Culturess’ Ranking of The Legend of Zelda Games

10. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

How do you follow up The Legend of Zelda, as in the original game? Nintendo’s answer was Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, proving that sometimes you really can fit two main characters’ names into a title and still have it make some sense. Anyways, The Adventure of Link feels like it took one look at its older, super-cool brother, then decided it would be completely different in basically every way that matters in order to stand out.

As a result, there are multiple towns, side-scrolling portions, a magic system (with spells and everything, proving that Zelda’s RPG elements are nearly as old as the series itself), and also ridiculously difficult dungeons in the form of palaces. Do not be surprised if you get game over screens multiple times while playing this one, because it’s almost certain that you will die.

Like The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link doesn’t really have much of a story. In this case, Princess Zelda’s sleeping, and you have to wake her up with the Triforce of Courage instead of finding the Triforce of Wisdom as you did in the first game.

Ultimately, Zelda II feels a bit weird compared to all of its siblings in the franchise, but it may very well be some of the best preparation for Breath of the Wild, which will incorporate even more systems common to RPGs.