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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That game is impossible. I can’t believe how many people in the comments say they’ve beaten it. I never beat it as a kid, and when I tried it again on the switch a couple of years ago, I still couldn’t make it very far.
Same. I played it on the switch maybe a year ago, and at first I didn’t understand the reputation for being tough, but after a half hour I was too frustrated to keep playing.
I never beat it as a kid either. I barely played it. I thought it was cryptic and punishing, although 9-year-old me wouldn’t have used those words. Just a simple “This game is dumb.” worked.
In fact, I thought it was pretty universally reviled. I’ve since learned that this is due the to fact that a child’s gaming social-sphere in the 90s could be quite limited.
About 5 years ago, glancing across a bookshelf, a certain game cart happened to catch my eye. I couldn’t tell you why it was this particular game cart that my attention ;) but I really started to think about it. I don’t actually know anything about Zelda 2 (other than “This game is dumb.”). So then I thought, maybe it wasn’t for kids. Nine-year-olds are pretty ego-centric. The NES was one of our toys. No adults were playing these things. Did I mention my social-sphere?
It then occured to me: I’m a blank slate. I know next to nothing about the progression, the map, or anything. Of course along the way, I found things familiar, and I knew things like >!Shadow Link was the final boss!< but I didn’t know >!how to cheese the Shadow Link fight!<.
So I gave it an honest, no-help-other-than-the-game’s-original-manual playthrough. Yadda-yadda-yadda, Zelda 2 is one of the best games on the NES, and in my book, that makes it one of the best games ever.
In hindsight, Zelda 1 is cryptic af. “The 10th enemy has the bomb”, “gumble gumble”, “shaka when the walls fell”, wtf? If you’d like to know what the 10th enemy thing is: >!hopefully someone below explains drop counts because I’m sure as fuck not going to!<. How was a kid or adult going to figure that out?
My Z2 playthrough took days, maybe 10, but my memory is fuzzy. I got pretty stuck >!looking for the mirror!< and I wondered around for a full day with no progress although I felt like I understood where the game wanted me to go. About halfway through the next day, I read the manual. I didn’t actually think when I started that I was going to do a no-help-other-than-the-manual playthrough. I thought of as a no-internet-on-an-80s-game playthrough. After the realization that the manual wasn’t outside help, I did use the internet for that. Well as soon as I learned >!hammers can chop down trees!<, I was on my way. The rest of the playthrough went smoothly, apart from being hard as fuck.
I beat it when I was 10
i am error
(but for real congrats!!) ❤️
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.
why would you pick Zelda 1 over Zelda 2 if you think 2 is more fun
Zelda 1 had better music, the second quest after you master it, and is still really solid.
What I was trying to say is, that at its highs, Zelda II is more fun at the original but considering from minute 1 to the end of the game, I would still take the first game as the better experience overall.
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…)
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.
jesus christ man well done. I tried again on the switch about 6 months ago and just fuckin cant do it
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!
Congrats! I know how brutal some of those hallway fights can be.
I remember playing this as a kid and English not being my native language it was hard to decipher the text in the games.
Didn’t understand what they ment with: “if everything else fails, use fire.” Or something like that. I only understood fire and the rest was a mystery to me.
Played this for weeks and felt so victorious when I finally had beaten the game!
Hard as nails but such a great game.
You have proved to be a real Hylian bean and a real hero!
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
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!
This is one of the few Zelda games I haven’t completed yet. Someday.
Congrats!
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}