LogFAQs > #961009496

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The only reason people hated it at the time was because the gameplay was so radically different from Zelda 1.

But by that logic, every single Zelda game ever made other than the first is total shit, because none of them really look or play exactly the same as Zelda 1.

Zelda II was actually a very good game for its era if you could look past your own nostalgia, or if it was the first Zelda game you ever played. Personally, I've always preferred it over the first game, and rank it higher than most of the later games as well (except for LttP). But I also acknowledge that's partly my own nostalgia (Zelda II was the first Zelda game I owned/played, and the only one for years), and partly because I kind of hate Ocarina of Time and every game that followed it.

Link to the Past is like a refined Zelda 1, now it's not exactly the same but you can clearly see that they took inspiration from Zelda 1 when making Link to the Past. Removed most of the cryptic elements from Zelda 1 and lowered the difficulty but other than that it has a lot of similiarites.