Look if there is any Zelda game that needs a remake, it’s this one. There is a lot of potential for this game, but it’s weighed down by its flawed design, and difficulty. There is just too much it requires a single player to do, and overall makes it nearly impossible for anyone to actually have the time and patience to beat it on its own terms. The fact the game is so hard that it actually gives you 3 lives to use before a game over is a testament to that. Even then all those lives can easily be wasted if you don’t know how to play correctly. On top of that the level up system is so grind heavy that the majority of the game is really just spent leveling your character up once you get around to the later levels, and what makes this worse is the fact that all your experience will be for not if you get a game over. The combat is also all over the place, with the majority of the AI being random in their attack patterns means that you can’t fully predict when they will strike, and when you should. Add this problem in with the amount of damage each enemy gives you, and you get a recipe for a difficult and unfair game. Which honestly many of these problems could easily be solved by giving all the sword techniques at the beginning, or by making the leveling up system less tedious then it already is. Heck, even lowering the damage output of each enemy would give any given player a better ability to play this game. Overall much of the fault of Zelda II comes from its unfair difficult, and this can be easily address in some sort of remake.
Course Zelda II isn’t all bad, and hence why I think it should be remade in the first place. The system Zelda II tried to introduce certainly is unique, and made for a very different way to play Zelda. A lot of the bosses, and items used throughout the game are also considerably interesting ideas. Especially a villain such as Dark Link and the thunder bird. The music is also some of the best stuff to come out of a NES game, and really the only thing I think most fans can agree on is that the soundtrack is great. Really though when it comes down to it, Zelda II isn’t a bad game, and really it’s only shunned for its unfair difficulty. If this game is given some sort of chance to be approved on at least a little bit, I think most people would look on it fondly. Course for now I don’t blame anyone that doesn’t want to play or beat this game, as it very much a badly designed game. Just sad to see such potential wasted.
Final Thoughts:
Talk about growing pains, if there is any game out there to represent the black sheep of gaming, it would be Zelda II. Aside from a few interesting ideas, and an interesting take on the RPG genre; Zelda II doesn’t have much to offer that the difficult warrants. The game is just too badly designed to really give anyone, but the most skilled players a look into its meatier adventure. It’s not just Nintendo hard, but simply an unfair mess of work that is more trouble than it should be. Zelda II really should only be played by those interested in looking at Zelda’s gaming history, otherwise I suggest going to something a bit better like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden for a more challenging and fair test.