The Ups and Downs of Sword Fighting - Let's Play the Legend of Zelda + Zelda II

Let's Plays
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The Desert That Makes You Old And Also Give Weird Advice

Ganon only provided the monsters. The rest of Hyrule is just like that.

The Prince of Darkness, Ganon, has plagued the land of Hyrule. He seeks to gather the three pieces of a powerful artifact known as the Triforce so that he can truly reign supreme. As he already owns the Triforce of Power, it seems his victory is assured. As a last ditch effort, Hyrule’s Princess Zelda splits her own Triforce of Wisdom into eight pieces and scatters them throughout the land. Zelda is now in Ganon’s clutches, and terrible demons now seek to gather her Triforce pieces. However, there is still one hope left for the Kingdom: A young boy named Link A young girl named Lin. After saving Zelda’s attendant Impa, she is told of the situation, and she sets out to save the Triforce, Zelda, and all of Hyrule.

Welcome to the original Legend of Zelda! This is definitely the original version and not a mod from Gamebanana by SariaOfTheKokiri. If you remember it looking any differently, that’s on you. Anyway, this is the first game of the series that you have almost certainly heard of. It should look familiar, in that it’s an adventure game where you explore the land of Hyrule and gather up various odds and ends to make your way through dungeons and battle various demons. But if you’re used to a bit more guidance in these games, you’ll be in for a rougher time. You’re more or less on your own unless you’ve got the manual, a hint guide, or some friends on the playground who may or may not be trustworthy when it comes to game advice. Without any of those, Hyrule is a harsh and strange place and navigating it requires a bit of trial and error. And burning some bushes.

Episode List

Northern Hyrule is a bit more populated than the south, but that doesn’t mean anyone around here is normal this time.

Ganon is dead, and Hyrule is saved. Or at least, that’s what happened when we left off. Unfortunately, Ganon’s minions still live, and would love nothing more than to bring their master back. You might think Lin would be concerned about this, but she has a different problem: a mysterious symbol has appeared on her hand, and it turns out she’s destined to save a different Zelda from her eternal slumber. Now, she must travel the land and evade the demons trying to blood sacrifice her while also proving she has the courage to find the third piece of the Triforce.

Welcome to Zelda 2, the game history does not know how to deal with. It was the sequel to a beloved game and sought to shake things up by adding RPG mechanics. While it did pretty well for itself back in the day, some circles think this game’s a bit too weird and difficult anymore. Which is kinda funny considering a lot of people thought pre-BoTW Zelda was getting too stagnant and easy. Regardless, the Adventure of Link Lin definitely shakes things up compared to the first Zelda, giving this game a different tone to its predecessor while still keeping a good sense of adventure… as long as you can handle NES limitations.

Episode List

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Our hero Link heroine Lin has arrived in Hyrule. And despite that fact that she took on some monsters in the backstory, she’s arrived with nothing but a shield. The good news is, there’s a weapon available nearby. The bad news is, that’ll be the easiest thing to collect on her adventure.

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Fresh off of her first victories, Lin continues on to Levels 3 & 4. There’s some medicine and a new sword on the path to these new dungeons, which is nice. One of the dungeons, though, might be a little… inadvisable in its layout.

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I’m feeling like Lin has maybe been through here one or two times. I am really surprised that the clues given in game are basically nonsense. A really weird choice when translating a game.

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I guess in fairness, part of this game’s nonsense is on purpose. Between the in-game text in the manual, it’s clear they wanted to keep things cryptic to give the adventure some mystery. I wouldn’t say this game is exactly elegant in its attempts, and there’s a few hints in the game that were changed from the Japanese version that are less helpful for being there.

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You know the drill: it’s time for levels 5 & 6 today! But we’ll also be getting an instrument and traversing the Lost Woods… maybe with fewer polygons and more pixels than you’re used to for that scenario.

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I think the notion of sending special versions of a game to your Super Nintendo is really neat. Can see it as the precursor to events in live service games.

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It was definitely a novel idea back in the day, and probably pretty fun too. Preservation isn’t exactly easy from what I understand, but the efforts to make sure they’re still playable are nice to see.

We’ve got two Wisdom Trifoce shards left to find, but of course they’re in the second and third-deadliest dungeons in the side of Hyrule. Lin will need to find some handy tools as we wind down towards the end. A little extra defense would theoretically help most playthroughs, and nobody’s gonna argue with unlimited keys either. Also there’s a Bible I guess???

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The Demon kinda reminds me of a lizalfos. But that’s just cause of how snake like it really is.
If I were to play this today I would never find Level 8 without some guidance.

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Yeah Level 8 just kinda being there makes it very obtuse to find. But if you think that’s bad, second quest has more obtuse dungeon locations. Including Level 8.

Which is located in a random wall across a river in the mountains.

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I would love to know the thought process behind the levels. Their placements and such. The first one is in a tree which is cool. And some have really grandiose entrances. But some are just there. Like. Did Ganon make them? Were they already there? What were the devs thinking with them.

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In-game, the dungeons are where Zelda hid the fragments of the Triforce of Wisdom, so I guess she just happened to hide them very well in second quest. Outside of that, though, I’d imagine it’s just a case of the devs trying to make something difficult to figure out and succeeding by a mile.

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The Triforce of Wisdom is now back together, and Lin is ready to take on Ganon! Of course, the king of evil isn’t easy to find. In the first place, we need to figure out what Pinnacle Rock even is. And after that, well… considering how hard the last few dungeons have been, I get the feeling Ganon’s home base is a lot worse.

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Northern Hyrule is a bit more populated than the south, but that doesn’t mean anyone around here is normal this time.

Ganon is dead, and Hyrule is saved. Or at least, that’s what happened when we left off. Unfortunately, Ganon’s minions still live, and would love nothing more than to bring their master back. You might think Lin would be concerned about this, but she has a different problem: a mysterious symbol has appeared on her hand, and it turns out she’s destined to save a different Zelda from her eternal slumber. Now, she must travel the land and evade the demons trying to blood sacrifice her while also proving she has the courage to find the third piece of the Triforce.

Welcome to Zelda 2, the game history does not know how to deal with. It was the sequel to a beloved game and sought to shake things up by adding RPG mechanics. While it did pretty well for itself back in the day, some circles think this game’s a bit too weird and difficult anymore. Which is kinda funny considering a lot of people thought pre-BoTW Zelda was getting too stagnant and easy. Regardless, the Adventure of Link Lin definitely shakes things up compared to the first Zelda, giving this game a different tone to its predecessor while still keeping a good sense of adventure… as long as you can handle NES limitations.

Lin has arrived in North Castle, where the body of Princess Zelda (no not that one) lies sleeping. With six gems given to her by Impa, Lin sets out for Parapa Palace, her first destination and the easiest dungeon she could possibly tackle. Thankfully, the demons seeking her out have only sent their worst forces out this far. We need some levels under our belt, so I appreciate only having to deal with cannon fodder for now.

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