History VideoGame / ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink

* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: There are 8 levels in each of three categories (Attack, Magic and Health). Between the very quick first few level-ups and the six palace crystals that each give you a free level, these go pretty fast -- by the time you're ready to attack the last palace, you'll probably be maxed out. In fact, even ''any-percentage {{speed run}}s'' of the game tend to get almost all the levels. Because the palace gives an instant level up at the end, savvy players tend to level grind after beating the boss until they level up so that they can obtain the next level up instantly without wasting the free experience points that the crystals give. If the player is maxed out already, the levels are exchanged for 1-ups, which are ''rare''.

** Enemies who chase Link actually read your controller inputs, making it difficult to hop over them as they'll turn around mid-jump and you'll land on them. However, when Link jumps forward he maintains the momentum even if you take your finger off the direction pad. If you get the timing right, you can jump over enemies ''effortlessly'' and just keep running, since they'll keep going in the opposite direction until you hit the d-pad again to keep moving, which is a tactic put to great effect by speedrunners.

* GameOverMan: Ganon in the international versions, complete with 8-bit EvilLaugh. The Japanese version only has a pitch-black background saying "Game Over".

** Most people who played this game at the time of its release will probably have completed it without both the Life Spell and the Up Stab Technique. This is because the only clues you'll ever get are "I lost my mirror" and "A powerful knight lives in town." Those that did finish the game with both the Life Spell and the Up Stab Technique will most likely have gotten advice from ''Nintendo Power'' (or friends that had ''Nintendo Power''). The mirror is especially hard - it requires a rare combination of buttons in just the right spot. Even if you suspect that the programmers had to have ''some'' reason to put that evidently empty room there and try everything - get used to doing that if you expect to beat ''any'' Zelda game - you might not get that mirror.

** While most things in the game are hinted at in one place or another, many hints are badly translated and only given by [=NPCs=] that look exactly like the useless WelcomeToCorneria types. Good luck finding New Kasuto based solely on "THE TOWN IS DEAD LOOK EAST IN FOREST", especially since
## You need to know that the hammer destroys trees in addition to rocks
## You must also know to use the hammer to find New Kasuto's tile, instead of merely walking on said tile like ''every other tile in the game'' that contains a hidden area

* CuteSlimeMook: Zols and Gels, which are red (or blue) gelatinous creatures. There's also a giant version in the Great Palace.

** {{Nerf}}: The sixth boss, Barbargia (AKA Barba), is harder to fight in the Disk System version than in its NES counterpart.
** [[BalanceBuff Buff]]: The Tektites in the Disk System version are easier to kill than the NES version.

** DifficultyByRegion makes Japanese players suffer a little more for a GameOver. Get enough points and you can increase your life meter, magic meter, or attack power, right? In the international versions, each stat has its own EXP requirement and you can save your points for the more expensive stat if you prefer, while in the Japanese version, they all cost the same. Where does ContinuingIsPainful come in? Well, get a GameOver (or even save and restart) and your levels are all reduced to whatever the ''lowest'' of the three current levels are (e.g. if your levels are 4 life, 4 magic, and 3 attack power, you go back to 3-3-3. Have fun if you think going 1-1-8 is [[TooDumbToLive perfectly reasonable]]).

** Oddly enough, the censorship didn't go through the Wizzrobe enemies, which look suspiciously similar to the Klu Klux Klan.

* FourIsDeath: The fourth palace, the Maze Island Palace which is found in a labyrinthine island in East Hyrule, is an eerie, purple-colored palace overrun by Wizzrobes and undead enemies.

* KingMook: The third palace has an Iron Knuckle ''riding a horse'' as one boss. He returns as a miniboss down the line in the sixth. There's also Carock, which looks and attacks like a Wizzrobe but is bigger and faster in terms of teleport frequency, and much harder to hit (that last being something Wizzrobes ''are good enough at already''). Yet another example is {{Thunderbird|s}}, a giant-flying variation of the Fokkeru birds that drop fireballs in the Great Palace.

* TeleportSpam:: The Wizzrobe Boss is EASY, if you have the Mirror spell: Cast before entering, stand on the left side, crouch, and wait.

* RealityWarping: The aforementioned "Spell" can invoke BalefulPolymorph on enemies, and also conjure a shrine from the ground at one point.

''Zelda II: The Adventure of Link'' (''Link no Bouken'') is the second game in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series, released for the Famicom Disk System in 1987 for Japan and the [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] in 1988 for North America and Europe. Unlike many other Disk System games, a cartridge version was never released for Japan.

* BeigeProse: Dialogue is brief, with occasional abbrevs & odd syntax. Necessity of translation.[[note]]Zelda II's dialogue was programmed for katakana, the American translation had to convey the same information in the same amount of characters, and katakana provides more information per character than written English.[[/note]]

** The dungeons are called "Sactuari(e)s" in the Disk System version but "Palaces" in NES port, and the Goddess Statue was renamed "Trophy" due to Nintendo of America's then-current policy of removing religious references in games (they left the crosses in, though). The original term (''Shinden'') would later be consistently translated as "Temple" for dungeons as of ''Ocarina of Time''. The Temple stage in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series is more closely based on this game.

** DifficultyByRegion makes Japanese players suffer a little more for a GameOver. Get enough points and you can increase your life meter, magic meter, or attack power, right? In the US version, each stat has its own EXP requirement and you can save your points for the more expensive stat if you prefer, while in the Japanese version, they all cost the same. Where does ContinuingIsPainful come in? Well, get a GameOver (or even save and restart) and your levels are all reduced to whatever the ''lowest'' of the three current levels are (e.g. if your levels are 4 life, 4 magic, and 3 attack power, you go back to 3-3-3. Have fun if you think going 1-1-8 is [[TooDumbToLive perfectly reasonable]]).

* GameOverMan: Ganon in the Western version, complete with 8-bit EvilLaugh. The Japanese version only has a pitch-black background saying "Game Over".

** It was, for ''decades'', the only numbered title in the entire series. The Japanese name of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' changed that (it was called ''Triforce of the Gods 2'' there).

* ShoutOut: A gravestone in Saria in the Japanese version features the epitaph "Here Lies the Hero [[VideoGame/DragonQuest Loto]]." There is no equivalent text in the North American version.

The story has two threads. Many years after his defeat of Ganon, Link sets out to claim the third piece of the Triforce: the Triforce of Courage. Doing so will awaken Princess Zelda ([[LegacyCharacter not the same one from the original]]) from her [[ForcedSleep sleeping curse]]. Meanwhile, Ganon's followers are trying to resurrect him, and the only way to do that is with [[BloodMagic the blood]] of the hero who felled him. Thus, [[AvengingTheVillain there are a ton of enemies standing in Link's way]] as he attempts to [[GottaCatchEmAll deposit six crystals in the palaces throughout Hyrule]] and [[BrokenBridge open the path]] to [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon the Great Palace]], where the Triforce of Courage is kept...

* NewGamePlus: Unlike the the first game, this one makes a replay game significantly easier by letting you start over with all your acquired levels and spells from the last playthrough, as well as the upward and downward thrusts. With your Life, Magic and Attack maxed-out to level 8, the difficulty curve doesn't catch back up to you until about the fifth palace. The "Special" version on the Switch NES collection actually ''starts'' you in a New Game Plus, and the Game & Watch 35th Anniversary edition also allows you do so with a secret input.

** Finding the Magic Key is a bit of a GuideDangIt, but it is completely optional; the Three-Eyed Rock Palace still contains enough ordinary keys for you to complete it the typical way, and the Great Palace has no locked doors at all.

** This is also the reason why jumping in and attacking shield-bearing enemies in the head is so effective. Baddies like Ironknuckles and Lizalfos are programmed to immediately guard low whenever you duck, and jumping briefly makes Link crouch before he leaps upward.

* NoobCave: The cave leading to Parapa Desert, where the first main dungeon (Parapa Palace) awaits, serves this role. Without the Candle, which is obtained in the aforementioned palace, visibility will be reduced as the cave is naturally dark. Luckily for Link, the threat level is minimal.

* AnimatedAdaptation: The [[WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfZelda cartoon series]] used elements from this game (though it notably does not include the Triforce of Courage in any way), and the ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' episode "Quest for the Potion of Power" was largely based on it.

** AIBreaker: This is also why jumping in and attacking shield-bearing enemies in the head is so effective. Baddies like Ironknuckles and Lizalfos are programmed to immediately guard low whenever you duck, and jumping briefly makes Link crouch before he leaps upward.

** Running out of lives in the Great Palace will drop you off at the entrance upon continuing instead of all that way back at the start of the game. (However, this does ''not'' apply if you save and quit. Better set some time aside once you get there if you aren't playing on Virtual Console.) Also, if you die fighting Link's Shadow, therefore having already beaten Thunderbird, you do not have to fight Thunderbird again. This isn't done for the sake of kindness but for a technical reason, however: The original version on the Famicom Disk System had the Great Palace on Side 1 of the disk while the majority of the game was on the second side, so the checkpoint was implemented to avoid forcing a disk swap when you ran out of lives.

** There are plenty of good places to grind for experience late in the game, but one of the better ones you can access earlier on is the large prairie across the eastern sea. The Tektites you find there are only vulnerable to the Fire spell, but they give 50 experience points each, go down with a reasonable amount of hits, and every sixth one you kill drops the best goodies; either a red potion or a 200-point XP bag. What's more, the town of Nabooru is just a few paces away, so your life and magic can both be refilled in a snap.

* PointOfNoReturn: Once you've removed the barrier and descended down into the Great Palace, you're locked in until you either beat the game or get a GameOver. Trying to go back up leave the final dungeon reveals that the barrier has reappeared, and you cannot dispel it from the inside.

The game has been readily available for much of its lifetime: it was ported to the [=GameCube=] in ''The Legend of Zelda Collector's Edition'', the Game Boy Advance as part of the ''NES Classic'' series, has been released on every iteration of the Virtual Console, and is available to play within the Nintendo Entertainment System - Nintendo Switch Online service. Additionally, it was announced on June 15th, 2021 that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jp_9gv_N8c a special version of the]] UsefulNotes/GameAndWatch system containing this game, its [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI predecessor]], ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening'', and a Zelda-themed version of the Game & Watch game Vermin will be released to commemorate the series' [[MilestoneCelebration 35th anniversary]], and was released in November of 2021. This release also contains the European and original Japanese versions of all three games.