VikzeLink's Weekly Sunday Poll 640!

[VikzeLink]

Last week's Question: Which character(s) has the best beard? (Part 8)

Third Place: None (0.0%)
Second Place: Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule from BotW (42.9%)
First Place: Ganondorf from TotK (57.1%)

The two biggest characters (lore-wise) won last week, which isn't that surprising as they've both got glorious beards! And there are more beards out there, but this week we take a little break from it, because it's time for

RETRO POLL!
In the 160th poll from the end of july in 2015 I asked about Adventure of Link! After a couple of weeks where I excluded it as an option from some polls (for reasons I don't remember) the member the8thark started to get annoyed by it, so as a peace-offering I made an entire poll just about what your favorite part about AoL was. In response, the8thark happily wrote a GIANT post in the thread about Adventure of Link (right here: The Old Poll). Last time, the music of the game won with a whopping 81.8% of the votes! But will that have changed after 9 years with many new members here?

This week's question: What is your favorite thing about Zelda 2: AoL?

The Story
The Gameplay
The Game Design
The Music
The Game-World
The Whole Thing
None

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

I voted for the music because it's the only thing about the game that truly stands out. The gameplay is fun and all, but I've always found the game as a whole to be pretty mid.

 

[thePlinko]

Zelda 2 has steadily climbed up in my rankings this past year or so. I’ve felt myself wanting to replay it more frequently. Just the other day I replayed it for the second time this year. Both of these times were on systems where I didn’t even have access to save states or rewind of any kind, and to my surprise I find that I don’t miss them anywhere near as much as I thought I would.

To answer the question though, theres a lot that I enjoy about Zelda 2. I think the level up system is really well implemented and it’s satisfying to utilize the way it works to your advantage. Despite being the first instance of the magic meter I think it’s the best implementation of it in the entire series. The lives system seems bad on a surface level, but eventually you start to see it as a resource and not a limitation, letting you use death as a strategic option in ways that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in any other game ever.

People like to call Zelda 2 the black sheep of the series, but I don’t think that’s the case. It still follows and expands upon the general formula that made the series so great to begin with unlike Breath of the Wild onwards, only now with a twist that feels in line with the first game. In some ways I think that Zelda 2 is more similar to the first game than any other game in the series is, and that’s a good thing.

Zelda 2 might not be my favorite game in the series, but it’s still a damn good time, and firmly a top 10.

 

[Daku Rinku]

I gotta say story, introduced the Triforce of Courage, and the Triforce in essence; it was just two pieces originally and it made my favorite character Dark Link!

 

[GZ Zelda]

I love love love the map. It was our biggest Hyrule before BotW/TotK and has a staggering village and secret count for its system. It really fleshed out the world and provided a genuine Hyrule setting that could be used for spinoff material and lorebuilding.

 

[MW7]

I chose gameplay because I think the sword fighting is a lot of fun once you have all the techniques. The music is really good too. The game world is interesting as it introduced towns, and the world feels large despite actually being pretty small. The story isn't too special. This is me interpreting words how I want to interpret them, but I would say the game design isn't great. The dungeons near the end have hidden paths, secrets, and things like that which are way too obscure.

 

[thePlinko]

I chose gameplay because I think the sword fighting is a lot of fun once you have all the techniques. The music is really good too. The game world is interesting as it introduced towns, and the world feels large despite actually being pretty small. The story isn't too special. This is me interpreting words how I want to interpret them, but I would say the game design isn't great. The dungeons near the end have hidden paths, secrets, and things like that which are way too obscure.

I’d argue the only “hidden path” in the later dungeons thats too obscure is the fake wall in palace 5. The others are all relatively tame and easy to figure out.

 

[MW7]

I’d argue the only “hidden path” in the later dungeons thats too obscure is the fake wall in palace 5. The others are all relatively tame and easy to figure out.

I was thinking the Great Palace had some obscure things, but a lot of it is optional. I'm looking at the map, and there are 5 fake walls that are all optional and four fake floors that are just inconveniences. There is a required hidden gap in the floor near the end that everyone would eventually find, and then there is the drop in the lava that isn't hidden.

 

[thePlinko]

I was thinking the Great Palace had some obscure things, but a lot of it is optional. I'm looking at the map, and there are 5 fake walls that are all optional and four fake floors that are just inconveniences. There is a required hidden gap in the floor near the end that everyone would eventually find, and then there is the drop in the lava that isn't hidden.

Yeah, the great palace in general is really easy as long as you remember that the general rule of thumb is to go right and down whenever you can. Even the hidden walls that lead to magic jars are pretty easy to accidentally stumble upon I think.