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I really wanted to recommend this hack but after about 10 hours of gameplay I had to give up. It is really difficult, to the point that it's near impossible without save points or rewinding in an emulator. I could have dealt with just using save points but the game becomes a chore due to unnecessary backtracking.

Pros:

• New overworld that is fun to explore
• Some new items to use and be found

Cons:

• Requires a lot of backtracking that's not explained. There are at least 3, maybe 4 keys in the first palace that you can't get until later in the game that are required in the 2nd palace. The 2nd palace is really far away (without the hammer) and is a chore to travel back and forth.
• Some odd choices where sometimes lava acts like swamp where you can walk through it. I missed several items initially because I thought it was lava. IN the same room there is a pit with red lava that will kill you then right afterwards lava that you can walk through like a swamp.
• In order to get some key items you have to find things that are near impossible without randomly stumbling upon it or watching someone find it on a youtube playthrough. For example the missing cat that you somehow have to know is invisible and on the roof.
• Difficulty. Yikes, a lot of later game enemies from the original show up at the beginning of this game. Sometimes you also have to battle the boss multiple times in a palace.
• Unlike the original game, beating a palace boss does not give you XP up until your next goal. You just get a static 500xp. This ends up requiring unnecessary grinding to upgrade.

No point playing through the hard version as you die instantly to 90% of the monsters you face, unless you want to excessively save scum. The map layout and progression were fine but this version is pure tedium as lvl 6 attack still can't one-hit 50% of the basic monsters you face. Not a good idea to overpower monsters in a game that's notorious for fidgety and imprecise controls, and to compound that by making all magic cost insane amounts and give the player 0 heart containers and 1 magic container.

This hack has so much to offer and a lot of unique ideas. It's difficult but not impossible. Gold standard for zelda II hacks

This hack is definitely good. The overworld animation, pallet color changes overworld and palaces, and item additions are all good. Difficulty is very challenging and in some areas of the game including The Great Palace requiring too much advanced techniques to proceed increasing the difficulty(jump attack rebound off wall for example). Finding the Thunder Magic in the Great Palace was a nice touch. Overall a great game. I just would have eased up on being forced to use advanced techniques.

So I love zelda hacks, but when I played Shadow of Night (hard) it was too frustrating and I gave up. I found the easy version 2.5 and started playing. I have been following the v.1.0 walkthrough posted on youtube cause the dungeons are way too confusing. When I got to the temple (formerly a level in the ocean in the original) I was supposed to be able to find a hidden key, but instead in this 2.5 version, now there is money in that spot, so I have no key to rescue the child and obtain the reflect spell which is needed. I think I have given up on Zelda 2 hacks and will stick with Zelda 1 hacks!!

After playing IcePeguins "Journey of a Day" hack I was ready for his Shadow of Night rom hack, I'm the type of person who prefers a good challenge when it comes to Zelda II games so I choose the hard version of this game and boy was I in for it.

First I'd like the say the overworld map is great, and I love the new music for it and graphics for this rom are amazing! The enemies are much for difficult to fight (which I like) sword damages and spell magic have been reduced, takes more experience points to level up, treasures are more hard to find, Death Mountain is actually Death for the players, adding extras enemies into the Boss fights makes it a more difficult battle in the end.

One thing that I didn't like was having to find keys in the overworld for dungeons but it added more findings in this game to make it longer to play, the new "Dash" spell was a great add to the game, backtracking was reduced a bit but nothing really to complain about.

If you have already played IcePenguins other hacks than this is also a must play or if you just like Zelda II in general You shouldn't play this hack if you're not into Zelda II at all because it will just make you quit before heading to the first town in the game.

8/10

Okay everyone, I've officially completed the final Hard Patch icepenguin hack! I also recently finished his Dawn of Souls HardType, which was pretty epic. I'll save that for its own review.

Anyway, being a big Zelda II fan, icepenguin's hacks have been pure bliss. I still personally consider Part 2 and 3 the best of the rest though, but the updated graphics and mechanics for Journey/Shadow are spectacular. Especially with Shadow of Night, the environments are amazing.. even the cave systems are pretty entertaining.

I did not find this Hard Patch to be too difficult. It's easy to level up and it's easy to recover your magic. So, it really comes down to the palaces. It did take me some time to explore everything, but once I found a few things, I could roll through fairly easily. The Great Palace took a bunch of tries, but that was my own fault, haha.

Ultimately, Shadow of Night is superb. If you're a big fan of Zelda II, as I am, you surely won't be disappointed.

Huge thanks to the_icepenguin for all the fun adventures!

First I'd like to point out that this is a review of version 1.0. I made it a point to play this version as it was what was recommended to me by friends. Secondly, I played this without save state knowing it was going to be a long play through.

So lets get started first as mention above in the overview this is a complete overhaul of the original game with improved and change enemy AI, graphics, spells and story. I cannot say this enough that this for all intense purposes a new Link adventure.

You can really see the love and effort from the new color palette to little puffs of smoke coming out of the towns chimmneys in the overworld. You have to explore there is nothin feed to you. But if you keep on it you will be rewarded. there are some slow spots enemies give off too little xp, stun lock has been taken away from some enemies making them more ferocious and the six count has been changed to 10. IMO the 6 count is probably my one true grip and the game is built off of a specific taste for grinding. So having the drop count changed to something even higher really puts a hamper on the games overall flow.

Anyways now to the good stuff. most things are personal preferance, of course. There's a lot of mini mazes and you can either be addicted to trying to figure them out or you can be put off. leveling is of the highest importance. I can not put it anymore strongly. this is Zelda 2 tough, tough. Keys can be located anywhere. Theres a few mini missions. It's very flushed out but this game also requires backtracking be forwarned. What intrigues me is that it builds off of the original. It doesnt simply cut and paste the same formula. Finding things when under leveled can be a chore at the best of times. Deaths are abundant dont be afraid to try something out even if you think it might mean certain death. Death Mountain has one particular jump which just about looks possible or is it, give it a few tries. When stuck with a particular problem to solve in the game. dont rinse and repeat. grind a level and come back to it later with a fresh perspective.

I could do an overall review but I dont want to give away any of its secrets. To a semi intrested party I would not advise playing version 1.0 Go for version 2.4 Easy. Easy isnt really Easy its still hard.

There's an ice Palace (carock) and Brown Palace (barba) there so well done they could honestly have been in the original game and GP is truely the hardest thing Ive done gaming wise up to this point. You even learn a new technique/skill knockback block breaks with Links sword utterly brilliant. If your looking for what the original Zelda 2 gave you when you first played it look no further then Shadow of Night its the game for you.

Thank You Ice Pengiun

This is the best Zelda II hack I have ever experienced. It really felt like a new adventure with the changed graphics, overworld music, layout, etc. but it kept true to the original game with the secrets, magic spells, and the DIFFICULTY.

The graphical enhancements are awesome. The colour tones really set the mood for this dark version of Hyrule. The original Hyrule looks like a sweet little fairy tale compared to this! I also liked the animation of the water, grass, and other overworld tiles. It made the overworld feel more real instead of being a static board.

The 'new' music for the overworld was a really nice touch. It made me feel the darkness if that makes sense. The original music would have been too happy, so this is a welcome change.

Both the death mountain area of west hyrule and "dark world" of east hyrule were exactly the kind of challenges I had been longing for in Zelda II. I always felt like the original game could have delivered more in terms of tricks with the connection between the overworld and sideview screens, and this hack fed my hungry appetite. "Don't go in this cave or you'll be sent backwards... Remember that path for next time... Ohh there's the key!"... I loved it.

There were some negatives though...

• The enemies do not give enough EXP. Either lower the point requirements to level up or increase the EXP yield. I hex edited and lowered the requirements after I beat most of the game so I don't have to suffer next time.
• The search for the golden goryia was not rewarding. I was peeved. So I hex edited and raised my attack level manually :P I also placed a heart container there for my next play through so that I'll do the search.
• Similar searches to remote locations were stupid when you only awarded a P-bag. Swap the position of P-bags and heart containers for some of those spots.
• Too many town people said useless things. For my own satisfaction next time I decide to play this hack (in a month or 2 maybe) I edited their text to make it more relevant.
• The great palace was ridiculous. I consider myself a pretty good player, but when I found myself on a never-ending journey through that place, of dying and retrying, I started using savestates.

If you make an official version 2 to fix these annoyances I'd definitely play it again!

When I loaded this game I said it looked good, loved the meter placement, but there are some gripes that have to be said, this game is next to impossible, I'll keep it short.

Bad Moves:

1) Enemies' XP drop is too low, this isn't an RPG, I shouldn't have to grind for a couple of hours before even entering so much as the trees on the overworld map.

2) Enemies in towns (although this is how I grinded) while not so bad are a ridiculous concept

3) Bottomless pits in caves where I have no access to light yet, you should save bottomless pits for when we can see them, I should not have to be jumping over and over and get lucky, which i'm not, I can't make it to the first temple.

Get Rid of them!!

Overall - Yes and No, it warrants improvement, please make version 2.

I'm all for a challenge as any gamer worth his salt is, but a game that frustrates me in the beginning leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Good Concept, fail execution.

As did Chris Miller said I wholeheartedly agree all of the graphics redone and the chilling new atmosphere generated is amazing for what you can do on the NES.

What I really don't understand was the removal of "Mana Witches" which restored your mana in towns. It was a mechanic that removed the tedious work of killing mobs repetitively in order to gain what you should of already gotten in a couple of seconds. One could argue that you're killing two birds with one stone by getting EXP and getting your mana, but obviously you didn't need to do this in the first place in original.

Hints of progression weren't really given to you soundly. How was I supposed to know that one nook contained that object I required to progress? The hints that were there though did do the job and properly helped the player to continue your grand journey. I'm not saying that hints should be as crystal clear as Simon's Redaction because the fun was trying to crack that jargon they were using to progress in the original.

The combat was extremely punishing, but extremely pleasing once you figure out that enemy's flaw or weakness which gives you immense satisfaction.

I really feel as if the exp rates could of be increased somehow because of mana witches being removed to speed up gameplay and improve upon pacing. I shouldn't be still at the first palace in my first 3 hours of playing while grinding those same 3 bats at the same time to refill my mana.

Overall it still retains a satisfying Zelda II feel, that feels even more accomplishing when you get the tingly feel of beating it. I'm just not sure whether or not I feel comfortable recommending it unless they were a diehard fan of the original Zelda II or godlike at 2Ds kind of like Simon's Quest.

P.S Horsehead is really frickin' easy even with his double range. Of course this is the guy who save stated right before the fight to practice over and over. No mid fight save stating though.

First of all, I feel that the sheer effort put into the graphics and sound is nothing short of painstaking. You did a wonderful job on the game engine, especially with the new items like the Golden Leaves. However.... In my opinion, this does not quite follow in the footsteps of the original Adventure of Link in one way: difficulty. I've been playing video games for almost thirty years now, and have been playing hacks since there have been hacks. Any rom hack worth its salt should be a game that is beatable on the original system. When you need savestates to beat Horsehead, then you're getting into the realm of "Stupidly Hard". Two-player Battletoads wasn't as hard as this rom hack is. Also, enemies ought to drop more points. This isn't an RPG, and hours of grinding just to be able to have a prayer of survival should not be required.