Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (Japanese: Zelda no Densetsu: Link no Bōken) is the second main entry in The Legend of Zelda franchise, developed by Nintendo R&D4 and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto. It first released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan in 1987, with the overseas NES cartridge version launching in 1988. It stands out as the most unique mainline Zelda title. Set years after the first game, sixteen-year-old Link bears the royal crest of Hyrule on his hand. Princess Zelda is trapped in an eternal slumber by an ancient curse. Ganon’s remaining followers plan to resurrect Ganon using Link’s blood. Link must travel across Hyrule, visit six palaces, place crystals on the statues inside each temple, collect the Triforce of Courage, break the curse and stop Ganon’s revival. It abandons the top-down only design of the original Zelda, using a hybrid gameplay: top-down overworld exploration, with random encounters switching to side-scrolling combat screens. It is the only main Zelda game built with this formula. Full RPG progression is introduced: defeating enemies grants experience points. On level up, players choose to boost attack power, magic or life. You learn multiple spells from villagers in towns, including healing, jump, fire and reflect shield. Combat features sword techniques such as upward thrust and downward thrust. Townsfolk offer clues, and some foes disguise themselves as innocent NPCs to ambush Link. There are six palaces, each guarded by a boss, leading to the final showdown in the Valley of Death. The Famicom Disk System release supports native saving, while the NES cartridge version uses password save. Famous for its brutal high difficulty with aggressive enemies and low room for error, it received mixed reviews at launch. Even so, its town system, magic mechanics and sword combat left lasting influence on future Zelda games. Most Chinese retro gamers experienced this title via emulators. It is a landmark action-RPG of the Famicom Disk System era.

These are the default keys. Click the gamepad icon 🎮 in the player’s bottom toolbar to rebind them. Gamepads are detected automatically. On phones you get on-screen buttons.

1P

2P

The NES was always two-player — 2P uses the numeric keypad, and NumLock does not matter. No numpad? Rebind 2P to other keys in the 🎮 panel.