Often considered the oddball of the series, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was a leap forward in terms of gameplay and design. The dungeons are long and complicated, the enemies are relentless, and the overworld feels expansive after The Legend of Zelda.
What I love about it is the ambition of its design, which we can see in the North Castle, our starting point for the game. Link is brought to the resting place of an ancient sleeping Princess Zelda, and we see the vision for the first game in a way that couldn’t be realized before.
Take a look at this screenshot and you’ll see how elevated the scenery is when compared to the original game. The perspective change for indoor environments in this game allowed the designers to show scale in buildings like they never had before. We can see how grand the interior of the castle is, with it’s Grecian columns and elevated dais. The tiled flooring is indigo, as are the thick curtains suspended for the ceiling. All these elements evoke luxury and wealth, with purple and blue pigments long being associated with royal households.
The rest of the room is unadorned, and all your focus is drawn to the central figure. Up the stone steps, thickly carpeted in a contrasting red, lies the sleeping Princess Zelda. Framed by two iron braziers, she wears a simple red dress and lies with her hands clasped at her chest.
Here she is the perfect facsimile of a fairy tale princess. Like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, she is trapped in an eternal sleep until the prince, or in this case the hero, can rescue her. With a curse to be broken, Link must go forth and save the world to save the Princess.
The fantasy setting, the detailed castle interior, and the slumbering Princess all combine to show the player exactly what the designers set out to evoke with the first Legend of Zelda game. It was to be akin to a Disney story, but with you as Link in the center of it. And now, with the ability to give more detail — partially due to a different style and partially due to developmental improvements — we can really see the storybook quality of the game.
This is expanded on further in the animated series. Compare this exterior shot of the castle to the interior in game and I think there’s much less of a disconnect between the concept art and finished game than there is for the first game. Everything from the box art, to the manual, to the animations are one giant step closer to the final product of the game.
