Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the second installment in the The Legend of Zelda series, released in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is preceded by The Legend of Zelda and succeeded by A Link to the Past. The Hero of Hyrule is the main protagonist and Ganon is the main antagonist. Ganon's minions serve as the villainous faction.

It is the second game in the series, but it is the final game set in the Downfall Timeline. The events of The Adventure of Link take place a few years after Zelda I, but refer back to the Princess Zelda that was put under a sleeping spell at the beginning of the Era of Decline.

Official Description
After the events of the first game, Zelda's attendant Impa shows Link that there was a first princess named Zelda who was cursed to slumber forever. She also tells him that Link is in possession of the Triforce of Courage. As Link learns all of this, the minions of Ganon begin to attack once again. Believing that they could revive their master by pouring the blood of Link over his ashes, they begin to spread across the land, seeking for him. Eventually, Link is able to gain the Triforce of Courage. Uniting the three Triforces, Link returns to the Northern Palace to wake the slumbering Zelda.

Summary
A few years after the defeat of Ganon and the rescue of Princess Zelda, Link, now at the age of sixteen, is disturbed by the appearance of a mark on the back of his hand. Upon seeing this mark, Impa, the nurse of Princess Zelda, tells him the story of how, ages ago, the King of Hyrule had hidden a third part of the Triforce, the Triforce of Courage, in the Great Palace to safeguard it from evil.

Upon the death of the king, his son had searched for the missing Triforce, but its location had been imparted only to the king's daughter, Princess Zelda. Angered upon learning this, the Prince tried to use the power of a Magician to force the truth from his sister. After she refused, the wizard cast a spell upon her to put her into a deep sleep, which caused the wizard to die soon after. Only by uniting the Triforce of Courage with its counterparts, Link would be able to awake the sleeping Princess Zelda. Upon hearing this tale, Link receives from Impa six crystals that serve as keys to open the seal on the Great Palace.

As Link learns all of this, the minions of Ganon begin to attack once again. Believing that they could revive their master by pouring the blood of Link over his ashes, they begin to spread across the land, seeking for him. Eventually, Link is able to gain the Triforce of Courage. Uniting the three Triforces, Link returns to the Northern Palace to wake the slumbering Zelda.

Trivia

 * Although the Japanese title for The Adventure of Link uses the English name of The Legend of Zelda, and the game's backstory explicitly defines The Legend of Zelda as a plot concept, the English language game is the only one in the main series not to include The Legend of Zelda in its title.
 * The Adventure of Link marks one of the few times where Link speaks in a main game, by saying "I found a mirror under the table" while in Saria Town and "Looks like I can get in the fireplace" in Kasuto.
 * The Famicom Disk System version of the game uses the infamous "Gannon" spelling in the intro, as well as other typos such as "Tryforce." This intro was largely re-written in the North American release.
 * Acording to series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, The Adventure of Link is the only The Legend of Zelda game he considers a failure, this due to the limitations of the hardware.
 * Ganon's laugh on the game over screen in the English version is also used in the NES game Punch-Out!! as Soda Popinski's laugh.

Continuity

 * Both this game and the first are linked in continuity, since the first game revolves around retrieving two of the major fragments of the Triforce, and Ganon is fought in order to rescue Princess Zelda; the second game revolves around finding the third major fragment in order to revive an incarnation of Zelda that was sleeping for a very long time, and to impede the revival of Ganon.
 * The Zelda in this game is actually Zelda I, who was in a coma in the first game.
 * This is the first game to feature Impa, although art in the manual for the previous game depicted her as well.
 * All the towns in this version of Hyrule are named after the Seven Sages from Ocarina of Time, Saria, Darunia, Ruto, and Nabooru.
 * This game's iteration of Hyrule is the biggest version of the map that exists in the timeline so far, even bigger than Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom 's, as it encompasses multiple continents that border Hyrule.
 * Inside this map is explicitly the map of the very first game, in this one referred to as the Lower Death Mountain Area.
 * Link retains the same sword he had in the previous game by the end, the Magical Sword.
 * The same Link, the Hero of Hyrule from the previous game, returns six years after the first game. This is also the final game set in the continuous Downfall Timeline before the timeline merge.