Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

[Merc]

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a game long anticipated by gamers. It was set to come out in the gamecube system, but was upgraded to function in the Wii system, and in fact served as the lead launch title for the system.

As there was no Mario game with the launch, lots of expectations fell into Zelda's shoulders as a launch title. How good the game was and showcased the system's capabilities would certainly be a defining moment for the Wii. I don't recall where I read it, but I read that 3 out of 4 Wii buyers also bought Twilight Princess.

Did it succeed at showcasing the Wii? Was it a good game?

My answer to both is a VERY happy and resounding "YES!!!!"

The game eventually came out one month later for the gamecube version as well. I'll primarily cover things from the Wii perspective, having played the game up to the final dungeon in that system, though I've played a bit of the gamecube version as well, so a few comments there.

Story/Plot
Existing besides Hyrule, is something called the Twilight Realm. The king of this realm, Zant, has set his sights on Hyrule and each time he takes over portions of the world, it becomes covered in twilight. In this realm, any being not from the twilight realm is transformed into a spirit. At the time of the game start, Zant has already taken over Hyrule castle and imprisoned Zelda, as well as covered most of the world in twilight.

When he sets his eyes on the Ordona province, he encounters his first resistance in the form of Link, a young farm hand that has seen his best friend kidnapped and taken into the twilight world. Link follows, but rather than becoming a spirit, he instead transforms into a wolf. Captured and locked up, he escapes thanks to an imp named Midna seeking Link's help in overcoming Zant's evil.

That covers much of the non-spoiler stuff.

As Link progresses through the game, regaining his ability to become hylian, collecting the items Midna seeks, gaining the ability to become wolf or hylian at will, etc, many cutscenes help the gamer understand more of the history of the twilight realm, who Zant is, what Ganondorf has to do with all this trouble.

The story is far more serious, dramatic, and even darker than other Zelda games, and it does this very well, conveing relevant information over the course of the game. The game is notably linear in what you can and can't do, but you don't mind because of the tension and storytelling the game pulls off.

Of course, for as dramatic and dark as this game can be, it also has some of the funniest shit I've ever seen. I can't count the number of times I switched between tense and laughing my head off during the game.

Characters
As always, Link is silent outside of his grunts and yells as he fights and gets injured. However, we see more of his personality showing in how he reacts to events, other characters, and during cinematic cutscenes.

You can see the rage and helplessness he feels when his friends are kidnapped, his fear when confronted with things beyond him, his kindness and pride when others are inspired by him, and his loss and the magnitude of his frienship when those he care for are injured or lost to him.

It makes it so much more meaningful when you help Link succeed and rise above the challenges set upon him, and grow from being a simple farm hand to a hero of legendary proportions.

His partner, Midna, is another powerful character in the game, one that at first presentation annoys you and may cause you to want to wring her neck (or bite her, as you'll be a wolf when first you meet her. In fact, Link does try to bite her!). She's selfish, treats you as inferior, and cares only for the success of her mission.

And yet, throughtout the game she grows from this selfish imp persona, and develops into a selfless and selfsacrificing character, and as we see more and more of her backstory develop, we not only pity her in some respects for what she's suffered through, but admire her for her conviction and drive to aid the people of the twilight realm and applaud as she begins to care for the beings of Hyrule, likewise wanting to protect that realm from Zant's cruelty and evil.

Even if you don't care much for her as a character, as a helper she is utterly invaluable to Link in the game. So many of the things she allows Link to pull off are both useful and cool, and she's never in your face throwing advice at you unless you request it for the most part.

I have to say that Midna quickly grew from someone I wanted to hurt in the game, to the character I most loved in the game.

Zant, the main antagonist of the game, is creepy, awe-inspiringly powerful, and dangerous. Throughtout the game he controls the forces that Link must combat and rise above, and even personally stands against them, coming close to killing our two heroes at times. He completely owns Link and Midna in every manner when they first encounter him, and the two barely escape with their lives. In their second encounter, he sets upon them a dangerous adversary. Various cutscenes during the game reveal his power and madness, and you can't help but find him to be so very cool.

Unfortunately, the power of his presence and madness is fairly diminished when you fight him as a boss. Beneath his armor, is a very mad power-hungry zealot who clucks like a chiken.

Yes. That's right. He. Clucks. Like. A. CHICKEN.

Ugh. I can understand that they did it to showcase some of his madness, but it seriously detracted from his creepy dangerous menacing figure. I can't say I cared much for him after the boss fight. =/

Ganondorf...let's not comment about him right now. Suffice to say, he's as haughty and egomaniacally villainous as always when seen in cutscenes. As the final boss, haven't yet faced him so not much comment in that regard.

Tingle...Drac will be very happy to know that he's not in the game.

The Postman...he is in the game however, and all I can say is that I laughed absurdedly at this video for showing a way to 'kill' him.

Other characters were fairly fleshed out and cool additions to the game, and it was nice to see how they connected to Link.

Controls, Items, & Other Game Features
The wii controls were very intuitive, and easy to get used to. It was a bit dissapointing that the sword doesn't swing as you swing the wiimote, but it was still very game immersing to be shaking the control to get Link to attack.

The wiimote is also great for the use of pointing weapons such as the clawshot and bow. It was nice to be able to point and aim, rather than shift a joystick.

To be honest, trying the controls on the gamecube felt a bit off after spending so much time with the wii controls. While not really difficult, it's not as exciting to use the gamecube controllers. For the most part, they're pretty much what the Occarina of Time controls were.

The wolf controls tended to be very much like Link's, so I can't exactly say anything bad about them, but I can't really say anything good either. The scent feature was really nice, and it was cool to be able to use it so often as part of the game plot requirements. It's a bit weird that he has to forget scents though to learn new ones. The dig command wasn't too bad, and dashing made up for not being able to use Epona at times. I do feel cheated though by the fact that not very much came out of the ability to talk to other animals. They rarely had anything useful or funny to say, and it's an ability that really should have had more chance to shine.

Likewise, in the game you have the ability to call on hawks and other bird creatures, however you only see it used maybe 3-4 times for plot advancement. This was a neat little feature, and I wish it could have been used more through the game.

On items....hoo boy, so many new/upgraded toys for Link.

You get the sword and shield first, and your sword and tunic progress through plot events. Link learns hidden skills with swordplay through howling stones (the musical element many Zelda games have nowadays), most of which are neat. It's a bit lame that after so many cool techniques, the final skill is just an upgraded "Full HP = Super Spin Attack". =/

I did abuse the hell out of some of the hidden skills though, especially the finishing move, which you learn first. I kept stabbing goblins through their hearts throughout the game. Mortal Draw is also fun. Walk up to an enemy and then like lightning pull out your sword and slash them to death in one move. Helm Splitter is another cool one, even if not used often (not too many armored goons in the game).

Fishing pole is the first item you get, and it's a bit tricky to use unless you've done fishing I figure, but once you learn it, it's a fun side activity. There's even a fishing hole later on in the game where you can also do reel fishing, and with the wii controls? AWESOME FUN.

The slingshot is an item you can buy, but for the most part it's entirely worthless. It's main function seems to be to use as a tutorial for using the wii point/shoot for when you get the boomerang, bow and clawshot.

The lantern is pretty much what you expect. It just helps you see in dark areas, and light torches. Not terribly useful outside of caves and such, though some hidden chests require torch lighting even in spots with lots of light.

Bottles are equally normal fanfare. You put potions and stuff in there for use. Very nice if you get Great Fairy Tears, Rare Chu Jelly, Blue Potions or fairies in them.

The boomerang is the first dungeon item that you get, and it's gotten a -big- upgrade, known as the Gale Boomerang. When you throw it, a wind tornado follows along with it, allowing you to spin things, pick up items/enemies and bring them to you, blow out torches, and much more. Very useful throughout the game.

Actually, Oocoo and Oocoo Jr are the first dungeon item you get, come to think of it. These are a pair of creatures that appear in each dungeon (you have to find them) and disappear after the dungeon is complete. They serve as a 'warp' item, that lets you exit a dungeon and warp back to the spot you last were at in the dungeon. Fairly handy, especially when you want to pause in the middle of a dungeon as you can warp out and save, and when you restart, warp to your last spot, rather than having to start from dungeon beginning if you save somewhere in the dungeon.

Next we get the iron boots, which have a very nice game impact here. Magnetic surfaces on the wall aswell as magnet cranes allow you to do some neat things with this, although this feature is primarily kept to the fire dungeon. You don't get much mileage out of this item except in water (sink and walk) and sky environments (don't get pushed by wind). Oh, and activating some switches. Somewhat useful I suppose, but not awesome outside of the fire temple. Very funny quest to get them though. You have to learn sumo-wrestling! ^_^

Bow and arrow is pretty standard fanfare for Zelda games, and you never get magic arrows, though you can mix bombs to make bomb arrows, or use another item to make snipe shots. Very useful throughout the game, and has some missions that make this item essential. This item really shines with the wii controls as a side note.

Bombs are an item you can get after the fire dungeon. Pretty much used to blow shit up, obviously. Can be pretty useful to combine them with the bow and arrow, though, and they make nasty attacks against some enemies. Mostly used to uncover secret spots and items and reaching dungeon areas though. The 'upgrade' for the game is Water Bombs (bombs that function underwater) and Bomblings (bombs that move forward until they hit something, then explode), which you can get as you accomplish tasks. Nothing exciting, but useful item.

Hawkeye is another item you can get after the fire dungeon, and this one's neat. It's basically just binoculars really, since they let you zoom in on far away stuff, but their neat ability is to fuse with the bow and arrow and you essentially get a sniper rifle for that. Very useful in sniping missions.

After that, you have the Clawshot, a different version of the Hookshot. Functions as expected, until later in the game where you get a second Clawshot and the item becomes a Double Clawshot. Then Link becomes Spiderman. Very neat item. ^_^

After that, I believe all are new items. The spinner is a neat little item that allows you to follow certain wall tracks and activate gears into working. It's something of a hovercraft to use over quicksand also. Very neat item, if not altogether useful since it's very limited to where you can use it effectively. It does allow you to have the most utterly fun boss battle in the game though.

The ball and chain is just what it implies, and it's a heavy ranged weapon that can be useful in various spots, though Link tends to move fairly slowly when using it, making him a big fat target.

The dominion rod is reminescant of a song from Windwaker, in that it allows you to command statues. Useful, and has a very important plot feature.

Final item I think is the horse call, an item that you unfortunately get very very late in the game. It allows you to call Epona wherever you might be, and she'll rush to you if she can reach that area. However by this time in the game, you can freely transform between human and wolf, and can teleport through the world map or dash in wolf form. Not particularly useful.

Enemies
The AI on some of the enemies is pretty nice. When you kill a goblin from a distance, a nearby goblin will catch this and rush to check up on him and then search for its killer. Swarms work fairly well, and some of the combat scenes were really challenging because of the AI, and there's no real pattern to screw them over, you just have to use technique.

One new enemy is the Shadow Being. They always appear in groups, and have this ability where if they're whittled down to one, it'll revive its companions. Not very challenging thanks to one of Midna's abilities, but definitely got something of a 'creepy' factor. Certainly creepier than the Redead.

One thing also to comment is that there's lots of 'upgrades' to enemies. The Darknut was an especially neat enemy. It seems a powerful armored menace at first, but becomes so much more dangerous once you strip it of it's armor.

Most of the enemies aren't difficult generally though, and the challenge comes in the form of mini-bosses and bosses. They themselves aren't necessarily more challenging, but they're always fun.

I find it odd, but I tended to find a lot of mini-bosses more difficult than the actual bosses (the Darknut was one such mini-boss). This wasn't always the case, of course.

Still, it was nice to beat up mini-bosses to get dungeon items, and boss battles were almost always pretty cool and stylistic, if not hilarious. All of them have great cinematic entrances, and generally most have two stages/forms you have to get through.

The boss battles were certainly some of the more fun boss battles I have ever had though, especially Stallord, the fourth boss you fight. VERY cool boss.

I think the only boss I disliked is Zant, the main antagonist of the game. This is because he clucks like a chicken during his fight and isn't the creepy bastard we see through most of the game. He's still a relatively challenging boss fight though, and it has it's funny moments.

Speaking of funny moments, the end of the fifth boss is hilarious, and the second stage of the sixth boss is equally hilarious and has some funny accompanying music.

Music
Not especially inspiring/new, and a lot of it is just remixes of old stuff, but there is some new stuff. Primarily, the music shines in that it always fits whatever is happening. The music of the Twilight Dungeon was very creepy and lent to the atmosphere of the dark and foggy place. The western music during the sniping mission in the western looking village was also hilariously fitting. And can't forget the boss battle music for the second stage of the sixth boss as mentioned in the previous section.

It isn't going to be the best of soundtracks, or very inspiring, but it always did it's job during important scenes and it did an awesome job whenever there was a funny sequence.

Malo's Market in Hyrule Town has such a silly yet fitting tune.

Art
There's...not a whole lot of vibrancy in colors. For the most part, it's all muddy green/brown undertones, which isn't that great, but I suppose it fits a lot of the story and the mood. The blackness/greytones during twilight regions certainly fit. Still, would have liked to see some more vibrancy.

All the characters are drawn fairly well though, especially in cutscenes, though Link has a pretty fat nose, very noticeable during those close-up shots.

Princess Zelda is a hottie though, and it sucks that she's covered up for most of the game. >_>;

Mission/Dungeon Design
Most dungeons were designed pretty well, and I think the only one I really found fault with is the Sky Dungeon, as it lacked one feature most Zelda dungeons have. In this case, it's the ability to create shortcuts to zones as you reach them. If you screw up and fall into a room from early on, you have to go through allllll the dungeon rooms you previously had to take to reach there again. It's kind of annoying.

The missions outside of dungeons is where I think the game really shined though. Horseback combat, sniping missions, escort missions, etc. All of these were done beautifully and were very fun.

The sidequests to get item upgrades tend to be fairly decent, though the one to get the frog lure for the fishing rod is a mini-game that is SO VERY VERY EEEEEEVVVVVVIIIIILLLL. With both the GC and the Wii, this mini-game pisses the hell out of me.

Overall Thoughts
I enjoy the game vastly. I still haven't finished it admittedly, I have one dungeon to go unfortunately, though hopefully I'll finish it one of these days, or just some time soon. It's not very challenging for the most part though, so this might be something people take fault with, but I appreciate the level of storytelling and plot development, as well as its ability to mix drama, darkness and comedy so well.

I think if you enjoy RPGs or previous Zelda games, you should definitely get Twilight Princess. If you can, get it in the Wii, you'll enjoy it more than in the Gamecube, but get the game nonetheless. It's an experience, and not one you'll regret in the end.

Game score: 9.5/10 [Wii], 9/10 [GC].

[Dracos]

Cool review.  Not enough decimals though =p

Dracos