Zelda 2 - Death Mountain journey

[Mak-X]

I just played The Adventure of Link for the last 2 and 1/2 hours from North Castle to Island Palace. Its soooo much more fun to play in my room on my 27" tv that has good picture and sit in a chair or lye in my bed than to sit at this chair staring at this 17" monitor and playing a rom with a Gravis Gamepad. It also beats using my video capture card to play my NES on my PC, as the picture is way better on my tv.

Whenever I play The Adventure of Link, I go from Parapa Palace to Death Mountain, to Mido, and finally Midoro Palace. The problem is Death Mountain is freaking hard with the Dairas. I was going to try going to Midoro Palace first for once, and I actually did that when I recorded myself playing on the pc earlier, but I thought, I always did it this way before so I'll go to Death Mountain. Plus I remembered, in addition to going to Death Mtn. to get the Hammer for the shortcuts, I go through that route to get the Downstab from Mido town, so I have it for Midoro Palace. It makes it a lot more easier and fun to take out those 'ropes', the bits, and the flying heads :)

I got 1 Game Over this time going through Death Mtn. so then I tried again, and was leveled up in one or 2 fields by 1 I think, and made it through using Shield and Life strategically, while also finally remembering how to deal with teh Orange Darias by attacking them constantly as the come at you, in a rythm to avoid their ax, and to jump over the red Daria's thrown ax and strike and repeat. On the way out of the Death Mountain area, I got hit by an Octorok's rock, and knocked into a pit because I wasn't being careful to think if there would be an enemy coming up.

In the Island Palace, I think I got arragant and decided to fight the Blue Ironknuckle, in my traditional strike block strike block block strike manner, right before the boss room, and then the red Ironknuckle. So since the Blue one took most of my life down to almost nothing, I end up dying on the Ironknuckle boss. So then the second time I think I got hit about 2-3 times or so after I knocked him off the horse. I fought him towards the left and he just kept backing away past the screen barriers, so I ended up using Jump and jumped over him and fought him towards the right in order to get some hits in.

Here's what used to happen a lot on Death Mountain

"Alright Daira, your going down! Ha!!"
http://members.aol.com/captiann64/zelda/zelda2-550.png

http://members.aol.com/captiann64/zelda/zelda2-551.png

http://members.aol.com/captiann64/zelda/rtrnganonbutt.gif
AH HA HA HA HA HA!

Some screens I took a while back of Parapa Palace
http://www.angelfire.com/games5/makzelda/zelda2/z2screenshots.html

[vegeta1215]

Yeah, the Darias are probably the hardest enemies next to the Lizard Men and Blue Iron Knuckles (and the Bird Men, but who actually stands around to fight them? I just run). I got a lot of practice fighting Darias last time I played through Zelda II, you just have to get the hang of jumping over their axe throws, then they're easy.

[Dr. Mutagen]

I usually feel forced to fight those damn Bird Men because whenever I try to run, they almost always catch up to me.

[AtmaWeapon]

I can't get past the first palace. :(

[Mak-X]

:o I'm in the process of writting a guide to Zelda 2 for www.zhq2.com , I finished the first Palace, and I wrote the guide so anyone could get through that part of the game, although the guide hasn't been put up yet.

edit

here's a temporary preview of the Parapa Palace part

http://www.angelfire.com/games5/makzelda/zelda2/Parapa_Palace.htm

[Starkist]

I found it to be all a matter of timing. After playing for several days, and weeks, a few years ago I had the patterns down and they were pretty simple. Blue Ironknuckles are good for your reflexes too. :)

[mrz84]

i have more trouble with the boss of the sixth palace than i do with dairas. they're too predictable IMHO.....

[Dr. Mutagen]

I found that the best way to fight the bird men is to wait for them to jump over you, then strike them just before they land on the other side of you.

[AtmaWeapon]

RAWK! I played and played yesterday, and now I'm in the Swamp Palace. What I've been doing is every time I encounter a tough enemy (Iron Knuckle, Goriya, anything with an axe), I save the state and I spend about 10 minutes fighting that one enemy. Works great. Anyone got any hints on the axe guys? The guy that throws the axe doesn't give me troubles, except that he sometimes throws two axes quickly and I always get hit by the second one. The guy that swings the axe is difficult for me. In Death Mountain, I was able to get them by exploiting the platforms, but how do you take them on level ground?

[Mak-X]

Save states? :|
For the orange Dairas, I try to time it so I walk up to them and strike inbetween ax swings, and as they come near, although I havent' done it 100% successful. For the red ones that throw the axs, jump over the ax, and strike as you come at them. Using Shield helps too.

[Dr. Mutagen]

Yeah. The jump-and-slash technique is probably on of the best strategies to use against most of the more formidable enemies.

[AtmaWeapon]

ARGH. I hate the blue Iron Knuckle. I know how to defeat him, but I am not skillful enough yet. So far it takes me shield and one life spell to have about a 75% success rate. Jump and slash doesn't work because of how he throws those beams. :/

[Dr. Mutagen]

Try waiting for a break in the intervals of his beam tosses, then do one good jump slash, then get back into defense mode. It takes a while earlier on in the game, but it's safe.