I Played Adventure of Link NES in 2023, and it was NOT What I Expected

Join me as I play The Legend of Zelda 2: Adventure of Link on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and review my experience as I complete the game!

[@OffbeatDrill]

For more Zelda videos in this same style of video format, look here!: Zelda 1: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qGeyZ4qim7JsiNk A Link to the Past: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6rPg5eDothgmbs Link's Awakening: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5DcaIOfhNh4qac

[@cascar7972]

Crystalis next?!?

[@amerk6601]

@@cascar7972 I up vote this.

[@guitarzilla555]

Which did you enjoy more, Zelda 1 or Zelda 2?

[@OffbeatDrill]

@@guitarzilla555 it's close, but probably Zelda 2. Zelda 1 has better exploration, but the combat in Zelda 2 is one of the best out of all of the Zelda games that exist. Zelda 2 is also a little less cryptic.

[@EmeraldEyesEsoteric]

You probably won't think of this in your first play, but what you really want to know is delay beating the castles until your experience is higher. While this means going through some of them twice, each time you place one of the gems it builds your EXP to the next level, so going through the castle a second time can be far less time consuming then grinding at the higher levels.

[@fluffycritter]

It's hilarious to me that you completely bypassed the up-thrust attack, which would have let you actually collect all those keys instead of having to cheese it with the Fairy spell.

[@KeithGrant]

There's a skeleton key at some point too, isn't there? If memory serves it might actually be needed to do one of the palaces without the fairy spell trick

[@BryanCarthell]

Yeah, in New Kasuto you cast the “Spell” spell in the empty area at the end of the town. This opens a secret area where you get the Magic Key.

[@jg2722]

Well how the hell was I supposed to know that without a guide ?

[@BryanCarthell]

@@jg2722 yeah, idk. When I played it with my aunt and grandmother back when the game was new, they just kinda did it. I don’t know, I was pretty young at the time.

[@Meshamu]

I was surprised he got through that somehow, without obtaining that sword technique by the end of the video!

[@aboveaveragejoe3628]

Nintendo - Makes miracles with 1MB RAM KZbinr: “Lazy game design”

[@theblowupdollsmusic]

It's so easy for people to say this stuff 40 years later. When these old games defined what we have now. It's remarkable the concepts they were able to come up with and execute on the hardware that existed. Especially Zelda 2 when comparing it to other games that came out in 1987. This is like the citizen Kane of video games for that time period.

[@matt4054yt]

1MB RAM? That's 500x more RAM than the NES actually had onboard 😂

[@vexator19]

ROM

[@ninjaswordtothehead]

As someone who was there in the old days, it is awesome to see younger folks go back and do it the same way we did.

[@TeamRocketHQR]

I still have polaroid's from xmas 89 when I got this game. For some reason I thought I had to open the nes boxes from the bottom. I was 8 then. XD To think all that stuff in our xmas pictures then and how much there worth now.

[@VenusFeuerFalle]

it is still an awesome game! played it about a year ago first time, and I loved it

[@totesFleisch]

They dont do it like we did. We didnt have the internet so we learned by word of mouth from other players. Now, someone is stuck for a minute and they run to youtube and watch a playthrough

[@GarlicMonoxide]

Came here to say this. Homeboy in the video did it about as legit as you can, pretty much.

[@NYCHeavyHitz212]

@@totesFleisch if you watch this video, he played the game without strategies from the internet. Only game manual.

[@demariusperry9233]

According to my grandmother in 1988, when Link go into the house with the woman, she just cooking him a nice meal.😅

[@MeanMrMustard1]

Your grandmother must have cooked a lot of nice meals back in the day.

[@EmeraldEyesEsoteric]

My grandmother said the same. She actually helped me beat the game in the final levels. We also played NES Willow together, a very under rated game similiar to Zelda 1. Bless her heart, and she died of Cancer when I was 16.

[@davidm4566]

I was so naive that I think that's what I thought back then! I was like 11.

[@OneMilian]

She eating dem hotdog

[@DrewPicklesTheDark]

Mine was "She is giving him a potion".

[@legionaireb]

"I used an exploit where I used the Reflect spell for an easy win." That's...not an exploit. It's how you're supposed to fight that fight.

[@jordanjohnston2453]

I would argue that even if it's intended it's still technically exploiting something.

[@OneMilian]

Perseus exploited medusa to kill the kraken, so perseus hates women

[@legionaireb]

@@OneMilian Not how the original myth goes, but that's take, I guess.

[@UmVtCg]

@@jordanjohnston2453 An exploit in IT and I guess in gaming means misuse in an unintended way

[@NYCHeavyHitz212]

The exploit is shielding from the corner, though.

[@Foxxy999]

As an 80s/90s survivor, I feel its important to note that very few kids would've been able to survive this game using only the manual. Nintendo Power as a rule walked you through about half of each game, and kept printing strategies and hints in the issues moving forward, as many as it took before players stopped writing in for help. You could also ALWAYS call the Game Counselors, which believe me we did. That's why my whole age cohort of gamers are so obsessed with Nintendo Power, it was a literal lifeline.

[@bezoticallyyours83]

Not all of us had a subscription to nintendo power, and my friends mostly had the snes or genesis. So I missed trading secrets.

[@NYCHeavyHitz212]

Til this day, I don't know anyone who beat this game. I only beat it using save states and looking up the walkthrough. Like most players, I was stuck on getting the Thunder magic because I didn't find all the magic containers.

[@stevealford230]

"calling the Game Counselors" was what rich kids did. That was a toll number that cost several dollars per minute. And Nintendo Power wasn't exactly a cheap subscription, either. Regular kids just used their brains, tried every item when we got stuck, and bombed every wall.

[@jameswhitfield6220]

Yep, gaming magazines and word of mouth between friends and classmates is how we beat games before the interwebs

[@cuddlequeen3225]

The fuck you mean survivor. What happened

[@onejdc]

Something that I think most people don't think about, is that when this game came out, a lot of us only owned 1 or 2 NES games. So this was like... *ALL WE HAD*. So we naturally explored the crap out of this stuff and learned everything we could, because we didn't have a Steam Library full of games. Some points about not discovering things are probably valid, but remember that there was a ton of incentive for us to explore these games fully. In addition to the upward thrust that you completely missed (you have to use the Jump spell in a town and go down a chimney), you can also cheese the palaces...jump over the stone slot at the end, exit stage right, and redo the entire palace, sans final boss. I did this on Palace 2 for a few hours to grind up a lot of levels and that helps *a ton*.

[@totesFleisch]

The upward thrust and the down attack helped kill and get good points from the flying glowing skulls

[@ScrambledAndBenedict]

Oh man yeah. When I was a kid, we had a PS1 with only two games, Rayman and Tomb Raider. Rayman stopped me dead at Band Land, that level where you had to ride the rocket maracas, and I was never able to pass it, and I beat Tomb Raider so many times that I can do pistol-only no damage runs of it now. I spent most of my spare time playing cover disks lol

[@billlyons7024]

Yeah, I played the hell out of every game I had, even the ones that were not too good. If I didn't find the secret the first time, I'd get it eventually.

[@daveminion6209]

i got Link/Zelda 2 when it first came out, abt 2 yrs after i got my NES (probably my 10 or 11th game i owned) , and yeah it was somewhat difficult at times,(but not NEARLY AS HARD as 'Kid Icarus' was, lol). However, i either had some insights from either NINTENDO POWER, or a friend, i was able to beat the game after a reasonable amount of time. i was unaware of any 'glitches' (for the most part) for NES games when they first came out back in 80s.

[@mr.t3782]

So true. It didn’t matter what game I tried as long as I could borrow something new to play.

[@taemien9219]

I've noticed that Zelda 2 has been getting a popular resurgence as of late. One that is definitely deserved. During the last decade it was 'fun' to hate on the game and others like it on the NES because of using very modern game designs and features that had been taken for granted. But how was Zelda 2 the best selling Zelda game until Ocarina of Time (Link to the Past did over take it, but it took until 1997 or 1998 for it to do so), if it was so bad? In 1987, it wasn't bad, but was actually really good. Its missing a lot of elements we take for granted such as maps, indicators, on the head hints, and many UI elements to help guide you along as well as tutorials or micro-tutorials to show you how to use new abilities and such. The NES didn't have the memory space for much of that, and the design and introduction of said things would be another half decade away and a full decade before refinement. Those of us who played these games from 1978 to 1990 did without and Zelda 2 was simply designed with that in mind. When we didn't have maps, we made our own and drew them. When we didn't have guides, we had friends who had (or shared it) the game and we bounced ideas back and forth, and when we didn't have tutorials we used trial and error to figure things out. I'm not saying it was better than modern interpretations. I'm just pointing out that the standards were different and thus so were the expectations. Instead of wishing we had more modern features and design elements we had no idea about, we were glad to have the type of game that this was. So when playing some of these older games sometimes you have to understand the context. But I would argue that despite these limitations, these games are still incredibly fun games to play in their own right.

[@zerobyte802]

Well said. This was the first point in time where home gaming was overtaking the arcade. Arcade play was brutal, intense, and repetitious by dezign. (industry goal was 2min per quarter). Gamers were used to that, and actions oriented gameplay was typically the focus. So running around slashing enemies with the sword all the time was just how gaming tended to be. You were having fun with just the mechanics themselves. Story and progression were awesome too, but nowadays, it's more about the story in many people's minds. Less trash mobs, more progression.

[@MisterMelvinheimer]

I agree with most of your points here, but the actual reason that Zelda 2 sold more than the 1st or 3rd games is because of the hype that Zelda generated. Obviously people jumped on the sequel, reception to Zelda 2 was cooler, thus people were less excited for a 3rd game. That's just how sales trends work.

[@taemien9219]

@@MisterMelvinheimer In 1987 sure. But 1997? That kinda falls off. 10 years for hype is long, even by Nintendo fan standards.

[@MisterMelvinheimer]

@@taemien9219 A link to the past was 91. That's a completely reasonable time span to have the previous games reception in mind when deciding whether or not you'd be interested in a sequel. This isn't speculation either. The game just wasn't as positively received as the game before or after it. Look at resident evil 4,5,and 6. Re5 was capcoms best selling game for a generation, because of how popular and influencal Re4 was. 5 sold better, but reviewed worse and capcom learned the wrong lessons from that and put out 6. Nearly killed the franchise. Re 7 was their link to the past.

[@amerk6601]

@@MisterMelvinheimer I agree to a point. I remembered getting Z2 first, and being a bit dismayed because I really wanted LoZ after seeing screen shots in every game magazine. But I played the hell out of Z2 and loved it. Went back and did LoZ afterwards and accepted it, but didn't enjoy it as much. So playing Z2 first probably cemented my love for it over LoZ. Also, if they had not given it the Zelda name and called it something else, I have a feeling it would have received a more positive following, since it wouldn't have had any expectations. Z2 was a grandiose adventure that was outright amazing on the NES, and one of the first of its kind, but probably should have had a different name and slightly different story. But that said, it's still a great game, and probably the one I play the most with all the various rom hacks and fan games. But it can be tough playing it blind with little to no hints on where some of the secrets are.

[@mielthesquid6536]

reusing rooms is very common in any NES games, Zelda 1 does it, Super Mario Bros does it, Metroid does it a lot, etc. It's not that much of a design flaw it is just how they had to do to keep the size of the file small enough to fit in the cartridge. Most of the time when they reuse a room, they change color and items or enemies inside so it's actually never exactly the "same" at least.

[@Stratelier]

Yeah, NES Metroid recycled rooms to a T even down to secret passages and Missile pickups. You had to memorize rooms based not on any one screen, but the _combination_ of screens that form the room as a whole.

[@templeofthesmilingjackalop9860]

One thing to know about gaming back then is we weren't exactly going in blind. We kids shared discoveries on the playground. I think I learned NWSW in Zelda and about the minus world in Mario from my babysitter. And then there was Nintendo Power, which printed guides and answered reader questions; Zelda II got all kinds of coverage. Never think we all toughed it through the NES era without some sort of guidance on obtuse games like this or Castlevania II.

[@zalden2565]

We all seem remember a lot of secrets as something that we have “just known about for forever now,” but if we search our memories a little deeper, we usually remember a friend, magazine, or in one case for me, the back of a Kraft macaroni and cheese box, that told us about something we were missing

[@bazdaniels7420]

Also don't forget the Nintendo Power Hotline.

[@jackrose6996]

Or we just randomly tried stuff and explored.

[@hotdicksonrice]

This game especially we discussed every morning at the bus stop. We were obsessed with beating it and we would all hang out at each others’ houses taking turns continuing the one save we were determined to beat it with. Gaming with friends was a lot different back then lol

[@shaneg9081]

As someone who has played this game so much, there are so many things to say. ' Palaces turn to stone to let you know you 100% completed it. Fire is super useful. There are a bunch of enemies that can only be killed with it, and you will likely get punished when you just try to evade them. You are not supposed to defeat any dungeons by using Fairy in place of keys. You missed the magical key. I suspect that the "cheese strats" for Carock and Shadow Link were somewhat intentional. It wouldn't be hard for them to change the AI to make those strats not work, but they both come at the end of the hardest dungeons. You can either kick back and take an easy dub because you worked hard to get there, or you can play it straight if you want the challenge. I like to describe this game as like a good professor - hard but fair. They set up the lessons, but you have to do the work for yourself, you have to learn. But as you do, the tools for your success become unlocked.

[@joe-81x]

He didn't miss the magical key--you can see it in his inventory. He just didn't talk about it.

[@King_Luigi]

@@joe-81x He basically "missed" the Key for the time it was relevant. (Mostly 20:14.) If the semi-final boss didn't require a spell he didn't have he would have finished without it. By that point he had no use for the Key, but grabbed it during his backtrack from the end since it was in the town with the last Magic Container and a Spell.

[@insupportofjunhado]

The combat and platforming are hard but fair. Actually finding out where to go is anything but. Luckily Nintendo had a hotline and a magazine.

[@peachdre]

To this day, I still remember the thrill of the 10 years old me (there was no internet, no guides, nothing!), who spoke no English whatsoever (so I could use none of the clues the game was giving to me), as he saw a big ass door emerge from the ground in Kasuto after randomly casting Spell at a dead end! I replay the game every now and then just for that moment

[@TylerMRedman76]

Using the reflect spell on that boss is the intended strat. The boss isn’t broken, that’s how it’s supposed to be.

[@King_Luigi]

"Broken" in the sense that you can just squat in the corner after using that spell and the Boss pretty much can't touch you.

That's neither Broken nor "Broken". It's clearly the intended solution to a puzzle.

[@King_Luigi]

@ It's one thing for the solution for be "use this spell to do damage", but it _shouldn't_ result in you being able to just SIT in 1 spot for the rest of the "fight". Once you activate the spell that Boss doesn't change its behavior and literally _kills itself._ It just teleport spams the _entire_ time. That's just poor design.

@@King_Luigi No, it's great game design. It makes the player feel clever for figuring out a trick, the trick makes perfect sense given the boss' behaviour so it doesn't feel cheap and it relies on finding a spell that can be missed so it acts like a soft ability gate. It's perfect really.

[@King_Luigi]

@ The problem is that it feels more lazy and boring than anything. _It's literally just a larger version of a regular enemy, it doesn't do anything different._ If they made it like, "reflect its attack to make it temporarily vulnerable" and changed its attacks during that phase that'd be _something_ at least. Having an "ability gate" for a Boss in this game is terrible, and only adds extra frustration to this. Just reaching them is a hassle and if you get there _without_ that spell, then your only option is to die and do a ton of backtracking just to leave the area (even more if that was your last life). If there was some kinda fast travel/teleport spell to get you outta there and back to the Boss quickly this would be much less of an issue.

[@wormskull2454]

If you continue to talk to that sleeping slime in the village, you eventually wake him up & he talks to you.

[@aquelecientista4491]

literally the only mf who does that in this game. How was I supposed to know 😭

[@Fnordathoth]

​@@aquelecientista4491 not to be snarky but, by assuming the creators put the slime there for a reason.

[@aquelecientista4491]

@@Fnordathoth bunch of npcs that are there for no reason. This one I assumed I needed something, like a spell or an item.

[@Fnordathoth]

@@aquelecientista4491 fair enough but the useless NPC's are typically not in the buildings. But again, fair enough argument. 😊

[@tkc1129]

I am glad you liked the game, and finished it despite some difficulties. Yes, when I first replayed the game as an adult, even I missed the Magic Container in Maze Island and had to look it up. If you had gotten the spell from New Kasuto (which you need 7 Magic Containers to get), you would have gotten the Spell spell. With that, you can get the hidden item out of New Kasuto, the Magic Key. That's what the game expected you to do for the hidden palace. You also missied Upstab in Darunia. But you managed without these things. Good job!

[@Stratelier]

Yeah, back in the day I remember getting stumped on where to find the hidden village (and 6th palace). I remember struggling to reach the Great Palace WITHOUT any ability to see the invisible ghosts, then discovering (the hard way) how the game won't let you enter (trying to pass through the barrier will kill you).

[@heyitzphil9792]

Not true bro

[@NinSonyFan]

Impressive that you managed to beat the game without getting the up thrust sword technique 👏👏👏

[@billlyons7024]

Yeah that added a lot of hassle apparently.

[@JayOwinFull]

A lot of those enemies that take multiple hits can be defeated easier with fire. Also, it is not lazy game design. It was just making the most with limited memory for graphics.

[@Stratelier]

Especially the hopping Tektites on the eastern map, who can ONLY be defeated with fire.

[@JayOwinFull]

@@Stratelier "when all else fails... use fire"

[@Stratelier]

@@JayOwinFull Burn it. *BURN IT ALL!*

[@Phyrre56]

@@Stratelier This guy's main strategy seemed to be to avoid fighting most enemies which is why he was under-leveled at the end but also explains why he didn't realize what the Fire spell is for because if you're skipping every enemy that doesn't die in one or two hits, you're not exploring if there is a more effective way to fight them.

[@Brazbit]

How were you supposed to know to find Baggu? You'll love this. You keep poking the sleeping slime, "that serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever", and he eventually wakes up and tells you where to find his master (Baggu). Using the reflect spell to defeat the Carock (essentially a wizzrobe) is not an exploit, it is the only way to damage the boss.

[@Motavian]

Zelda 2 is great. Haters just angry that they got filtered.

[@willia_music]

the most relatable Zelda II run. Complained the whole way through, still give it a half way decent score

[@briankarcher8338]

Cartridge space was really limited. The options were to reuse assets or no Zelda 2 for you. Almost all late-stage NES games used reusability to some extent. An example being Megaman 2. They used a system that represented a block of tiles. I think in that one every "tile" in a level was actually a 2x2 block instead of the normal 1x1 tile. Made each level about 1/4 of the cartridge space it would otherwise require.

[@tiffanybatcheller-harris522]

The trick to beating Zelda 2, is to grind XP as much as possible, early in the game. Also, after you reach attack 8, if you keep clicking on Attack, after maxing out, there is a small chance you’ll activate a game bug and get Attack 0 (which is really Attack 10). Nearly all the enemies, except bubbles and Dark/Shadow Link get demolished in one hit including the 6 palace bosses and Thunderbird. 😂

[@callmesnowboo]

kinda wanna do that now in my playthrough

[@futuramayeah]

at 25 39 , after you get that spell, i think you have to the end of his town and use the spell and a secret monument will arise with a door and you go inside and get something

[@Scrap-dog8181]

I purchased this game in 1988 and it was $99 at Specs. We had no cheats or walk throughs and it took about a year to complete. Also, this was the first game I played that you had to grind exp to level up. I spent many hours in the swamp grinding.

[@Davechow12]

I’m 44 years old, and I know a lot of younger players use the internet to figure this out, but we OGs beat this game with no internet, no strategy guide, just straight grinding.

[@tmike2552]

Get the Power. Nintendo Power. That's how I beat the game.

[@eviljigglypuff2254]

Raoru is the name of a sage too. Sage of light, as well as the King of Hyrule

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

And rauru is a hylian being in oot And Rauru is a Zonai being in TOTK

[@BJGvideos]

​@@haruhisuzumiya6650And he was an owl in OoT as well but he used a different name in that guise for some reason.

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

@@BJGvideos and was in Links awakening It seems that Zelda repeats itself just not exactly

[@King_Luigi]

@@haruhisuzumiya6650 Not in LA. _That_ Owl was part of the Windfish.

[@HarmonicWave]

The owl has a different name. Where do you get the idea that it's Rauru?

[@wombatkins]

Wow. Brute forcing palace 6 with fairy. I'm impressed

[@patyos2]

palace 6 with fairy is also how i originally beat the game lol I had collected everything in the game at that point except the skeleton key.

[@OhmiKuma]

It's refreshing to hear from someone who didn't grow up with Zelda 2 actually not hating on it. Good on you! :)

[@Hwi1son]

It's a gem. Solid as they come. It also has one of the most epic intros to any NES game. (I absolutely hope you make more videos like this. It's really cool watching someone experience OG classics while giving your general thoughts about the game as you play) I've been playing this game off and on since it came out on the NES and I finally beat it about a month ago. There is a really good fan made Zelda 2 PC enhanced version that recently came out. Check it out sometime.

[@towardstar]

I wish they would make another one in this style. That could be really cool with all the advances in game design and user experience.

[@ExNihiloComesNothing]

And all that without getting the Upward Thrust! Good show

[@bezoticallyyours83]

How does someone miss the up stab? Hmm

[@daveminion6209]

wow, your play-thru , commentary,, and observations is probably one of the most honest, best overall reviews of Link (Zelda 2) that i have ever watched or heard. its quite amazing that you seemed to have discovered so much about the game all on your own , with little or no help or assistance, such as NINTENDO POWER, or ' a friend', and to be able to advance and progress thru the game , esp after so many deaths/ game overs , is very impressive. great job, thanks for sharing your experience.

[@tubezone666]

Tip for everybody who wanna playthrough easier. dont collect the dolls (lives) before the last dungeon. practice the dungeon and if you feel you nearly can beat it, continue again and collect all lives before.

[@amerk6601]

Never thought of that before but good tip.

[@tubezone666]

@@amerk6601 that is how i beat it. I think you can get 4 or 5 extra lives

[@schwarzerritter5724]

I am impressed you managed to find the mirror. Don't remember how I found it on my first playthrough.

[@user-a5Bw9de]

8:28 Even back in the NES days, I think most people never figure out on their own that you have to keep on pestering the slime to rudely wake it up and start let it talk a hint. (I think the method to wake the slime up is much more cryptic than the solution to the hint)

[@DrewPicklesTheDark]

I figured it out because I was like 3 or 4 and thought it was hilarious talking to an enemy over and over. The things you find funny as a kid.

[@lostnumbr]

I don't know if you ever noticed but when you place a crystal you automatically get experience up to the next level so if you are close to leveling up it can be a good idea to go grind to the next level then go back and place the crystal for a free level. Sometimes i actually don't actually place the crystals is any of the early palaces because they are fairly easy to get through again later on and place those crystals for the last few levels i need to max out.

[@DrewPicklesTheDark]

The coding for the 4th boss wasn't broken, that's the intended method of killing him lol. Also it should be noted, that the repeating rooms aren't "lazy game design" but rather hardware limitations, the only other option would have been downsizing all of the palaces or just removing one or two of them. Games in the NES era (And SNES era, though with more options they needed to do it less and it was easier to hide) often employ a method of creating a bank of premade rooms/screens/etc. and then the map, instead of drawing the whole thing, assembles these pre-made rooms/screens in to the level, this is why it's common to find identical rooms/screens within what would otherwise be a unique layout. Think of it like a box of different shaped blocks, using those blocks you can build something, that something is the first level, then you do it again building something else, but using those same blocks, that's level 2, etc. That's a gross oversimplification, but the point is using these methods they can save an incredible amount of space in the ROM.

[@danielprivett6155]

I could tell you decided to stop talking to villagers eventually. "When all else fails, use Fire" is an early game hint that indicates that you use fire on the enemies that don't take damage from any other source. They are great sources of experience and are everywhere so a quick Fire spell gets you tons of XP you otherwise have to grind for. There's also villagers that give you hints on using the flute on the "River Devil" and that there is a "secret" at the end of the hidden village which is the Magic Key you never picked up. Once I saw you in the final temple without the Thunder spell though, my heart really went out to you, knowing that you'd have to eventually leave the Great Palace and would probably resort to a guide to confirm it was necessary. I actually never knew you needed all those magic containers to get the Spell and Thunder abilities. I knew where the magic containers were though. It wasn't until much later in life I resorted to a guide to find the final Heart container though (again, another villager tells you it's east of three eyed rock). Tons of props for conquering this one though. I've done it many times since but I've gotten it all memorized by now and I save all those Link Dolls for my final run on the Great Palace. Because seriously why do they not reappear after a game over?

[@EmeraldEyesEsoteric]

Yes, save the dolls, and delay beating some of the earlier castles. It's easier to go through them a second time then grinding 9000 EXP, and those gems will bring you to the next level, no matter how far away it is.

[@RyoUrawa777]

Yeah I didn't understand it when he called the Fire Spell useless when it destroyed certain enemies and made grinding easier lol

[@skins4thewin]

This player is just a standard kid who can't understand old game design. These games just aren't for ppl like this.

[@TonyTheTGR]

Zelda II came from a time when game sequels didn't know what they were, and it very much was an experiment in trying to be everything at once - an RPG, a sidescrolling adventure game, and an open-world exploration game, and almost a psuedo fighting game all in one package! It was a lot of systems to balance, that's for sure. Personally, I'd change the EXP for gold and make upgrades available at towns, along with 1up purchases; and one four-way cave that linked the beginning of the game to a cave near Levels 2-3 (blocked by a boulder), the plains near Levels 4-5 (blocked by the river in the south) and the southeastern part, blocked by the Spider Demon for fast travel purposes; but that's about all I'd change.

[@TonyTheTGR]

PS: 11:00 This cave with the Hammer in it is supposed to be Level 9 from the first Zelda game, hence the location near the "twin rocks," and the statue heads at the beginning.

[@RyanBlazeheart]

The sleeping bot and ache in the villages tell where you to find things if you're persistent enough. The ache literally says, "you are persistent... find heart in ocean N of the palace."

[@thundergodgamer118]

The last palace in this game, the orange tiles/walls remind me of the candy called PEZ. look at the orange tiles/walls in the last palace and then look up PEZ candy. I actually have a Mario head PEZ candy 🍭🍬🎮🎮

[@rugbyguitargod]

You should play Air Fortress. It was a HAL Laboratories title who, also, were responsible for the entire Kirby franchise. It starts out easy, then draws you in for quite a while when the difficulty about halfway through the game REALLY ramps up exponentially. I have only gotten to Air Fortress 14 of 16 and still have not beat it to this day; I first played it when I was 11 years old and i'm 38 now (and was pretty damn good at most of these types of games as a kid). Its a real ball-breaker.

[@rockinroyle]

One of the best Zelda games! Beat this back in the 80's. You had to duck in the corner to fight dark Link

[@PeteOliva]

It makes total sense that the towns are named after all of these characters and prior places from other games because remember this game actually takes place far in the future from other Zelda games timeline-wise. These things were named according to the legendary things from their world's past.

[@jeremyirish1574]

Thank you for also interpreting it this way! I cringed when I heard another KZbinr claiming that the seven sages in Ocarina had been named after these towns. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[@RhumpleOriginal]

I find it funny that I can tell when you are excited about something in your playthrough. Pressing the down button repeatedly. Never gets old.

[@Renzor004]

that was fun hearing a young person play through Zelda 2 for the first time. You missed the up attack ability :P And Reflect was the intended way to beat the wizard, so you did it the right way. Grats on beating one of the hardest NES games ever

[@Endarire]

The upward stab is situationally handy.

[@stevealford230]

Zelda 2 was AMAZING. Period. Anyone who says different wasn't playing it before the Super Nintendo existed. Or they're just mad that they couldn't complete it.

[@revwroth3698]

I've always loved this game. I almost beat it once as a kid, but every time I try to revisit it i can't get very far. Another one that felt similar to this, but wasn't a Zelda game, was called Faxanadu. I highly recommend this one and that.

[@brandansampsan]

oh MAN,i rented that game as a kid.... frustration city cuz i was young like seven and totally lost my head trying without the instructions

[@revwroth3698]

@@brandansampsan lmao there were instructions? I only had the cartridge. Same with Zelda 1, I didn't know that there was a book with a map until I was an adult lol. No wonder i never managed to finish either of them...

[@thundergodgamer118]

This is the hardest Zelda game ever. I have this game on my Nintendo GameCube. Love this game but it's very hard. Everyone should buy/play this game 🎮🎮

[@RyoUrawa777]

You missed the skeleton key which is what the Spell spell was for at the end of the town you get it from lol also the up thrust from the church lol I won't lie I cackled when I saw you go to the great palace without the Thunder spell lolol

[@tomii2112]

I remember being stuck on some parts for so long as a kid, for example finding the guy in the woods to go be able to go over the bridge. However, as I recently replayed it, there is a hint to it which you overlooked. If you bother (multiple times talk to it) the sleeping monster you thought was meaningless, he tells you something like "master is in the forest" Another thing, all those knights can be easily killed with jump and attack as you're falling down. It causes the knight to drop the shield, while you hit them in the head. when you get the timing they become a breeze. Also, there are some palace (maybe island one?) where sometimes instead of dropping a potion, the statue turns into a red knight. That's one of the great places to grind levels, as you can just heal up from the potions if needed. Another thing is all magic lasts one screen (i think you said 'a short amount of time') I personally love this game and vastly prefer it to the first one

[@TheCow-j1l]

8:25 if you talk multiple times with the slime they eventually give a clue of where you can find bagu

[@StormsparkPegasus]

"Barba" is actually Volvagia. In Japanese they have the same name (although Volvagia in OoT adds an extra subtitle after the name).

[@leeachristie]

Fairy through doors is an unintended exploit they patched out in the PAL version. You should have the skeleton key near the end.

[@zharziss]

Thanks for that info. I've had the PAL version for nearly 35 years and was shocked to see you can fly through keyholes with the Fairy. I thought I had missed something for decades there.

[@Frothenbath1]

Way back in the day, I actually played this Zelda game before the first one. It was all about which friends had which games compared to my own. I knew the first two were very different from one another, but I don't think it had quite as much hate back then. It was challenging and cryptic, but damnit if you didn't get every penny's worth out of it for replay value! Plus it was also fun learning about the secrets in the games from other people at recess at school. It was motivation to be sociable and friendly, hehe.

[@MeanMrMustard1]

I think the hate started after A Link to the Past came out. I don't remember any hate before that. This game was very popular when it came out. But ALttP brought back the original top-down Zelda Style. And since it was considered the best Zelda game of the three, many newer fans who gave the first two games to try, preferred the first one and started to hate the second one. And then that reputation just kept spreading throughout the years.

[@tallbianca]

I also played this one first. I initially hated Z1 as a result: “you mean to tell me I can’t just jump over this water in the dungeon?”

[@toddburgess5056]

I remember my cousin getting this game when it was newly released, and it was so incredibly difficult to make progress because the internet wasn't quite there yet and there just wasn't a lot of support for these games unless you were lucky to have a Nintendo Power subscription.

[@Allen.Christian]

You're supposed to get the magic key in Kasuto before going to the Hidden Palace. It opens all doors in the game. I guess the game never makes that obvious.

[@bezoticallyyours83]

The fact that it's a dungeon item is pretty obvious

[@Allen.Christian]

@@bezoticallyyours83 It's not a dungeon item. It's in the town of Kasuto.

[@bezoticallyyours83]

Shit. I accidentally posted on the wrong video. This was supposed to be for TLoZ

[@tmike2552]

It's obvious when you go into the palace and can't open any of the doors. The fairy trick wasn't well known back in the day, and is obviously not the intended way to complete it.

[@Allen.Christian]

@@tmike2552 I think it's obvious at that point that you've missed something, but I don't recall anything pointing you towards what you've missed. But it's also one of those things I've known about for 30+ years at this point, so I don't remember having a problem.

[@stringsn88keys]

The funny thing to me is that Zelda II seemed like one of the easier games. I also had the Nintendo Power guides playing on the NES, so the enemies were much easier to defeat if you had the correct items and knew the right strategy. The room design thing feels like minimizing the size of the game.

[@Chic_Ken]

Favorite Zelda game, no question

[@caseyhayes4590]

the music in this game has always been unique and haunting, probably best music on American NES along with Castlevania games

[@jeremyirish1574]

The best music to me is from Blaster Master. Squeezed every ounce of richness out of those 4 tracks.

[@fungus1665]

I’m really enjoying the new types of videos

[@yesplease6407]

You can grind for XP at the red castle or any other castle that can spawn an iron knuckle when you hit it's statue at the entrance.

[@SolBadguyZAC]

Came for the Zelda playthrough.... ....stayed for the Cap'n Crunch. Subscribed

[@Milehighshred]

You can continue at the Great Palace? What?! I ALWAYS got sent back to the beginning of the game!

[@evanshearin6490]

Great playthrough! This was one of my favorite games of the 90's. I still get nostalgic when I hear that music!

[@YoshisaurUnderscore]

I really enjoyed this one! I've tried a few times ot play Zelda II, but I never got very far, so I learned a ton about the game here. I know how much the KZbin algorithm hates channels changing up their formulas, but I would totally watch more videos of this style in the future!

[@angelwolfplays6456]

I remember grinding for levels before we had a word for it. One exploit I remember finding was near the hidden town where you could walk around in the nearby desert to draw enemies to you. On the sidescrolling screen, you would wait for both enemies to be on the screen at the same time, then use Thunder to vaporize them for 300 XP. Go back to the hidden town, refill your magic, and repeat. Once you got magic up to 8, Thunder only took half your magic bar, so you could do it twice before refilling.

[@zerobyte802]

Awesome vid! Impressed with your willingness to go truly old-school and experience these games as us genX gamers did. One thing to note: the duplicated areas is not lazy game design. It's storage space saving technique. ROM space was relatively expensive so the sizes of game carts was typically pretty small. The encoding scheme for level data had to be small. Fun fact: a PNG screen shot of SMB1 is larger than the entire SMB1 cartridge space!

[@WintrBorn]

The first Zelda wasn’t even made for the cart, it used the floppy drive Japan had for the Famicom. The NES didn’t have much space at all.

[@katt-the-pig]

I also beat Zelda II for the first time blind a few years back. I think the only things I needed to look up were the last two optional health upgrades. That was how I learned that you had to talk to the sleeping slime multiple times to get a reward. Somewhere, there's also an up-stab attack that lets you break overhead blocks.

[@Stratelier]

Yeah, it's in the village of Darunia. Much like the down-stab technique, there's a small trick to entering the house to meet the NPC who teaches it.

[@EdAbarba44]

I liked Zelda II better than the original because it was more fun for me to explore as a kid, but it was hard.

[@harrisontownsend910]

I personally think this game is better than zelda 1. It plays better, lags less, and has very fair combat. I honestly like this game a lot more than the game before it. Unlike Zelda 1 this game teaches you how to fight each enemy

[@lostconciousness4255]

"I wanted to play this blind" also "I used this strategy I've seen in many speedruns" lol, j/k. I beat this game back in the late 90's when I was 7, I had no strategy guide and yes it took me months. This started my life long obsession with checking every corner...also my OCD

[@TMan978]

Did you ever find the up thrust?

[@evanshearin6490]

I read or heard in a documentary somewhere that a lot of elements of the first two Zelda games were deliberately cryptic and non-intuitive, because the designers wanted players to talk with other players and share hints, tips, and secrets.

[@Davidian1024]

Yes, this exactly. And we did. Also there was Nintendo Power.

[@bigdaddybman779]

Banger video, definitely deserves more views

[@neandrthalnone7442]

Glad you enjoyed it. Brings back some good childhood memories. One of my favorite Zelda’s of all time. After watching just curious, you mentioned finding the downward stab attack, did you find the upward stab attack…

[@RyanBlazeheart]

There is a hidden knight in Darunia. If you climb the roofs and go doen the chimney there he is.

[@northwestnerd4950]

Interesting nod to Super Mario right there, as you press down and sink into the chimney too.

[@ZeldaRooster]

After so many playthroughs of making sure I got everything, I can safely tell you to look at literally everything. You will find dolls, magic bags, 4 hearts and 4 magic containers. Amazing game when you take the lore and some of the dialogue and build the story around your gameplay. Also the little guy in the corner is the king of Hyrule

[@joe-81x]

The little guy in the corner is the guardian of the Triforce of Courage. The King is dead.

[@ZeldaRooster]

@@joe-81x in the literal sense, the current king is the guardian. If you are referring to King's Tomb, that tomb is reminiscent of the kings of Hyrule, not just one

[@joe-81x]

@@ZeldaRooster Interesting, can you tell me which source calls him the King of Hyrule? Not doubting it, just want to be as well-versed in this story as I can! Everything I've read says he's a sage, The Keeper of the Triforce, etc.

[@ZeldaRooster]

@@joe-81x Okay, so I got my lore a little mixed up. Little guy is not the king, but indeed is the keeper of the triforce of courage. The King of Hyrule is the one who created the test being the jewels and the Great Palace.

[@matthuntsboston]

I'm a 40yr old guy and I played this before school every day in like 1st grade. Zelda 1 the first time I ever rented it I spent my first weekend w it not able to get past the very first screen bc my young mind to that point only knew side scrollers and I could not comprehend that it was an overhead perspective. After realizing that the second rental period around I went up entered the cave and got my sword. Off to the races from there. Both of those games.. legend of zelda and zelda 2 inspired my love of adventure.

[@davidm4566]

I went back and played through and FINALLY beat this game in college years ago, still on the NES. It was fantastic.

[@supersonicjc]

there was some hate going around on zelda 2 back in the day mostly cause it was extremely challenging and yet it had the sequel issues that many of the games back then had, trying to go in a different direction only for the 3rd to go right back to the original game direction, mario and castlevania had the same issues going with it, as for the duplicate rooms, true the rooms were simmilar but you do have to remember the size of the typical nes game back then was not very large at all maybe like 64 kilobites, thats not a lot of space for you to make very unique rooms as large as you got and have music and sprites, there was a reason for it back then as well as the sprite flicker and slowdown sometimes, these games constantly pushed the limit of the system not to mention they only had if memory serves 63 colors to use so given what they could work with they did an amazing job, good run of the game and noone will blame you for using the shadow link glitch to win the game lol we all do it, also if memory serves the guy in the end is the sage that was talked about in the instruction manual or somewhere in the game hes not baby ganon lol ganon is dead and his followers are trying to kill link and pour his blood on ganon's grave to revive him according to the game lore, it was fairly dark for an nes game

[@ikonoklast7]

Zelda 2 gets a lot easier once you figure out how to game the experience system. For example, use the fact that placing a crystal at the end of a temple gives you an automatic level-up to milk it for maximum experience, especially for the expensive attack power upgrades.

[@derekcline950]

Something else that also helps is knowing that damage scales somewhat exponentially, whereas monster health doesn't really. Level 8 does 4x the damage level 4 does. He had level 7 HP and Magic but only 6 attack. The game becomes significantly easier if you rush attack before defense

[@Zeburaman2005]

This was my introduction to the Zelda series back in the 80s and I loved it ever since. I became quite proficient at the combat, since I didn’t find the Life spell as a kid, and since I didn’t yet speak English it took me till the age of 13 to beat it. I even finished the first game before this one! It was a pretty challenging game back then and I am glad I found your channel, since you obviously had fun with the game and broke the mould of resorting to the popular meme of bashing the game for being unfair!

[@iami3rian394]

Id love to see more videos like this on older games. Play some of the greats, like final fantasy, punch out, faxanadu, legacy of the wizard (lol, nah, that will take you literally months), blaster master, Guardian Legend... there are so many great NES ganes.

[@AngryCalvin]

This is still my favorite Zelda game from the time it first came out. In some ways reminds me of the third Y’s or even Iron Sword. It has more of an RPG atmosphere. I like the gameplay, maps, and level design. A lot of people complain about this game but I just can’t.

[@jephwahlretrogames9245]

The sleeping Blob tells you about Bagu if you wake him up by talking to him 3x.

[@zubinzuro]

times i fell back on the internet when playing this game: 1. how to get rid of the river monster (i missed the flute when clearing the sea palace) 2. location of new kasuto 3. activating the three-eyed rock palace 4. using thunder on thunderbird i feel like i could have easily done these things without looking them up, i just didn't wanna spend the time aimlessly going to random places with thunderbird i was definitely just impatient and confused lmao

[@josephmiller2460]

One of my favorites of all time. I still play through it several times a year.

[@scipio8866]

I adore this game. Great music!

[@anthonydavis5826]

Damn, I had no idea that that many character names from Ocarina of Time came from this game, of all games. That’s an amazing Easter egg that most people who never played Zelda II never realized.

[@RyoUrawa777]

I like to think it was Nintendo foreshadowing Ocarina of Time later on lol

[@bezoticallyyours83]

​@@RyoUrawa777or just reusing shit for Easter eggs

[@RyoUrawa777]

@@bezoticallyyours83 impossible OOT wouldn't release until 98

[@bezoticallyyours83]

@@RyoUrawa777 Wtf are you on about? I don't really engage in conversation with trolls.

[@TheJimmyDonut]

The best part of the second play through. There was a way to defeat a boss in quest 2, then while the XP is counting up, quitting out and loading up a different character would give that character the remaining XP. It’s been a while, and I was in 6th grade (1987/88)

[@boi8214]

The dragon looks even goofier in the famicom version

[@AO968]

As with Zelda 1, I managed to find everything by myself. Granted, I died tons of times and had to do a lot of trial & error, like using the Hammer on bushes (which I probably figured out just like you did: by hitting the action button on every tile), but I had no life and game magazines were alien to me at the time, so it was either keep playing or quit. I think crossing the river in Saria Town stumped the most, as I had trouble finding Bagu. Then, I managed to wake up the Bot (by pestering him a few times), who told me to look in the woods up north. After that, he rest was pretty straightforward. I found the Magic Key in New Kasuto right away, because I got a useless spell there and the hint from a villager that there was a secret at the edge of town. Finding New Kasuto took me a while, though. I didn't find out about how to easily beat Dark Link many years later. Up till then, I always fought him the hard way.

[@jondelmore3163]

Zelda II doesn't get the respect it deserves. Is it hard? yes. Is it frustrating? yes. But that feeling you get when you accomplish something in it is second to none. For example, when the game starts and health is very low and your not powerful at all, you'll find yourself avoiding fights and enemy confrontations. As the game goes on and you rack up more XP, and Link discovers new moves like the Upward and the Downward Thrust and many different magic spells, you'll find yourself going out of your way to find fights! This is my favorite Zelda after Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess. Personally, I'd love to see some the enemies and bosses from Zelda II make a return in Tears of the Kingdom. Goriya's, Daira's Iron Knuckles, and Fokka's and even the evil Thunderbird would be awesome additions to Zelda releases today.

[@Xoulrath_]

Where's our HD-2D remake of Zelda II? This game, as you mentioned, is perhaps the least underrated and least appreciated in all of the series. Which is really sad, because it's perhaps one of the best.

[@diemwing]

Aside from being a ranged attack the fire spell is only useful for killing a handful of enemies such as Tektites. It's the only way to damage them.

[@insupportofjunhado]

For a game rightly derided for being unnecessarily cryptic, but "When All Else Fails Use Fire!" is surprisingly clear. This the first time I've ever heard of anyone not knowing what to do with fire. Thunder, sure. Spell spell definitely. Maybe even fairy, but not fire!

[@Korobooshii]

I find it hard to believe that people who call Zelda 2 "Too hard" or "Too cryptic" have even tried it. The game holds up amazingly well, and while not totally braindead, it is not at all TOO cryptic. And the difficulty is just right throughout the game. Really, only the very last parts of the final temple can be considered somewhat unfair. Seriously, people who think Death Mountain is too hard, have either not played the game or are just straight up bad at video games. Zelda 2 is an amazing game. Absolutely fantastic the first time, and just really fun subsequent playthroughs. Anyways, great video. Well done giving the game a chance!

[@JayOwinFull]

The hard part comes from having to start at the begining after each death imo. By the time you get back to where you need to be sometimes you only got one life to finish a dungeon

[@Stratelier]

It's mostly the "checkpoint starvation", especially after a Game Over. Zelda 1 let you restart at the entrance to every dungeon, but not Zelda 2? (Also, the rare 1-up dolls _never_ reset once collected, so yeah)

[@HighPriestFuneral]

What I found to be the most cryptic part was the "use hammer to knock down trees", which is only hinted at in the manual. Never could I have imagined that a whole town was underneath a knocked down forest tile, especially as the game had trained me by then to look for secrets by walking in forests, not "knock them down".

[@Stratelier]

The last time I played this, it was on a digital copy but I had a policy to ONLY set a save state at places where the game would otherwise give you a checkpoint anyway (typically, upon entrance to a given room). Having said that, I did have a (used) copy back in the day and DID actually beat it on original hardware. The limited-lives system really makes Dark Souls look easy! (I _also_ had a lot of difficulty finding the hidden Kasuto village to progress, because while it was obvious that you could use the Hammer to clear rocks, using it to clear trees was not.) Some observations from me: - In addition to its "final dungeon" music (and extra checkpoint after Game Over), I love how the Great Palace throws a bunch of completely new enemies at you and you're just expected to be capable of dealing with it. - One of the game's major design flaws is that the "1-up" dolls (already rare to find) are saved with your file, i.e. do NOT reset after a Game Over.- Yes, this game does recycle room designs on a full-screen basis. This was a design artifact of the (relatively) small cartridge size, but it's not nearly as bad as it was in NES Metroid (which _also_ recycled rooms on a full screen basis). - Apparently, the palaces "turn to stone" after meeting two conditions: 1 - completed the objective, and 2 - acquired the major dungeon item. It's your hint that you are done here and it's time to move on.

[@jaranowska]

I think the sleeping slime gives you a good tip and you don't need the fairy spell to go through any locked door in the game, unless i'm mistaken.

[@patyos2]

The fairy is not needed for locked doors he missed a couple keys including the skeleton key and magic containers to get the spell required to get skeleton key and kinda stopped talking to tall npc's in the second half. The fairy is there as an alternative option to make progress if the player is lost and doesn't know where keys are or to just skip rooms and sections.