Patreon button  Steam curated reviews  Discord button  Facebook button  Twitter button 
3DS | PC | PS4 | PS5 | SWITCH | VITA | XB1 | XSX | All

Forums > Submission Feedback > Suskie's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link review

This thread is in response to a review for Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on the NES. You are encouraged to view the review in a new window before reading this thread.

Add a new post within this thread...

board icon
Author: randxian
Posted: May 03, 2009 (10:15 AM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Remember Link’s hover boots in Ocarina of Time? Remember how, whenever you wore them, Link’s movement wouldn’t have any traction, and he’d constantly be sliding around as if he were running on a sheet of thick ice? That’s what Zelda II feels like all the time.

I like how you include that comparison. Almost everyone has played OOT so this really helps illustrate your point to the average gamer. Good call here.

As much as I like this game, I do agree with your points. I think you could've also mentioned how the level cap is ridiculously low. Eight levels is not enough for the last two palaces.

But somehow, with plenty of practice, this game can be finished. I think what helps is using the first palace to bump all your levels to around 4, that way you have a good, running start. Yeah, this involves grinding, but the enemies in the first palace are relatively easy and grant a generous amount of exp.

Another trick is to make sure you next level will raise attack right before beating a boss, since crystalizing each palace automatically grants you the next level up available.

I thought like you at first, but now I enjoy this game. I think this game is an acquired taste.


I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?

board icon
Author: zippdementia
Posted: May 03, 2009 (11:43 AM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

I also enjoy this game quite a lot, though I can't refute any of your main points, which seem to be "leveling sucks; the game is too hard." I will agree that the leveling system, with exp resetting, was a little bogus, because saving became irritatingly difficult, and I'll also agree that the game (esp the last dungeon) was fuck hard. The last dungeon is huge! However, I don't see this differing that much from any of this era's games. Metroid is also fuck hard and has a lengthy and annoying password system. Zelda 1 is damn hard with a huge last dungeon and a save system that kills all your hearts (grrrrr).

So in MY conclusion, I think you did a good job reviewing this, but to bash Zelda II for the things you choose is sort've like going to a horse race and complaining that there's horses. I was hoping to see some hitherto undiscovered evil that the game had performed. Because going to a Suskie review is like going to a horse race where all the horses are aliens. You never know what to expect.

I will say that you should give this another read through, though. There are a lot of spelling and sentence errors. Such as "I don’t know why so many developer instead on incorporating..."


Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

board icon
Author: honestgamer
Posted: May 03, 2009 (12:03 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

I think that this review was well-written and as fair as it could be given that I disagree with the conclusion almost completely.

You've completed the game, so I can't say you gave the game the rating you did because you suck. Like randxian, I'm going with "It's an acquired taste." When I first played this game way back when, if I had been able to write as well as you at that time I would've written something very close to this review. However, I didn't have a lot of games to play and so I had to keep playing Zelda II. Every time I played it, I liked it a little bit more. The end result was that I would up loving it--long, long ago--in spite of myself and played through it repeatedly in the years immediately following its release. I still play it off and on to this day and I still love it, yet I can see where the points you're making come from.

Of course, the play control actually doesn't bother me at all and I've become good enough at battling the Iron Knuckles that I can blow through them with little difficulty. The palaces can be brutal, but that's part of the game's charm.

Your review made me go re-read mine to see if I would change anything I wrote, and I wouldn't. I think the most important thing the game does for me is create such an immersive world that few games of the time--or even now--can touch it. Hyrule has never been more alive and fantastic than it was in Zelda II and for that the game will always be one of my favorites in the series.


"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

board icon
Author: overdrive (Mod)
Posted: May 03, 2009 (12:36 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

I'd agree it's a good review. You take a game I really dig and bash it.....but in a way where I can't dismiss your review as simply an attempt to agitate a fanbase (as some negative reviews for popular games I've read seem to be). You make good, reasoned points to the degree I really can't say much more than "agree to disagree".

The acquired taste comments in this thread are thought-provoking, though. While I seem to recall pretty much liking this game right out of the box, during the time period when I was most often playing it, I played EVERY GAME I remotely liked over and over again. I didn't get new games constantly, so I played a lot of NES games repeatedly after beating them. Zelda II's "second quest" (where you do the whole game over with all your levels from the first time) was one of those that found its way back into my machine a bunch of time.

Now, things are different. My income's the only thing preventing me from grabbing any game I really want when I want it AND with emulation, I'm literally seconds away from playing virtually any retro game I want. I very rarely replay any game nowadays because there's always something else to pick up and work through. The combination of emulation, reviewing games and becoming financially independent (the whole graduating college, moving out of parents' home, getting job thing) altered the way I play games dramatically.

Which makes me wonder about all those old NES games I've reviewed very favorably from those days of old. I played games like Rygar, Zelda, Zelda II, Bionic Commando, Faxanadu, Blaster Master so often that the stuff I liked became legendary and the stuff I disliked became an "acquired taste", so when I replayed them to review with, it was a great trip down memory lane and I gave them all high scores. But what would I have given them if they were like that random decent-to-high quality game I never owned, but emulated and played for reviewing purposes? How would I have scored them if I never took the time to learn every little in-and-out of the game? Interesting to think about.


I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

board icon
Author: randxian
Posted: May 03, 2009 (12:37 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Metroid is also fuck hard and has a lengthy and annoying password system. Zelda 1 is damn hard with a huge last dungeon and a save system that kills all your hearts (grrrrr).

But neither are as hard as Zelda 2. To be honest, I don't think Zelda 1 is that hard until you reach the second quest, which comes close to Zelda 2 in terms of difficulty.

Metroid isn't so bad once you figure out where all the good powerups are and the shortest route to Kraid and Ridley. Yeah, it's daunting at first, but it's another game that becomes easy once you learn the shortcuts and strategies.


I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?

board icon
Author: Suskie
Posted: May 03, 2009 (05:48 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

There is no way the first Zelda is anywhere near as difficult as Zelda II. And even then, when the game IS challenging, it's challenging for the right reasons. Zelda II is just aggravating.

Metroid... hmm. I used to love that game, but it's really shown its age in a lot of ways. Still, it plays well.

To be perfectly honest, Zelda II was far from the first Zelda game I'd ever played, so it could be that by the time I got around to playing it, I had a clear idea in my head of what a Zelda game should be. But still, as I said, I'm not totally opposed to the idea, I just don't think Zelda II pulls it off. And yeah, obviously I'm not trying to set off the fan base alarms here since I'm such a big Zelda fan to begin with. Still, to those of you who like this game better than the Oracles... I hope you're enjoying life in the Bizarro World.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, and thanks for the heads-up, Zipp. I'm dreadful at proofreading my own reviews so I'll look through it again.


You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.

board icon
Author: joseph_valencia
Posted: May 03, 2009 (08:54 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

I think Zelda I is challenging for all the wrong reasons.


JOSEPH VALENCIA was able to build this sig IN A CAVE…… WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!

board icon
Author: randxian
Posted: May 03, 2009 (09:08 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

How so?


I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?

board icon
Author: Suskie
Posted: May 03, 2009 (09:17 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Spaceworlder likes to tell people that he doesn't like Zelda I.


You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.

board icon
Author: zippdementia
Posted: May 03, 2009 (10:36 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

No problem, EmP!

Funny... I HATED Oracles! I live in Bizarro world!


Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

board icon
Author: EmP (Mod)
Posted: May 04, 2009 (04:08 AM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

No problem, EmP!

Suskie. As is well known, I make considerably more NO typos in my reviews.


For us. For them. For you.

User Help | Contact | Ethics | Sponsor Guide | Links

eXTReMe Tracker
© 1998 - 2024 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. Staff and freelance reviews are typically written based on time spent with a retail review copy or review key for the game that is provided by its publisher.