Zelda 2 has always been that one weird cousin in the Zelda family, and now an old Shigeru Miyamoto comment has come back around to remind everyone that even Nintendo knew it was… different.
According to resurfaced remarks from a 2003 interview, the legendary Zelda creator said Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link was his original concept, but the final game was handled by another team. And while many Nintendo classics evolved during development as new ideas stacked up, Miyamoto felt Zelda 2 did not really go through that same magic process.
His verdict was pretty brutal: it was “sort of a failure”.
For context, Zelda 2 launched in 1987 as the direct follow-up to The Legend of Zelda. It was not some forgotten flop — the game sold well and absolutely has its defenders. But compared to the original’s open-ended adventure format, Zelda 2 went in a very different direction with side-scrolling action, RPG-style levelling, and a much more punishing structure.
Basically, it played less like the Zelda formula fans would come to know, and more like Nintendo experimenting hard before the series had fully figured out what it wanted to be.
That difference is why Zelda 2 often lands near the lower end of fan rankings. It is not necessarily a bad game, but it is the black sheep. Even IGN once described it as the Zelda series’ “bastard stepchild”, which is harsh, but also kind of explains how many fans have treated it over the years.
The more interesting part is how Nintendo apparently framed the game internally. Miyamoto said Nintendo viewed A Link to the Past as the “real sequel” to the original Legend of Zelda, while Zelda 2 was treated more like a side story showing what Link did after the first game.
That makes a lot of sense when you look at the series today. A Link to the Past is the game that really locked in the classic 2D Zelda identity: top-down exploration, dungeons, items, secrets, and that satisfying loop of getting a new tool then suddenly seeing the map differently. If you grew up in Malaysia or SEA playing Zelda through older consoles, handheld ports, emulation, or later Nintendo re-releases, A Link to the Past probably feels much closer to the “real” Zelda DNA than Zelda 2 ever did.
Still, Zelda 2 deserves some respect. It tried things the main series mostly left behind, and you can still see small echoes of its ideas whenever Nintendo gets experimental with Link’s abilities, combat, or progression. It may not be the template, but it is part of why Zelda became a series that is never afraid to reinvent itself.
The timing is also nice because The Legend of Zelda turned 40 on 21 February 2026, putting the whole franchise back under the nostalgia spotlight. Eurogamer also notes that Nintendo is reportedly preparing a remake of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for later this year, while the live-action Zelda movie is currently set for 7 May 2027.
So yeah, if you have always felt Zelda 2 was the odd one out, Miyamoto basically agreed. But in a very Nintendo way, even the “failure” became part of the legend.
Source: Eurogamer