Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Video Game Review)

Video Game Review
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Nintendo Entertainment System
1988
Developed by: Nintendo
Published by: Nintendo

There’s a lot of undue criticism thrown towards Nintendo’s Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Because it’s so drastically different from previous Zelda titles both before and after its release that some turn their head at it. However, at the time of its release, it wasn’t like there was much of a precedent set. While the original Legend or Zelda was quite different from its sequel, many sequels on the NES seemed like radical departures from pre-set notions of what their games were supposed to be (Super Mario Bros. 2 is a perfect example of this). With that being said, Zelda II is a great game. It has a near-perfect blend of RPG and platforming elements. It provides some of the most intense gameplay on the system. Still, it has its issues. Grinding is a necessary evil in this game and the score, while decent, is forgettable. Otherwise, it’s one of the better games on the NES.

Taking place shortly after the first game for the NES, Link heads off to the North Castle after the crest of Hyrule suddenly appears on his hand. Impa reveals to him the Legend of Zelda. The story is that many eras ago, the prince of Hyrule and an evil wizard tried to convince the princess to reveal the location of the Triforce but she refused. The wizard, who was extremely frustrated by the princess’s actions, cast a spell on her and put her into a deep sleep. The wizard died while casting the spell. The prince, overcome with the guilt of what has happened to her sister, brought her body to rest in the North Castle tower and made it so that every daughter born into the royal family would bear her name too. Her name was Zelda.

Impa told Link that this mark on his hand confirms that he is the hero of the land and that he is the only one capable of lifting the spell cast on Zelda. Impa gives Link six crystals that must placed in various castles located throughout the kingdom. Link will be faced with many challenges and monsters to fight along the way. Once that is complete, he will gain access to the Great Palace where he’ll have to fight the toughest battle of his life to get the Triforce of Courage; the last piece of the Triforce LInk has yet to find. With the Triforce of Courage, Zelda can finally be awakened.

There’s not much to the controls as the d-pad moves Link around, the A button swings Link’s sword and the B button acts as the jump/action button (used for talking to NPCs or open up hidden areas). Pressing start calls up the magic selection menu and the select button activates the highlighted magic power. The face buttons also have different functions on the overworld as the A button makes Link use the hammer (once he acquires it) and the B button is used for the whistle (again, once acquired). It’s a relatively simple setup. The controls are easy to manage and function well with the game.

The graphics look pretty dull at times and, at other times, look amazing for a NES game. The game is generally presented as a sidescroller although the map-screen that acts as a hub between Link’s many destinations is presented from a top-down perspective. The problem with the map-screen though is that it doesn’t look much better than anything you’d see on the Atari 2600. This a problem considering that at the same time on the Sega Master System there was Phantasy Star which had a gorgeous looking overworld screen. Granted, it could be argued that the Master System had more horsepower under the hood but NES cartridges could contain chips to boost the performance of the system (like the MMC3 chip that made Super Mario Bros. 3 look so great). It just feels like the overworld visuals were treated as an afterthought.

The sprites during the sidescrolling portions of the game (which represents a majority of the gameplay) show an impressive amount of detail. The only major issues with this area of the visuals is that many of the environments look empty. Some of the castles have large rooms that are only filled with a floor, a ceiling, and a single enemy. This seems to be a designer choice rather than due to hardware limitations since there are some environments that have quite a bit of detail (including both a foreground and a background) and multiple enemies on screen at the same time. Even though some of action can get pretty intense on-screen, there’s no slowdown; the only graphical hiccups are some flicker.

The soundtrack of the game is decent but not that memorable. The overworld theme is a remix of the main theme from the original Zelda game. The sound effects are limited in number and while they don’t make the game sound annoying, they fail in their job to enhance the presentation of the game. It feels like there should be more sound effects for the various actions and events going on. The only impressive sound to note is the sound of something hitting Link’s shield; not because it sounds great but because of the attention paid to that detail.

What’s really great about Zelda II is the hand-to-hand combat aspect of gameplay. Most platformer games on the NES and other 8 and 16-bit consoles really don’t require much in the way of strategy when fighting enemies. Zelda II requires players to watch out for an enemy’s weapon strikes (which are random), block with the shield, and swing at the right moment with the sword. It’s a great system since even if someone memorizes a map of a dungeon, they still have to defeat the enemies; which, at times, can be quite challenging.

Another interesting aspect of the game is the introduction of levelling up through experience points. While it’s a neat addition, it’s not a perfect system. It essentially forces a player to do a lot of grinding (fighting hordes of enemies repeatedly for experience points). This can slow the pace of the gameplay down to a crawl as the first few dungeons are quite difficult if Link hasn’t been levelled up enough. At least the combat system is fun so it doesn’t feel that tedious but after awhile it does feel like you’re running in circles.

The game provides a decent challenge both in terms of gameplay and puzzle-solving. Trying to figure out what to do next requires the player to speak to every NPC to get clues. The hints are helpful and nowhere as vague as they are in the original Zelda. The challenge is mostly focused on fighting enemies and navigating through dungeons. Those who get frustrated easy by complex maps and cryptic clues that mean nothing will not have an issue with this game. It can feel a bit slow at times talking to every character in every town but it’s helpful and will not force players to rely on a strategy guide.

Nintendo’s Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a great game that’s does have some gameplay and graphical hiccups but, for the most part, is still quite fun to play. Sure, it’s different than most of the Zelda games that we’re used to but it’s still quite enjoyable. On its own merit though the game is very fun although it’s issues do make it feel like a chore to sit and complete it. Thankfully, the game isn’t too long and the battle mechanics lead to some exciting swordplay fights. It is definitely worth checking out.

☆☆☆☆