Miyamoto felt Zelda 2 “was sort of a failure”, Nintendo saw Link to the Past as Zelda’s real sequel

The Legend of Zelda series has many beloved games, but Zelda 2 – The Adventure of Link might be the odd one out. Each title does have its own passionate group of fans, but Zelda 2 doesn’t really get that much love – especially compared to other releases like A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, and Breath of the Wild. Even Nintendo itself apparently wasn’t too hot on it.

Quotes from Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto have now resurfaced from a 2003 Superplay Magazine interview in which we get some real candid insight into what he thought about the game. According to Miyamoto, Zelda 2 “was sort of a failure.” He also said that Nintendo viewed A Link to the Past “as the real sequel”. Zelda 2 is apparently “more of a side story”.

Miyamoto’s full words:

“(Zelda 2) was my original idea, but the actual game was developed by another team. The games I make usually get better in the development process, since we keep coming up with good ideas, but Zelda 2 stayed the same. It was sort of a failure. We actually see A Link to the Past as the real sequel to The Legend of Zelda. Zelda 2 was more of a side story about what happened to Link after the events of The Legend of Zelda.”

A decade ago, Nintendo actually published an official interview with the director of Zelda 2. Fans of the game will definitely want to give that a read, which we have here.

As for Zelda itself, we’re waiting to find out what’s next for the series. A live-action movie is at least coming out next year, and new art recently surfaced showing Link.