Clearly archaic, most notably in how obtuse a lot of the progression and secrets are. The worst part is definitely everything associated with the bombs, hidden doorways you need to blow open with no indication as to the points you're meant to lay this somewhat scarce resource in front of. That kind of design mentality spreads to a lot of different places outside of just the bomb mechanic, making the game somewhere between tedious and frustrating to progress in without outside advice; I get that at the time this would make the game seem more mysterious and expansive, but this style of design has largely disappeared for a reason. I also hate how much the game encourages grinding due to not fully restoring your health when you respawn and requiring you to collect large quantities of money for progression-critical items.

I enjoyed this game quite a bit more than my score for it indicates (maybe a 3/5 or thereabouts), but only thanks to using an overworld map that listed where every character, dungeon and bomb/fire secret was, a guide for the last few dungeons, and save states to generate money with the gambling minigame; I'm fairly sure I would have abandoned The Legend of Zelda in frustration well before the end without these things. I'm glad I played the game, it's an important piece of game history, even now it still retains a sense of wonder to its exploration at times, and it's easy to see how it really helped develop the language of video games, but I really can't recommend people actually play the game outside of anything other than historical curiosity.