Ramblings on combat and difficulty in Zelda.

[Jumpin]

spemanig said:

Jumpin said:
I am pretty sure people knew that various Zelda 1 areas were difficult because they were spammed with various enemies, this is the same sort of issue that makes a lot of NES games difficult like Castlevania and Contra. Although what makes Zelda especially annoying are that the enemies moved around fast and Link's weapons suck compared to other games.

They weren't spammed. They weren't just thrown in nonsensically and it wasn't an issue. These games are play tested. They were particularly placed in such a way that they are challenging but managable. Zelda was completely different from games like Contra. Most of Zelda 1 isn't difficult at all, and the game had save states. When you're in a room, you have all the information you need displayed in front of you. Most of the rooms were easy to get through, and the complexity came from not dying to chip damage. If you died, it was your fault.

It doesn't matter how the weapons compare to other games. His weapons were perfectly suitable for the game he was in, and that's all that matters. They didn't suck, they just had no margin for error. You were perfect, or you were punished. And it wasn't some impossible herculean task to overcome those obstacles. There was absolutely no room in that game more difficult than the rooms in the Savage Labyrinth.

I forgot to mention, great original post. It's nice to see people out efforts in.

I don't disagree with most of what you're saying, I do disagree with the thought out into Zelda 1's balancing. Yeah there were a lot of easy parts, but the game didn't have save states until the virtual console version, it would kick you back to the beginning of the level with no expendable items and three hearts forcing you to leave the dungeon and restock before attempting it again, in whole. There were rooms that were immensely difficult placed in mid-level dungeons that were almost as difficult as the final boss of the entire game. It is just a matter of throwing enough enemies on the screen, and while they are beatable, they are among the most difficult challenges in any Zelda game by far. Nothing in later games rivals them except for that death mountain dog person with the axes in Zelda 2.