Game 2: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) - Finished!

Link needed to shield himself from Zelda's beauty...

Getting to the end was shear persistence, and once I reached the Great Palace it was only a matter of time before I mapped and completed it. My youthful memories were of an immense maze incapable of being mapped. After a few rounds through it now, I noticed there weren't many paths to choose.

With many ways leading to dead ends, and one to a complete loop, it was easy to track the right way to go. Once I found the final bosses my memory leaped forward to tell me the correct strategy. I nearly completed both without a game over, but even with max health and the shield spell, I could only take 5 or 6 hits from the first boss before dying. Since the bird requires the Thunder spell, I didn't have any magic left for Life. So, I went into the fight with my shadow able to take but 1 more hit.

I didn't even get a hit in

After the trek back I fully expected to fight Thunderbird again, but he was already defeated. So at full health, it was a quick fight to get the Golden Triangle of Courage (pretty sure later games called each piece the Triforce of [Name]... rolls better off the tongue, or mind...).

So we get a nice ending with Link embracing Zelda, but I wonder about a few things. Where did Link get the other two Triforces? Couldn't I have used them during my adventure in some way? What about the Zelda from the first game? Link seems to have forgotten all about her. Really this whole adventure seems rather at odds with its prior game.

In the first game, we're treated to a second quest that is much more difficult than the first. With Zelda II, we have probably the first New Game+ (name originates from Chrono Trigger) in any game. Link can start a new adventure from a completed save file with all levels, spells, and sword techniques, but loses all items and containers (heart and magic).

Beginning the game, again... (note the levels)

It was a fun adventure, but even with the leveling I can't honestly say this was a CRPG. I definitely see the need to differentiate this type of game into a separate genre, and we're getting closer to action-RPGs as we know them today. Many go further than this early game to include more RPG elements like inventories, shops, and more side quests and stories. Going into the final review I'm guessing it's going to score low; not because it wasn't fun, but when reviewed as an RPG, it'll fall short in many areas.

I happened to find the last heart container because while sleeping last night I had an old memory creep in about a heart container in the ocean (this may have been mentioned in a town as well). So, most things were wrapped up, and I believe I completed all the side quests. I visited Error as well, and found he's the one that informs me the way to the third castle is south of the King's Tomb.

Looking for further things I may have missed (none I can find by the way) I'm amazed to find there are 11 walkthroughs for this game (plus 3 foreign language ones) on GameFAQs. Why so many? My only guess is many people enjoyed this game so much that they wanted to write their own for it. Although, it's such a short simple game that I would think one or two is sufficient to cover everything. It seems instead of improving the old ones, we see a "me too" effect here. I do wonder what the point of it is.