Game Debate #46: Zelda II: The Adventure(s) of Link

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

Reminder that a 10/10 is merely one of your very favorite games of all time.

[Deadeye | 1,596]

It ain't Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon... so 1/10

[doner24 | 1,195]

Never played it, no interest.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

9 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Reminder that a 10/10 is merely one of your very favorite games of all time.

Reminder that 1/10 is trash, and if you try to question someone for giving the SNES this rating, the forums will be clogged with endless diatribe about it for the next fifty years...

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

30 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Reminder that 1/10 is trash, and if you try to question someone for giving the SNES this rating, the forums will be clogged with endless diatribe about it for the next fifty years...

Well, that was a clarification in response to Link's explanation for his 9, but, uh, sure dude.

And the debate threads are intended to, you know, stir debate.  Like, that was the whole point of me starting all of them once upon a time.  Or was there too much debate talk in those debate threads for you?

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

10 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Well, that was a clarification in response to Link's explanation for his 9, but, uh, sure dude.

And the debate threads are intended to, you know, stir debate.  Like, that was the whole point of me starting all of them once upon a time.  Or was there too much debate talk in those debate threads for you?

I guess I should have put one of these at the end of my post:    Why does the internet have to be so serious?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

Sonofa!

Now I have to make it up to @Dr. Morbisby letting him pick the 50th debate

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

10 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Sonofa!

Now I have to make it up to @Dr. Morbisby letting him pick the 50th debate

"Is the SNES worthy of its 1/10 rating from FCGamer?"

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

In all seriousness though, I would choose Advenutre Island 1, since it's really divisive, and also one of my favourite games of all time...

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

I meant the 50th game debate.

Or, fuck, we could do the fc thing too.  Call it a special one-off.

edit: And it's done.

[Link | 2,709]

12 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Reminder that a 10/10 is merely one of your very favorite games of all time.

I know. I gave it a 10. The descriptions at 9 and 10 just throw me off a little. It’s not important.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,520]

3 minutes ago, Link said:

I know. I gave it a 10. The descriptions at 9 and 10 just throw me off a little. It’s not important.

Ah, yeah they're not perfect (I had to change some of them because they didn't work in practice).

[Zero | 1]

One of my favorites of all time. I pulled it out to play the other day after over a decade and was stoked (and honestly surprised) to see my complete save file was still there.  

[mbd39 | 2,020]

On 5/10/2021 at 8:11 PM, Dr. Morbis said:

In all seriousness though, I would choose Advenutre Island 1, since it's really divisive, and also one of my favourite games of all time...

I love Adventure Island, but actually beating it was so exhausting that I've only ever done it once. I still enjoy playing from time to time for progress/high score. It's one of those games I'd love to 1cc someday but probably won't.

[Optomon | 65]

I gave this a 6.

 

What's good:

- Combat is engaging. Challenging variety of enemies and interesting boss fights. 

 - Fun and rewarding experience system. Points are actually worth something.

- Exploration is great. Hints are helpful, and discovery is fun. A huge points bag or red potion or key could appear in a hard to reach area and it helps make navigating huge areas have a purpose. Towns are fun and relieving to visit. Game mostly justifies its epic length.

- Spells/magic are have interesting effects and encourage strategies. I feel like this aspect of the game gets overlooked.

- Combination of world map and side-scrolling that works well.

- Huge variety of things to earn and collect. The items in palaces mostly serve as keys to get from one place to another, but the power glove, upstab, and downstab are impactful additions that are constantly tied to gameplay.

- Gets more difficult as game progresses for the most part, not too imbalanced.

- Can save progress easily (though it can get erased sometimes).

- The music, graphics, story, environment and mood, etc. are competent.

 

What's bad:

- No checkpoints-- this is the game's chief flaw, especially earlier in the game when the player has to go through the same caves and fields over and over again. Having to get all the way back to the hammer caves, and Palaces 2 and 4 are particularly tedious. They should have had checkpoints at the towns maybe, or at least an easier way to earn more lives. But they at least made the hammer, raft, flute etc. bypass these areas later in the game to get the player back (relatively) quickly to where they were.

- Brutal difficulty at times. Some enemies are tough to learn how to fight effectively. Platforming jumps can be frustrating and cause easy deaths. Cheap floor traps, but these are kind of rare, only in the last 2 palaces I think?

- Game can feel tedious and repetitive in some parts.

- Experience system can sometimes encourage monotonous grinding when the player feels stuck. 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Optomon

[Estil | 1,264]

On 5/10/2021 at 10:37 AM, Deadeye said:

It ain't Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon... so 1/10

I take it you're rating Zelda 2 a 1/10 because you don't get to bust some Dodongos?

Edited May 23, 2021 by Estil

[Deadeye | 1,596]

14 minutes ago, Estil said:

I take it you're rating Zelda 2 a 1/10 because you don't get to bust some Dodongos?

Just a joke based on current events at the time on VGS.  I haven't played Zelda II, but looking to rectify that soon.  I thoroughly enjoyed Faxanadu, so I hope I enjoy this equally. 

[Tanooki | 4,932]

I find Faxanadu a good bit more enjoyable.   Like Zelda II I've owned that game since the time it came out, Faxanadu has more replay time committed to it.