I don't like the original Legend of Zelda.

[/nes]

I'll always respect it for being the first game in the series, but I do not enjoy playing it. So many little annoyances keep it from being a fun game.
[X] I hate that you can't swing your sword at the edges of the screen when first entering an area. [X] You constantly walk through staircases and items when trying to enter or pick them up. It's even worse if it happens in a room full of enemies like Darknuts. [X] Half the time I find myself facing in the wrong direction from where I want to face. Even when I press the direction to turn, it sometimes ignores it. Other times it takes a full step in the direction instead of just turning. These problems cause a lot of extra hits from enemies that should never happen. [X] Exploded holes in the walls of dungeons force you through them into the next room if you take one pixel of a step into them. Why can't you stand inside them? [X] The Boomerang is thrown from the space in front of you instead of where you are standing, which causes me to miss a lot with it. [X] Enemies move too erratically and randomly just to trick you into losing precious health. It's as if they were programmed to do the opposite of what you think they will do. They should have had patterns. [X] Wizrobes just suck, and they make Level 6 the hardest dungeon in the game. [X] The game is very selective with what hits or misses based on your position and the direction you are facing. For instance, you can be in a situation where your sword is to high or low to hit an enemy, but the enemy can still hit you. Worse still, your attacks might just go through them without damaging them. [X] The second quest is just straight out unfair for many reasons, such as invisible doorways without any kind of indication and Red Bubbles that take away your sword forever unless you touch a Blue Bubble. They really should have made it so that it wears off automatically when leaving the dungeon.
However, the biggest flaw is that the game can't strike a balance between figuring things out yourself or using a guide. The game is just not fun if you try to find the secrets on your own. Many of the clues are either too vague to be useful, or just stuff you would have found out eventually on your own. You have to spend a lot of time burning bushes, bombing walls, and grinding for Rupees to buy more bombs. Half the time you are punished by door repairs, which actually discourages exploring. When I first completed the game a long time ago, I didn't use a guide. I found all the secrets, and it was possibly one of the worst experiences I had on the NES. I got so tired of grinding for Rupees and leaving the screen to reset the Candle that I started using save states to save time.
On the opposite side of the experience, the game is just too boring to be fun if you use a map or guide to help you out. When you use a map or guide, it heavily streamlines the experience. You aren't really exploring anymore if you know where everything is. It makes you realize that the game is much more simple than you were lead to believe. There wasn't really a lot there in the first place. This is how I felt after playing the game recently when I beat the game using maps and guides.
In conclusion, I don't think the original Legend of Zelda is a good game. The only thing I can really say is that it was a product of its time. Back in the day, I can imagine people as kids talking on the playground or on the school bus about what they discovered while playing the game last night. I think this is what made it a more acceptable experience back then. The feeling that you were slowly chipping away at the game as a group and pooling your knowledge together. I believe it was this experience that made people enjoy the game originally, not the actual game itself.
Zelda II, on the other hand, I absolutely love. The puzzles and secrets take a back seat to platforming and combat. The few secrets that are in the game are made more unique, so they feel like something extra added on top of a game that would still be good without them.

submitted by /u/HOTU-Orbit
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