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Experience points and side-view swordplay make Zelda II: The Adventure of Link the odd Zelda, closer to an action RPG than the first overhead quest. Link talks in towns such as Ruto, raises a level, and then fights in palaces drawn from the side.
A magic cost and a down-thrust change the combat the first game resolved with a stab and a boomerang. Dark Link waits as the shadow at the end of that road.
Nintendo released the experiment in 1987, and it is the second Zelda on the NES. People cite it when they talk about how far the series later swung back toward exploration.
Same series is the tight name match. Same franchise is the wider family. Same platform is other games on the systems named above.
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Nintendo publishes a classics library for this era on Nintendo Switch Online. Confirm this title is still in the current library. Where to Play does not host this game.
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