Juan Manuel Thanks man! It was difficult for me as well when I first played it, but I loved the Zelda II gameworld so much. Savestates helps a lot, but some parts are still rather difficult.

Thanks! It's my favorite Zelda game too. It's rather different from all the other Zelda games, and it gets some hate, but also a bit of love for that.

There are more important things in life than speedrunning videogames.

Yeah, the most important thing is to have fun while playing me thinks.

Thanks! Yeah, it's a rather difficult game, some semi-cryptic adventure game puzzles too.

Kelly Kerr same here! i JUST beat this game recently for the first time at 29 years lol

+KingKuong now at 35 I lack the patience to do it again. maybe one of my kids will do it. that'll be fun to watch!

Kelly Kerr beat it after 15 years but only with the map of the last dungeon

I had trouble with some of the puzzles ;) Especially finding new Kasuto, but also finding the child, the invisible wall in Palace 5 etc. (I hadn't played TLoZ then, which would have been helpful ;)). So I spent weeks on it back then.

Thank you! I think Zelda 2 is rather difficult, and also quite different from The Legend of Zelda, which was also difficult, but not in such a technical manner as Zelda 2. The Legend of Zelda was also an excellent game for it's time, just like Zelda 2, and I can understand why Zelda 2 was/is the black sheep in the franchise. I have always enjoyed games with difficult combat though, but it's not for everyone, there's no difficulty setting in Zelda 2 etc. Btw I'm playing The Witcher 3 atm, and I'm playing it on the hardest difficulty, Death March, but it's a bit too easy, so the game and combat isn't as satisfying and immersive as e.g. Souls games, Skyrim (playing as a pure mage), Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen. Other gamers and game reviewers would have a different experience, and a different opinion about the quality of Witcher 3 vs the games mentioned. I wish the current generation of videogame reviewers (and developers) could show more awareness about this.

Thanks man! I remember struggling with the puzzles from the 4th palace and onwards (Eastern Hyrule).

Thanks! It's a great 8-bit game.

Thanks :)

Thanks! I used to find that fun, however odd that seems to most people, haha.

Thanks! Tend to agree, but there are two guys who have beaten my time, Pro JN with 1:10.03 and Simpoldood with 1:08.43 (!)

Great game, thanks!

I've had that feeling with Zelda II too ;) Simpoldood and ProJN... Simpoldood has the world record in this category with the fantastic time of 1:08.32. That's over 3 minutes shaved on my run. Can only say congrats, awesome play... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/a66Gq8t_ncq8nZc.html

Thanks for watching the run! Yeah, it would almost be faster to go the regular route. But as far as I know, I was the first gamer to successfully do that jump in a Zelda 2 speed run.

+John Zavala Thanks!

Thanks man! Guess this is one of my best Zelda 2 speedruns. It's more important to experience beating it than it is to speedrun it ;) Epic game.

I prefer this to a lot of modern endings (cutscenes I don't care about followed by 80000 hours of credits that mention everybody including the guy that cleaned the bathroom once).

Can you prove it?

Thanks! It was the wr once, but not anymore.

Likewise :)

Thanks! It's probably a route-thing, 4th palace maybe?

@Kristian Emanuelsen, yeah I think it is because I saw you go into palace 4 to get the boots before reflect town, but I never do that, I always do the town first

Thanks! I'm sure you could get that good on Zelda II with practice though. I was also really good at games as a kid, but I had a couple of friends who were at my level.

Thanks :D

Thanks, man! It's so long ago, I can't remember. I think I was more scared at 13:41, cause there's so many Lowder beetles around my legs, biting me and doing other horrible things in the dark.

Thanks!

Thanks! Placing the crystals fills up your exp to the next available level-up level. How you choose to distribute the exp points is up to you. If you have eg Life 1, Magic 1, Attack 7, you need to have more than 100 exp points (magic 2) when placing the crystal to get the 8000 exp points, and you can distribute those exp points to life and magic stats/levels if you want. The reason for the levelling at 33:00 is mostly to get magic 5 and cut the Fairy cost to minimum, but you also need a lot of magic for the Reflect spell on the 4th palace boss. Redistributing your exp evenly on levels like at 33:20 sort of messes up future levelling and possible maximization of exp points, because of the heightened exp points threshold needed to pass, when placing future crystals. It's more efficient exp points wise to level close to 1-1-8 first, then boost to 9000 exp points when placing the next crystal and distribute to Life (and/)or Magic, see eg 1:02:23.

Kristian Emanuelsen ah I see and you answered my question later too in the video. I hadn’t noticed you hit 8 sword. Once you hit 8 heart I saw you go back and multiple level the magic. Pretty smart! When I play I don’t think about time so I spend a lot of time in palace 1 getting my sword to 4 before anything else. Kudos again on a great speed run. Those caves in the dark, just wow.

Thanks!!

Thanks! Yeah, it's one of many difficult NES games.

and long too

If it's a point bag instead, I could slash the point bag, cast fairy, then level up and refill the magic at +2200 points. You'll have just enough magic to cast Reflect at the boss then. But you have to plan and set up that drop, have defeated exactly 5 large enemies since the previous bag drop, and be at 2000-2199 exp points. Red potion is the best drop there though, and you get a different and better level up system, you won't get Attack 8 with a point bag there.

Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation.

Thanks for understanding! It's a critical moment in the run, and a lot to think about there and thereabouts.

No problem. Oh without a doubt it's critical. I'd be sweating bullets right there if it were me lol

It's a very careful calculation of levelling magic, casting fairy through doors and skipping keys. If the drop at 42:47 is a point bag instead of a magic bag, I could slash the point bag, cast fairy, then level up and refill the magic at +2200 points. You'll have just enough magic to cast Reflect at the boss then. But you have to plan and set up that drop, have defeated exactly 5 large enemies since the previous bag drop, and be at 2000-2199 exp points. Red potion is the best drop there though, and you get a different and better level up system. You won't get Attack 8 with a point bag there.

Hell you takin bout?

Uppercut of hell

Oh lol I see now :p

Thanks! In a way, but not according to the general speedrunning rules found in the links below (seems edited a bit to popular opinion lately): zelda.gamepedia.com/Speedrun www.speedrun.com/Zelda_II_The_Adventure_of_Link#100_Deathless www.speedrunslive.com/faq/glossary/ Perhaps we should have labelled the category differently back then, but the point was mostly to have a fun challenge to play in Zelda II. It was the 2nd Zelda II category made at SpeedDemosArchive, so only Any % (with Up+A warping), NG + (with Up+A warping) and this category existed there. And there was a 100 % All Keys category at Twin Galaxies, but it was named 'Zelda II - Extreme Rules' there. But the category in this video was simply more fun to play than Extreme Rules imho. And most gamers at SDA agreed. Actually, SDA wouldn't accept the Zelda II Extreme Rules/100 % All Keys as a category, because not fairying through doors was considered not to be speedrunning the game. That's why this category existed. SpeedDemosArchive labelled this category with the 100 % tag. Perhaps they should have labelled it differently.

Thanks! I meant no disrespect to the Link dolls.

Don't listen to this guy. Of course I get the candle 19:06.

Thanks! I don't really care what you label it. It's the SDA 100 % rules from that time. The 8-8-8 file was just for competing on the NG+ variation. Your logic is like saying a Dark Souls 100 % completion run would have to reach 99 in all stats.

From all the 100% speedruns I've seen, my understanding (or logic) is that you get everything in the game. But if you're saying that the SDA claims this as 100%, well then bravo. Thank you. It was an awesome video, an awesome run, and I will definitely be recommending it to friends. We talk speedruns all the time at work.

Thanks! Okay, cool. Maybe those things have changed a little in the speedrunning world since back in 2013, I just thought that you wouldn't have to max your stats in most RPG 100 % speedruns.

www.speedrunslive.com/faq/glossary/ zelda.gamepedia.com/Speedrun www.speedrun.com/Zelda_II_The_Adventure_of_Link#100_Deathless

My god, you're comparing this game to Karate Kid? The only overhead view game I've ever liked is The Legend of Zelda, but I enjoy a lot of NES sidescrollers. Not Karate Kid though, that game is poor. I would be so bold to say that the strength of the NES is its sidescrolling capabilities (especially when comparing it to C64 etc.), nothing wrong with taking advantage of that when developing a Zelda NES game. It's actually a great idea.

Dragon Warrior........Best overhead view game for NES, but I did love Zelda as well. They took the battle pop-up idea from Dragon Warrior and the side scrolling in this was taken further in Faxanadu.

clint25n That's insanity. This game is so far beyond Karate Kid in every way. My mind is blown by this. I have beaten both games many, many times and the only thing they share is a side scrolling action style shared by thousands of games. Zelda 2 has far more than just that though. There are no attributes or levelling, no learned special moves, no list of spells, and no world exploring in Karate Kid, not to mention the fact that the combat plays out totally different, with Link having a shield and thrust attacks.

Thanks, man! A great game, but I understand if you sometimes find it infuriating.

Yes, it's Speed Demos Archives Rules from 2011-2012, and what mattered back then: forum.speeddemosarchive.com/post/zelda_ii_the_adventure_of_link_26.html From Breakdown, the SDA moderator: "100% would be all spells, sword techniques, quest items (candle, glove, raft, boots, flute, cross, magic key, hammer), and heart and magic containers. *8-8-8, individual keys, link dolls, and static point bags/red jars would not be required. You can fairy through doors (and in fact, must if you don't want to get rejected)*. Up+A and without would be separate categories within 100%. Think that's everything." With Twitter, Twitch and other social media growing, the Zelda II community has gone completely out of control these days, and is now in a terrible situation ;)

fairy spell essential!

+Kristian Emanuelson I think it sounds pretty stupid that you have to fairy through the doors to even be accepted. Like, I get it, it's a speed run, "gotta go fast" and all that. But it still sounds pretty stupid.

***** the fairy being able to go through doors is an aspect of the game,personaly I think it would have been better if the fairy couldnt go through doors. its a part of the game,and you would stand no chance in a speed run record without it,people doing the game without a candle are impressive though.

Well, I think that there should be a speedrun category wherein you don't fairy through the doors, just like there's categories for Up+A and no Up+A, 'cause I consider one to be just as much of an exploit as the other. But I digress.

Are you one of those from the new generation?

Navi should shut her mouth more, in my opinion. I can't stand all the handholding in videogames after the SNES era. Personally, I'm not a fan of being told what to do. That's a big part of why I like games like Skyrim, Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls.