History VideoGame / ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink

''Zelda II'' is most notable for completely overhauling the gameplay of its predecessor. The game utilizes side-scrolling action more akin to a {{Metroidvania}} instead of being top-down and makes heavy use of RPGElements, such as an experience-based leveling system, magic and health points, and random encounters. The game also has deeper story elements with a more complex world, including towns filled with characters.

* BossInMookClothing: This is the primary reason for the game's difficulty: there are more of these in this one game than there are in the rest of the series combined. Iron Knuckles require twitch reflexes both to survive their attacks and get past their shields, but the hardest are the Eagle Knights[[note]]Often known by their Japanese name, Fokka, since the Magazine/NintendoPower Player's Guide for ''The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition'' seems to be the first official source to give them a translated name[[/note]] in the Great Palace: they are similar to the Iron Knuckles, but both red and blue ones can cast sword beams at you, and they can leap over you. At full attack level, the Red versions take two to three hits to kill and the blue ones five to six. They usually appear in a place where it is very difficult to run away from them.

->''[[AC:after ganon was destroyed,]][[AC: impa told link a sleeping]][[AC: spell was cast on princess]][[AC:zelda. she will wake only]][[AC: with the power of third]][[AC: triforce sealed in a palace]][[AC: in hyrule. to break the]][[AC: seal, crystals must be]][[AC: placed in statues in 6]][[AC: well guarded palaces.]][[AC: link set out on his most]][[AC: adventuresome quest yet...]][[AC: ©1987 nintendo]]''

->''[[AC:after ganon was destroyed,]][[AC: impa told link a sleeping]][[AC: spell was cast on princess]][[AC:zelda. she will wake only]][[AC: with the power of third]][[AC: triforce sealed in a palace]][[AC: in hyrule. to break the]][[AC: seal,crystals must be]][[AC: placed in statues in 6]][[AC: well guarded palaces.]][[AC: link set out on his most]][[AC: adventuresome quest yet...]][[AC: ©1987 nintendo]]''

->''[[AC:after ganon was destroyed,]][[AC:impa told link a sleeping]][[AC:spell was cast on princess]][[AC:zelda. she will wake only]][[AC:with the power of third]][[AC:triforce sealed in a palace]][[AC:in hyrule. to break the]][[AC:seal,crystals must be]][[AC:placed in statues in 6]][[AC:well guarded palaces.]][[AC:link set out on his most]][[AC:adventuresome quest yet...]][[AC:©1987 nintendo]]''

* TookALevelInBadass: Several {{Mooks}} that are a non-issue in most games will ''kill you to death'' in this one.
** Tektites especially. In the previous game they were perhaps the weakest enemy in the Overworld, with even their blue version dying in just one hit from your starting sword. Now, though? Immune to anything but the Fire Spell, and you first run into them ''before'' you get it. They hop really high and far, and every part of their body gives CollisionDamage (which means with their legs fully extended they are practically boss-sized in terms of do-not-touch radius.) And [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Zolas/Zoras]], which in this game are little ankylosaurus looking things, are immune to everything except Fire and incredibly durable.

** Tektites especially. Immune to anything but the Fire Spell, and you first run into them ''before'' you get it. They hop really high and far, and every part of their body gives CollisionDamage (which means with their legs fully extended they are practically boss-sized in terms of do-not-touch radius.) And [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Zolas/Zoras]], which in this game are little ankylosaurus looking things, are immune to everything except Fire and incredibly durable.

** 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 puts Link into a crouching position while he leaps upward.

* ArtificialBrilliance: Part of the difficulty of the game is that in addition to monsters having fairly nasty attacks, they tend to move and use them intelligently, and the AI is much more impressive compared to most other 8-bit games of the time. Fighting the Ironknuckles feels like a real duel. The Lizalfos will throw their rocks at Link with leading patterns to catch him to where he's expected to be, not just where he is currently. Even the basic Bots in the dungeons like to feign immobility while quivering and then jump at you when you get to close.

* LevelGrinding: From killing loads of slimes, to loads of Tektites, to loads of Orange Lizalfos. You'll still spend a lot of time killing monsters, but you have plenty of options to break up the monotony.

* NuclearCandle: If you don't have a candle, you cannot see any enemies in dark rooms except for the shuffle of their sprites' feet on the surface of the floor, even if they are inches in front of you. Once you get the candle, they're visible even if Link and the enemy are on opposite sides of the screen. Note that orange Daira and orange Lizalfos enemies are an exception to the "invisible in dark rooms" rule. Presumably Nintendo didn't expect any players to get that far without the candle.

* MusicalSoiler: When Thunderbird appears, there isn't even a boss theme.

** Link is able to jump freely at the will of the player. Other games require an item to enable Link to jump while a few others either let Link jump at the player's command or only jumps when running off a ledge.

** The game destroys dungeons when you put the crystal in place and collected the dungeon's treasure. Most games in the series don't block off dungeons after they're completed unless they're one time dungeons that are blocked off due to plot.

* The RandomDrop mechanic is still present, but enemies only drop either magic jars to restore Link's magic meter or P-Bags to give more EXP points. Enemies don't drop hearts or fairies, requiring Link to rely on the Life spell to recover health or visit a town to speak to the woman who restores his energy.

* Link is able to jump freely at the will of the player. Other games require an item to enable Link to jump while a few others either let Link jump at the player's command or only jumps when running off a ledge.

* 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 Wizard but is bigger and faster in terms of teleport frequency, and much harder to hit (that last being something Wizards ''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.

* EpilepticFlashingLights: The screen flashes as bosses die. When Link dies, the screen flashes multiple colours save for Link's black silhouette. These effects have been considerably toned down in rereleases, however.[[note]]There's a technicality that goes with this, however, in that some games that have a neon-chroma pattern flash (red, yellow, blue, green) that could show the way it was intended on a TV screen (thus not as bad) will get into seizure inducing when someone posts it on -- [=YouTube=] or any other video host that forces videos to a specific framerate. Usually this is a good thing to tame such issues in these cases, but when it destroys THAT pattern, it actually makes it WORSE! The earlier ''Zelda'' games featured some of these that get translated badly when you see videos of, say, the ending of the first ''VideoGame/{{The Legend of Zelda|I}}'', or the final boss in ''Zelda II'', or the beginning of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast''. On a TV screen, the colors flash too rapidly and in such a pattern that it wouldn't be too much of a concern (might catch you off guard, but no serious concern), whereas if you viewed the very same thing on [=YouTube=], it would give you a sodding headache because it can't display all the colors in the pattern, so it only displays certain colors in the pattern...and it always seems to make the flash much more seizure inducing.[[/note]]

* JumpPhysics: The only ''Legend of Zelda'' game that used manual jumping without an item until ''[[Videogame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath Of The Wild]]''.

* ResurrectTheVillain: This is exactly what Ganon's army intends to do. Following the Gerudo king's death in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'', his followers attempt to resurrect him with Link's blood during the events of this game, which is why Link is constantly beset by monsters. GameOver means the bad guys succeed.

-> '''IF ALL ELSE FAILS USE FIRE.'''

* UnwinnableByDesign: Carock, the boss of the fourth palace, can only be damaged by using the Reflect spell to bounce his magic spells back at him. If you reached him without obtaining Reflect, you cannot win. Luckily, dying puts you in the room before the boss room so you're free to leave the temple and find the spell.

* SaveGameLimits: Like in the first game, upon saving you begin at the starting point, though you keep all your progress in every other way. The starting point in this game is North Palace, where Princess Zelda is sleeping. Also, saving adds a death to your death count. Since you can already save whenever you die, the save function (which you need a second controller to use) is essentially a suicide code. However, this game also has one exception in the final dungeon, the Great Palace, likely due to its distance from the start and the fact that it's also behind a stretch of some of the most NintendoHard terrain there is, filled with invisible DemonicSpiders hovering over pits of death and so forth. So if you die in the last dungeon, you'll restart at its entrance. '''(AOL)'''
* SaveThePrincess: A unique case, as Link has to help another Princess Zelda wake up from a spell that causes her to sleep eternally in the North Palace. She remains safe otherwise. '''(AOL)'''

''Zelda II: The Adventure of Link'' (''Link no Bouken'' in Japanese) 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.

* CallAPegasusAHippogriff: The Thunderbird has little resemblance to its namesake from Pacific Northwest Coast folklore.

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 would be released to commemorate the series' [[MilestoneCelebration 35th anniversary]], which came to fruition in November of 2021. This release also contains the European and original Japanese versions of all three games.

* AirborneMook: Being much more of a platform game than other installments in the series, the game has several. Bubbles bounce around the screen in diagonals and take a ton of hits to kill. Aches and Achemen are bats that swoop down from the ceiling, Achemen turn into a demon when they land and spit fireballs. Mobys are a bird that swoops down out of the sky and beelines at Link once they reach his height. Bago Bagos are a skeletal monster head that take soaring leaps across the screen while spitting stones. Ras are the animated dragon head statues and the LedgeBats of the game. Moas are flying ghostly eyeballs -- the orange ones in palaces try to drop fireballs on Link, the outdoor types just try to fly into him. Girobokkus are a slower moving, armored floating eye that are invincible when their eyes are closed. Boons are fast moving dragonflies that rain rocks down beneath them, luckily they're fragile because they're very hard to hit.

* {{Blackground}}: The game has background textures for nearly every environment in the game, except for two rooms: one at the very beginning, and the other at the very end. Considering that every room in every dungeon previous has had some sort of a background, you should know you're in for trouble when you enter the final room of TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon and suddenly this is no longer the case. This is also likely because the background turns bright red - It has to in order for the player to even ''see'' the final boss.

* ChestMonster: There are townspeople who turn into monsters after you talk to them. These are fairly easy to avoid, though -- just... don't talk to the random townspeople. They very rarely have anything interesting to say anyway.

** A GameOver reduces Link's XP to zero and sends him all the way back to the Northern Palace in Western Hyrule. For the later levels, it's not just a matter of the walk being tedious: there are places where the wandering monsters are nigh impossible to avoid and the mini-levels they trigger are much harder, leaving you in great danger of ''another'' Game Over and having to do it all again as soon as - or even before - you reach the current palace again. This is downplayed in the Great Palace, where a game over puts Link at the beginning of that Palace.

** Between the second and third palaces, the player must navigate Death Mountain. The original game's overworld is just to the south of it, complete with forests, lakes, a cemetery, and even Spectacle Rock all in the same spots as before - if you ever suspected that the first game didn't show you all of Hyrule, you were very correct. You can even enter where Level 9 was in the last game and find a magic container inside.

* DarkerAndEdgier: While the game lacks the details to properly show it, the game is a bit darker compared to the first one. The reason there were no towns or settlements in the first game was due to everyone evacuating and moving up north to avoid Ganon's forces. Despite the move, Old Kasuto was completely abandoned by its people once Ganon's minions found them; going there has no [=NPCs=] (save for a hidden one that teaches you a spell), and there are invisible enemies everywhere that you cannot see unless you picked up the Cross. Thankfully, Old Kasuto's residents moved to a hidden area in the woods that you can reach [[GuideDangIt once you reveal the location.]] On top of this, one of the town's children was kidnapped by one of Ganon's minions, which you do get to rescue. There's also the fact that all of Ganon's minions are actively hunting for Link - not just for revenge, but for Link's blood specifically, which is needed to revive Ganon. Get a GameOver and you see Ganon rise again as he laughs.

* EpilepticFlashingLights: The screen flashes as bosses die. When Link dies, the screen flashes multiple colours save for Link's black silhouette. These effects have been considerably toned down in rereleases, however.[[note]]There's a technicality that goes with this, however, in that some games that have a neon-chroma pattern flash (red, yellow, blue, green) that could show the way it was intended on a TV screen (thus not as bad) will get into seizure inducing when someone posts it on - [=YouTube=] or any other video host that forces videos to a specific framerate. Usually this is a good thing to tame such issues in these cases, but when it destroys THAT pattern, it actually makes it WORSE! The earlier ''Zelda'' games featured some of these that get translated badly when you see videos of, say, the ending of the first ''VideoGame/{{The Legend of Zelda|I}}'', or the final boss in ''Zelda II'', or the beginning of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast''. On a TV screen, the colors flash too rapidly and in such a pattern that it wouldn't be too much of a concern (might catch you off guard, but no serious concern), whereas if you viewed the very same thing on [=YouTube=], it would give you a sodding headache because it can't display all the colors in the pattern, so it only displays certain colors in the pattern...and it always seems to make the flash much more seizure inducing.[[/note]]

* {{Fireballs}}: A spell learned in Nabooru lets you toss them around with your sword, which is the [[KillItWithFire only way to damage]] certain enemies.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Beating a boss is the only time Link's shadow is visible.

** 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 this 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.

* HiddenElfVillage: New Kasuto. A villager states they had to flee Old Kasuto, so it makes sense for them to hide their new hometown.
* HitboxDissonance: An example that's very noticeable, but not all that harmful. The Achemen (red bats that transform into devils) are always considered to be two blocks high even when in their one block bat form. If you take one out while it's still a bat, it'll explode as if it were a humanoid enemy. As well, down a low stab as you hit the ground from a jump will cause your attack to hit lower than it would if you just ducked and stabbed. While this can be used to kill some ankle-high enemies, you don't run into them often enough before getting the downward stab (which is how you're supposed to deal with them) for it to be any more than a mild convenience provided you run Death Mountain before taking on the second palace.

* KillItWithFire: The fire spell lets your sword shoot fireballs, even when you don't have full energy. Also, there are several enemies vulnerable only to this spell.
--> IF ALL ELSE FAILS USE FIRE.
* 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 Wizard but is bigger and faster in terms of teleport frequency, and much harder to hit (that last being something Wizards ''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.
* KissingDiscretionShot: A curtain drops at the end of the game, and Link and Zelda get to smooching. Although this was likely more due to [[LimitedAnimation lack of sprite animations]] than modesty (you just see the sprites move together).
* {{Knockback}}: It doesn't matter how hardcore you think you are. This game's enemies [[LedgeBats that move and weave across the screen like Medusa-Heads]], will knock you into {{Bottomless Pit}}s time and time again.

* ManaBurn: Glowing floating skulls drain magic from Link upon contaxt. Link has no items that are usable outside the overworld map, so all his extra-super powers require mana to use. In addition, the skulls do ''just'' enough damage that if you have full life to use the sword beam, you can't anymore. They can be killed and give a lot of XP for early dungeon enemies, but they require a ''lot'' of hits, even with the highest attack power.

** Functionally, the main differences between this and other ''Zelda'' games is the side-scrolling, platforming, heavy reliance on magic and less focus on sub weapons or puzzles. It still retains the exploration, the hack-and-slash gameplay, and ''begins'' the tradition of the various towns with citizens having sidequests you must complete to get items and such.

* OnlyGoodPeopleMayPass: The Great Palace (the final dungeon of the game) houses the Triforce of Courage--and, true to the item's name, the Temple's barrier will not open unless the entrant has placed six jewels in the other temples as proof of their courage. The final challenge, before the person can claim the Triforce itself, is to fight [[EnemyWithout the evil within them]].

* PowerupFullColorChange: the Shield spell turns you red. Anything that's the same shade of green as your tunic will change with you, even undergoing the very same flicker.

* RealityWarping: The aforementioned "Spell" can [[ForcedTransformation turn enemies into Bots]], and also conjure a shrine from the ground at one point.

* TheRemnant: Ganon's warband. The original game ended on a happy note -- Ganon's dead, Link has the Triforce, Zelda's free, and Hyrule is back under its original rulers -- but the sequel keeps the camera running. Ganon's warriors have regrouped and summoned up new allies, and now they're harrying the countryside and making reconstruction impossible. They have two objectives: to keep Hyrule weak enough that it can be reconquered easily, and to draw out Link so they can sacrifice him and get their master back. It doesn't work in the actual story (Link was just that good), but Ganon's return is the GameOver screen, so you'll be seeing it happen [[NintendoHard a time or two]].

* RiddleForTheAges: Why ''is'' there a sword embedded in a cliff on the title screen? RuleOfCool? Is it the Magical Sword from the previous game? We will never know.
** The small old man in red Link meets at the end of the Great Palace. Is he guarding the Triforce of Courage, is he allied with Ganon, or is he something else entirely? No one knows for sure.

* WitchHunt: Two towns in the game, Saria and Darunia, are full of monster spies disguised as non-important [=NPCs=] (the kind that just say "Hello!" or "Sorry I know nothing"). Because whether an NPC turns out to be a spy is determined randomly when you talk to them, sometimes you can actually talk to an NPC several times before they attack you, so unless an NPC has something unique to say, you can rightfully accuse them all of being monsters and kill them!

-> '''IF ALL ELSE FAILS USE FIRE.'''

* DifficultyByRegion: The original Disk System version is easier than the NES cartridge port, despite having an additional boss.

** Buff ''and'' Nerf: The level up system was completely overhauled. In the FDS version, you could level up any stat you like whenever Link gained a level, but to discourage putting all your points in just one or two stats, a GameOver would [[ContinuingIsPainful drop all your stats to be equal to the lowest stat]]. The NES version just gives each stat its own EXP progression, and if you don't want to buy the currently-cheapest stat you can back out of the level up menu and keep going. The NES version also increased EXP requirements greatly, but also EXP rewards.
** Nerf: Several enemies that used varying attacks in the FDS version will choose only one attack when they spawn and just spam that attack. This is due to an RNG bug common in FDS-to-NES ports.
** Nerf: The final boss doesn't fall for the famous [[AIBreaker "crouch in the corner and stab"]] exploit in the FDS version. This is also a result of the aforementioned RNG bug.