GuestLog in

I just played through this one & as a Zelda II veteran, it didn't feel obnoxiously hard, like most hard-type/kaizo hacks. The Shield spell having Fire & Reflect built in made this a lot more tolerable, although not all enemies are vulnerable to fire :(

However, the real problem I had was losing my entire progress when the game crashed with the last forced area before the cave leading to the Great Palace. I was playing this all in 1 setting, so I didn't save & had to redo it all again. NOT COOL! (Fix it!)

Also, there's a softlock trap going through 1 of the Death Mountain caves exits, which causes you to spawn on top of a mountain tile at the base of a peninsula that can't be reached even with the Boots. There was no escape & I had to resort to using a Game Genie code to allow myself to walk over any terrain in order to get back.

There's also a softlock from appearing at the top corner of a screen after clearing the 4th Palace. I don't know what caused it, but I suddenly kept appearing at the top corner of areas that didn't behave that way before I beat the 4th Palace & collected the Book (Cross). There's also some extra paths in walls that were added to the dungeon layout that lead to weird places like the top of a wall in the next screen, also causing a softlock.

It's said that you can bring up the Save & Continue screen from the 1st controller but it wouldn't work for me.

Anyway, it's still a good hack. I'd give it a 7/10, 8/10 if the crashing bug & softlock issues get fixed.

Some Spoilers ahead:

First thing I would like to mention is the game starts you off already having the downward slash which was always my favourite sword attack in Zelda II and which was easier to kill harder enemies with and easy to get your XP up. Some of the levels were the same as the original but with stronger enemies and longer ledges you'd need the jump spell for in the palaces. Was easier to gain your XP with (which had golden ruppes as P-bags). They made the sword longer in the game so it would be easier for the player to kill tougher enemies like Darknuts and not be right up in the enemies face when fighting them.

Overworld is almost the same as the original, but Magic and Heart containers in different spots of the overworld, Death Mountain was pretty difficult but gained lots of XP from all the enemies there. Shield spell also let you shot fire balls (nice add) so fire spell later is actually useless (Oh well). You did though need certain later items in the palaces to get earlier spells to go on later, so sometimes had to do palaces after palace before going back to a town. The boots made you travel every water zone in the game to go searching for caves and getting magic and heart containers. Nice change to Grand Palace too, made Thunder Bird and Dark Link fight a little harder so you couldn't cheese the fight in the corner of the screen

This hack was great, was able to finish it in under 4 hours, just a nice relaxed call back to a game I still enjoy to this day, exploring areas of this game was fun, and I think a good Zelda II player would enjoy this little re-done of a game

7.5/10

Graphics and Sound: Huge plus for the graphics. There are some errors from time to time however this hack makes up for it by including beautiful sprites for Link and the enemies.

Overworld: While it has some interesting mapping, what completely takes me out of it is when the rocks are formed like letters. I don't want to read "DARK LINK" or "ZELDA AND LINK" when I walk around. The area right before the cave to the great palace crashed multiple times but there is an easier way around it that involves walking on water which makes this gauntlet kind of superfluous.

Palaces: They've all gotten a nice makeover. Especially the enemies roaming them. Instead of just yellow, red and blue Iron Knuckles, there are also purple versions that are even tougher.

Difficulty: The hack gives players a steep difficulty spike however this is only at the beginning and after upgrading the sword (which doesn't take long), it's fair. I especially liked how the spells were redesigned to make the game far more enjoyable. The shield spell automatically gives link shield, reflect and fire, meaning he takes half the damage, can defend himself from axes and reflect magic attacks and shoot fireballs.

When I died in this hack, I always felt that it was my fault and not the game's.

Summa Summarum: In my eyes, this hack is better than the original and you should definitely give it a go.

I recently stumbled across this hack a while ago, played it and it's really good! The whole over world has been remodeled, the palaces are also edited somewhat. The leveling in this hack is a little more challenging, which is great for any Z2 veterans out there. I love the new use of the boots though! They are rarely used in the original game, but the hacker ultimaweapon (Most OP Kingdom Hearts keyblade) has made a better use for them! If you want a fun Zelda II hack that is worthwhile, I would highly recommend downloading this hack.

Great Job!!!