The Dark Souls of Zelda is the secret best Zelda.

My guess would be that the learning curve is too steep for some people and they aren't willing to learn to play the game.

 

This game was a hit and really popular when it came out. Not sure exactly what happened with all these people hating on it. It's completely unfounded. This game is as awesome now as it was back then. I still prefer the first one,but not by much.

On a side note,Simon's Quest gets the same treatment with just about the same circumstances and I love that game too.

No, it's just like any other RPG in the fact that those encounters are experience building.

They aren't as efficient at building experience as traditional RPG encounters, though, given the larger static EXP rewards that exist in Zelda 2 that are there to find.


I think part of the "issue" with a newcomer perspective to Zelda 2, is that if you treat it like a traditional RPG, you probably don't expect to die nearly as much as you will and that might be frustrating.

But anybody picking up the game for the first time needs to know that they will die A LOT until they learn the game and where to go to get stronger, faster.
That is going to involve exploration and figuring out the safest places to get early powerups.

And that exploration is going to involve missteps into areas you can't survive that kill you quickly.  It's the nature of the game.


Unlike the original Legend of Zelda, you don't have a nice screen-by-screen reference for difficulty, where you can't turn back quickly and run to safety.
You could be on a path for awhile and suddenly find yourself massively outclassed by the local monsters.

Unlike the 3D Zelda games, you don't have the fairly linear hand-holding of regional progression, or more hit points than you know what to do with.


It's definitely the hardest Zelda game, by far.  But having the patience to learn the game is worth it.

 

All the casual grrrrl gamers in later years latched on to Zelda, but found Zelda II too challenging, and so hated it.
 

This is spot on, arch_8ngel.

I feel a lot of the misunderstanding with this particular title is the RPG element. People are/were expecting a traditional top-down style like the original Zelda. What they got instead was something totally different. If you've never played an RPG, or have no clue in general, you're going to just naturally avoid enemies and not build up much EXP. Then, you'll hit dead ends sooner. This is where most will claim "the game sucks", "is too hard", etc. I know that's what I did from like, 1997-2012ish with that game.

Even with traditional RPG experience, I think the game is a lot more unforgiving in terms of forcing you to accept some level of failure as you learn your way around.

Even a newcomer can grind through a Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy game without ever dying.
The odds of somebody no-deathing Zelda 2 without extensive experience are pretty much zero.

 

Agreed.

Zelda 2 was one of my favorite games as a child. The first time I beat it , I was probably between 10 and 12, and I was hanging out with some kids on my bus route who had previously beaten it before, so they hooked up with some hints on where to go what to look out for.

I never once remember playing it and thinking "man, this game sucks", but I did get frustrated at the difficulty back then (probably would curse it out now as well haha).

Excellent game IMO.

Zelda II is still one of my favorites and at the time no one knew it was that huge of a departure because Zelda 3 was not out yet. I really liked how creative companies were in this era.

That being said I must have been doing something wrong in this game because I remember beating the first palace. Then I braved death mountain and will never ever forget those damn alligators. Once I finished this part and got the hammer the game opened up for me. I really liked that you could replay the game with full power after you beat it so you could teach the game a lesson.

Good game and I still have my copy from November of 1988. I got this one early on a trip to Florida right before the big chip shortage. No one in school believed I had the game so I had to bring the manual to show proof lol.

I very much agree with OP! So many good memories with Zelda 2. The soundtrack is great, and while difficult - it was a challenge that felt great to overcome and certainly worth the time I put into it as a kid. I enjoyed it much more than the original, which is saying a lot since I also spent a great deal of time on the original. Were certainly 2 golden gems in my cartridge collection as a kid.

I really like Zelda 2, I also really like Zelda. Never did understand the bad rep the second one gets, it's probably my favorite Zelda title.

Zelda 2 forces you to go through arguably the hardest part of the game early on when you're not even prepared for it.


 

Annoyingly catchy sound track due to the brentalfloss music vid. Didn't really enjoy playing the game though, i'll stick to being a OOT and WW fanboy.

Arch: I suppose this is true, and my position is a rather biased one lol. I first played/found out this game even existed when I was like 8 or 9 in the late 90's. I saw the cart on the shelf at the Saugus FuncoLand, and the fading "platinum" shell immediately grabbed my attention. Too bad the game didn't   I'd never really played anything RPG related, so it was ALL news to me!

Mbd: That was my biggest gripe, and I think it's a lot of people's. Death Mountain is a real bitch...even when you're where you should be level wise.

I honestly didn't think Death Mountain was that bad. It just forced me to spend about one play session leveling up my stats and then I was ready.

This wasn't like I was playing Castlevania III and it took 1-2 weeks just to complete one level after trial and error.

Losing all of your EXP in Zelda II is akin to losing all of your hearts in Simon's Quest. Both games are equally confusing and frustrating at certain points IMO.

While that can be frustrating to new players, you notice it pretty quickly and should learn the importance of risk management when you are close to leveling up.


In terms of Death Mountain... it is tough, but nowhere near as tough as the final leg of the game, IMO.  Part of the challenge, though, again comes down to expectations.

A new player will die, probably many times, while mapping the mountain range and cave system.

Once they figure out the likely best path, they can make the run with some lives in reserve and attempt to avoid combat whenever possible (and using magic evasively).



This whole discussion has me wondering if OSG ever managed his level one run of the entire game.  I recall his thread about it kind of dying off after the fifth palace.

 

He made it to firebird last I remember (and saw). He almost beat him, too, but it takes something like 80 or 100 hits at that low of a level.

A Lvl 1 run sounds like an absolute nightmare  

It definitely puts to shame those of us that brag about our minimalist runs in Zelda 1.

 

This is true...

...Though I still personally like the original LoZ better  

I might bust out AoL think summer and take it for another spin. I have a feeling it will be a bit more enjoyable now that I've been through it all, and know where to go/what to do.

Nintendo Hard™

I'm a huge Zelda fan and really didn't struggle much with this one, and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I did read some tips and tricks to help me out which probably defeats that argument entirely. I recall the dark caves being a PITA and then you find/earn the candle? Then there was the trick to defect Dark Link super easy. Without any guidance I probably wouldn't have been able to complete it on my own.

I'm still playing through all the Zeldas but tend to enjoy them with some guidance (strategy guide/tips n tricks etc).

I only ever played Zelda II briefly, and found it too different from the Zelda I knew and loved (and difficult), so I never got very far.

I decided I'm gonna play through every Zelda game this year though. Right now I'm halfway through Zelda I and I'm gonna tackle Zelda II next. I'm actually kind of nervous because I'm playing on the original hardware and I have a feeling it's gonna give me a really hard time.

I just played through it a couple weeks ago for the first time.  Like you, I wasn't fond of it as a kid because it was a little hard and too different from the original.  But I have to say, having played through it recently, that game gets an unfair reputation.  I would still consider it on the difficult side but as long as you focus on leveling and grinding a bit near the beginning it will make the game much less frustrating.  I had 39 deaths in my playthrough which I consider to be good especially considering that my save from my childhood had like 70 and I only made it to the second palace!