!

Zelda II is definitely one of my favorite NES games, and the help of save states, I finally beat it this year. Shadow Link is actually kinda easy to defeat, Thunderbird is definitely a tough penultimate boss. So far, I've only checked toy store ads in the NY Times for the first week of December 1988, and the most recent games shown are Konami's Life Force and Tengen's Pac-Man so it definitely bears out that chip shortage essentially makes some release dates online in late 1988 almost meaningless as you say. And looking forward to the Master System episodes.

While this is a difficult game, I do think the difficulty is often a bit overstated. I wouldn't put it as difficult to the point of *needing* modern amenities to complete, though they can certainly cut down on some frustrations for people. I find it odd how rarely people mention that getting a game over in the Great Palace has you continue from the Great Palace. You only have get through it once, and then you have infinite attempts at it, so it's a much tougher palace to explore.

Well... I just NEED to see a longer clip of that orchestra 😁 Amazing episode, as always.

Fantastic documentary. I have fond memories of Zelda II, mostly because I played it with my dad (who I otherwise had little in common with).

This is the most amazing series on RU-vid! Thank you for all your hard work.

One of my top 5 Zelda games, believe it or not. Something about it just keeps me coming back, probably the combat system. And that palace theme. For those who find this game too difficult, I recommend Hudson Soft’s Faxanadu. Very underrated game.

I remember when I was a kid in Harlem our place wasn't big so my dad picked up a copy of this game for my brother one day and our only TV was in the living room. Late on a friday night, I stayed up playing this game from like 11pm to 2am and I was so caught up in it. I was doing really well the first playthrough ever until my character died. The image and the laugh of Ganon when it said "GAME OVER, THE RETURN OF GANON" with the black image and dark yellow background scared me so bad, I dropped the controller, ran to my room, shut the door behind me, blocked it, and went under the covers trembling until I fell asleep. Mind you our TV was all the way on the other side of the entire place by the front door so for me it was a far run. Then later that morning, my dad got mad at me for leaving the nintendo and TV on all night haha. My brother still brings this up. He bought me a used copy of this game for my 30th birthday too lol. Memories....

Imma say it: Before BOTW, -this- was my favorite Zelda game. Eff the haters. Thanks for doing a retrospective of this one

It's cool you mentioned the gem trick for late game leveling up. It allows you to play through the game without grinding. Another useful trick is to save all of the overworld extra lives, I think there are 6, for the last level. This is the game that got me back into gaming. I could never beat it as a kid and that bothered me.

OK, so thank you for this video. I never truly understood the reason why Zelda two was so amazing and now I do. Thank you.

I love this black sheep of a game

I remember when Zelda 2 came out. One of the kids brought a copy of the manual to the arcade and we all took turns looking through it on a pool table in complete awe.

Having played through Zelda II on the new Game & Watch during Thanksgiving weekend last year, I can confirm that it makes for a perfect Thanksgiving game.

Discovered retronauts whilst renovating my house and have been lucky enough to find these videos now that I've finished. I can sit back and watch these too. No channels have this much depth and knowledge on the subject. Length of the videos is just right too. Keep up the great work Jeremy!

The first Zelda game I played and still one of my favorites.

"and the fact that it's the one entry in the series to demand genuine skill and dexterity" Got it in one.

Zelda II was a brutal game, but I think one of the things that kept it fun was the fact that the controls worked rather well, so you could keep fighting the enemies instead of fighting the input (as opposed to some games that are difficult primarily due to clunky controls or input lag). I went back and replayed it recently, and combat itself was just plain fun!

Nothing brings more nostalgia from my childhood than this game. It was so dang, but hard, to play with my brother. I tried to rlly beat it at 18 but ended up beating Friday The 13th NES game instead. Got mad and couldn’t get past the damn creatures constantly throwing rocks at me near the end.

25 years later and this game still intimidates me

My Favorite NES game.

Another great vid. Zelda II has arguably the best dungeon music in the series. Would love a reimagining of this game

Great review. Zelda one was one of the first nes games I got back in 87. Was so hype for Zelda 2 and loved that game. Still like once a year would get the game out and play it for a few days.

Excellent as always! Weirdly, Zelda II is the game I come back to the most now. I've finished Zelda I so many times it almost feels easy, but Zelda II is always a challenge. Plus, the weight and momentum of Link's movement in the side-view sequences both feel _really good_! It's up there with Castlevania, I think, as the best weapon-based combat gameplay on the system. I've mentioned this multiple times in various places, but Ironknuckles have a trick to beating them. It turns out that the game's code cheats a bit when it updates them. It watches the player's controller inputs directly to determine where to put their shields, and unlike the player, Ironknuckles can attack at a height at which they aren't blocking. This makes them infuriating opponents, who can always put their shield exactly where you're attacking, but aren't beholden to attacking from behind their shield. And, weirdly, the underthrust move you learn doesn't work on them. The trick is, if you jump, and slash while on the way down, sort of like you're slashing through the enemy knight's helmet, it always hits. This has to be an intentional choice, and makes Ironknuckles MUCH easier opponents to fight. Later on you fight Dinofols in some overworld scenes who are similarly as frustrating as Ironknuckles are, yet the head-slash trick is not as effective on! To attack them reliably, you have to do a short hop, and attack low in the air, to attack their midsection. It can be done consistently, but it's a lot more frustrating to do if you're not employing speedrun-level tricks. And then, of course, there are the Fokkas in the last dungeon (unfortunate name there), which ultimately the only really good way to beat them is to use the upthrust move, but is frustratingly precise with the exact place you stab them, meaning, you often just leap into them as they pass overhead and get hurt. Another note about Ironknuckles. That Zelda Game & Watch handheld system that Nintendo released last year not only has emulated versions of Zelda I, II and Link's Awakening in it, but it also has a playable clock mode based around Zelda I, and a playable stopwatch mode based on the combat scenes in Zelda II, that asks you to defeat as many monsters as you can during the time you set. (If you don't touch the controls an AI player plays, but you can take over and go for a high score yourself.) Both of these modes show so much attention to detail that I presume they're using a hacked-up version of the original games' engines, but... the Ironknuckles in Zelda II's mode are immune to the helmet-slash trick! It just doesn't work on them! After a bit of play, it seems to me the only consistent way to beat them is: when the Ironknuckle is stabbing, it cannot change the height at which it blocks, You have to thus wait until it attacks, then stab it where its shield isn't. If it's stabbing at a height different from where it's blocking then you'll be open to attack yourself when you attack it. It really puts your reactions to the test in a way that Nintendo mostly doesn't do any more. I feel like I should mention the Great Palace in Zelda II, which is ludicrous. The original release of Zelda II in Japan was on the Famicom Disk System, of course. Side One was the boot side and the side where saved games were stored. On starting, the game immediately asked the player to insert side B, where most of the game was stored. Nearly the entire game was held on side B, UNTIL... when they got to the Great Palace, players were asked to put side A back in. The only gameplay on Side A was that Palace! It's ludicrously big, and most of it is devoted to non-essential rooms, including an entire route with no purpose other than to be a huge red herring! One thing about the Japanese version's experience system is, if you're daring enough to go all-in on Attack, you can easily get to Attack 5 by the end of the first palace. Experience levels, since you can lose them on starting a new session, are much cheaper in the Disk System version, and you can get to Attack 8 before the end of the first continent, during the first half of the game. Enemies also tend to score you somewhat higher experience awards in the Japanese version. The upshot is, if you don't run out of lives, getting all 8s by the end doesn't require milking the crystal placement bonuses. If you DO run out of lives of course, all the levels you didn't build evenly are lost, but it does make for an exciting way to play. The early game really penalizes players who build Magic early, since in the first two palaces the only spells you have are Shield and Jump.

Irem makes me cry I love it so much! So much of my childhood is dependent on them! Metal storm was the NES game I played to most.

I still got this game and it’s one of my most replayed games ever. This and Mario 2. Live them both.

I'm just a few minutes into the video but I already must congratulate you on your level of preparation and knowledge. I cannot even name another video like this where the chip shortage of 87-88 was mentioned. But it's such an interesting topic to explore! Weird, too. It was a real war for a while, and some of the compromises and bargains that were made in order to fix the situation would never fly in the modern day. A guy I knew back in Kharbin who was a subcontractor for certain cartridge parts back in the day said this was the era he loved his job the most as at times he felt like a movie super spy. Made him feel powerful. If it weren't for those pesky NDAs you could've made an actual Bourne Identity type thriller out of it and only exaggerate a little.

I just finished your entire nes works chronology playlist having them play during my work shifts, and now Im sad I have to wait until late 2023 for this to continue :( well I guess I'll check out your other ones in the meantime

This video connects a lot of things I already knew in a way that introduces a lot of things I never thought about or connected together. Wonderful.

Thanks for this. I love that you continue to do what you do and somehow make it better everytime. You're a wordsmith and seemingly obsessed with the same era of gaming I am.

For better or worse my 80s childhood is often times remembered in terms of great games. The volume of information provided by Nintendo on Zelda II years in advance of the game's Dec 88/ 89 release made the wait SO painful. Being a devout Zelda I kid this game ofc was a huge deal and the difficulty made passing it as a 9 year old an equally huge deal. I loved the swordplay and experience aspects. The linear progression was harder to accept after the extremely open design of the first Zelda but i still loved it. Thanks for the nostalgia!

I don't always remember the experiences of both _longing for_ and _obtaining_ a game, but Zelda II is one that has immediate recollections for me. It wasn't long after finishing the original NES Zelda that I first got the Official Nintendo Player's Guide and got my first look at Zelda II. I remember taking it to school with me so I could ruminate on how it might play during lulls in the day, and being really, REALLY anxious for the game to finally arrive in the States. That fall, I still remember calling up Wal-Mart (back when I had none of the anxiety of using a phone that I do these days, for some reason, and would frequently call up Toys R Us (I even had the number memorized) or other retailers to ask if they had a given game in stock. I was absolutely SHOCKED to find that this Wal-Mart DID have Zelda II in stock, and I asked them to hold it long enough for my mom and I to get down there. (My mom, in those days, understood that if you didn't get some of the in-demand items when the opportunity presented itself, you likely wouldn't get them at all...especially in the fall and early winter), and sure enough we got there and got the game. One of the few times that sort of thing has worked out. (A very similar thing would happen with Ocarina of Time a good decade later.) Sorry for the verbose response. It's just these are the experiences I love to recall and recount when the moment is right.

This along with the original Legend of Zelda were the third and fourth games I ever got for my NES back in around June of 1989 I believe. It was definitely the summer of 89, that's for sure. Specifically speaking about this game, I love that the aspect of a more adult Link. I love the music and I love the sound effects. But it was emotionally draining at times not knowing exactly where to go or what to do or to find which items in order to progress so in those days we would hunt down any information possible and would listen to tips through word of mouth. I even called Nintendo gameplay counselors for help. I consider it one of the greatest games of all time and still have my original copy to this very day.

Yeah, I definitel remember the wait for this one. I was very eager to pick it up as a kid back in the late 80s, but it kept getting delayed week after week. My dad had some connections in the tech industry, and he was finally able to secure a copy after we had waited a month or two. The catch was we had to travel all the way to the closest big city - San Luis Obispo in California - which the freeway sign from my home town said was at least a good 120 miles away. I went with him on that day, picked up it, and waited as patiently as I could while he conducted the other business he had gone out there to do. So, yeah, this game has a lot of personal importance to me, and I never understood the hate it is claimed to have gotten. It was different, like Super Mario 2, it got good coverage in Nintendo Power, and the general consensus in my home town was it was tough, but nobody disliked it. Certainly didn't stop several of them from borrowing my copy.

I'm glad your channel is doing so well these, great content as always.

I started to follow your work around June. I was so sad that you hadn't cover this game yet back then. Now I'm really happy. Fantastic jornalist you are, sir.

Impeccable timing on this video, Jeremy. Thank you so much. I'm replaying Zelda II for the umpteenth time currently and have a bunch of other reviews of this game queued up but of course this one comes first. Maybe not my favorite game, but certainly my most nostalgic. Also one of the only games that my Dad has beaten, somehow.

amazing video. I still remember getting this game from my Nana for my 4th birthday. She called me up the stairs and handed me this gold box. My life was forever changed, I am 37 now, and this game will always be iconic to me.

It has been 0 days without a Tower of Duraga reference in this channel.

You always bring a fresh perspective A+

I remember that my parents couldn’t find a copy of Zelda II in the fall of ‘88, but a friend at school snagged a copy January 8th, 1989 by importing the French/English Canadian version distributed by Mattel and paying over $100 for it. He was the first to get it at my school and let me borrow it for a week. It worked fine on my United States NES. I must say it was unusual to see a French Canadian version of a Nintendo game in the 1980s and I own a pristine Mattel copy of this game today due to this experience.

I am entirely grateful that when my family got this game, we also had the issues of Nintendo Powers that had all the coverage for the game. It eliminated so much of the guesswork in deciphering the clues and figuring out where to go, and I never found the combat that unfair or exceedingly challenging compared to other game of the day. Easily my favorite NES game of all time, and my #2 of all time overall.

Man, I still remember looking out my porch at the time in my denim outfit eating an apple on my birthday in 1988. Early. About 6am, before school. My mom storms in, and apparently cross with me, and said " open your birthday present." A box was a handed to me and my heart pounding I tore it with beastly fervour. It was a gold box, plastic wrapped Adventure of Link. Still my personal favorite Zelda. You wouldnt believe all the art from the time I still have. My beloved neighbor at the time drew me the image of Link, that monochromatic image that Jeremy had here of Link,and armed walking the path, full color. He went on to paint for the Vatican. I could go on and on about Zelda 2.

Zelda 2 and Rambo had what I regarded as a perfect exploration gameplay approach, which consisted of a lot of 'where the hell am I' situations that made it so satisfying to delve. The lack of an internet in that era definitely helped, but the way the games were designed with a loose directive flow, forcing you to assemble where things are and what you're dealing with, encouraged a lot of my creativity and imagination in the way that modern games cannot hope to do. These games had subtly distinctive areas beyond the usual contemporary ice, fire, sewer levels... Zelda 2 had the ghost town, the weird lizards pitching stones from the high wall, the open deserts that were more than just blank sand, swamps, etc. Rambo had acid bubble bridge, the enemy camps, the boat ambush, etc. You felt like you were really traveling through a strange land with little explanation. Heck, I might even put Rygar in this category. The games weren't entirely linear or sandbox, but this tantalizing exploration heavy journey filled with all kinds of strange locations and monsters.

Eagerly looking forward to this one, although I won’t have free time until much later. This channel is fast becoming the third pillar in my gaming retinue; SpawnWave for gaming news, DigitalFoundry for tech analyses, and here for thought provoking retrospectives. Keep up the excellent work🫡

This video made me remember Mystery Quest for the NES as something that was similar. Hated that game. Little brother loved it.

Excellent review. Love these videos and I will happily continue to buy the books as they release!

I loved Zelda 2, and still like It. Brutally difficult, but so fun that I replayed it recently on NSO

Love this game...always will. I'd be curious to see what they'd do with a remake/update, whether literal or spiritually. As someone who played it in sequence, it was an awesome, epic, creative challenge, full of puzzle elements and advancement. It was tough, but manageable, and friends all seemed to know the secrets.

I was waiting for this one. Nice job as always Jeremy. Love Zelda 2.

Took weeks of trading the controller back and forth with my best friend playing the Zelda Collector's Edition on Gamecube but finishing that final temple was glorious!

Just started the video...and was so happy. Its my favorite nes game

My first game I played on the Zelda franchise, fell in love ever since lol. Definitely loved the music first I herd it I was hooked on it lol.

You have become my favourite creator. I really look forward to these videos. I have profound memories of all these games. Great work on your research and opinions.

Replayed this game in anticipation of your video. I beat this for the first time in 2020 and every time I return to it I think it gets better. The learning curve is definitely too steep but once the game starts opening up and once you get that downward stab leveling becomes exhilarating and that combat system never stops being fun once you get the hang of it.

I love this game, even recognizing all its flaws. Played it on the Zelda Collection on my Gamecube all those years ago.

6:46 Zelda II was insanely influential. There are still games being made with a similar style.

My bro and I were luckily enought to get it in November 1988 at Lionel Playworld. I believe they had got some copies, but the Toys R Us and KB did not. Unfortunately, the cartridge failed a couple days later when we were on the 2nd Palace. Lionel was willing to exchange it when the new stock came in. Called every week to see if it was in... it was definitely into the new year when we finally got our new cartridge. I know school was back in session because my friend Mike and I ditched a couple days to play it,. We were up to the 6th Palace area when we got stupidly greedy and decided to just go home after lunch one day. Obviously, we got caught that time. Of course, one of our consequences was grounded from NES. Finally beat it a couple after getting NES back.

This is wonderful. Thanks so much

“The original Zelda abstracted role playing concepts into an action format” I might argue that the role playing concepts are the abstraction that these NES games sought to embody.

Happy Thanksgiving to this channel. 😀👍🎮🦃

The rental store near me in Jupiter Florida had one copy of super Mario bros 2 and Zelda 2. They would not hold it when it was returned so it was first come first serve. I suffered through several substitutes while waiting such as wizards and warriors and other PTSD inducing "games". Finally got copies of my own on my birthday in 1990

I was born in November 88! When I grew up we had this, so I think dad bought it and played it while I was a yung newly spawned build

I never beat this game before despite playing it since it released. This game is brutally nes hard. The way you have to grind every continue is unforgivable

I used to have Zelda II for my NES back in the early 2000's, (2000 to 2001).

How did he make this upload look like from the 80's? That's amazing

I know this video was made before the release of Tears of the Kingdom, but I am catching several things such as the town named "Rauru" as well as the villagers who turn into enemies (Yiga Clan). I kind wonder what other similaries there may be? I think the idea of Gannon's Resurrection perhaps might also be one that we see in TOTK. I would love to see a Zelda 2 remake with all of the flaws fixed. However, I'm not sure that it would be quite the same. The brutal difficulty was both seen as a weakness and a strength at the same time. This game demands your respect.

Embarrassing today, but dude, I was at a K-Mart, of all fuckin' places, when I suddenly saw 7 or 8 copies of it for sale. I FREAKED OUT, RAN back to my parents who were like 50 or 60 paces behind back toward the entrance, and when we got back to the video game department, 3 or 4 of them had been sold. totally got it though. ALways loved it. Still Do.

Zelda II will always be my favorite Zelda game. I speedrun it for a reason haha

Imagine if Zelda 2's side scroll style had really succeeded and become the norm form the next generation. I love Links Adventure for all the innovative ideas and played it later in 1989. The larger areas and characters felt like a huge evolution in such a short time. Some of the cryptic statements from townspeople felt like I was playing Jeopardy with only one hemisphere of my brain working. Great job, Mr Parrish, as always. Fonder memories of NES I could not ask for.

I was honoured to have been able to beat the fan-translated FDS version of Zelda II with a lot of use of rewind and save states, but I can't possibly see myself play it for enjoyment. I'd even be cool with that the player is teleported back to Zelda's shrine every time you have to continue(although still the player should be teleported to the dungeon entrance), but I can't get over how way too many enemies(especially the Dark Nuts) are way too good at combat. It's like the AI was specifically written to be flawless and perfect: No matter how much you guard and try to stab them, the AI makes zero mistakes and completely unjustly takes shots at you that you have no way of anticipating or deflecting, and your miniscule health pool gets ground down after 3-4 hits. It's immensely unfair and I can't see how this can be a mark of good game design. Obviously these were the parts I had to rewind on the most. I know that there's a "jump-and slash the sword at them" strategy which lets them put their guard down, but I don't know if this was intended by the developers and I just see it as an exploit. I didn't even know it was there. If the AI had been rewritten to be just a tad more permissible, I'm certain that would improve mine and many other people's thoughts on the game. So at the very least, I'm happy with the "Zelda 2 Redux" hack, which while it doesn't back down the relentless fighting AI, does increase your health pool, magic and adds all sorts of QoL features. That hack's the only way I play Zelda II nowadays. Other than that there's a lot of things I like about Zelda II. I like that there's a lot more backtracking and utilising uncovered info and villager rumours(I definitely kept a paper with notes during my playthrough), and the couple of times that you could find hidden things like stuff hidden under a table was pretty nifty, although you had to learn that this was even an option in the first place. And even then I was so angry that some hidden secrets like finding those hidden towns and cots in unspecified points in a forest left you with no prior indication. You have to use a walkthrough. It's complete bollocks and it felt like the devs tried to echo the obscurity of "Zelda 1" but in the most hostile way. Zelda 1 could at least telegraph some secrets like have that one tree or a rock that feels oddly out of sync with the rest of the environment, while Zelda II doesn't even do that. And just like in Zelda 1 everything feels vaguely apocalyptic and even more eerily desolate here, even in spite of the inclusion of villagers, and I think that's a fitting reflection of the game's difficulty. It feels like everybody is cowering, teetering on the edge of survival and are barricaded inside their homes. That there's a common fan joke that the young women in the villages sell their bodies to Link just adds to it. It feels like a hopeless world, the music is sombre and resigned, and there are still so many unresolved mysteries that were brought in this story: Just what's with the Babylonian/Egyptian motifs surrounding the last dungeon? What entity is that boss guarding it, and what connection do they possibly have with Ganon? Just who is Shadow Link? None of these questions are answered and that's something I both fear and tremendously respect in this game.

You always bring a fresh perspective A*

I found a lot of the sword fighting in skyward sword reminded me of Zelda 2. Particularly the fights with Girahim where he seems to be able to parry every damn sword strike if you aren't skilled.

0:11 for a second I thought this was John Denver from that Christmas special with him and Julie Andrews.

I've tried Zelda II even as far back as 1990, but never got very far in it. This video is the first time I ever got an interest to actually give it a serious attempt for once.

One thing that makes this game stand out to me is its atmosphere. Something about the look and feel of the game as opposed to the first, with more complex music, a more "adult" Link, towns with inhabitants and so on- it gives the feeling of being more a sprawling fantasy adventure and I think that's kept me coming back to it even with the gameplay being frustratingly difficult. It has a similar surreal vibe to Faxanadu. The big drawback is the dungeons are way too easy to get lost in without a map (which I guess makes this one even more of an RPG since you have to get out the graph paper or have a strategy guide.) It does still feel a little janky in execution compared to surrounding Zelda games, but then it's trying something much more difficult for the time.

Hey I really like your videos, so thank you for making them!

I loved this game, but found it harder than Dragon Warrior; I never beat it as a child. I think this is one of those titles that many definitely needed the strategy guide in NP to have any hope of completing.

I'm nearly 40 and I don't think I'll ever get much further than crossing that river in Zelda II.

I’ve been steeped in this game for the past month. I actually skipped over the video initially because I thought I was being recommended your older Metroidvania Works episode again - which is an excellent video - but NES Works proper still hits a bit different. Very informative! I have been more focused on it in isolation but I think it’s neat to see all the other games on various platforms that were doing similar things. One thing I have to agree on though is that it’s groundbreaking. I played the FDS version first and it is almost hard to believe the release date. Truly ahead of its time.

I remember getting this and Golgo 13 on Christmas. Didn't learn until much later that Zelda II was a major pain to find.

Always a pleasure.