Stuck in Zelda II. Can anyone give me a small hint?

I’m playing Zelda II right now and even though I’ve owned it and fiddled with the opening dungeon for years, I am now giving it my first serious playthrough.

I’m stuck, however, on what to do next. I assume I need the hammer now. I have beaten the first dungeon to the north and have gotten the candle and also beaten the dungeon in the swamp and have gotten the glove.

Now I am encountering a town with a river flowing through it and a guy who says I can’t cross because I’m not a legit townsperson, and am also seeing every other conceivable path blocked off by boulders.

So can someone tell me where to explore without giving away too much? I just want a hint.

You need a note from someone who isn’t in the town to get by. Try exploring forests for a hidden house. Think there is a guy in town that will give a hint if talked to enough.

Have you tried getting the crystal and kneeling by the base of the waterfall? (/s)

I need to replay Zelda 2. I beat it way back in the day, and the combat gets super satisfying once you start learning moves like the up and down slash. @Peltz , are you playing the NES cart or FDS version?

NES. I generally opt for North American versions when it’s not cost prohibitive.

Probably a good call. Whereas the FDS version has a slight music advantage due to the extra sound channels in the hardware, the North American release actually had a bunch of tweaks:

  • Game Over screen features Ganon with him laughing at you, vs a pure black Game Over screen
  • Many graphics tweaks: monsters on the overworld are more detailed, more varied villagers sprites lus more animation for certain NPCs, more variety in dungeon graphics (FDS version has palette swapped brick for every dungeon!)

This site lists a ton of the differences. Overall, the NES version seems to have a lot of great upgrades over the FDS original.

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Thanks for the heads up. These comparisons are always so interesting.

Thanks for the heads up

Yeah, i think one of the guys in the third town tells you that you need to find a person in a house to the north or something, anyways, you need to find that guy, then return to the third city to cross the river. Hope you enjoy the game, its one of my favorite games of all time.

Yea, got passed that. Thanks everyone for the hint!

Just got the hammer too. The way the game opens up and presents new locations around every turn feels really cool. I had no idea how good this game would be. Definitely, it feels on par with some of the best games in the series but in many ways, it’s a better game than the rest of them too.

The combat and experience point systems in particular seems to have a nice risk/reward feel. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a big inspiration to the Souls games. It’s one of the few games in the series that has a nice difficulty curve.

Although Zelda games are some of my favorites of all time, it’s a shame they did not take a little more from Zelda II in subsequent entries.

Doesn’t help that hating it has become/has been somewhat of a meme. All I know is that I loved it as a kid, back before I had some predetermined notion of what a Zelda game “should” be. I was/am really really into side scrolling exploration/adventure games though and it was one of my early ones.

I really dislike when people espouse opinions on what Zelda games “should” be. Ever since Majoras Mask / Wind Waker there’s been this sort of discussion.

But really, every Zelda game since the original has been very experimental and unique in nature. Even the Oracle games feel this way despite sticking closely to the Links Awakening blueprint.

The series is really about trying new things and making discoveries.

I’ll admit, I held off on Zelda II because everyone out there gave it a bad rep as an unpolished mess. But it really is a complete game and a well designed classic.

Skyward Sword, Super Mario Bros 2 USA, and Super Mario Sunshine all similarly get unfairly criticized the same way despite being great games on their own merits.

I like when established franchises go off the beaten path to try something new. Especially when Nintendo does it.

The Wonder Boy & Adventure Island games are another good example. Some of the titles are wildly different, and for the most part they pull it off very well.

BotW has been one of my favorite games in the series because it’s such a departure from the rest, imo.

I love games that stray from the norm. Zelda 2, Mario USA 2, Super Mario Land…to name a few.

Im really glad you are enjoying it Peltz! As i said its one of my favorite games in the series, and when i first played Demons Souls it felt exactly like - finally - someone pulled off the Zelda 2 in 3d that i had been looking for.

By the way, anybody have recommendations for games like Zelda 2? This 2d adventure-plattformer hybrid isnt that explored by developers imo.

Isn’t Rambo on NES pretty much a carbon copy of Zelda 2? I seem to remember hearing that. Also, I’d suggest Rygar.

Yeah I beat Rygar with the Nes-club over on the old board. It was decent, but not great imo.

Rambo is probably a good choice, its a game that at least looks very interesting, but Ive never tried it out myself. Should rectify that!