I found this one to be the better of the two. The overworld especially was a lot better at using the main item for puzzles in interesting ways from saving a town in the past to using the shifting of land to reach new areas. I also enjoyed a lot of the puzzles in dungeons there where some repeating puzzle ideas that where fun to solve as they got harder. While the bosses where easier then in seasons I found most of them more fun to fight. I played ages as a linked save from seasons and i really like the added content and getting to go back to seasons for the codes for new items was cool to see. I would love to see a remake of these games like the link's awakening one on switch as these two game's biggest issue is only having two buttons for items meaning a lot to menus to swap between things. I think a remake like that might become my favorite 2D zelda as these two are already close to the top.

While oot did a lot for gaming and the zelda series some poor mini dungeons, item (mainly the iron boots) and enemy design (most "challenging" enemies are built around waiting and nothing else) decision, and the lag of the og version hold it back for me.
Not to say its a bad game i like its coming of age story and i dont dislike any of the main dungeons (although water temple is very annoying having to constantly pause to swap boots) the other 3d zelda games have built on top of this game's foundation so well it can make this game feel worse by comparison.

While the game is can be janky to control sometimes like when grabbing things or turning cranks the story makes up for it by being a very well told story about finding yourself and keeping focus on the people who care about you. The ending especially is very well done and left me on the verge of tears when the last scene played out. My only complaint story wise is that JJ's VA isnt super good in the role for most of the game although she gets better in the last bit of the game as she is able to be more expressive. Highly recommend though you might want to wait for a sale as it is quite short.

This game is so frustratingly bad. Its a good game chained up in some of the most dumbass decisions ever.
Why send me back to the start of the game when I game over?
Why make some of the secrets invisible?
WHY TAKE AWAY MY EXP WHEN I GAME OVER?!?
This game would of been at least a star to a star and a half with just these 3 changes.The early game especially during palace 2 was so frustrating to me that it made me pull up a walkthough for the rest of my playthough after play all of zelda 1 without one. Zelda 2 is not without positive though its combat is really unique and reminded me of a fighting game blocking attacks and finding your opening. Normal enemies where fun challenges although some of the bosses just boiled down to hitting their weakpoint with the sword some of the bosses like the knight that charged on a horse was fun to take down. This game makes me want to take a shot at making a spiritual successor to it as the idea of a platformer zelda game isnt a bad one this game just isnt a good example of that concept.

It's very interesting playing this game after all the changes made to the zelda formula in the newer games. Highly recommend going in blind and just exploring as there are enough hints ingame and the manual where you dont have to completely guess in order to progress. My only complaint is that some dungeons can be hard to find unless you go though the map one square at a time as there wasnt anything marking the area as important. Though most of the dungeons where good challenges to find without it just being "check every area on the map". The dungeons have hints of the design of later games but are mostly combat arenas with block pushing or wall bombing puzzles except for Ganon's hideout which made it my favorite dungeon in the game.