Product Info
Title:
The Legend of Zelda 2: Link no Bouken
Developer:
Nintendo
Publisher:
Nintendo
Genre:
RPG
Price:
2600.00
Description:
Zelda II was released less than a year after the first game, and decades
later, is still regarded as one of the black sheep of the series. The main
reason has to do with the shift to a side-scrolling perspective for the
action and dungeon scenes, a Dragon Quest-inspired overworld, and
stronger RPG elements, including an experience and leveling system. It's
also quite difficult, though not to the level of the more infamous NES
action games. Even though the Zelda series went in a vastly different
direction, improving and refining the formula of the original game instead
of this one, it's still a fantastic action-RPG, if you have the patience.
There are actually significant differences between the Japanese FDS
release and the English cartridge version. Again, the title screen music
sounds vastly different due to the extra sound channels. The battle
theme is completely different, though the NES one is a substantial
improvement. The sound effects are much different, too. The bosses in
the Japanese version make roaring sound effects, which are totally gone
in the English version. Conversely, the English version adds a laughing
sound, taken from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, at the game over screen,
in addition to a shadowy portrait of Ganon. The battle transition sound is
also different, as is the text display noise for when villagers talk.
The balancing, particularly the leveling system, is likewise totally
overhauled. When you gain a level in the Japanese version, you can pick
to increase one of three categories – Life, Magic, or Attack. The thing is,
when you die, your levels are reset down back to the lowest level of
your other stats. For example, if you have 5 Life, 4 Magic and 3 Attack,
upon continuing, all skills will revert back down to level 3. If all of your
skills are at level 4, you won't lose anything. In other words, it makes it
riskier to improve certain stats above others, giving you an incentive to
improve them equally. In the American release, each level requires a
different amount of experience points, and you can no longer lose levels,
either.
There are a whole ton of other changes, too, including animated
water/lava on the overworld, a new boss (Gooma, added to the fifth
palace), and some changed and added sprites (including more villager
types, and different enemy sprites on the overworld). The dungeons use
different brick patterns too – the Japanese game has the same bricks,
just with different color palettes. In general, the American release is
more polished, having benefited from some extra development time.