A Mostly Spoiler-free guide to Legend of Zelda II
Having played Legend of Zelda II and finished it, I thought maybe I would write up some tips for other people thinking of playing it. I know some people - like members of my family - who prefer to not be outright told where to go, what to do, and how to solve the puzzle, but to just be given hints - at least until they’ve had a chance to try to figure it out for themselves. So, here’s a list of such hints for such players who want to figure out as much as possible themselves with only a little help.
1. Level up early and often. The higher your level, the fewer hits it takes to kill enemies and the less magic you use up casting spells. You won’t believe how much more manageable that formerly unkillable boss is when he dies in five hits instead of seven - and even more so when he dies in three instead of five!
It takes more points to level up the higher the level you are, so you definitely want to do the grinding right at the start, when you need to earn only a few hundred points per level. Completing a palace automatically gains you a level, so grind early and you can earn the last, hardest levels through them. You’re definitely going to want to be at max levels by the time you face the last palace. 2. Explore the map. You increase your health and magic by finding hearts and potion bottles hidden throughout the land. You’ll likely want those maxed out too, so there’s your incentive for exploring off-trail. That’s also how you’ll find extra lives. You won’t have to explore every inch of the marshes, thankfully, since you won’t want to travel through those more than you have to. You just need to look in the general area of the trails and caves when it comes to the marshes. Most of the hearts and such aren’t super hard to find, except for that one heart that’s on an invisible fork off an invisible path! That one also comes with an in-game hint (although the hint is very vague). 3. A few hints about taking out some of the tougher enemies: Fokka are described as some the hardest enemies in the game, but I heard a tip that you’re supposed to defeat them by jump-thrusting them as they jump over you. I found this to be immensely helpful, as using this tactic, they could still be very hard, but I never found them impossible. Some other well-defended enemies can be taken out more easily by jumping and striking their heads on the way down (this is NOT down-thrusting). 4. Finally, enemies never attack you as long as you’re on a path.