Zelda II - Why all the hate?

[Boltorano]

What the…

The only place that takes more than a couple minutes to walk to is the final palace. If you avoid the random encounters (easily done by following the roads), it probably takes the same amount of time to walk to a dungeon in the second game as in the first! Maybe less time!

My mind is seriously blown. Is this what "Halo checkpoints" have done to newer gamers?

I've never played Halo actually, and strangely enough I finished Final Fantasy on the NES around the same time I was playing Zelda II (1994 or so), so I was no stranger to grinding or games that felt like a chore at times. For some reason Zelda II just felt all the more worse in the regard.