Topic: Zelda II Fan Club

Haha, thanks, I'll hopefully remember that next time.

Yeah I struggled the first night I went through the great palace because those bird knights kept killing me.
Then I thought about it at work and realized I never tried an up-stab against them.

It took me about 15 years to beat this game too - I don't think I ever made it past the second palace because I didn't know the trick to those Iron Knuckles. Now I think I would be able to go through it a second time in a matter of hours.

Edit: I want to play another game like this, but all that comes to mind are Battle of Olympus and Faxanadu. I might run through Battle of Olympus since I've never beaten it, while I've beaten Faxanadu several times. Any other suggestions? (just don't say Castlevania)

Ah, wow, it's interesting that it took you so long for those guys but got the bird knights seemingly much quicker. Of course, there are one or two knuckles with projectile swords in long halls where you just have to beat them the normal way (or muscle through with a shield and life spell like I usually do, haha).

Oh, I use the same jump-slash technique against the blue iron knuckles.
The blue ones throw one sword at a time at even intervals. After blocking one, do a jump-slash then back off.
He will throw 5 or 6 swords in quick succession then slow back down to this normal pace.

And of course, I was just very much into the rhythm of the game when I reached the Great Palace so my mind was sharp for fighting new enemies. The Iron Knuckles were far and away the hardest enemies in the game at the beginning of the game - no previous enemies really prepared you for them.

True. I was referring to one or two specific sword-throwing knuckles though. There's at least one in a long, small hall that's hard to jump in. You hit the ceiling right away, and I end up falling on one of his projectiles.

Oh yeah, in that case I just muscle through it with shield and life

For the bird knights that are near the platform blocks, just stay at the highest ledge, duck and attack, and the bird knight will jump into your sword, and you won't get hurt at all.