The game is so close to vanilla that if you’re just looking for a casual diversion for your next vanilla Z2 playthrough, this is fine.

But, this is far from what ‘Master Quest’ should imply. If you’re looking for a step up in challenge from original Z2, this isn’t it. If you want a Z2 world that opens up differently, this isn’t it. If you want a nice looking reskin of Z2, this isn’t it. None of the changes made are improvements to the original game.

The overworld: The paths are slightly changed. Not enough to make the player think or work through it, mostly to make you walk a little farther getting places. The world still opens in the same order and every hotspot is in the exact same vanilla square. I think the landscape looks worse, too. Messy and artificial.

Side view areas: Everything about side scrolls is the same as vanilla, except some enemies are replaced with tiered up versions of the same, i.e. Orange Ironknuckle becomes Red, and Red becomes Blue. As a veteran player, Reds aren’t harder than Orange. They take more hits but give more experience, making it easier to level up and overpower the game. Blue IKs move differently than Red, which in some situations makes them easier to deal with than a Red IK. The changes don’t seem very well thought out.

Graphics: New artwork for many sprites. A couple have nice shading. Mostly I don’t get the changes, they half look like they came from Metroid. The Goriyas (boomerang throwers) got changed to upright bulldogs similar a Moblin, which are already in the game doing what they were meant to. Zelda II uses dark outlines to contrast sprites with background. Some of the replacement sprites do not do that, making the sprites even more of a misfit.

Bugs: At least one carriage return was lost in a text box (in the first town), and palace 6 has a couple issues including a bug that stops the music and locks the camera. The camera bug only prevents you from reaching non-essential rooms. I mention this because it makes me wonder if the game was play-tested.