Story: Princess Zelda is
sleeping in the altar, Link our brave hero has to wake her up by collecting the mighty Triforce and in order to do so, he has to go trough Seven hells ! umm.. I mean trough Seven temple's to get the key to the palace of Ganon where the Triforce is.. That is the only way to wake up our beautiful Zelda. In his journeys Link notices that the world of Hyrule is in peril. There are agents of Ganon spying people in the towns and the world lingers many dangerous enemies who tries to stop our hero in his quest.
As usual there aren't much telling about the story in-game when it comes to NES games. But I bet most of the people who plays this game, will understand the major point what is happening here. The story is very basic when it comes to Zelda games, nothing special about that.. Same goes for Super Mario's where you always try to save the princess.. But anyways, I like this story in all it's simpleness.
Depth: Well first of all I really like the Over world system, where you can choose your way and you don't have to just go straight forward and there is these random enemy encounters when they pop out of nowhere and starts to linger in world map. And the idea that you have to stay and level up your character to make yourself stronger so you have better chance to survive in the cruel world of hyrule. And also that there is lot of secret places to find in the map and in the towns and dungeons, so keep on your eye on things and listen what town folks have to say. These kind of things makes the game much longer than it would normally be and much more interesting in my opinion.
Sound: I really like the soundtrack of this game, the good old 8 bit sound brings back memories and keeps the game interesting. When you step first time out of the temple where princess Zelda is
sleeping you find out how good the over world music is and makes you want to play the game much further. And about the sounds and effects, I think they are nice too. You can hear the blades clashing when Link challenges the evil knights of Ganon in duel or when you are slice and dicing the guardian of the Temple to get the key. Or when you fall and hear the evil laughter of Ganon that will piss you of and want to try again to beat the son of a Hyrule game.
Graphics For a NES game the graphics are very nice if you compare it to the first Zelda game you notice many improvements in the graphic systems. The monsters looks very nice, especially I like the models of the knights. The citizens and houses are simply made but in all that simpleness they look nice.
Difficulty: This game is one of the hardest son of a Pizza I have ever played. It takes lot of patience to finish this, because if you don't stay and grind your character you will sure die against the evil creatures of Hyrule in the dangerous temples and caves. There are many helpful spells to guard you against the evil, but still if you are out of magic power and can't find any magic potions near you are in trouble. Some bigger enemies hit you so hard that it makes you want to cry if you don't use guard spell to make you little more resistance against the attacks. And in some places you might lost your way and it means that you will meet more enemies who tries to take your life at any means necessary. When I first time finished this game it was one of the toughest things I had ever done in my gaming history. I wanted to quit many times and curse this game to the lowest level of hell. But in the end I did finish it and it was so nice feeling. Play it, feel it, love it.
Addictiveness: I found this game to be very addictive when I played it for the first time. But then again when you finish it, I don't think you will play it for some time again, because it takes so much from you to finish this game. And I don't think you want to go trough that stuff again anytime soon. But after some time, maybe few months or year of something. I bet you want to play it again. So I believe this game is very long lasting.. And it would not just collect dust in your bookshelf for the rest of your life.
Overall: Even tough many people hates this game from the Legend of Zelda series, I must be one of the rarest people who loves this game very much.. And this is my personal favorite from the old Zelda games. This game has everything that RPG gamer is looking for.. Level grinding, exploring the unknown, defeating the strong opponents, learning new spells and skill to improve your character, finding hidden places and all that. Good game good times, play it ! If you have the guts and willpower to beat it ! Challenge your self in the new level and rise to become more stronger than you have never been !
Thanks for reading my review.
Your friendly neighbor Cactuar.