36 replies to this topic

[Ventus]

You know after all the years since The first Zelda came out I'm pretty sure we can all agree on one thing... Level 6 was just unforgiving Dx

All the wizzrobes and how much damaged they dealt always scared me as a child. 

 

I don't know just was thinking of the first quest and remembered level 6 hence the reason for a random topic. 

[KingPridenia]

It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have all of those mandatory Wizzrobe rooms. At least in the 2nd "harder" Quest, there are only TWO mandatory Wizzrobe fights (5 Blues in level 5 to get the Bow and Reds/Blues to get the Silver Arrow in level 9) versus 11 in the 1st quest. I really think level 6 should have been level 8, level 7 should have been 6, and level 8 be level 7. Really, level 6 is a nightmare then level 7 is like doing level 2 all over again, only much stronger. I don't know why, but Zelda seems to have a fetish for making level 6 really hard compared to the others. Hidden Palace, Misery Mire, Face Shrine (more confusing than hard IMO), Water Temple, etc.

[Timelord]

When playing the original game, I tend to do Level 6 after level eight. I think the problem isn't as much that Level 6 is too hard, but in contrast to it, levels 7, and 8, are too easy. The main difficulty for Level 8 was in locating it, but once this was well-known, it wasn't a problematic level. part of what makes L6 so bloody difficult is the abundance of LikeLike enemies, that eat your protection against the Wizrobes.

 

Playing L6 comes down to tactics, using the wand, and the bow, to attack LikeLike enemies at range. Running out of bombs in some levels can also be a game-killer. I don;t recall if it was in Level 5, or Level 6, where there are some Gibdos, behind a one-way shutter, and to make progress, you need bombs; but there is one room that can require a 'continue' to escape, if you run out.

 

I tend to find that the Darknut rooms in some of the levels are far more challenging than L6, particularly those that are mandatory to open a hidden staircase.

 

Overall, L6 is more difficult than the levels before it, due to enemy combinations. L7 is a pain, due to needing to find passages, and isn't really any harder, or easier, than L6; but L8, by the time you get to is, is about as difficult as L1. That, IMHO, is what makes L6 seem much harder than it should be.

[Russ]

It wasn't supposed to be too hard. If you play the pre-release beta of the game, the wizzrobes did half the damage they do now. For whatever reason, Nintendo decided to double their damage after the game was finished but before release, and the result was the screwed up difficulty curve we have today.

[umbrello]

When I was a kid I read in Nintendo Power that one of the 'gameplay counselors' beat Zelda without a sword. I was like, "No way! That's impossible!" A few years later I did it myself, and let me tell you, level 6 was haaaard! With no sword you really need the wand, so it was basically lots of luck and lots of deaths, lol. It was hella satisfying to finally get the wand, though. On any playthrough I liked going to 8 to get the key really early. That was the great thing about it. I always tried to do things in some weird order to make it harder.

 

This is off-topic but I really wanted to be a Nintendo Gameplay Counselor when I was a kid. I used to call them all the time for help (before the interwebz existed). My parents thought I was nuts, lol. Too bad they didn't exist anymore a few years later. I would call up and all there would be was tips on popular games that were just recordings. If it wasn't for the Nintendo Power hotline I might never have beaten some of the games I beat as a kid. Too bad I still couldn't beat Blaster Master.

Edited by umbrello, 31 March 2014 - 06:00 PM.

[peteandwally]

yeah... I would hide in the doors as much as poissible.

[KingPridenia]

yeah... I would hide in the doors as much as poissible.

 

Problem is the Blue Wizzrobes can go through the doors on the NES version of the game. That and you can't attack from the door, so at best you can just do hit and run until a Blue decides to go in and cheap shot you. Pols Voices I believe can also go into the doorway to attack you.

 

@Russ: Also I noticed in BS Zelda the Red's beams do less damage; I think 1/2 heart with the Blue Ring? The Reds are easy to avoid thankfully, but the Blues are a menace. If they only did 1 heart base damage instead of 2, they wouldn't be nearly as hard. Still annoying though, more so if you have the misfortune of NOT having the Magical Sword yet, which unless you're using a guide of some kind, is not the most likely thing.

[Jamian]

I think level 6 was hard back then because you had to get used to Wizzrobes. They don't behave like the other enemies you had faced so far, at all. So you had to get used to fighting them, like you originally had to get used to fighting Darknuts, etc. But nowadays I don't find it hard anymore*. Red Wizzrobes inflict a lot of damage, but once you get used to how they work, they are very predictable and really easy to avoid. If you ignore this discovery aspect, I believe level 8 and 9 are harder.

 

*Except if you indeed do a swordless run, but that's not how the game was intended to be played, so we can't blame the game for that. If you do a swordless run then there are two rooms in level 6 which will indeed be tough.

[Nathaniel]

I must have been 8 years old, nineteen eightly something, when the game was still quite young.  I remember having temper tantrums about level 6.  You remember well the path leading to the first encounter with the blue wizzrobes.

Enter the level.  Second one colored brown.  Red wizzrobes to the rooms on either side.  Not too bad as long as you pay attention.  Old guy giving advice about this Gohma on the right side at a dead end.  Left side, linear path going up many rooms.  After the red wizzrobes, many easy rooms, but this was merely the calm before the storm.  Last was traps you walk past, not realizing that the real trap was in the next room.  Then came the door behind you shuttering closed, as well as the door ahead remaining shuttered closed.  Open room with two blocks in the center.  Red wizzrobes, second room ever encountered with those like likes (only once before in Level 4, but now with a worse mix), bubbles to avoid, and of course, the infamous blue wizzrobes.  "Buy medicine before you go" never felt all that meaningful until now.  But it was just the beginning of the agony that laid ahead.  I also felt that the blue wizzrobe was one of the few enemies in that game that actually had a decent artificial intelligence.  I mean, they actually went after you, and relentlessly.  This was during a time when AI was generally primitive in a lot of games.  Even to this day, just playing the standard 1st quest level 6 requires at least one drink of medicine from me.  First quest was generally easy for the most part, but even today it has its hard parts.

[DragonDePlatino]

Wow, you guys actually played the original LoZ as children? Not surprising but I'll have to admit I feel pretty out of place here.

 

My first encounter with a Zelda game was the first 5 minutes of Link to the Past at the age of like...9 back in 2005 (yes, far after we were far into the 128-bit era). I couldn't even figure out how to get into Hyrule castle let alone make any progress until years later, so it's pretty humbling how you guys managed to make your way through the original Legend of Zelda at that age!

 

When I first played through Zelda 1 on my Collector's Edition a few years later, I didn't remember the 6th dungeon being all that hard. Save you, the difficulty of the rest of the game was so incredible for me nothing stood out as being particularly memorable aside from my hellish trek through the 8th dungeon. But oddly enough, I didn't have a hard time finding it at all. It was the 2nd or 3rd dungeon I encountered, too.

[anikom15]

Level 8 is harder than Level 6, for sure. Level 6 was hard, but not unforgiving. Only Level 9 and the 2nd Quest was unforgiving.

[Haylee]

Wow, you guys actually played the original LoZ as children? Not surprising but I'll have to admit I feel pretty out of place here.

Zelda Classic 1.90 was literally the first game I ever played.

 

I honestly never had a problem with Wizzrobes, oddly enough. It was actually mostly Lynels that were my biggest problem, making level 6 really not all that hard for me. :V

[Shane]

Pfft, Level 6 wasn't even that hard.

Edited by Charizard, 31 March 2014 - 06:04 PM.

[Kite]

Level 6 kicked my ass during that Zelda 1 race I was in back in January (I was using an emulator instead of ZC). Of the 2 hours I spent doing horribly in the race, most of that time was probably caused by deaths in that level.

[Alucard648]

Just imagine if Gohma in that level is replaced with Mirror Wizzrobe. And wand is replaced with Mirror Shield.