Why do people shit on this game?

>>3279539
Because it's different

>>3279539
Because someone on the internet said so.

This game was so immensely popular that stores had shortages. My parents bought me a copy and had to sign up on a waiting list for it.

But is that the sort of story you'd hear online? Nope, youngfags will say that this was a vastly unpopular pile of shit that flopped so hard they never made another one like it.

It's the Andy Kaufman of the Zelda series.

Because people are retards. It's a great game, just a different style than usual for a Zelda game.

Honestly, this game is amazing.

The real issues it has is
>Mediocre graphics
>Poor translation/too cryptic

It's one of the best games of its era, and would definitely be more respected (as it deserves) if these minor superficial elements were fixed.

>>3279539
It's hard to get into.

Restarting to the beginning is a pain.
The combat is precise. I'm sure people will say that's a good thing, but it's easy to get fucked over fast if you're new.
New people probably overlook the leveling system, which fucks them over harder.
Progressing between dungeons is confusing.
The dungeons are confusing. No map, and the hallways look alike.
Unlike the other games, exploration isn't fun. You're very likely to game over on the overworld, so you make sure to take the shortest path to the towns and dungeons.

I've been playing it recently and it's not bad like I thought it would be. But some design decisions feel like they were made just to pad out the game's length. Restarting at the last town you visited would have made this game much more enjoyable.

>>3279587
Restarting right at the beginning when you die is an unforgivable design choice.

Nothing makes people reach for the power button quite like that.

>>3279545
Popularity != Quality. Of course the sequel to one of the greatest NES games is going to sell well. Also, people that are buying the game for the first time likely have not played it yet and therefore are not judges of quality. Yes, I know video rental stores are a thing but presumably if the actual stores are sold out the rental store would be rented out as well. I don't think AoL is a bad game, but your argument is a bad argument.

>>3279594
Most NES games that didn't have a password system were worse than AoL when it came to restarting after you run out of lives though. At least AoL lets you keep your level and tracks the palaces you've completed

>>3279614
So are you taking the counter position that if a store cannot keep a product in stock over a yearlong period, it must be a bad product? I was using an objective fact (massive shortages due to popularity) to enforce an inherently subjective opinion (Zelda 2 is great.) You know, how opinions are informed by fact and experience and all.

Sorry you didn't like it, maybe you had to have been there.

>>3279594
Yeah, but when you get the hammer, you can move to the southern part of the first map in seconds - when you get the raft you can move to the second map also in seconds.

Anyone who finds this tedious needs to up their Ritalin or understand the limitations of what Zelda was working with.

>>3279637
I'm not taking the counter position (I literally said that I don't dislike Zelda 2 in my previous post), I'm simply stating that that argument alone does not necessarily mean anything about the game. It's also worth keeping in mind that stock of the game was lower than normal due to a chip shortage.

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>>3279587
Mostly this. It was never fun to grind for the exp to go up levels and it wasn't exactly clear what leveling up actually did for you as it didn't (obliviously) raise your health and magic meters, nor your attack power.
Finding Bagu sucked as there wasn't a clear indication as to where he was or how to find him.
I personally didn't care for the abundance of enemies/attacks that you couldn't block. I'm not talking about the kind that needed the Reflect spell specifically, but the fucking Axe Gators and the like. At least in most other Zelda games, good maneuvering and/or shield blocking (hell even in this game!) would work to protect you. Not against those enemies, thus providing no incentive to fight them and good reasons just to use the Jump spell and avoid them most of the time.
Some of the platforming was just plain annoying, such as the bridges with bubbles.
I also did not care for the lack of freedom the game actually provides in which order you do the palaces. The game railroads you fairly hard into doing the palaces in order and the over-world also reinforces that idea. At least with most other Zelda games, you are somewhat free to explore most, if not all the world, and they allow you to do dungeons out of order and other sequence breaking things. Not as much with this game.
And then there is pic related.

>>3279637
>I was using an objective fact (massive shortages due to popularity)
Parents would have bought the game throughout the year for their kid's next birthday.

It's not like today with internet where everyone knows a game's problems on day one.

>Sorry you didn't like it, maybe you had to have been there.
Maybe you should have actually read his post.

>>3279553
It faked it's own death?

>>3279647
If I didn't give this game all of my patience I would have quit before getting the hammer.

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>>3279673
That's another part of it, the game just wasn't as "fun" and felt more like a chore that had to be completed.

>>3279662
No. It had cancer.

>>3279539
It has its flaws indeed, but it isn't a bad game at all.

Best game in the series. Now to wait for someone to call me a contrarian or some other word they learned on this board.

>>3279690
Kill yourself, underage.

>>3279539
You shouldn't be allowed to review a NES game if you didn't play it on a cart prior to 1995 or so. You're not supposed to have other games to play. You're supposed to spend money on the game and VALUE the fact that it's a time sink. Who wanted to drop $70 on a game and finish it in a week? I WANTED every game I had to take hundreds of hours to complete.

>>3279673
That really took all the patience you have? Every last bit of it?

>>3279690
You mean a challenge to be overcome?

>>3280080
Responding to someone's opinion that way makes YOU the childish one.

>>3279539
Most people are retarded.

>>3280208
Not him, but you are underage if this game was far to cryptic, but the first one wasn't at all.

>>3280274
>grumble grumble

They're surprised by a Zelda game that demands actual skill.

>>3279545
>>3279637
To be fair, there was a cartridge shortage in the late 80s. SMB2 and Zelda II were both affected by that as well as their popularity.

People were literally buying more cartridges than Nintendo could make and ship.

>>3279545
people didn't have the internet to let them know a game was shitty, so of course the sequel to one of the best nes games would sell at first. no one liked this game during its time. only hipster fags that play it on emulator pretend to like it.

>>3279539
terrible graphics. unsatisfying combat. worse than it's predecessor in every single way. its far from the worst game on the system, but it is the worst of the zelda series and there is no reason to play it.

>>3279657
Damn, i was about to post this image.

>>3280087
>You can't actually value the game for its inherent value, rather you have to take into consideration most of us had no alternative.

Ok

>>3279539
I don't remember much bitching about it back then. On top of that, sequels going a different route wasn't that unusual. But once AttP and Link's awakening came out, people started to think that top down gameplay was THE true zelda and that AoL was something to be reviled.

I don't get the nitpicking about this game.. I'd much rather play Zelda II than any other installment. At least it makes you buckle up and do your best. Are you fags just scared of harder difficulty? Sure a lot of it can be cryptic, but what do you expect out of Zelda? Sure sounds underage in here with some posts like this: >>3280274 >>3279587

>>3279657
>it wasn't exactly clear what leveling up actually did for you as it didn't (obliviously) raise your health and magic meters, nor your attack power.

It would have been obvious to anyone playing that it reduces damage, reduces magic cost (which you can actually see this change on the magic screen) and yes it DOES raise your attack power.

>Finding Bagu sucked as there wasn't a clear indication as to where he was or how to find him.

Scouring a 3x16 patch of tiles takes all of 5 minutes WITH encounters. And you were told which forest it was by NPCs.

>enemies/attacks that you couldn't block
There's more attacks you can block than not, and the original was pretty notorious for having a sieve for a shield until you buy the upgrade.

>Some of the platforming was just plain annoying, such as the bridges with bubbles.

That's fair.

>I also did not care for the lack of freedom the game actually provides in which order you do the palaces. The game railroads you fairly hard into doing the palaces in order and the over-world also reinforces that idea.

That's a complaint you can just as easily levy at Zelda 1, but ok, I guess that point stands on it if you're not using it in the context of other Zelda games, I suppose.

>At least with most other Zelda games, you are somewhat free to explore most, if not all the world, and they allow you to do dungeons out of order and other sequence breaking things. Not as much with this game.

Ah wait, spoke too soon. Yeah, you'll get your shit kicked in in Zelda 1 if you go more than 15 screens from the start and shit like Level 5 Labyrinth and everything west of the dead forest are essentially locked off without talking to the NPCs in areas that are only easily accessible with items from previous labyrinths. You're talking about sequence breaking like it's totally natural to do in Zelda 1 but it's fucking not until you have already finished the game, and probably several times.

>>3280294

It's funny how guys like you seem to make the opposite of what really happened back then true. A lot of people liked it back then and still do. My brother for example rented it back in the early 90s and still hates it to this day. Even though I was too young to try playing Zelda 2 back then, I did it later on both emulator and on console. I cursed a lot during those playthroughs and it took me a while to get used to the difficulty especially compared to all the later Zelda games but I would be damned if I wouldn't admit I enjoyed the shit out of it.

Does it mean that I'm saying nobody hated (or hates) Zelda 2? No. Am I saying this is my favorite Zelda? It's not even close. But for what it is it's damn fine and one of the many games from that age that only got a bad rep because of E-Celebs just like with Super Mario Bros 2, which I also like a lot even though it's not my favorite Mario game.

My main beef with this game is that in the later stages the best strategy by far is to run away from everything. Particularly the last stage where the difficulty ramps up horribly, does anyone here actually fight their way through that shit? The last stage is where Link should be using all his sword techniques and spells acquires over the course of the game, not just leapfrogging off the helmets of nigh-invincible knife rapists.

It also suffers from 'getting knocked back into pits' syndrome pretty badly, the approach to the final palace is excruciating.

>>3279539
Cucks need to git gud

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It's a fun action game that unfortunately suffers from a lot of the same problems as Castlevania 2 (though thankfully, to a far lesser degree).

It's a precursor to sidescrolling adventure games like Monster World 3 and Shantae, and if you didn't find anything you like about this game you probably didn't give it a fair chance.

>>3279545
>Because someone on the internet said so.

You realize that like, way back in the fucking 90s magazine sand all kinds of shit attacked this game too, right? Back before E-celebs and Youtube?

>>3280524
tl;dr you're wrong

I like Zelda 2, but the overwhelming consensus as archived by magazines like Nintendo Power, EGM, etc., was that it was terribly received. Sure it sold well, no shit--it was a sequel to a blockbuster hit. But word of mouth was that it sucked.

>>3284229
>way back in the fucking 90s

You realize that like, way back in the fucking 80s we were saying how great it was, right? Back before edgy magazines and shit?

>>3284328
Isn't it past your bedtime, anon?

It's not bad but it's not great either. The leveling is pretty tedious. Combat feels smooth once you get the hang of it. There's a negative for virtually every positive. I think most people probably only really get a feel for the negative since they download a ROM and play for ~10 minutes.

>>3284313
These archived accounts of Zelda II in magazines were from the late 90s onwards and were written by a new crop of game journalists who didn't experience the older generation.

They simply saw that Zelda I and LttP looked alike, and Zelda II didn't so it must have been some kind of failed experiment. How Zelda II got its 'bad' reputation is very simple. Combine that with emulator kiddies getting their ass handed to them within 5 minutes of play and a meme is born.

I can forgive the obnoxious leveling system and the knife-spam gameplay, but what I can't forgive is a system where you lose xp.

>>3284389
>valid complaints
No you underage don't say anything bad about my favorite different zelda

>>3284394
Except you don't

>>3284559
Not that anon, but you lose all your XP if you die. You keep your levels but lose the XP.

>>3279539
>Why do people shit on this game?
More like why do people don't shit on this game enough?

>>3279690
Same. I'm playing this right now and it's a pain in the ass. I play 30 min max that I always have enough. Then I play something fun like Castlevania II or DKC 3

>>3280087
Wow, stop right there sjw. You're regressive anti free speech dogma is at its core unlawful.

>>3284392
>projecting

>>3279539
Because it's bad, like almost all 3rd gen games.

>>3284328
>born in 1989

Honestly they should remake it

>>3279539
Was the healing lady a whore?

Becuz tey suk

>>3279673
Wow... you have a lot of patience. .. litterally 3 of them.

>>3280087
> wanted games to take long

This.
Wandering around was the best part of all the "how did you know this without a guide" meme games.

Get stuck? Wander around and look/talk everything. Still stuck? Try everything everywhere.

>>3280317
Pretty much.

Super Mario 2 was nothing like Super Mario. On top of that Mario Bros was nothing like Super Mario. Back then sequel didnt mean 100% same gameplay.

Just occured to me... the 3d zeldas are more like zelda 2 in gameplay than zelda 1.

So stuff like OoT/MM/WW/TP/etc are the continuation of Zelda 2's line where the GameBoy/DS titles are in the Zelda 1 line.

>>3284813
>Because it's bad, like almost all 3rd gen games
Sure they are champ.

>>3285071
They are lmao. There are exceptions, obviously, but in general gaming didn't get good until the 5th gen.

>>3285074
>5th gen.
meant to say 4th gen, my bad.

>>3279539
There is people who genuinely dislike the game. I would believe them to be in the minority. It's an easy target, because the fans will defend it. Let's take a trip back to the 80's. I was a Zelda fanatic. I poured many hours of my life into the original game. I was rather stoked for the sequel. I loved the fuck out of it. Was/is my favorite in the series. But there were detractors. Alot of people did not like the direction of the game. I changed. I dont remember anyone saying that it was shit. Or that the game was bad. Just different. Now it's meme level type spewing that you should not concern yourself with,

>>3284328
>way back in the fucking 80s
>he was a kid who was old enough to be talking about how great this game was in the 80s

How old are you? 50?

>>3280298
>unsatisfying combat

You haven't even played the game.

>>3284650
That's quite fair compared to lots of pc rpgs of the day where there were enemies that stole your levels.

>>3285161
Came out in 88.
To really remember the game when new he couldve been between 6 and 10.
Birth year between 82 and 78.
Age now 34 to 38.

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>>3279541
This.

It's my favorite game in the series and I don't even like Zelda (outside the first game, that is). But it took me some growing up and playing Zelda II again at an older age to appreciate it.

>>3284810
I can tell you're underage. I'm not a leftist or anything at all but this is just a ridiculous post

>>3285074
>They are
Not really. You just simply don't like the gen for some reason (be it the difficulty, the styles used, or whatever else were present from games from around that time). I can respect that even if I don't agree. I similarly came to dislike games from the 5th gen on, but like you I can find some exceptions here and there.

I always played it stoned so I loved it, I would get in the zone and rip through a dungeon or 2

>>3279539
the guide was a friend.

>>3279539
Because Miyamoto/Aonuma told them to.

We're talking about the retards who'll defend SS and who bought a Wii U for Zelda U years before a solid release date was given despite knowing about the ridiculously long and delayed cycle developments.

>>3285642
maybe the "you're" gave it away?

>>3285896
>I similarly came to dislike games from the 5th gen on
yeah, 3d is hard for people with spatial awareness disabilities.