Well, with The original Legend of Zelda under our belt, what’s next?

The wonderful, weird, and wildly difficult Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link!

This game is undeniably the black sheep of the Zelda franchise. It’s widely panned and usually at the bottom of most Zelda rankings. Why is that? Well let’s waste no more time and dive in!

So, let’s get the obvious out of the way: this game is different… But I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing. First, and most obvious, Zelda 2 is primarily a side-scroller.

Yeah that’s right. Most of the action of the game plays as a side-scroller. Something that happened once and probably won’t happen again, in the Zelda series. If I had to guess, I think this is why most people hate this game. It doesn’t really feel like a Zelda game. Sure, the overworld is still top down, but most of the action, and all of the dungeons, are viewed from the side. But… I honestly like it. This combat style works surprisingly well. The more you play, the better you get at the game. Out of all the Zelda games, I think this game has one of the hardest learning curves. But that isn’t a bad thing. You get better and better at the game and you really start to feel like a warrior. It’s really hard to learn, but you are forced to learn it because…

THIS GAME IS INSANELY DIFFICULT. Step aside Breath of the Wild, this is by far the hardest Zelda game. Even after grinding out to max level, Link can only live a couple hits. Hits which are incredibly hard to avoid. There are tons of enemies, constantly. Some of them hit really really hard. You, of course, have ways around this, in the form of magic. There are different spells that protect you, heal you, and all sorts of other things. But, magic is in short supply and you REALLY need it to progress. If you burn your magic willy-nilly, you WILL get stuck in this game. So, this game is easy to get hit, easy to die, enemies are tough to kill, and your resources are few and far between. Sounds difficult right? Well… That’s only the start. You get three lives and when they’re gone, YOU GO BACK TO THE START OF THE GAME. If you die in a temple, you go back to the start of the temple. This means that every time you die, you either A: have to restart the temple you’re on, or B: start from the original spawn point and go back to wherever you were when you died. Which wouldn’t be that big of a deal if the game wasn’t so expansive. But it is. Sometimes, you have to go through a dozen caves and other death traps to make it to a point on the map. If you die anywhere on the way, or when you inevitably fail at what you’re supposed to be doing, you have to start all over again. This can be incredibly frustrating, I’ll be honest. Especially near the end of the game, I died dozens of times just getting to the final temple.

And the final temple… is enormous. You have to find a way through a complex maze, fighting the hardest enemies in the game, only to find one of the most frustrating bosses in the game: Thunderbird. You have to cast a spell before you can even hit the boss. This spell completely wipes out your magic. So now you are unable to heal yourself. The boss is super difficult. THEN… If you somehow do that, you have to fight one of the hardest final bosses in the Zelda series: Dark Link. Sure you can cheese him by crouching in the corner, but what fun is that? Fighting Dark Link legitimately feels like a culmination of everything you learned. You truly have to be a master swordsman to stand a chance. Keep in mind that this entire temple has to be done in three lives. If you die, you have to restart completely. This is hands down the hardest thing I have done in any Zelda game. I wanted to cry, I wanted to rage, and I wanted to just give up entirely. But… I kept trying and trying… and trying. The final temple took me like three hours, but I did it! And I realized something on the other side. This game really shines when you take the time to get good. You have to put in the time. You have to get your ass kicked over and over again. But the payoff is oh so worth it.

So, with all that said, how does Zelda 2 stack up? To be honest, I can understand the hate of this game. But, spoiler alert, I do not think this is the worst Zelda, not even close actually. I actually really like Zelda 2. It’s not as timeless as the original Zelda, but it still is an amazing game. The bosses really push you to the limit, but are all memorable and fun. Discovering all the hidden things in the game is difficult without a guide. But it lends itself to an amazing adventure of trying to figure out what the hell you’re doing. The combat is difficult to learn, but feels like you really are a master of the blade (this is the origin of Link’s famous downward sword thrust). And finally, this game is by far the hardest Zelda game. But finally overcoming the final boss feels better than any other fight in the series.

I think Zelda 2 gets a bad rep. It is still an amazing adventure and a great game. It is tough as nails, but pushing through makes one of the best experiences in the series. It is not for everyone. Not by a long shot. But it’s at least worth a try I think. It is marred by a few bad elements, but I think it outshines all of its blemishes.

Zelda 2 gets an 3 out of 4. It’s not perfect, but it’s still great. Also, it’s not an incredibly long game. My play through only took nine hours, and as I mentioned above, three of those were just trying to get to the final temple. I learned every spell, mastered every sword technique, and max leveled Link along the way.

As for its ranking in the series, and since it’s only the second game, it unfortunately sits in last place for the time being. It just cannot live up to the first game in my opinion. But! I promise you Zelda 2 won’t sit on the bottom the entire time. Because, my opinions don’t line up with most, and I think there are Zelda games that are way worse than Zelda 2.

GAGE’S ZELDA SERIES RANKING:

1: The Legend of Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link