Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link - Retro Video Game Review

Following the amazing success of the first Legend of Zelda game, Nintendo knew that had a hot property on their hands and decided to create the first of many sequels. It finally arrived in late 1988 in the form of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link. What should have been a superior sequel, however, was marred by a variety of features, and consequently, it is often seen as a black sheep in the Zelda series. I am one of those people who feel that Zelda 2 could have been a lot better, though my complaints have less to do with the changes featured in the game and more to do with its unforgiving difficulty. While not the worst Zelda game I have played (Four Swords Adventures holds that title), Zelda 2 is still a game lacking the familiar Zelda magic.

To its credit, the story is somewhat darker than the usual Nintendo fare. Zelda has been placed under a sleeping spell by a sorcerer trying to get her to reveal the secrets of the Triforce. She will remain in this state unless Link retrieves the Triforce of Courage from the Great Palace. To do this, he must first take six crystals and use them to destroy palaces filled with dozens of vicious creatures. Meanwhile, Ganon's minions are out for Link's blood, literally, as they mean to kill Link and use his blood to resurrect their master. Can Link save the land of Hyrule once again and prevent Ganon's return?

After starting in the North Palace where Zelda sleeps, you will head out into the over world, which is far more detailed than in the first game. When some monsters appear on the screen and you run into them, the change in format becomes evident because this time, you deal with your foes in a side scrolling format. By using his sword, which can shoot beams when he is at full health, Link will have to try and defeat his enemies. By doing so, he will gain experience points that will help him increase his stats. Whenever enough points are accumulated, Link can power up his life meter, magic meter, or attack power, all to a maximum of level 8. Once the enemies have been defeated and Link makes his escape, the action returns to the over world. In most cases, you can stay on roads or outrun enemies on the map to avoid combat, but failure to level up will make the game more difficult.

Over the course of his adventure, Link will visit towns where he can obtain advice from townsfolk, replenish his health and magic, and learn new spells as a reward for completing quests throughout the land. This was the first Zelda game to utilize a magic meter, and Link can cast spells that will enable him to take less damage from enemies, jump extra high, and change into a fairy, among other things. Magic can also be refilled with jars received after defeating some enemies, and hidden in some areas are jars and heart containers that extend the magic and life meters, respectively. In some towns, Link can even learn how to stab foes above or underneath him, which is useful in many parts of the game.

The seven palaces, each one harder than the last, are filled with monsters and traps, just like any other Zelda game. The foes here tend to be tougher than those found in the over world, but they tend to give you more experience points. Each palace has a special item that can be used in various spots throughout the rest of the game. They include a candle which allows you to see in dark caverns, boots that let you walk on water, and a cross that reveals invisible foes. Of course, you will encounter a boss at the end of every palace, and you must defeat it in order to place the crystal where it belongs. Once that is done, the palace is destroyed, with no means of going back inside to destroy enemies in order to earn extra levels.

I like seeing Nintendo's attempts of taking series in new directions, but the way that they do it here has decidedly mixed results. The game is far more focused on combat than on puzzles, not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but it feels a little less Zelda-like as a result. On the other hand, the combat itself can be fun at times, especially the boss battles, and the side scrolling format at least presents itself with plenty of interesting challenges. Speaking of challenge, my biggest gripe about the game is the rather nasty difficulty that the game tends to throw at you.

To begin with, your enemies are tough to deal with, though they do become easier as you level up. Even if all of your stats are at their highest level, however, there will still be moments where your foes can deal plenty of damage with rather cheap moves. Speaking of cheap, that is the perfect world to describe death in some spots of the game. You might be hit by an enemy or by a bubble that suddenly comes up from the bottom of the screen and plummet into water or lava, resulting in instant death regardless of how much energy you have. The game uses a lives system in which you start with three lives. Lose all of them, and the game will be over. You can find extra lives in the form of Link dolls, but they are hard to come by, and once collected, they never reappear, no matter how many times you save your game.

In most cases, when you do lose all of your lives, you should be prepared to retrace your steps a lot to get back to where you died. This is because losing every life will send you back to the North Palace, even if you die in a palace, which results in needless frustration. Also, you lose all the experience points that you were accumulating towards your next upgrade, though any upgraded stat will stay upgraded as long as you save the game. Nintendo should have allowed you to start near where you died rather than having to redo a lot of things. In many Zelda games since this one, they have enabled you to start over in more convenient locations. Having such an option here would have been welcome, especially since the rest of the game is quite unforgiving.

Even without such cheap difficulty, the game is tough to complete. Some of the clues you are given are quite cryptic and incomplete, though that is probably because English translations of games were pretty bad at the time. Also, you are often left to try and find out where you are supposed to go on your own, as opposed to having the game take you by the hand and show you the way. Chances are that you might need to look up a walk through to get past some parts of the game. You might also get lost in the palaces, as there is no map feature that shows you where you have and have not been. While there is a save feature, it is only utilized when you lose your last life. With all of these aspects bringing down what could have been a great sequel, it is little wonder that Nintendo returned the series to its roots with A Link to the Past and has kept the series in more or less its original format ever since.

Graphically, the game is vastly improved over its predecessor, with a more detailed over world and better-looking characters. For its time, the game has impressive-looking palaces and even some shadow effects. In terms of sound, a lot of the tunes are quite memorable, particularly the battle, palace, and Great Palace songs. Even more impressive is hearing Ganon laugh at you at the game over screen, even though it means it is back to the North Palace for you. Some of these tunes would make a come back in such games as The Minish Cap and the Super Smash Brothers series.

Nintendo had an interesting idea in changing the format of the Zelda games, but the execution left something to be desired. The exciting combat and other changes were brought down by cheap, unforgiving difficulty that resulted in unnecessary aggravation. While Zelda 2 could have been far worse, it could also have been much better. The side scrolling format was used to a more limited extent in some later entries, but for the most part, Nintendo has stuck to what worked in the first game, having learned from their experience in creating this game. Again, it is actually not the worst canonical Zelda game, but it is far from the best one, as well. Only the most die hard Zelda fans should try it at least once, and then perhaps never try it again.