Hyrule is plagued with graveyards, Zelda is cursed & Ganon is slowly being revived. It's time to go on an adventure!
Zelda II: Adventure of Link takes place after Legend of Zelda. There's some interesting things with this game, you can see the effect of Ganon's terror on the world map. There's gigantic graveyards in Hyrule, the remaining towns are small & not many of the citizen in Hyrule are alive.
To save the princess Link needs to gather the 3 triforces, to do so he needs to place 6 crystals in 6 temples to remove the seal of the temple the triforce is dwelling in.
The story is rather confusing, there's several plot holes here. I'm going to tell you what I think is happening. After Link defeated Ganon, there was peace in Hyrule. But a few years later Zelda falls in the cursed sleep & the triforce is gone. The wise men of Hyrule come to conclusion that Ganon is being revived by the help of the triforce. Not only did the evil army steal the triforce to revive Ganon, they also kidnapped one of the wise men.
A seal is put on the Temple which the process of reviving Ganon is taking place in. Link needs to remove this seal by adventure through the 6 temples of the six evil generals. Once a general is defeat he uses a special kind of crystal to destroy the whole temple & when all the generals have been defeated & all temples have been destroyed the seal is lifted on the final temple. This way Link can obtain the triforce & awaken Zelda.
The game doesn't tell you the storyline, you've to make most of the storyline up yourself. But I think my theory gives you a good idea, whenever you get GAME OVER in this game, the screen flashes & you see Ganon and the text "The return of Ganon". Which would mean that Link failed, Zelda didn't wake up & Ganon has returned by using the power of the triforce.
So that's the story part of the game, so how does this game play? It's kinda... like Castlevania. The newer 2d Castlevanias, you defeat enemies and earn experience points. When you reach an amount Link level up, and one of his 3 abilities, Attack, Magic or Health is increased. As an additional way to increase your life & magic you can collect hidden Heart Pieces and hidden Magic Pots. Which will increase your health & magic permanently.
The music in the game has some great tunes, the world map theme is adventurous, but a little depressing while the dungeon theme is a rather upbeat tone.
The graphic of this game doesn't stand out today, wasn't exactly anything spectacular back at the NES era either, comparing it to Super Mario 3.
So should you get this game? Is it good? Yes you should get this game, it's very good. But be aware that this game might make make you "grind" levels. The world map has random battles & the dungeons doesn't have any kind of advanced puzzles. It's more of a scrolling action rpg-oriented game.
Don't miss this game on the Virtual Console, the biggest downside of Zelda II is the game length, there's a chance that you play through 30-50% of the game the same day you buy it. If you've never played this game, you can expect a game length of 5-10 hours.