Zelda II is a game that I don't think has aged super well, but then again most NES games haven't so I cut it some slack for that. It's definitely a title I think deserves to be revisited, alongside the original TLOZ.

 

For me the recent Links Awakening remake is close enough to a modern OG LOZ game. But I’m sure there would be a market for a true remake.

 

I never got far in it, but Zelda II was the first Zelda game I played by borrowing, so I hold fondness for it. I never got to play the original until fairly recently, so takes a bit of getting used to.

 

Playing the O.G. TLOZ for the first time in the modern day would be an experience! A younger friend of mine who didn’t get into Zelda until Twilight Princess tried to play TLOZ and found it really difficult to get into. He did recognize some common themes, though, so it was neat for him to discover where it all started.

 

Yeah, luckily I have enough appreciation for the original game's importance to gaming history to be grateful I am playing it, trying to imagine how the experience must have been like in 1986, even if not making much progress in it.

 

IMO, it was raw and lonely and kinda spartan…even compared to its contemporaries. By the time I finally got to play it (around late 1989/1990) there were already plenty of other games out there that had it beat in terms of graphical and sound complexity. The gameplay felt unique, though…especially the puzzles in the dungeons. And many of the enemies and gameplay mechanics survive in Zelda titles to this day. I remember kids at school speaking highly of it in the years leading up to getting it myself. It seemed to have reached legend status pretty quickly back then.

 

Honestly, playing the original Legend of Zelda even ten years (or whatever it was when I first tried it) after release was really rough. The game is really stiff and obtuse in gameplay and overall design by even "semi-modern" standards. Using a guide is practically a requirement. It's to the point where I think remaking it now with modern sensibilities and series conventions would likely make it so different as to be questionable whether it could be considered "the same game", but also probably much better as a result. Personally I would say that any other 2D Zelda on later systems was a massive improvement over the original, from things like clarity to more varied gameplay.

 

To that point, I think modern games are too easy, often times. TLOZ required that you venture around blindly sometimes. It could be frustrating…but it was a challenge and there was a strong feeling of accomplishment afterward that I don’t get from newer games where winning often feels like a given. All that being said, many aspects of the original have not aged well, and I agree that any remake is likely to not feel like the original at all. The derp made it special, haha.

 

Zelda II hasn’t aged well for me, and it was my first Zelda game, the first game I saved up money and bought myself, and the first game I ever stayed up all night grinding. There were nights my best friend and I would literally stay up all night, taking turns wandering around for rupees. I have a lot of nostalgia for the game, and loved it then, but when I try to play it now it fees awkward and clunky.

I also can’t play the first Zelda anymore. I think it’s a great game but I get so bored after just a few minutes that I can’t power through it. Just played it too much I guess. Kinda like Star Wars, I love the original trilogy dearly but they put me to sleep when I try watching them now.

 

Zelda II didn't have rupees, did it? It just had those experience points instead. If my memory is correct anyway. But yes it was a huge grind to get those. I recall hacks with "turbo button" equipped controllers to get experience points via getting in the right spot and putting a weight on the button.

 

You stayed awake all night grinding for non existent rupees in Zelda 2?   Or do you mean Zelda 1?

 

Sorry, my inside joke slipped out without me even realizing it! My friend and I used to call the experience points rupees because we thought it was funny. It became so commonplace that its just part of my vocabulary now. But yes, we stayed up all night grinding For XP.

As an aside, the same friend started calling the shells “wood” in Super Mario Kart. In college, he got all of his housemates hooked on the game, and everyone was talking about red wood, green wood, demon wood (spiked shells). To this day when I am playing Kart with my daughters I have to make a conscious effort to not refer to the shells as wood. Heh.

 

Lol…that turbo button experience point hack never occurred to me.

 

I need to get back to those, maybe around the holidays. I don't have a Switch, but still have my NES and SNES Classic mini-systems. I know "Link to the Past" can always use some attention for old time's sake.

 

I'm relying strictly on memory for TLOZ. Just finished Level 4, snagged the power bracelet and loaded up on rupees to buy the blue ring. Level 5, here I come!

And yes, if you had never played TLOZ and had no guide, it can be super brutal. Like, you'd never probably find one of the dungeons - ever. No clues, no nothing other than some obtuse deductive reasoning and requiring the player to go through their entire pack to try different items at random.

And if that's bad...wait until you try the second quest which is pretty much 8-bit Dark Souls hard.

 

Oh? Ha, I was really confused.

@WishfulThinking What a coinkydink. I just nabbed the power bracelet (and blue ring) myself. Though I recently got out of Lvl 3. I strongly disagree with you, lots of us found the dungeons by ourselves.

 

Hmmm...okay. All I know is that the Nintendo Power with the Zelda overworld map was literally gold as a kid. And we basically had to get hints from the kids who had friends who had the magazine. And the Second Quest...boy howdy. I think I found the first few levels and then nothing...

 

I can see why "Nintendo Power" opened with coverage over the Second Quest

 

Yeah this thing was great. Had all the dungeons and the entire map.

 

TLOZ WILL NEVER DIE! I love that game. I don’t even think it’s that obtuse though. I think it expects you to understand that there will be very little handholding and if you are okay with that and if you are okay with just blindly bombing and burning everything then you’ll be good to go.

To each his own. I’ll be 85, with dementia, but I’ll still remember every secret door in that game.