Hey everyone and welcome to this week’s edition of Zelda Dungeon Talks! Zelda II: The Adventure Of Link. Definitely not the most popular Zelda game out there. The sequel to the original game The Legend Of Zelda is a very different kind of Zelda game compared to the ones we know and love. You know those little side scrolling sequences in the dungeons of the original game? Yeah well that basically the entirety of Zelda II except for the overworld, which is top town like the original. This game also had RPG elements as you could level up to upgrade your sword, get more health etc. So as you can tell, this game is quite significantly different to the others in the series. It’s the only Zelda game of its kind so is it worth remaking? Would Zelda fans really appreciate an improved side scrolling Zelda? To be completely honest I would buy it straight away!

In this week’s edition of Zelda Dungeon Talks, various staff members will tell us whether they think The Adventure of Link is worthy of a remake. Feel free to voice your own opinion in the comments.

Jon Lett – View Profile

I feel like not nearly as many people would take such a issue with The Adventure of Link if its major issues were ironed out. Firstly, the obscene difficulty curve early in the game drives many people away. If the order of dungeons matched the order of difficulty, I certainly would not be so against playing the game again, as I would not need to tediously grind for experience. Secondly, the ambiguity of progression is certainly worth noting. The NES is no stranger to NPC’s giving you rather odd and often unhelpful clues as to how to move forward, and Zelda II is no different. Players could use some slightly better dialogue. If these issues were worked on a bit, within reason (we don’t want it too easy), I think newcomers would enjoy it a lot. That, and imagine all that could be done to improve the graphics, and maybe even the controls. The simple design of the game’s side-scrolling segments has a lot that could be done with it, and the world map is already hideous, so that could use a major overhaul. Overall, I think a remake could work well, if Nintendo makes sure to address all of the issues people always bring up about the game.


Kevin O’Rourke – View Profile

If Adventure of Link were to receive a remake I think that the best route for it to go would be like Link Between Worlds where it is a re-imagining of the game set in the same world but with changes to the gameplay and story. The problem with Adventure of Link is that other games in the Zelda series followed the original Zelda style with a top-down perspective and later with a 3D perspective. The 2D side-scrolling style saw some implementation in some areas in the handheld games like Adventure of Link, the Oracle games and Four Swords Adventures, but these side-scrolling sections were more akin to the original Legend of Zelda’s which had brief moments where the player would travel down a ladder to receive an item in a palace. Having a remake of Adventure of Link would be a fun venture for Nintendo to go in, but the track record of having 2D side-scrolling Zelda games is limited to Adventure of Link, The Faces of Evil on CDi and The Wand of Gamelon on CDi which doesn’t exactly give me a lot of confidence in terms of fun or sales for Nintendo.


 Thomas Jacobs – View Profile

The Adventure of Link is in my eyes the game with the most divided opinions on it: there’s a bigger difference between people who love it and those who hate it than even Skyward Sword. Switching to a sidescroller was not that big of a difference as it would be right now, given that it was only the second game. Swordplay is slow and difficult because of how the controls work and how enemies move and attack, healing is difficult and almost forcing you to play through dungeons without getting hit in order to be able to get to the end. This means that Adventure of Link requires some significant gameplay overhauls to make it less frustrating to play through. But if this is done Adventure of Link will lose a lot of its original charm: it is extremely difficult, but the fans of the game love it for it. So a middle ground would have to be found: a perfect mix of removing annoyances while retaining the difficulty and the open-ended nature of the game.


Alexis Anderson – View Profile

The Adventure of Link was made in a very strange and un-Zelda type of gameplay style. While I do think it’s nice to have diverse play styles in the series, I didn’t enjoy The Adventure of Link because of it. So if the game were to be remade, I wouldn’t see it as worthwhile unless the gameplay was dramatically altered or improved. In all honesty though, I haven’t played the game in full and I’m not a fan of what I have played, so I’m biased in saying no-go on a remake. Let’s remake the original Legend of Zelda first, baby steps.


Brandon Schmitz – View Profile

As the black sheep of the Zelda series, Adventure of Link’s divisive aspects are the ones that give the game its identity. Although — as one of the game’s detractors — I would appreciate the decrease in difficulty, I feel as though that would compromise the experience for Zelda II’s fans. As Kevin suggested, an appropriate middle ground might be to release a successor that retains some of the game’s unique features. Given how uncharacteristic Adventure of Link is in relation to the rest of the series, though, one of the tricks with a spiritual successor or remake would be to nail the platforming while remaining distinctly Zelda.


 

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