These old games had something called manual. They explained quite well what the game was all about. We were also used to find out for ourselves how to play them. In todays standard these games were short and they needed to be harder to last more than one day or some few hours. 😂 And finally I freaking loved the music. I learned how to play piano by putting on the nintendo, having the music in the background and finding the notes on the piano.
@@johnnorthtribe That's a great way to get into music, and a really nice story! The Zeldas usually have amazing soundtracks; OoT was the game that made me aware of the impact music can have on a game.
These game set a great foundation for what came after. The musical tracks here are so memorable, of course, when there are so few to remember and the loop so much it makes sense, but they have that adventurous drive.
About the gameplay and secrets... You never need to try to bomb on every tile (the rocks and walls). Overworld: all secrets are hidden upwards plus never on diagonals and never on the tiles at the ends of the screen. Plus max one secret per screen, so if you find one then you don't have to search for more. So you will see a pattern where it's most likely that the secret is hidden. Bushes/trees: same thing, max one per screen. But it can be downwards also. You will learn the pattern for which bush/trees that you should try to burn. Dungeons: it's only at the centre of the walls that you can bomb up the wall for a secret door. So max 4 possibilities. But when playing the game the first time it's not that easy to know all this. Zelda 1 :) hopefully you will understand this quick and learn the pattern.
Thing is, these are still very obscure patterns which really just eliminate some possibilities. In other Zeldas these walls require that you pay attention, not play a guessing game. Sometimes they're quite obvious, but usually still a reward for exploring. The Zelda 1 way wouldn't be so bad if you had more bombs or could use the candle multiple times from the start.
Yeah there are bomb upgrades in Zelda 1: level 5 and 7. So you can carry 16 bombs :) The blue candle will allow you one use per screen, the red candle in level 7 gives unlimited use :) But this is the charm. So when you finally have the red candle you can try to burn all bushes in the overworld :)
The Famicom Disk System original has an added to hardware, sound source that wasn't available on the cartridge… I have both games on the Famicom Disk System… CIB(Complete In Box)… And the game's title "Zelda II: Adventure Of Link" is translated and removes "The Legend Of…"… as the Japanese version says "The Legend Of Zelda 2: Adventure Of Link"("Zelda No Densetsu 2: Linku No Bouken") Similarly "The Legend Of Zelda" was a change from "The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend Of Zelda"(The Hyrule Fantasy Zelda No Densetsu)… also the game in the second one doesn't send you back to the North Palace if you're at the Great Palace…
Listen to the song April from deep purple at 1.25..its the main theme basically..and literally there's a shirt breakdown that is the dungeon music... composer was in a deep purple cover band before Nintendo
This was a very good analysis and for the most part, I agree. But, I do disagree in a couple of aspects from the last dungeon and boss music for Zelda 2. The last dungeon music is supposed to give out a sense of "you are close to meeting your fate", that's why I think the bridge to the loop (as well as the overall music) hits "weaker" than the music from other dungeons. As for the boss music, I do think it feels pretty intense as it is, but I agree a longer length would have certainly helped. And the drums, maybe they thought that adding drums in this particular music would be redundant with the other instruments or a bit overwhelming?
@@Crateron1 That makes a lot of sense about the final dungeon theme! I still think it's a step down from the others, but listening to it with this in mind is pretty cool. And, well, if they were afraid of making the boss music overwhelming, I'd say they had nothing to worry about.
@@SosumiInc See, this is the stuff I want. Because of this comment, I looked it up, and learnt that it's not called that in English. This is a good comment, way better than the one where you somehow interpret my praise as hate.
Wish you could have added the music from the Famicom versions of the games. Plus Zelda 2 (japan) is pretty different. Also the dungeon music in Zelda 1 (level 1-8) is inspired by that Deep Purple song. It's not a 1:1 copy but you can look that up. Overall I like the music in both games (US/PAL). Very good music at that time (1986-87).
@@JonatanEA the Famicom (japanese) versions are also on Game & Watch 35: Zelda (from nov 2021). Great device! The famicom versions are also on "those sites" that we cannot reveal here on UA-cam. I wish that Switch Online can bring us also the famicom versions! That would be amazing!
This guy titles the video "Simplistic Brilliance", and then spends the entire time talking about how boring, awful, and uninspiring the music is. You even got the time signatures wrong on Zelda II. This video was a waste of my time. I want this 20 minutes of my life back.
It’s not a spoiler when the game has been out nearly 40 years.
That's true, it just feels polite to give a warning.
you left out the opening, game over, and ending music from the first game. ending song is my favorite video game song ever.
Yup! I left them out because I'm interested in how the music matches the gameplay. They're good, but not what I'm looking for.
The opening music is noteworthy because it was written at the last minute due to the original music being copyrighted for 50 years prior.
These old games had something called manual. They explained quite well what the game was all about. We were also used to find out for ourselves how to play them. In todays standard these games were short and they needed to be harder to last more than one day or some few hours. 😂
And finally I freaking loved the music. I learned how to play piano by putting on the nintendo, having the music in the background and finding the notes on the piano.
@@johnnorthtribe That's a great way to get into music, and a really nice story! The Zeldas usually have amazing soundtracks; OoT was the game that made me aware of the impact music can have on a game.
These game set a great foundation for what came after. The musical tracks here are so memorable, of course, when there are so few to remember and the loop so much it makes sense, but they have that adventurous drive.
1:27 This is wrong. The NES could generate 5 sound channels, not 3. The Legend of Zelda used 4.
@@jovetj Thanks! I've updated the description with a correction of my mistake.
About the gameplay and secrets...
You never need to try to bomb on every tile (the rocks and walls).
Overworld: all secrets are hidden upwards plus never on diagonals and never on the tiles at the ends of the screen. Plus max one secret per screen, so if you find one then you don't have to search for more. So you will see a pattern where it's most likely that the secret is hidden.
Bushes/trees: same thing, max one per screen. But it can be downwards also. You will learn the pattern for which bush/trees that you should try to burn.
Dungeons: it's only at the centre of the walls that you can bomb up the wall for a secret door. So max 4 possibilities.
But when playing the game the first time it's not that easy to know all this. Zelda 1 :) hopefully you will understand this quick and learn the pattern.
Thing is, these are still very obscure patterns which really just eliminate some possibilities. In other Zeldas these walls require that you pay attention, not play a guessing game. Sometimes they're quite obvious, but usually still a reward for exploring. The Zelda 1 way wouldn't be so bad if you had more bombs or could use the candle multiple times from the start.
Yeah there are bomb upgrades in Zelda 1: level 5 and 7. So you can carry 16 bombs :)
The blue candle will allow you one use per screen, the red candle in level 7 gives unlimited use :)
But this is the charm. So when you finally have the red candle you can try to burn all bushes in the overworld :)
The Famicom Disk System original has an added to hardware, sound source that wasn't available on the cartridge… I have both games on the Famicom Disk System… CIB(Complete In Box)…
And the game's title "Zelda II: Adventure Of Link" is translated and removes "The Legend Of…"… as the Japanese version says "The Legend Of Zelda 2: Adventure Of Link"("Zelda No Densetsu 2: Linku No Bouken")
Similarly "The Legend Of Zelda" was a change from "The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend Of Zelda"(The Hyrule Fantasy Zelda No Densetsu)… also the game in the second one doesn't send you back to the North Palace if you're at the Great Palace…
This analysis is wild
Listen to the song April from deep purple at 1.25..its the main theme basically..and literally there's a shirt breakdown that is the dungeon music... composer was in a deep purple cover band before Nintendo
This was a very good analysis and for the most part, I agree. But, I do disagree in a couple of aspects from the last dungeon and boss music for Zelda 2. The last dungeon music is supposed to give out a sense of "you are close to meeting your fate", that's why I think the bridge to the loop (as well as the overall music) hits "weaker" than the music from other dungeons. As for the boss music, I do think it feels pretty intense as it is, but I agree a longer length would have certainly helped. And the drums, maybe they thought that adding drums in this particular music would be redundant with the other instruments or a bit overwhelming?
@@Crateron1 That makes a lot of sense about the final dungeon theme! I still think it's a step down from the others, but listening to it with this in mind is pretty cool. And, well, if they were afraid of making the boss music overwhelming, I'd say they had nothing to worry about.
Take a drink every time this dude says "Sink-copes"
@@SosumiInc See, this is the stuff I want. Because of this comment, I looked it up, and learnt that it's not called that in English. This is a good comment, way better than the one where you somehow interpret my praise as hate.
@@JonatanEA You get both, and both are valid.
This was very good! If you would do the rest of the series this way, you would have a subscriber!
There're gonna be other games than just Zelda, but the plan is to cover them all eventually.
Wish you could have added the music from the Famicom versions of the games. Plus Zelda 2 (japan) is pretty different.
Also the dungeon music in Zelda 1 (level 1-8) is inspired by that Deep Purple song. It's not a 1:1 copy but you can look that up.
Overall I like the music in both games (US/PAL). Very good music at that time (1986-87).
I just played the versions I had access to. But I am getting curious about the Famicom music.
@@JonatanEA the Famicom (japanese) versions are also on Game & Watch 35: Zelda (from nov 2021). Great device!
The famicom versions are also on "those sites" that we cannot reveal here on UA-cam.
I wish that Switch Online can bring us also the famicom versions! That would be amazing!
Another option: there are videos on youtube that shows the differences: music, graphics and more. Love those videos!
Save states?
Yeah, you can just save and resume from anywhere on the emulator. The eliminated backtracking alone probably cuts the playtime in half.
This guy titles the video "Simplistic Brilliance", and then spends the entire time talking about how boring, awful, and uninspiring the music is.
You even got the time signatures wrong on Zelda II.
This video was a waste of my time. I want this 20 minutes of my life back.
@@SosumiInc Sounds like you did get your time back, because it's mostly praise before the boss music.
@@JonatanEA You call that "mostly praise"?
I hate to see what you're like when you actually dislike something.