Zelda II
1987 · Action-RPG · NES
Overview
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987) is Nintendo's side-scrolling action RPG sequel, with experience levels, spells and swordplay built on high and low attacks.
Deep Dive
Zelda II travels across an overhead map of Hyrule, but its towns, palaces and battles take place in side-scrolling scenes. Link gains experience to level up his attack, magic and life, learns spells such as Shield, Jump and Fairy from townspeople, and fights with a sword and shield that block and strike high or low. His quest is to restore six crystals to six palaces and wake the sleeping Princess Zelda. It is the most different game in the series and among the hardest.
Developer Story
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was designed by Tadashi Sugiyama and Shigeru Miyamoto at Nintendo in 1987. It was a radical departure from the original — a side-scrolling action RPG rather than a top-down adventure. Link gained experience points, levelled up stats, and fought in real-time combat with a specific offensive and defensive stance system. The game's difficulty was notoriously high.
Did You Know?
- Zelda II is the only mainline Zelda game to use experience points and traditional RPG levelling — a design that was never repeated.
- The side-scrolling combat required holding the shield button to defend, then switching to attack — a timing-based system unusual for 1987 Nintendo.
- The game's extreme difficulty — particularly the final dungeon and Ganon's revival threat — made it polarising among Zelda fans.
- Link could learn new spells by visiting towns and meeting specific characters, adding an exploration reward system to the RPG elements.
Sources & further reading
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link — Wikipedia
