Desk of Contents
1. Preamble
2. Playthrough Journal
3. Final Thoughts
First issues first, I’ve by no means performed this sport prior to now. I and plenty of others have lengthy thought of it the black sheep of the Zelda household, questioning its legitimacy amongst the fabled tales of Hyrule. It was a long-running joke between my pal Andy & I about the way it “wasn’t an actual Zelda sport”. Effectively regardless of all of my earlier protestations I knew this was actually the proper alternative to lastly give it a try to dive proper in.
Earlier than we get to the Playthrough I simply wished to briefly cowl the historical past. Not like the Legend of Zelda, not solely had I by no means performed Zelda II earlier than, I actually hadn’t even heard about it till I left highschool. We didn’t personal an NES till ~1999, and at the moment it was hardly the bee’s knees contemplating the N64 was out. I actually wasn’t perusing the sport shops shopping for previous NES video games. And as soon as I did hear about it, the truth that I had missed out made me assume that it couldn’t be that good. A side-scrolling Zelda? Effectively, that simply sounds fallacious, absolutely it was only a bizarre one-off from the 80s.
In some methods, I wasn’t fallacious, and in others, I’m hoping the creators of newer Zelda’s take some inspiration from this unusual Zelda sequel.
But once more I’ll freely admit to trying up a labeled world map to play this sport, once more I’m not terribly fascinated with doing the Eighties “roam round till you discover one thing” gameplay, I simply don’t have time for that. Moreover, I watched a fast gameplay information and skimmed some velocity runs; as a result of once more, I knew actually nothing in regards to the sport and I didn’t wish to waste a bunch of time determining the best way to forged spells or no matter.
Day 6:
Proper out of the gate, the transition from side-scrolling to overworld is jarring. However strangeness apart I consulted my map and see a magic container close by so off I’m going. The enemies that spawn and ship you to a random encounter are one thing surprising, however murdering some little slimes is all good enjoyable. After a couple of of those, I arrive on the cave, and far to my shock it’s darkish… like a cave I suppose, however the enemies are virtually invisible, and what the hell is that this??? The enemies aren’t tremendous punishing, however the whittling down of your well being is annoying and this entire encounter instantly scares me off caves after I accumulate the magic merchandise.
Remembering the information I do know there’s a candle someplace, and a fast have a look at my map tells me it’s on the Parapa Palace so off I went, with a brief detour to gather the protect spell from the close by city. I died a few times attending to the Palace, principally within the caves, nevertheless it’s not too dangerous and I’m slowly getting the hold of fight.
Parapa Palace is a jolly good time. A number of murdering “Wosu” aka Rat Dudes, a couple of knight fights, and would you have a look at {that a} candle. Now the information steered skipping the Palace Bosses till a lot later within the run so to come again once you’re over-leveled and switch within the palace stones (extra on that later). However that sounded boring, so as a substitute, I opted to homicide horsey face and then stroll out of the palace (nonetheless not turning within the stone).
After this, I principally simply adopted the map, operating round and gathering gadgets and spells. Primarily I did an enormous anti-clockwise loop of the continent. The interactions with the cities folks would have been infuriating if I didn’t have the web. The textual content bins are so sluggish and just one/10 have any “helpful” data.
Ultimately, I ended up in Loss of life Mountain and this was fairly difficult. I solely performed for a couple of hours however the majority of my time was spent trudging via these caves. The ending undoubtedly felt anti-climatic once you simply slug it out with a couple of extra enemies and accumulate the large reward, the hammer, which simply… sits in your “stock?”. The gadgets on this sport completely depart one thing to be desired.
By the tip of the evening, I had the Candle, Hammer, plus the Defend, Leap, Life, and Fairy spells. I used to be in all probability degree 3 Assault, 1 Magic, and 4 Well being.
Day 7:
Dungeon clean-up day. Actually, that is principally a blur. Andy & I have been chatting on Discord for a couple of hours and I simply slowly churned via the palaces. Except for getting misplaced within the Ocean Palace (due to course that occurs within the water one), today was comparatively uneventful. The palaces have been enjoyable, and a lot of the bosses have been very simple to defeat. Lava and pits are presently the deadliest issues on my run, which is most indicative that I’m impatient and dangerous. I acquired all over Palace #5 and previous the “satan” within the river.
Day 8:
Solely performed for a brief time frame, at the moment was the day I did my prep for the tip of the sport. Up till now, I had not turned in any palace stones as a result of my information indicated it saves you an unlimited period of time if you happen to await the ultimate few ranges (since delivering a stone completes the extent you’re on). In order that’s precisely what I did, turned on a YouTube video (or 4), and simply ran around the globe delivering stones, hitting the max degree, and gathering the entire remaining gadgets. I ended the evening in entrance of the Dragon Dungeon
Day 9:
Completed the sport. It was virtually simple? Dragon Palace was a breeze, although, for the 2nd time, I wanted a dungeon map. The dragon boss was a complete joke, in all probability as a result of I’m at max degree.
The strategy to Nice Palace was completely the toughest a part of the sport. Simply tons and tons of annoying mobs proper in entrance of lava pits. I burnt via sufficient lives I simply did a tough reset as soon as, realizing that arriving on the last dungeon with 2 lives simply wasn’t going to chop it. However the 2nd time round I made it via unscathed. The palace itself was fairly simple, I principally simply walked proper… The chook knight issues have been cool and scary, huge fan of that design. Chook boss was fairly enjoyable however under no circumstances exhausting. Sadly Darkish Hyperlink was a little bit of a letdown. I do know I’m evaluating it to the battle in OoT however this one simply felt random and the perfect technique was to crouch in a nook and spam the assault button 😴
I virtually hate that this was so enjoyable, virtually.
The side-scrolling looks like the actual sport right here and the overworld is simply this unusual virtually afterthought.
I believe the motion/side-scrolling platformer is the actual sport right here. It’s acquired good fight, there are quite a lot of attention-grabbing enemies. The down assault might be slightly overpowered, however total it’s quite a lot of enjoyable. The overworld, in contrast, feels unusually tacked on. Actually, it has the texture of a sport jam. My greatest clarification is that they have been restricted on reminiscence they usually needed to make cuts someplace, my different explanations aren’t as charitable.
As for the fabled problem, I really feel prefer it was Onerous. However quite a lot of that problem comes from not realizing what to do (or the best way to do it *cough* UX). So it’s exhausting for me to evaluate pretty as a result of I had a world map and a normal information, which eliminates this whole side of the sport. Moreover, I believe there was one thing up with my ROM as a result of I had six lives as a substitute of three. Greater than as soon as that undoubtedly saved me from a sport over and due to this fact lowered the problem. This may be probably the most noticeable on the finish of the sport when you’ve gotten the strategy to the Nice Palace and it’s fairly brutal. A number of gross platforming with annoying enemies close to lava traps, you already know, my primary enemy. So, if I needed to undergo that with solely three lives after which beat the palace. I doubt I might have completed that first go.
The actual elephant within the room right here is, Journey of Hyperlink doesn’t really feel like a Zelda sport. Whereas probably the most iconic Zelda formulation have been solidified in Zelda 3, Zelda 2 actually misses the mark. The gadgets are mainly keys and none of them alter gameplay in any respect. The spells do make an influence however none of them are present in dungeons and most of them aren’t fight oriented. You can significantly recolor the primary character, change the textual content and music, and nobody would ever even evaluate it to a Zelda sport.
That being stated, it was a great time, I’d play it once more, and it’s so totally different from the unique I’m completely happy they did it. This can come up once more in Majora’s Masks, however I believe the direct sequels taking a departure from the formulation is a superb factor for Nintendo to do. My fingers are crossed that Tears will ship one thing related, however I’m not holding my breath.
Aspect be aware, but once more this looks like it will have been inconceivable with out the web. These of you who managed it are true heroes of time.
Bonus Notes:
Favourite Enemy: Wosu. I simply discover the little rat individuals hilarious.
Hated Enemy: Goriya! These jerks grew up and acquired higher on the boomerang booo!
Honorably Point out: Acheman, a bat that turns right into a gargoyle is simply cool. C’mon Nintendo, why did you lose this?
Actual-Time-Be aware: This was initially revealed on Feb twelfth, or day 12(in all probability?). I’ve simply began Zelda 3 and shall be truly writing the Playthrough journal day by day as a substitute of half remembering after the very fact, so hopefully, that one has much less lag time.
