I’ve been determined to finally beat Zelda II and determine that I would do it without save states and without a guide.
I know Zelda II is considered a black sheep somewhat but I really think in some ways it’s more fun than the original although I’d still pick Zelda 1 over II.
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I did this too, on the GameCube collector’s edition. It’s hard but the difficulty didn’t feel unfair! It was so satisfying when I made progress. Honestly this is such an excellent game.
This is one of the few Zelda games I haven’t completed yet. Someday.
Congrats!
I was startled by how dated Zelda 1 is. I know, obviously it’s very old, but people talk about it as if it still holds up today… It doesn’t. Maybe I could try Zelda 2 now.
It’s obviously nothing like a modern title but I don’t think that’s quite fair - it holds up in the sense that it’s fun, it has good combat challenge and exploration, honestly it does. You do have to overlook lack of QoL features and the fact that you basically have to read the manual, but I don’t think it’s fair to mark a game down for lacking those things. It lacks the puzzles, NPCs and stories of later Zeldas but it doesn’t try to have those.
Zelda 2 siimilarly lacks QoL features but it has excellent combat that’s actually challenging, but fair, so yeah if you’re open to it you could have a good gaming experience there.
the fact that you basically have to read the manual
This is no joke and deserves a bit of emphasis. NES games expect you to read the manual.
I did my first play of Zelda 2 about 5 years ago. I didn’t like it as kid, but I loved my adult playthrough. I will note that this was one of the games that I got stuck until I read the manual.
Another Z2 pointer, to anyone that wants to give it a go, is that you can logically “soft lock” the game with bad key management. It’s unlikely, but if you like to look for unintended orders to do game goals, it could happen.
If you do mess up and miss a key, you can always use fairy to pass through the door. This is actually how I got the cross because I couldn’t figure out how to get the magic key until I could see the ghosts in old Kasuto. And search the houses for the clue
I would be careful with the word “always”. A softlock can occur by entering a later dungeon to steal some of its keys. You can use the surplus keys to beat an early dungeon without collecting its item. This locks the item in the dungeon. Hope you didn’t need that later.
But couldn’t you go to where the alternative dungeon’s keys are, get those and come back to get the earlier dungeon’s item that way?
I can’t see how you can softlock?
It has the stories, but back in those days they were in the form of books and shit. Remember the original Warcraft like half of the lore was in the extra shit they released with it.
Check out Golvellius: Valley of Doom. It was a Zelda clone, but I think it’s more fun than the original.
Zelda II is very much a product of its time. It lacks modern sensibilities even more-so than LOZ. I think the platforming and combat is more fun than the original but if you don’t like or have nostalgia for the way games used to be made, Zelda II will just get frustrating
Okay, perhaps not then. Thanks for the reply
Congrats! I know how brutal some of those hallway fights can be.
Congrats! I’ve beaten most of the Zelda games and this is one of my favorites. (I tend to like the quirky first sequels where they tried something different, even if it doesn’t quite work: Zelda 2, Mario 2 (USA), Final Fantasy 2 (Japan), Castlevania 2…)
I’ve never beaten the game, but I recently, FINALLY, completed Death Mountain. And I’m pretty happy about that.
You’re gitting gud. Keep going!
You really are a hero. I got stuck in Death Mountain and just haven’t gone back. That is not an easy game.
Death mountain is the hardest part of the game by a wide margin, weird that it’s like 1/3rd of the way through
I could never find Bagu and get Riverman to open the bridge to get that far as a kid. I actually found the hint accidentally trying kill the blue blob in town. Lol.
Zelda II definitely was one of those games where they made it hard on purpose to lengthen the game. I’m doing some research for my review of this game and the director admits as much.
There was a lot of that in that era. Arcade games had financial incentive to be hard as players would tolerate to eat as many quarters as possible. The home ports carried this difficulty over, and many console originals picked up on it. (See Battletoads.)
Battle toads can eat a schlong. Actually good games like kid icarus, etc were just as hard but actually fun to play.
For the home market, there was an incentive to make the game hard to beat before you had to return it to Blockbuster.
I beat it a couple years ago and had to use so many save states running up to the last castle.
Congrats, that’s a major accomplishment. I’d put it on my resume.
I still like that dumb game. Congrats!
“I love this dumb game” is the experience in a nutshell. Every time I’d get a game over and Ganon would do his stupid laugh I’d think I’m done and then go right back to grinding it out some more!
I only ever saw the ending to this on a real NES because it was on a demo machine at Toys R Us (never owned it myself) and someone had a save right at the final dungeon. All I had to do was beat 1 dungeon and I won the game! 😋
Damn… I made myself sad because that’s not an experience you can have anymore. You can’t go rent a game and have someone else’s save to mess with. Shit, can you even rent a game period? 🤔😥
There are game subscription services like Nintendo’s emulator, which is kinda the same thing except you’re renting many games at once.
jesus christ man well done. I tried again on the switch about 6 months ago and just fuckin cant do it
i am error
(but for real congrats!!) ❤️
By the way, fans of Zelda 2 may well adore Star Tropics. it has a similar feel. Although it’s prettier, linear, and has more story, it also has challenging, rewarding combat. Your movement (and some but not all enemy movement) is on a grid and you can only move up/down/left/right and you can only face in those directions too, enemies deal contact damage, and you have mostly melee attacks so combat is a question of mastering a grid-based dance as you attack whilst avoiding damage. The soundtrack is wonderful too.
I’ve been meaning to play both Zelda and Zelda II on Switch Online, maybe I’ll take a crack at them over Xmas break; they’re a couple of blind spots that I’ve had for no good reason and I need to fix that
how long exactly is your christmas break
One of my proudest moments as a child was beating this game. Incidentally, fighting the end boss was the first time my parents caught me swearing.
![[Zelda II]I did it!](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b2d83137-baad-4c98-b321-04ee815ea041.png){kind=link}