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Zelda II sucks ass. 

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is an occasionally maligned experience. At the time, many players didn't like the shift from the top down gameplay of Zelda 1 to the side scrolling platformer with RPG elements of Zelda II. Although none of those critiques are mentioned in Wikipedia's notes, so maybe this isn't as widespread a belief as I've been told. Nowadays, though, people who've played Z2 think it's great! As you'd expect from my opening line, I'm a part of the contrarian crowd. 

Most of my displeasure stems from the difficulty. Zelda 1 was hard, but it felt fair. Zelda II is nonsense, and that nonsense comes in many forms. Way too many mobs or projectiles on screen, several types of armored enemies with tiny hit boxes, and a respawn point on the otherside of the world all drag down this game. And don't get me started on the rarity of magic potions and the total lack of health pick ups. 

And that difficulty creates tedium. Whenever you die, you return to Hyrule Castle, which is nowhere near the final dungeon. This means you need to travel two continents, avoid multiple bridges with difficult crossings, get pelted with rocks three times, dodge the game's random battles, and pass four cave systems that aren't fun. This is misery. 

And it's not worth it. Link, the bosses, and the story are just as barebones as before. Zelda is asleep, Link has to save her, and how he did that makes no sense. 

And I'm bummed this sucks because the basics are amazing. The world is massive and filled with as many upgrades, secrets, and things to find as before. The combat involves timing, which can be a double edged sword. Link has to wind up his attack, so there's a skill issue here. If you time it wrong, though, you've just hurled yourself into yet another stalfos. Jumping is also an adventure, mostly involving upward attempts. Dungeons are worse, though. Outside of bosses, there are zero differences between them. But the addition of magic, regardless of how situational it is, and up/down stabs creates growth and entertainment!

Music is better, at least. There are a lot more songs that fit more moods, and I enjoyed them all. My favorite song was actually an action one, so that's rad. 

I have mixed feelings on the graphics. In some ways, it's an upgrade, most notably in the form of animations. Link has three frames of attack animations, but several mobs do too. And this creates a fun little duel. One that happens far too often, mind you. If you're bad at this game, then you'll end up button mashing for two minutes, though. 

All the negative issues nag at the charm of it all. The world is less cool, NPCs aren't as consistent, and I hate exploration. And these are the points I am giving the game. 

Between all that, the confusing "inn" mechanic, the frustrating enemy AI, and getting swindled in the final dungeon, the classic that is Zelda II: Adventure of Link gets 14 out of 50 points. I got to the final dungeon and used the wrong spell at the wrong time. I had no way of farming for more magic, so the only thing I could do was jump into the lava. I was out of extra guys, so I respawned back at the start. I crashed out, and I hate this game. I was hoping to enjoy the game because there's a fan remake that fixes a few of my problems and adds more neat things. I wanted to play that one day, but the core gameplay drove me mad. Zelda II is one of the worst games I've ever played. 

There are a lot of staples of the franchise that originate from this game, but I see why Nintendo doesn't talk about this one.