The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

"Within the Twilight..."

First off, let me say that I am a big fan of Ocarina of Time. From when I was younger, to now, I've played and beaten it over ten times. From the seemingly peaceful village, to the Deku Tree, and obtaining the Master Sword, it was an exhilarating experience. Even then, it wasn't over. From Young Link's adventures to Adult, you would have to go through Ganon's hellish version of Hyrule to finally restore peace.

You would see the ingenious puzzles in dungeons, the wonderful locales you'll visit, and sometimes wonder how you would hit that Skulltula that's visible from far away. It was even when you first got Epona, though in terms of usefulness, you really didn't bother to use the horse as much as you would want to wander around on foot. After striking the final blow to Ganon, I found it hard to put down, and started playing again immediately.

Now, after all this time, The Wind Waker and Four Swords have come out. The Wind Waker was a rather good game, except that there was too much sailing to do which made wandering around the world quite a pain. The dungeons were your typical ingenious ones, so I saw it to the end. Four Swords, however, felt like a bad version of ALttP with four Links, so I didn't really find it at all fun. Even though the basis was to use the four Links to solve puzzles and collect force gems, it didn't seem like a Zelda game.

After playing Twilight Princess, I was excited, yet somewhat disappointed. Even though it uses the same winning formula, it just doesn't feel as good as when I finished OoT. Anyway, it's time for the review.

Story: 8/10
Link seems to be seemingly unrelated to anything in the beginning, except for that Triforce symbol on his hand which is your “easy to recognize” sign that, you are indeed Link. From the very first parts in the game, Link helps the villagers and entertains the kids to base out what starts as the story. Eventually, the major 'event' occurs. Afterwards, you are introduced to the Twilight, which is reminiscent of the Dark World with the same type of twist. Eventually, after quite a bit of dungeons and exploration, you'll piece everything together until it all meets at the end. Even though the story would seem to delve deeper than a typical Zelda game, it never reaches its full potential. It is darker from the perspective of other games of its type, but it's not quite there yet.

Graphics: 10/10
The art style done here is truly amazing. It leaves OoT in the dust and even trumps WW in terms of making the world look so alive. There were times I found myself just staring at the scenery. The Twilight was done just as good as well, as it's a much darker world, but with a hazy-ish view. Hyrule, with its sheer size was done quite well, and it's hard to recognize some places even though this is OoT's world from hundreds of years past.

Gameplay: 9/10
As they say… if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Assigning weapons to buttons can still be done via the menu as well as your sword and shield already having a button assigned for them. Link more or less performs exactly as he does as in OoT, except he's faster. Then again, he will have to be because of the sheer size of Hyrule. Even the towns and dungeons have grown larger than before, such as Death Mountain, and Lake Hylia.

Speaking of dungeons, they have the same shine that Nintendo has been using since the NES days, so there's nothing not to like when entering one. You will have to figure out a myriad of puzzles, get that new item, collect everything if you want to, and finally defeat that boss before going on to the next part of the game. Even though the bosses look very impressive, they usually fall quickly and easily, which is fairly disappointing.

Fighting is generally like OoT and WW. You can target enemies and attack them with your sword, or any item that you currently have that can attack. As you get further along, Link picks up new skills to further vary his choices for attacking. Enemies are more common than before, but follow the same pattern bosses do: they are too easy to defeat. As a result, you may just ignore them outright while you're traveling through the fields of Hyrule.

Because of the size of the game, it's a good thing that you get your horse at the beginning, since Hyrule has grown quite a bit. However, your horse, as useful as it is, does lose some of its luster eventually due in part to being able to warp to and from other places. Warping doesn't work like ALttP though, as it can easily be done with your ‘helper' at any time on the fields of Hyrule. Speaking of your helper, she's generally a lot more helpful and a lot less annoying than Navi. She won't annoy you into being given hints (Navi: Hey! Hey!) you may already know about and she helps you reach otherwise unreachable places.

In the Twilight, the rules are somewhat different. When you enter into it, similar to when Link becomes a bunny in ALttP; you become a wolf. Unlike that bunny, however, Wolf Link is actually very useful. Wolf Link can attack similar to Link with clawing/biting and being able to attack within a circle via charging, but he also has differences as well. He's able to sense other beings, buried objects, and follow scents. It's a nice change in pace.

If I have any gripes here, it's the annoyingly large amount of rupees available. Whereas there would be an incentive to actually hunt enemies and cut through grass to find enough rupees to buy whatever you need, there's not one here. There's so many chests with rupees, that most of the time, you'll have the maximum amount. Also, the game is tad bit on the easy side, but the amount of exploration and overall impressive dungeons makes this not much of a problem.

Music/SE: 8.5/10
It's mostly older music from previous Zelda games, which brings back a feeling of nostalgia. Of course, you'll hear sounds such as your sword slashing through enemies, a heart being picked up, and even a chest opening. You'll also hear new ones such as Wolf Link attacking and howling, your ‘helper's' giggles and other various things. The people you talk to make sounds as well, but they really aren't worth talking about as they are rather… odd.

Length: 10/10
Unless you like rushing through your games, expect to spend at least 30-40 hours from start to finish. If you sink in and explore everything this game has to offer, you'll hit the 50-60 hour range easily.

Nintendo still knows how to make a great Zelda game, but I do wish they could do more things that would be unique. Considering how innovative they are, it's a bit of a shame that this only seems like a sequel to OoT, but at the same time, I can't help but to enjoy it. If they were to continue like this, I wouldn't mind, but somehow, I can see them doing so much more…

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/17/07, Updated 01/18/07