Love It or Hate It? Video Game Edition: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

[burningdoom]

On a comic book message board I'm a longtime member of we do this once a week. A random comic book character is picked each week, and the simple question "Love him/her or hate him/her?" is asked. Usually gets some conversation going.

So I thought we could try this here, with video games instead.

For the first week:

Love it, or hate it?

[pacpix]

Love it!  This was the second game I picked up for my NES.  I was a little unsure about it since everybody online talks about it being extremely difficult and the black sheep of the series.  When I played it though had a lot of fun and replayed it many times to the point where I was able to memorize the game and beat it with only three deaths (doubt I could do that right now though, it has been a while since I have played it).  The combat was one of my favorite parts of the game, it was cool trying to figure out the pattern of jumping and slashing at the different enemies such as Iron Knuckles and Goriya.  I can see how the difficulty would be an issue with players more used to later entries in the series, but I found it to be just fine as far as NES standards go.  I actually find the top down Zelda games more difficult, I died over 70 times in my first play through of Link to the Past ha.

Personally this is probably third on my favorite Zelda games, behind Ocarina of Time and Link to the Past.  I'm glad the series did not move totally in this gameplay direction, but it is still one of my all time favorites.

[jobocan]

Love it. It's a really fun game.

It gets criticized now solely because it's different from the series' formula (which also happens to be the only reason Super Mario Bros 2 gets criticized now), which is odd because there was no "formula" back then, this was just the second game in the series... But man it's fun. The magic, the more strategic fighting, being able to jump, the items, the dungeons, the bosses, the glitches, everything is great.

[mkarasch]

I honestly haven't played it since probably the year of it's release, but I remember wanting to enjoy it, and being intrigued by the novelty of it, but I think I was put off by the difficulty.  I should give it another shot.

[sin2beta]

I wanted to like it. But I hate it. The random battles are poorly designed in my opinion. A lot of times you don't have to kill anything. Just walk past the screen. The dark caves don't require an item like a candle. You can just force your way through. These problems are amplified for me because I want to like it. It seems to be the final part of the Zelda story. How could you not want to play the conclusion? But there are too many gameplay elements that I don't like.

[scott]

I never got very far in it. Maybe to the 2nd town. I'm sure if I sat down with it and gave it a chance I would enjoy it, as I did like what I played. But I haven't really given it the time... maybe when I get my NES situation sorted out.

[burningdoom]

The dark caves don't require an item like a candle. You can just force your way through.

You must have really not liked it, then. Because it sounds like you didn't get all that far into it. You do need the candle for the dark caves. You get the candle in the first dungeon. You only have to force your way through one cave, beforehand. And if you watch the floors, you can see their feet moving and can see where all 2 (maybe 3?) minor enemies are. They look like evil cockroaches, or something, lol.

[haloofthesun]

I don't love it or hate it. I just like it. It's like a 6.5 or 7 out of 10 for me.

[turf]

Love it

When I was a kid I didn't really like the first Zelda game. I asked for this one for Christmas and I loved it. It's tough, real tough. I didn't beat it without the game genie until I played the collection on GameCube. I like getting the spells.  I like the jumping.  I like how you go into the Lady in Red's house to get your life filled up. What were they doing in there?   Who's idea was that to put it in the game?

The Adventure of Link is still fun. Those damn dirty walrus looking things that throw rocks over the fence at you still suck though.

[pacpix]

The dark caves don't require an item like a candle. You can just force your way through.

You must have really not liked it, then. Because it sounds like you didn't get all that far into it. You do need the candle for the dark caves. You get the candle in the first dungeon. You only have to force your way through one cave, beforehand. And if you watch the floors, you can see their feet moving and can see where all 2 (maybe 3?) minor enemies are. They look like evil cockroaches, or something, lol.

Well it is possible to go through the game without the candle, some people do it for speedruns.  For a first play through though it would be nearly impossible.  You can actually see the red moblins without a candle because the game expected you to have a candle by that point and did not darken the character.

I wanted to like it. But I hate it. The random battles are poorly designed in my opinion. A lot of times you don't have to kill anything. Just walk past the screen.

I actually liked the random battles.  It makes it easy to walk away if you want to just continue towards the next dungeon/town or you can stay and level grind.

[burningdoom]

I loved it, too. One of my favorite NES games, and ESSENTIAL in an NES collection. Yeah, it strayed far from the rest of the series, but I don't have a problem with that because it's still fun. The added RPG-elements really added to the gameplay, too.

That final dungeon, though, is a real pain the ass. You have to survive the trek there (including going through that gorge where the Moblins throw rocks from the top of wall, and that canyon where you have like 5 forced enemy runs), then you have to survive the dungeon itself, and fight not 1, but 2 dungeon masters. And the normal enemies in the dungeon are tough, too. So hard. I've only actually beaten the game once, by luck. I can usually make it to the final dungeon, but I can't beat it.

[mark1982]

Love it.

Even though it's very different from other Legend of Zelda installments it's still a fun adventure. When I first played it I was still young and didn't manage to complete it, only my second time playing it in my teens I got to fully play the game and finish it. This was after Link's Awakening and A link to the Past. Still a great game and enjoyed it very much.

[varkias]

I also wanted to love this game, but it made me want to punch a kitten.  Still have some good memories of trying to get further with friends but this game was tough.

[soera]

I hated this game. When you look at the previous game (Legend of Zelda) and the following game (Link to the past), you have to wonder what they were thinking. I noticed someone mentioned SMB 2 and its along the same lines for me. I dont like it when the general playstyle of a game I enjoy is changed. Another case in point : Metroid prime. Basically "If its not broken, dont fix it." The game in question here had a few decent points however. I do like experience vs just getting hearts. I like the magic option. But its not enough to offset its simply horrible game play.

[insektmute]

Absolutely hated it, but I may give it another chance at some point. Even the screenshots make me cringe a little, though.

I think I might have judged it less harshly if it weren't a Zelda game, but looking over the series as a whole, it stands out as a big black mark.