Zelda Retrospective: Part IV: A Link to the Past - Day 1

Dear Zelda II: The Adventure of Link,

I concede defeat. You are the better man... er, game.

Sincerely,
- Nate


Yes, dear readers, much to my chagrin, I have given up on my attempts at Zelda II. The game is beyond me.

Quite simply, I suck at it.

So, today I booted up the Wii and clicked on the third game in the Legend of Zelda series, A Link to the Past, which was released on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992 (in the USA, at least, 1991 in Japan). While I had an SNES when I was a kid, I had not yet discovered Zelda when I was playing it. So, I never owned the game until I downloaded the Virtual Console version for the Wii a couple of years ago.
Unlike the previous two Zelda outings, I've actually taken the time to play this game. However, I've never gone further than the first three or four dungeons - mainly due to obligations to school and simply choosing to spend my time on other things. Sacrilege, yes, but it's just the way it is. Also unlike the first two Zelda games, I feel as though I'm in familiar territory. Even though I didn't get into Zelda until Ocarina of Time, I have played through Link's Awakening and The Minish Cap, which are both very similar in game play to A Link to the Past. So I feel I'm far more prepared for the experience. I believe this is a game I can play without help from a walkthrough - unless I get horrendously stuck. I feel that I probably won't, though, because this game is much more merciful about giving some hint at where one is supposed to go next. I've already got the first two pendants today (and zero deaths!).
I guess Nintendo decided that they wanted to be a little more friendly to everyone after the brutal beast that was Zelda II. The SNES was supposed to reach a broader audience, so it would make sense that they would want the game to be more accessible. After playing the first game and attempting the second game, I was immediately grateful for the longer reach of Link's sword and the relative ease of finding hearts and rupees. This game, in tandem with the first two, helps to illustrate how the overall difficulty of games have been generally toned down as they become more popular amongst the general population.
I also noted things in this game that were reminiscent of more recent games in the series. In the field that you pass through before reaching the desert where the second pendant is, there are a number of statues similar to ancient Aztec or Mayan art. Similar designs would show up in The Wind Waker, especially in the Tower of the Gods dungeon midway through the game, and also in Twilight Princess. An obvious thing is the music and locations. I swear that the Kakariko Village theme MIDI file in A Link to the Past is the exact same one as the one used in Ocarina of Time. As a musician, I can generally tell the difference from one recording to another, but I couldn't detect any difference in this one. And of course, Kakariko Village goes on to make appearances in Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess.
All in all, I'm looking forward to finally playing all the way through A Link to the Past. It's been a long time coming.

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part III - Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - Day 3

Folks, I just don't know what to do here. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is quite simply kicking my ass.
I have made no progress since the restart. I just now got all the way to the bridge after Spectacle Cave. But guess what happened? I received one of many game overs thanks to those red axe-throwing assholes that populate Death Mountain and the bridge that follows it.
This is a game that requires incredible reflex and observation. I simply just can't seem to progress. The fact that every time I game over puts me all the way back to the Northern Palace, where Zelda sleeps, is ridiculous. It means making any actual headway in the game is practically impossible (for me, at least).
As I've said before, this game is merciless.
Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say. I had an amusing series of pictures planned out that would have made up this post rather than the words preceding this sentence. Unfortunately, my camera was stolen some months ago and I can't get my webcam to work. Sorry guys!
I suppose I'll keep at it for a few more days, but I might have to just go ahead and move on to A Link to the Past soon, or else Adventure of Link is going to keep me in some kind of eternal limbo.
I feel like Sisyphus in Hades pushing the boulder up a hill only for it to come tumbling back down, for all eternity.

Ugh.

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part III - Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - Day 1

Initial Thoughts on Zelda II:
1. When did Zelda turn into an RPG/Platformer?
2. When did they decide to ban recovery hearts?
3. Man, Link likes hookers.
4. F*** you, Horsehead!
5. "I am Error." Huh? Do you mean that your name is Error or that you are in error? People, you need to speak more clearly.
6. When did the Crusades hit Hyrule?
7. "I found a mirror under the table"? Did Link just talk?!
8. All these old wizard dudes sure like to live with young girls.


Enemies I've quickly learned to hate in Zelda II:
1. Iron Knuckles.
2. Fox-Headed Dudes who throw boomerangs.
3. Bearded little demon toads.
4. Flying/walking/fire-breathing bone fish that live under a bridge.

Yes, I started playing Zelda II: The Adventure of Link today. Some of you warned me as to the difficulty of that game. You were quite correct. It's atrocious. How did those developers sleep at night when they released the game in 1988? I mean, did they know how many people who would probably be driven insane. The fact that it took me about eight tries just to beat the first boss, Horsehead, doesn't bode well. I have a feeling this one's going to take me longer than two days.
It hit me immediately how vast a departure this game is from its predecessor and from its successors. Between an experience point-fueled upgrade system to a semi-random encounter system, this game is very reminiscent of a traditional role-playing game. On the other hand, there's a large emphasis on jumping and hacking in a side-scrolling platformer environment.
This game either didn't know what it wanted to be or wanted to be many things at once.

Well, let's see how this goes.

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part II - Legend of Zelda - Day 2

You know what they say: "Once a cheater, always a cheater."

Well, for me, it held true. After thirty-nine deaths and about eight to ten hours of game play, I beat Ganon today and completed the main quest of Legend of Zelda. And, oh boy, I definitely had to rely on that IGN walk through to get me through it.
I booted up the game (I was playing using the Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition disc for GameCube) at around 11AM this morning, after finding out that I wasn't going to be recording with the band. I started from the good ol' starting position, collected some rupees to buy a potion, grabbed some recovery hearts from some downed enemies to fill my life gauge back up, and then went back to dungeon six, the bane of my Zelda-playing experience of yesterday. This time, going in fully prepared, I went in and kicked that dungeon's ass in no time flat.
I was doing well in the seventh dungeon too, until accidently pressed X in the start menu. On the Collector's Edition disc, X is equivalent to Select on the old NES controller, so that took me to the continue/save/quit screen. I hit continue, but I didn't realize that selecting it would take me back to the start of the dungeon and removed all but three hearts from my nearly full set of heart containers. Rage ensued.
What kind of design choice is that, seriously? I mean, how many people who have played this game since it came out in 1987 have accidently done that? How many veins have popped from necks from the fury that issues forth from occurences such as this? I sat and pondered this a moment, then resumed my gameplay.
It turns out, dungeon seven was quite the maze and it took me a long time to finally find my way to the boss. But I quickly dispatched him and moved onto eight. I'm guessing I went through eight all right, because I'm already having trouble remembering even playing through it, other than being frustrated with the large number of Blue Darknuts, who are hard to kill, and that was only a couple of hours ago.

I made my way to dungeon nine, the home of the pig-man himself - Ganon. Well, okay, I relied on the walkthrough for this one. When I realized how immense the dungeon was, I decided that, rather than waste hours trying to get through it, I'd make my way toward Ganon that way. I got all the way there with little problem. I saw where it took four blind hits while Ganon was invisible followed by a silver arrow hit. Well, as I hit Ganon the third time, I died.
So, I went out to find rupees for a potion and then ninety more to replace the magic shield I'd lost to a Like-Like. That in itself probably took half an hour. Killing hordes of ghosts in the graveyard helped quite a bit. I made my way back to Ganon, wiped him out and then hit the end. And then I hit the most story-intensive part of the game: a whole two lines of dialogue!

So, what does playing through this game tell me? For one, I can tell you know that, thanks to technological advancements, the series quickly became far more story driven. The lack of dialogue means less opportunities for hints, making the game that much harder. I never owned an NES, and I'd heard from many people that all the good old games were really hard. This game confirmed that notion in my head even moreso than my attempts to play other NES games. I suppose, back then, video games were more of a niche, so the audiences wanted more of a challenge. Now that gaming is more broad, games needed to be eased up for the sake of the layman's sanity. Also, this game allowed for a lot more imagination. It's far less linear than the Zelda games that succeeded it. Granted, you might need a certain item in one dungeon to access something in another, but you could potentially do these out of order because the game doesn't direct you from one to the next. The only hint that you should be playing them in any particular order is that a "Level-#" shows up at the top of your screen when you're in a dungeon.

I'm not brave enough to try to second quest. Plus I would like to continue on to the next game in the series. So, that's game number one down. Six to go. Tomorrow I'll be hitting up Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in Part III of the Zelda Retrospective. This is another one I've never played through, and many call it the worst of the Zelda games. I'll be sure to let you know if I agree.

- Nate

Zelda Retrospective: Part II - Legend of Zelda - Day 1

Okay, so I've been cheating... I've been cheating a lot.

But damn! This game is hard! How did any one ever figure the damn thing out back in 1987? Perhaps I'm too used to my cushy, three-dimensional, story-driven Zelda games where there are hints as to what you're supposed to be doing next? You start the game with nothing in a field with no prologue, no hints, nothing. Luckily, the cave with the old dude who gives you a sword is in plain site. From there, though, it gets hazy. I very quickly decided to rely on IGN's walkthrough of the game since I didn't want to spend hours and hours dying over and over again just trying to figure out where to go. For the sake of this series, I decided to not use the walkthrough while in dungeons unless I get absolutely stuck. Since the walkthrough greatly enhanced the rate at which I played through the game today, I've made it all the way to the sixth dungeon. I have thirteen heart containers, the magical sword, a magical shield, the white tunic and the blue ring. Even with these upgrades, I still find the game quite difficult. To illustrate that fact, I'll point out that I've died a total of thirty times in my play through, sixteen of which have been in the sixth dungeon.
This game is nearly incomprehensible. To play it without any sort of guide would require hours of trial and error. Hours which I'd much rather spend being able to make dinner (teriyaki stir fry tonight, my own recipe) while watching stuff on Hulu (the pilot to Firefly). This game is simply merciless, offering almost no hints other than an occasional old man in a cave. There are lots of old men in caves in Hyrule at this time. And a lot of shopkeepers in caves. Apparently people can't remember how to build houses. And it could be the same old man and the same house keeper and they're just following you around and hiding in different caves throughout Hyrule. That's just creepy. (Yes, I do know that it's an old game and they could only allow so many character designs.)
Back to the sixth dungeon though. That thing is a bane on my gaming existence. I just keep dying. I ought to go get a potion, but that requires 68 rupees. And unlike in other Zelda games, that amount of cash is hard to come by. I would never have gotten the Blue Ring if IGN hadn't pointed out a few secret stashes of rupees. Plus, by the time I got the potion and got back to the dungeon, I'd need to use it. The Wizzrobes are just plain kicking my ass. I got all the way to Gohma once, but I only had one heart left. Plus, whenever I die, I start out with only three hearts and the enemies in the dungeon aren't exactly being liberal with the dispensing of recovery hearts. One time in between two of my sixteen deaths in that dungeon, an enemy dropped a fairy and I thought it was a miracle. I still died later.
To you true Zelda veterans, you who have taken the time to actually play this game honestly without any help, I ask: How the hell did you do it?

- Nate

P.S. - I'll be at the band's drummer's house helping him to lay down the drum tracks for the songs I've written. I might be putting off Day 2 of the original LoZ to Thursday.