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Game: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre:Action/Adventure
Rating: Teen
Players: 1
Developer: Nintendo
Release: November 19, 2006
Overview:
Heading into E3 2004, Nintendo’s future in the video game industry seemed as bleak as it ever had. Connectivity had bombed, fans weren’t buying innovation as a legitimate business model, interest in the Gamecube had long been waning, and the company’s stranglehold on the handheld market seemed vulnerable. The stakes were high; Nintendo kicked ass and took names.
I will always go back to that show as a turning point for Nintendo. The charismatic Reggie Fils-Aime—a figure of inspiration to some, a meathead to others—reinvigorated a fan-base. The DS (and apparently, the Wii) have validated Nintendo’s strategy and rendered them relevant once more. Nintendo seemed more in touch with gamers than in the past, and this notion was best supported by the gem of the show—the unveiling of a realistic Zelda.
The wait for Twilight Princess was an agonizing one. The developers led us to believe that “the engine was running, and (they) just had to put in the finishing touches.” Those “finishing touches” were spanned over two years, a delay, and a port to a new console. Vague snippets from the developer interviews in NP, often laced with hyperbole (Including exaggerations such as “more dungeons than any Zelda,” “it will surpass your wildest expectations,” and “over 100 hours of gameplay,” etc.) made the wait even more unbearable. Still, this was understandable. You can’t rush perfection, and Twilight Princess generally delivers.
Controversial Port to Wii:
At E3 2006, it was revealed that Twilight Princess would launch along side the Nintendo Wii. This announcement angered many fans, and rightly so! Nintendo had reiterated on many occasions that Twilight Princess was a Gamecube game. The port raised many valid concerns. Was this a business driven decision? Was it better for the game? Was Wiimote functionality being shoehorned into a game it didn’t belong? Was this the cause of the year long delay? How would the camera be controlled? The lukewarm response at E3, along with the blatantly manipulative delay of the Gamecube version furthered concerns.
I was an ardent supporter of the Gamecube version; I am not anymore. It just shows that you should not judge something until you give it a fair chance. Hell, I didn’t even give it a fair chance. I went into the game fully prepared to scrutinize the controls and extol the merits of the Gamecube version. Yet, without even being aware of what was happening, I was totally and completely converted.
Why the Wii Version is Better
The Wii version isn’t necessarily better due to the reasons Nintendo would have you believe. Use of the Wiimote, the way it is implemented in Twilight Princess, does not better represent realistic swordplay. Forget 1:1 control—the game cannot even differentiate between vertical and horizontal slices. If anything, the combat is less precise than it would have been with a traditional controller.
However, moving your sword to the motion control frees up the B button, which I feel was crucial for the overall quality of the control. Despite having fewer buttons to work with than its predecessor, Twilight Princess lets you equip more items than ever before and functionality is not compromised. It does more with less.
Assigning item usage to the best button on the controller was a common-sensed, ideal tweak made by Nintendo near the end of the development. However, the ability to use certain items (such as the Iron Boots) on the fly was necessary, and thankfully, Nintendo did not overlook this. The loss of a free camera (one of the few great features introduced by Wind Waker) and manual shield control is unfortunate, but ultimately minor. The use of the nunchuck for spin attacks and shield bashing works flawlessly and is more fun than merely pressing buttons. Another oft overlooked advantage is the ability to pull off quick-spins independent of the analog stick—thus being able to easily spin attack on horseback without having to change your position whatsoever.
Once you grow accustomed with the Wiimote, aiming projectiles is simply superior. Sure, it doesn’t hurt that Twilight Princess is the first Zelda game to arm you with a reticule, but it is more than that. I routinely nail targets that I never would have in the past, on horse or otherwise. The aiming is both accurate and precise. The fishing too is made much more enjoyable.
Then there is the fairy pointer, which is commonly misunderstood. Nintendo should have been more explicit about its purpose, for it was that instant of understanding that made me appreciate and adore the Wii controls. Keeping the fairy pointer onscreen prevents the annoying “point Wii remote at screen” message. It also allows you to aim at a target before ever readying a projectile. Once I realized these two facts, the Wiimote controls became second nature.
Twilight Realm:
Twilight Princess as a whole plays it relatively safe, adhering closely to the classic Zelda formula. The exception to this rule is Twilight Realm, a region of Hyrule where the light spirits have had their power sapped, and darkness reigns supreme. Normal inhabitants of Hyrule exist in the Twilight Realm as confused spirits unaware of their miserable state; Link, however, contains a gift (bet you can’t guess what it is!) that enables him to become a wolf, and eventually repel the Twilight. This is the basic premise in the first portion of Twilight Princess.
The Twilight Realm itself is beautiful. A couple of years ago I was highly skeptical of the concept, and found the use of grey scale to be very dull. Luckily, the developers seemed to think so as well, and changed the environment into a surreal world with a gothic appeal. A lot of the focus in the Twilight Realm is on exciting emotion within the player rather than presenting interesting or challenging gameplay. The atmosphere plays a crucial role in all of this; the general tone is depressing and sad, spirits quiver to a nameless fear, a good deal of the architecture is impressive and grand in scale, and little black boxes float everywhere, creating a unique style. The music (which never changes, yet never gets old) compliments the scenery and mood perfectly, enhancing both. The (admittedly imaginative) player is supposed to feel trapped—trapped as a wolf and trapped in an unusual world. I think this effect is achieved.
The actual wolf gameplay is not revolutionary, nor even particularly interesting. You control wolf Link largely in the same way you would control human Link. Obviously you cannot use a sword or items. You cannot even open doors. A lot of the gameplay involves finding clever ways around these obstacles. The wolf segments would have grown stale very fast had the game not constantly thrown you into interesting circumstances. The game is still very story driven at that point—it, the unique situations you are presented with, and the foreboding atmosphere of the Twilight Realm are what make the decidedly simplistic gameplay seem like something more. And don’t get me wrong—it works, it’s fun, and it’s greater than the sum of its parts, which is something that can be said about the game as a whole.
Standard Zelda Fare:
If there is one thing that is clearly evident with Twilight Princess, it is that the developers did indeed receive the memo; they absorbed the many criticisms of Wind Waker and addressed them. The overworld is not an overly large, barren mass of nothing. There are neither hideous fetch-quests, nor any hideous concepts in general. For example, Wind Waker presented us with the relatively neat idea of controlling statues and other beings via the Command Melody. However, every time you wanted to do this, you’d have to play a song again. I doubt even the most fervent of Wind Waker apologists would defend such an idea as fun or intuitive. In Twilight Princess, the concept of controlling statues appears, but instead of being required to play a song each time, you can simply use an item. It is much faster, more convenient, and more enjoyable. The text has also sped up a considerable amount—so many little steps were taken to ensure that Twilight Princess did not annoy and frustrate players the way Wind Waker often did.
Twilight Princess is one of the most consistently entertaining games I’ve ever played. At a basic level, fun factor is the most important aspect of any game, and I believe it is the area where Twilight Princess shines brightest. The gameplay is essentially flawless. Small details, such as the satisfying pause effect that accompanies striking enemies with your sword, to the way Link’s tunic actually darkens when it becomes wet, draw you into the game and keep you wanting to play from start to finish. What can be said about this franchise that hasn’t been said before? The puzzles are as good as ever, the pacing and design ensure there is seldom a dull moment, and the combat, while still too elementary, is always fun.
Twilight Princess, like Ocarina of Time, placed more emphasis on dungeons than side-quests. There are nine at all, though the final two may be better classified as “sub-dungeons,” as they are much shorter. The dungeons are arguably the most gameplay intensive portions of Twilight Princess. If you’re at all familiar with the franchise, you know what to expect. Dungeons are basically a series of puzzles that test your logic while throwing enemies your way to break up the monotony. In each dungeon, you’ll acquire a new item about half way through that will open up new areas, eventually culminating in a boss fight. The formula is as strong as ever. Fans of elemental themed areas rejoice—the majority of the dungeons can be classified under a clichéd theme; there is a forest temple, a fire time temple, a water temple, a sand temple, an ice temple, and a sky temple. Finally, the items found in these dungeons are more unique than they have been in recent memory; Twilight Princess introduces three brand new items to the Zelda universe. All three of them are completely original and very interesting, inevitably leading to new and rewarding gameplay.
In my opinion, the dungeons are, by and large, more fun than they’ve ever been, which is really saying something given what they are up against. The ingenuity of the puzzles has always impressed me. On the other hand, none of the dungeons create an atmosphere of the caliber seen in the Ocarina of Time’s Forest and Spirit Temples or Majora’s Mask’s Stone Tower Temple. The best opportunity to achieve such an effect probably would have been in the City in the Sky, but I found that dungeon disappointing on many levels. The other area where the dungeons came up short was in the music department—in most cases, they are hardly audible.
The bosses are visually spectacular and creative. Two of them are actually quite “Shadow of the Colossusesque” giving you the opportunity to slay might beasts by mounting them and driving your sword into their back. One high-octane fight has you riding a circular column at insane speeds, dodging fireballs and pursuing the boss all in one. These epic show downs are always fun, but not without their flaws, though, to be fair, these flaws are inherent issues of the series and by no means exclusive to Twilight Princess. Simply put, the bosses are too easy. But there is more. They have also become far too predictable, much too formulaic, and not nearly aggressive enough. Tradition is tradition, but does every boss have to be vulnerable to the item you found in its dungeon? Does every boss have to move in predictable patterns? Does every boss have to be stunned before you can attack it? The boss fights in Twilight Princess often feel more like puzzles than fights—the monsters, it seems, are trying to prevent you from completing some task rather than trying to kill you. Finally, the gameplay is too often interrupted by little clips that are, more often than not, totally unnecessary and come off as choreographed and cheap.
Overall, there is not much one can reasonably complain about with Twilight Princess. There are still a few miscellaneous issues that keep it from reaching its full potential. For one, many, if not most of the games landmarks are surprisingly underdeveloped. When you first set foot in them, you feel overwhelmed and euphoric about all of the things you think you’ll be able to do and all the areas you think you’ll be able to explore. This is especially true of an area like Kakariko Village. A brief perusal suggests that there are a ton of houses and interesting places to explore. You see the grand elevation and cuccos and awesome design and you’re given the false impression that there is a lot to do. Yet, you soon discover that most of the houses have nothing in them and none of the paths that looked so promising earlier actually lead anywhere. Zora’s Domain, the Sacred Woods, Death Mountain, the Grave Yard, and Ordon Village are the same way. They’re beautiful and look so promising, but the actual content is sparse. Furthermore, you’re rarely given incentive to return to an old area since the characters are seldom affected by the events occurring in the game.
Then there some rather conspicuous omissions; paramount among these is the glaring absence of a trading sequence. All three 3D Zeldas have had one, and I have long found them to be among the most fun and rewarding parts of their respective games. I was also disappointed with the lack of a traditional shooting gallery (although the boat course was simply amazing), any sort of racing mini-game, the Gerudo people, and a ranch (where you could do more than herd goats). As strange as it may sound, I don’t think it is totally ridiculous to consider Twilight Princess the weakest 3D Zelda with respect to side-quests. The most extensive side-quest merely involved paying an absurd amount of rupees. The most rewarding side-quests are those that directly affect the game world, and there didn’t seem to be as many of these in Twilight Princess. Too many of the game’s 45 heart pieces were used placed in dungeons.
On a more positive note, the parry system, a novel idea introduced but not fully realized by Wind Waker, was totally reworked for Twilight Princess, leading to the deepest combat system seen in a Zelda game. Throughout the game, a Skeletal Mentor teaches you advanced sword techniques. These include maneuvers such as the shield bash, the back-slice, the helm-splitter, mortal draw, and the great spin (among others). These moves add so much spice and diversity to an otherwise simplistic combat system. Late in the game, in fights with Darknuts (which are awesome by the way) they become very necessary for success. Definitely one of the finer additions to Twilight Princess.
Presentation:
A brief note on the graphics—they’re great. People often forget that this was originally a Gamecube game. With that in mind, I’d say it is only bested by Metroid Prime and Resident Evil 4. The character designs, as is typical for a Nintendo developed game, our phenomenal. Of special mention is just how well the characters express emotion. It is not worth spending a lot of time gushing about the graphics—if you’re a Zelda fan at all, you’re content with them!
The music, for a Zelda game, is a mixed bag. The dungeon music was pretty weak. Certain remixes like Saria’s Song, Zora’s Domain, and the Temple of Time, did not have the same impact they did eight years ago. Others, like Death Mountain, were superb. The Overworld theme was great and never grew stale, and “Returning to Princess” Zelda was arguably the most beautiful piece the series has seen. As for music quality, many critics were distraught over the lack of orchestrated music, but it never bugged me. My assumption has always been that if people were told the music was orchestrated, it’d be a non issue.
Finally, the story is great. There wasn’t a bombshell akin to Sheik being Zelda as one might hope, but other than that, not much to complain about, other than the fact that the it does take a back seat after the first portion of the game. There will always be those who want their voice-acting, and maybe it is the future, but its omission was hardly travesty. There was still more emphasis placed on story than in the past, and there were a couple of moments that seemed pretty dark for Zelda. The use of darkness and despair was never over the top, though. I’m not going to spoil any plot details, but I will say that Midna is the best character the franchise has seen since the franchise’s conception twenty years ago.
Conclusion:
There are so many other things I’d like to cover, but I am going to stop myself here. The bottom line is that Twilight Princess is an amazing game that lives up to rational expectations. All things considered, I’d place Twilight Princess well ahead of Wind Waker, but just behind the N64 games in terms of overall quality. In other words, by addressing the issues that plagued Wind Waker, Twilight Princess returned the franchise to its untouchable pedestal far above other franchises. It is NOT the quintessential Zelda game that I was naively expecting. It does not quite reach the level of “perfection” of either N64 title. However, it is a game that is more than the sum of its parts, and it should not be missed.