There are good things and bad things about this run. The good: It's a Zelda II run, of course. And I survive without deaths in this category of Zelda II, and I do it without the candle or the cross. That's right, one of the few good things about this run is that I survive without deaths... a death would have disqualified this run from the category anyway. I choose a more difficult and faster route than the previous runner, as I finish without the candle and the cross. Wait a minute, I just wrote that again... sums up how many good things there are about this run. Wait a minute, I manage to hit a fairy in The Valley of Death, and that's a good thing, and it doesn't happen very often. But as the cave there is unlit, and perhaps the first time I've ever hit a fairy in The Valley of Death, I spend quite a lot time being overly cautious there anyway, you'll see...

I wish this run would have been at least a minute faster, but unfortunately, this is the only time I've survived through The Valley of Death and The Great Palace without the candle or cross in this Zelda II category to this date, so you'll have to bear with this rather sloppy run. I'm sorry, but I don't have the motivation to speedrun Zelda II like this in the near future, for over an hour again just to die at The Valley of Death or in The Great Palace, as I usually do in this category. It's difficult enough to survive the first 20 minutes of the run, and also get an okay start to the run.

There are so many different routes possible to apply, and different ways to level-up. I'm sure there are possible improvements to be made here and there, when it comes to route and level-up. It seems mandatory to level-up magic to 7 or 8 in the middle of The Valley of Death though, so that you have enough magic for the spells needed from there on. There are a few seconds lost throughout the run from hesitation when levelling up.

I'm not sure how much time I actually save by not getting the candle, probably not that much, but I don't feel I really need it, as the most difficult place to survive throughout the run, by far, is The Valley of Death, where it would be almost as difficult with the candle, (but without the cross), as you can't see the most difficult enemies there (without the cross). I'm sure it's possible to get through this Zelda II category without the magic-key and the spell (Spell) as well, and it would save lots of time, but would also make it an extreme challenge to survive The Valley of Death, and have enough life and magic left for The Great Palace. Keep in mind that you have to clear a relatively large chunk of The Great Palace, before you get a 50/50 chance of refilling your magic, and you'll also need to have enough magic left to cast the jump-spell in the secret room.

More of the bad: I use the shield spell, the previous runner didn't use the shield spell. I even finish with 7 life-containers, the previous runner finished with 6. There are more bad things to come. This run is generally sloppy, but its general sloppiness is crowned with the mistake I make in The Great Palace. A mistake so terrible that some of the SDA-verifiers would probably want to reject this run, at least somewhere deep down in their mind, although this run is an improvement of over 4 minutes on Chip Vogel's run. The mistake is unforgiving, yes, almost newbie-like. The mistake is kind of rejectionworthy in itself, but keep in mind here that it's a single-segment run of Zelda II without warps or deaths that lasts for 1 hour and 13 minutes. This run manifests the only time I've survived through The Valley of Death and The Great Palace without the candle or cross in this Zelda II-category, and it shows... Here's what I did in The Great Palace: I get the magic-potion in a secret-room, which was good, as it's a 50/50 chance. I then leave the room and go back to hopefully get another magic-potion, but that proved to be, ermmm, impossible... I try to look on the bright side of things, at least the mistake isn't early on in the run, and it "only costs" me about 15 seconds. However, there are also some other overly cautious moments throughout The Great Palace.

A less cautious approach to the blue ironknuckles throughout the run, including survival, would also have saved some time.

Hope you all enjoy the run though, hope there's something there to enjoy.

Thanks to Speeddemosarchive for all their fantastic work.

Thanks to the two previous runners of this Zelda II-category, Chip Vogel and Tommy Montgomery. You have entertained me with your runs, and I've also picked up a tip here and there, thanks.

This game is just so freakin' awesome! The 2D-fighting engine in this game is just too masterful, the sidescroller is just so sensitive with so many different speeds to attack at, the AI is brilliant etc. Mixed in with some clever RPG and adventuregame elements, man... Now, what can I say about this run? It's obviously one of many fun ways to play Zelda II, starting off from a new file, totally underpowered, smashing most in your way at top speed, hahaha! Okay, okay, about this run:

I do this run without the shield-spell, life-spell, candle, magickey etc. saving time, but making the whole thing rather difficult. I do some superb fighting in Death Mountain without the candle, but have too many random enemy encounters in general, am unlucky with magicpotion-droppings in the 1st, 4th (I lose lots of time here) and 6th palace. Good fighting in general, but some "awful" parts, e.g. after rescuing the child, on the overworld map on my way to Darunia. I even took a few steps in the wrong direction inside The Great Palace. But that actually helped me decide not to do the death-abuse at the bridge, but instead just go for it against The Thunderbird and Dark Link.

Thanks to:

Rodrigo Lopes for an awesome time of 1:01:19 (TG) to compete with. I won't be surprised if you beat this run in the near future. I hope you don't disagree with Twin Galaxies allowing my jump in Darunia. I personally pointed that jump out to them when submitting my 1:00:07.

Also thanks to the goodlooking Zelda II TAS at 48:15 by Rising Tempest and Inzult, which gave me a few ideas.

And last, but not least, the SDA-crew for downloading, transferring, uploading, and all that other important stuff that makes this run possible for others to enjoy.

Zelda II is my favorite NES-game and because of nostalgia it's also my all-time favorite game. This game had everything I wanted from a videogame at the time of release. I hadn't played The Legend of Zelda (which is also a great game and a difficult one, but very different and not as technical), which was probably an advantage. Zelda II gets a lot of unfair stick. Those who haven't played The Great Palace with the revolutionary AI of the Dreadhawks there shouldn't criticise the game IMHO. But I am the first to admit that a speed run of this game contains too much fairy-casting through locked doors. Though a speed run without it would be even longer and this speed run is over 1 hour long...

The Zelda II European Version is modified, meaning that movement on the overworld-map is 5/6 speed compared to the American Version, but the sidescroller-scenes are almost as fast.

This run is exactly as minimalistic as my previous run: I skip the spells: Shield, Life, Fire and Spell. I skip the items: Candle, Cross and Magickey. And I skip three Life-containers (it's possible to skip four).

Speedrunning Zelda II takes a long time and can be quite frustrating. I'm not sure this run is better fighting-wise than my previous 1:06:17 run, but it's certainly more clever and faster. By changing around on my route and level-up system I decrease the luck needed when it comes to magic-potion/experience-bag droppings.

For those who aren't as familiar with the game as me, I will try to explain how the magic-potion/experience-bag dropping system works: After killing 5 'big enemies' you will have a 50/50 chance of either a magic-potion (refills your magic) or an experience-bag (200 experience points) at the drop of the next 'big enemy' killed. (Bosses, Blue Ironknuckle and Red Lizalfos don't count). E.g.: I kill 5 Orange Moas ('big enemy') at the entrance of Maze Island Palace (4th) to set me up for a magic-potion (refilling my magic to cast Fairy-spells through locked doors, saving time skipping keys) inside the palace at the first Red Ironknuckle. It will save me two lives and a lot of time. Fingers crossed for not getting an experience-bag there...

I get maximum luck on magic-potion/experience-bag droppings in my run:

A magic-potion in Parapa-Palace (saves one life - 1 extra Fairy-spell needed).

An experience-bag in Midero-Palace (1 of 2 needed to level-up).

An experience-bag in the Island-Palace (needed to save time, not killing an extra Blue Ironknuckle for level-up).

A magic-potion in Maze Island Palace (needed to save two lives and a lot of time: 2 extra Fairy-spells needed).

A magic-potion in Three Eye Palace (saves one life: 1 extra Fairy-spell needed).

Here's my thoughts on how the key areas of the game were done in the run:

• Death Mountain: Far from perfect, but I can't complain with no unwanted deaths there without the Candle. Unlike my previous run, I use a death-abuse at the hammer-location to save time, and leave here with stats 3-1-2 instead of 4-1-2 (Attack - Magic - Life). I compensate this 'loss of experience' by taking on Midero Palace (2nd) with stats 3-1-2 before Parapa Palace (1st), something that would prove costly...

• To The Water of Life/Medicine: I avoid the random encounter in the swamp and do some acrobatic jumping inside the unlit cave.

• Midero Palace (2nd): Why oh why... It wouldn't be a Kristian Emanuelsen Zelda II run without the one unwanted death in it would it? Everything went smoothly in here until THAT Blue Stalfos drained almost all my life-energy. Enough to make one hit from Helmethead lethal... I kill him without getting hit afterwards of course. Room for improvement.

• Parapa Palace (1st): Pretty straight forward and easy entering here with 5-1-2. Thankfully, I got the magic-potion instead of the experience-bag.

• Island Palace (3rd): Went well, but I unnecessarily turn and kill the Red Ironknuckle at the entrance.

• Rescue the child and to Darunia: I "waste" some time on my way to Darunia, can't complain overall though, faster than usual.

• Maze Island Palace (4th): As stated before, the killing of the 5 Orange Moas at the entrance aren't just for experience-gaining, but also to set me up for a magic-potion that is a definite must in this palace. I can therefore "fairy" my way around the palace with only one death-abuse instead of three. Carrock goes down very quickly indeed. On my way to the Boots, I choose to level-up Life to 4, so that I can survive one hit from Gooma if my life-energy is full there. I didn't take a hit from Gooma later on, so it proved to be time-wasting...

• Ocean Palace (5th): Not very good, a somewhat lack of concentration. Too many small stops for my liking. I do a death-abuse to refill my magic at the beginning, as it is slightly faster than going back to get the key. I use Fairy-spell at the locked door instead.

• To and from New Kasuto: I get lucky again, being able to skip the first of those three similar tiles with hitting a random encounter at the right time. When entering Three Eye Palace I prefer to have killed 5 'big enemies' on my way, setting me up for a magic-potion/experience-bag to refill magic there. Therefore some of the random encounters to and from New Kasuto are wanted, but not the second last one where the Red Lizalfoses dwell in the woods as those don't count when it comes to magic-potion/experience-bag droppings.

• Three Eye Palace (6th): All went well, except that Barba should be disposed of at it's second appearance, not the third.

• Bridges to and from Old Kasuto: I don't use any fairy-spells at the bridges to save magic for Death-Road. I almost die at the first bridge from Old Kasuto... Close shave.

• Death Road: All goes well here.

• The Great Palace: Can't complain. I go 'under' and then 'over' the Blue Dreadhawk between the two sets of blocks this time. Certainly a little more risky, but worth the seconds saved.

• Thunderbird: Think positive... I take no hits from him.

• Dark Link: Hmmm, could and should have been killed a little faster.

Really hope you enjoy this run!

This game is just so freakin' awesome! The 2D-fighting engine in this game is just too masterful. Mixed in with some clever RPG and adventuregame elements, man... Now, what can I say about this run? It's obviously one of many fun ways to play Zelda II, starting off from a completed file, totally overpowered, smashing everything in your way, hahaha! Man... okay, okay, about this run: Death Mountain not the fastest, but I make up for it with no random enemy encounters on my way there. A few minor problems here and there. I die once unwanted in The Great Palace. Sub 41 minutes is very doable.

Thanks to:

Tommy "tmont" Montgomery for his Zelda II NG+ run at SDA which I learned from and enjoyed. Well played, hope you'll watch my run one day, a comeback to the crazy world of speedrunning would be highly appreciated.

The SDA-crew for downloading, transferring, uploading, and all that other important stuff that makes this run possible for others to enjoy.

NG+ is an amusing way to speedrun Zelda II IMHO. The strength-advantage gives you the opportunity to defeat some of the bosses, e.g. Gooma, with more daring fighting-strategies. And most importantly, you don't have the frustrating NG-Death Mountain problem of a 35 %? chance of getting through with the hammer, even though you fight perfectly (gathering enough experience to level up attack to 4).

I consider this run to be even more lucky than my NG-run, as I have very few random-encounters. The run through Death Mountain isn't optimal, but I'm happy with everything else in this run (as far as I remember). I hope you find this run entertaining!