Zelda II's exploration is pretty enjoyable mainly thanks to its diversity of combat scenarios and enemies, although its linear progression through small areas doesn't offer quite the same level of rewarding and gratifying freedom of the first game, instead frustrating the player with excessively cryptic roadblocks to overcome. Not as frustrating as combat though: its relentlessly brutal challenge can be fun, as mastering the enemies' ferociously fast rhyhtms can be thrilling, but too often the challenge is virtually impossible to handle as their erratic patterns get completely unpredictable.