Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Story
Following the defeat of Ganon and rescue of Princess Zelda, the land of Hyrule began to recover from the ills that had been visited upon it by Ganon. Content to aid in the restoration of Hyrule, Link was disturbed one day by the appearance of a mark of three triangles on the back of his hand. Upon seeing this mark, Impa, the nurse of Princess Zelda, related to Link the story of how, ages ago, teh King of Hyrule had hidden a third part of the Triforce, the Triforce of Courage, in the Great Palace to safeguard it from evil. Only by uniting this Triforce with its counterparts could Link awake the sleeping Princess Zelda, who had been placed under a curse ages ago. Upon the death of the king, his son had searched eagerly for the missing Triforce, but its location had been imparted only to the king's daughter, Princess Zelda. Angered upon learning this, the Prince tried to use the power of a wizard to force the truth from his sister, but when she refused the wizard cast a spell upon her to put her into a deep and unending sleep. Upon hearing this tale, Link recieved from Impa six gems that served as keys to open the seal on the Great Palace. Even as Link learned all of this, the minions of Ganon had begun to stir once again. Believing that they could revive their master by pouring the blood of his conqueror over his ashes, they began again to spread across the land, seeking for Link. Travelling the land and working with the peoples of its many remote towns, Link was able to discover each of the six palaces and overcome the tests that had been set against any who would seek to gain the Triforce of Courage. In the end, Link made his way into the depths of the Great Palace and discovered the Triforce guarded by a wizened old sage, who relinquished the prize to Link after putting him through one last test of courage: defeating his own shadow. Uniting the three Triforces, Link returned to the Northern Palace and awoke the slumbering Zelda.

The Black Sheep?
The Adventure of Link was the sequel to the highly acclaimed Legend of Zelda, and the second Zelda game ever to be released. (Not counting the Game & Watch Zelda) It is by many considered to be the "black sheep" of the Zelda series, mainly because of its attempt to break away from what would later define the 2D Zelda games, the overhead view. Many saw this as attempt to fix something which wasn't even broken in the first place, and were therefore slightly disappointed with this game. The "Sleeping Beauty" aspect of the plotline also failed to capture the attention of many fans. On top of that, its sound track wasn't composed by Koji Kondo and didn't properlly reflect the series, and Link's health was measured in squares as opposed to Hearts. You would start with four bars of health and four bars of magic. The only items dropped by enemies were jars to replenish magic. The blue jar replenishes a little over one bar and a red jar fully restores your magic. You are responsible for healing yourself with magic, if you were to die it would take one of your extra lives. Scattered around Northern Hyrule are lives that you can find, and if you fully train your defense, your magic, and your sword strength you can earn a life by reaching 9000 experience. The only items that can be used in combat are your sword and shield. Items found in dungeons work automatically, and when on the world map both the hammer and the recorder and can be used in specific locations. The world map is set up like a final fantasy. As you walk you are timed before you are surrounded by 3 dark enemies, that when touched you will have to battle yourself through a subscreen. The subscreens are determined by difficulty, running into a dark ganon will put you in more of a difficult subscreen than if you were to run into a dark jel. Occassionally a fairy would replace one of the three dark enemies, and if you catch it you will warp to a subscreen that has a fairy only, this is another way to restore life out of town. As the black sheep this game also cancels out the use of a map and a compass, finding your way around a palace can be quite difficult and frustrating if you were to get a game over.

Pros
The game didn't really feel like a Zelda, but it did have some saving graces. It contributed largely to the overall storyline, introducing such concepts as the Triforce of Courage, characters like Impa and Dark Link, and names like Mido, Rauru and other sages. It also utilised a more RPGish gameplay style with level ups, and a full magic system, though this really didn't improve it at all.