The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

"An extremely well-made game that's just not much fun to play"

This was a pretty hard game to review. First of all, I'm dealing with what's arguably been one of the most highly anticipated games in years. It has attracted huge amounts of attention since its announcement and a lot of care went into the game's development. This shows in the finished product. What we have here is a very big, and extremely well-made game but unfortunately, it's just not much fun to play. Too often, the gameplay in Twilight Princess is "more work than fun" and while long-time Zelda fans are going to love this, everyone else may find it to be pretty slow and even boring.

I fall into the latter category. Although I played only about an hour of Ocarina of Time on the N64, (not much, I know) I consider my first Zelda experience to have been Wind Waker on the Gamecube. Although not all Zelda fans were thrilled by its overly-cute cel shaded graphics, easy difficulty, and small amount of dungeons....I really ended up liking it. The game had a real sense of adventure, it had a great atmosphere, it had a very imaginative world that was brought to life by great cel shaded graphics, and it was a blast to play. When Twilight Princess was announced, I was really excited to experience another great adventure in a different, darker, and more realistic setting. Unfortunately, (to the delight of Zelda fans, I'm sure,) the game ends up being way too heavy on the dungeons.

Graphics; This was designed from the beginning as a Gamecube game and it looks like it. The lighting effects are excellent, however, and the water effects are unbelievable. Some of the areas feature amazing art direction and despite the overall dated look of the game, I was blown away by some areas. That said, though, I really can't cut these graphics much slack because this is a Wii game; the graphics should have been improved for it. It was a decision made by producer Shigeru Miyamoto in order to be fair to Gamecube owners who were not planning on purchasing the Wii; he wanted the game to look the same on both consoles. Unfortunately, it ends up making the entire visuals suffer as a result, giving us a pretty dated-looking game that even by last-gen standards doesn't amaze. (Final Fantasy XII's graphics completely beat out Twilight Princess's hands down.) Even if they didn't want to update the graphics for the Wii version, they could have at least fixed some of the issues with it. Castle Town is the main hub of the world, yet exploring it isn't fun; the load times are unnecessarily long and coupled with the (obviously) pre-rendered backgrounds in use in the town (which prevent you from controlling the camera,) exploring Castle Town ends up being a tedious, claustrophobic experience. A far cry from the big, bustling, and fully real-time Sailor Town from Wind Waker.

The overworld map is expansive but dull, featuring bland-looking fields with very little activity aside from the same enemies randomly appearing to be easily dealt with. Luckily, unlike Wind Waker, this game does manage to keep a very solid framerate.

My biggest problem with the visuals, though, is the style. Wind Waker's cartoony world may have been a little too sugary at times but it at least had personality. The problem here is that the designers didn't seem able to decide if they wanted to go with a light or dark game. Early trailers showed some areas, such as the Twilight Realm, as well as various forests, looking very dark and creepy with an almost Silent Hill-like atmosphere. Unfortunately, none of this has made it into the final product and we end up with a world that's neither as warm and welcoming as Wind Waker's nor dark and foreboding enough. They really should have just picked one and stuck to it; if you're going to go with a dark world, MAKE IT DARK AND CREEPY! It seems like they wussed out on us. Eiji Aonuma, the director, said in some interviews long before the game's release that his plan was to make a world so dark that at night, you wouldn't dare leave town without a lantern. I wanted to see a world like this, and I'm disappointed that it didn't turn out that way.

Graphics overall; it's kind of unfortunate that some outstanding art direction is put to waste in what ultimately ends up being a dated-looking game. To top it all off, the graphics style can't seem to decide if it wants to be light or dark, resulting in a world that can only be described as bland.

Gameplay; The biggest change featured in the Wii version over the Gamecube version is the motion controls. Sword swinging, as well as aiming, is done with the Wii-mote's motion sensing. It works surprisingly well for something that was added at the last minute and really ends up making the game feel much fresher than it otherwise would have. Aiming works perfectly with the remote, and the sword swinging, while far from deep, is extremely fun and makes the combat system an area where the game really shines. While there are plenty of other areas in the game where Wii-mote controls would have been fun, I realize that they didn't have much time to implement them, so it's alright. This game definitely doesn't show what the Wii can do but it gives us a taste of how the Wii-mote can improve gameplay in regular games. New control scheme aside, the game plays like every other 3-D Zelda game. You walk (although very slowly,) across a big overworld to go to towns or dungeons. You can also ride on horseback, although unfortunately, the horse's controls are pretty sluggish, and you'll eventually be making heavy use of the warp feature that's available to you fairly early on. The Zelda series is known for its (in many people's eyes) perfect gameplay and Twilight Princess delivers a really excellent gameplay experience that makes me wonder why Nintendo doesn't make more big, epic games like these.

That's not to say that the gameplay is flawless...the game provides you with very little assistance for if you forget where you're supposed to go for whatever reason. A good deal of time is spent controlling a wolf, who basically controls exactly like Link; but without any of his cool weapons or moves. The overworld is bland-looking and extremely devoid of any people or activity. In the days of games like Oblivion and Fable, this is pretty unacceptable. Enemies appear way too frequently and present no sort of challenge, making disposing of them pretty tedious. The 2-D map system isn't exactly useful when in dungeons, and the fishing controls are never satisfactorily explained to you. Oh, and the game freezes in its tracks to tell you "You've just picked up 20 Rupees!" every single time you get them out of a treasure chest, which is annoying. Some flaws aside, though, Twilight Princess is a blast in the gameplay department. Very well-made and extremely fun to control. It's what they chose to DO with this gameplay that's the problem...

The world they've created (bland overworld aside) is very amazing, with some very nice-looking towns and villages, some very nice forests and cool deserts and lakes.....unfortunately, you don't get to spend much time in this world; instead, almost the entire game takes place in dark dungeons. These dungeons are often extremely huge, they usually take hours to complete, and they're loaded with puzzles, keys, etc. There are many floors to the dungeons, and you will often have to do a lot of problem solving, as well as tons of backtracking and platform-hopping in these dungeons. They do challenge you and make you work; that was their intent, so in that view, the developers were successful. However....what can I say? I play video games to have fun, and it's very difficult for me to enjoy what ultimately becomes "more work than fun." These vast, sprawling dungeons are all too long by AT LEAST a half hour, they are often unnecessarily large, they rely on repetitive actions, there's tons of backtracking, and many puzzles. Some are clever. Most, however, are simply a case of a crucial object (like a hook for your hookshot) being out of the gamer's viewpoint, for example, up on the ceiling. Unless Nintendo expected you to switch to 1st person view and look up at the ceiling every time you entered a room, I'm not sure how they expected you to figure situations like these out without FAQ's and guides.

What makes these huge dungeons even worse is an archaic save system; you can save your progress during a dungeon, but when you load up the game again, you'll be back at the beginning, having to trek ALL THE WAY back to your location, and who wants to do that? So you basically have to complete dungeons in 1 sitting, which can become stressful as some are easily over the 2-hour mark. The layouts of many dungeons also feature many similar-looking corridors and hallways, making getting lost (or forgetting where you were supposed to go) very easy. Unfortunately, these dungeons occupy most of the game. After about the half way mark in this very long, 45-hour game, you go basically from dungeon to dungeon...to dungeon, to dungeon, one right after another. Some of them, like the very unnecessary Sky City dungeon, are completely pointless to the game's storyline. Thankfully the game goes easy on you after that one for the last couple of dungeons and some of these amazing bosses have to be seen to be believed, but it doesn't make up for the fact that what started off as a very fun experience soon turns into a chore. Why turn on a game when you know you're heading off to do more work for another 2 hours? Is that really why we play video games? Zelda fans are used to dungeons, and they enjoy the challenge and they consider it to be the backbone of the Zelda series. That's great; Twilight Princess was made for them. For everyone else, though, I really have difficulty recommending a game that will simply not be much fun.

Gameplay overall; It's really a shame because the world created here is very nice, and it's kind of sad to see almost all the buildings in Castle Town and all the charming characters (aside from Midna, whose always with you) go completely to waste because...you're simply not there. You're always busy in some dungeon. There's a certain charm in the world of Zelda (like when you enter a house or store) and the world's got some great and imaginative ideas that I just wish the developers would have focused more on. Instead, we end up with a game that's actually not fun to play despite the excellent gameplay engine, and the overall experience is tiring and even a bit boring.

Sound; Let's get this out of the way immediately; this game does not feature voice acting and it's missed very much. It drains a lot of the impact from cutscenes and makes them (in order to accommodate the subtitles) have to move slower, which takes you right out of the game. It's time to join the 21st century, Nintendo, and voice the Zelda series.

The music is unfortunately pretty bad as well. It's MIDI, not orchestrated, and it overall gives the game a pretty cheap sound. That's not to say there aren't some great songs here; classic Zelda themes are well worked into some areas of the game and to great effect, and the overworld music at night is actually suitably creepy. But a lot of the songs in the game (such as the daytime overworld theme and that ANNOYING music that plays every time an enemy shows up,) are extremely hard on the ears and I found myself having to lower the volume at times because the music was just getting on my nerves. Wind Waker was mostly MIDI as well, and I don't remember it having this problem, so I have no idea what happened here.

What really works, though, is when the music's cut entirely, and you get to savor the amazing atmosphere that Nintendo creates in the Zelda series. The sound effects, the look of the environments, ...everything combines to make the world feel EXTREMELY real and very relaxing. Every time the music is taken away, it's almost like a treat, and you get to savor the amazing and peaceful atmosphere created here with some excellent sound effects and lighting. (Especially at night.) Great job in that area.

Sound overall; Game suffers greatly from lack of voice work, the music sounds outdated and frankly isn't great to begin with. However, atmosphere's something the Zelda series has always excelled in and that's no different here. Terrific sound effects that completely draw you into the world.

Storyline; This is a category in which this game received a lot of praise but it left me very underwhelmed. Maybe it's because I play a lot of RPG's, but I just found nothing to get excited about here. The story basically consisted of nothing but one "collect-a-thon" after another, with you going from one dungeon to another to collect "4 pieces of shadow" or "8 pieces of a mirror" or whatever...the plot's basically all an excuse to get you from one dungeon to another. The villain features no development whatsoever, very little is actually done with the Twilight Realm, and the characters are all strictly in the background. After Wind Waker provided us with a very memorable cast of characters (including King, Zelda, Link's sister, Link's grandma, those talking trees, among others,) Twilight Princess instead gives us nothing but dungeons, making all characters (except Midna, who accompanies you) completely in the background and completely forgettable. Even Zelda herself plays a very minimal role in the storyline. Most upsetting, though, is that like with the graphics style, they couldn't seem to decide if they wanted to go with a dark storyline or a light one...in the end, it feels like they tried a dark storyline, but were too afraid to make the game "scary for little kids." (Unnecessary; there's no way in hell little kids could play and finish this game.) There are some very creepy moments in a couple cutscenes, but the overall storyline just isn't dark enough, with a lot of violence happening offscreen (if at all) and despite the Teen rating (a first for the series) this game seems even a little less violent than Wind Waker. I really think some potential was missed here. This shallow storyline isn't really helped by a final villain who pops up out of nowhere, as well as the fact that the game often abandons the plot for hours and hours on end. Definitely a step back from Wind Waker in this regard.

Storyline overall; Despite some pretty creepy moments, the plot just doesn't feel dark enough for what they were trying to do, and attempts at humor (like an annoying postman) fall flat almost all the time. Lack of voice acting hurts, and the dialogue itself is nothing to write home about either, with all characters basically sounding the same. The plot relies too heavily on "collecting stuff" and very few characters have any opportunity for development. Overall, pretty disappointing.

Verdict; The Legend of Zelda; Twilight Princess is a great example of the type of great game Nintendo can make if they TRY. A lot of care and time went into making this game "the best it could be" and it all shows. The last-minute Wii controls work surprisingly well, and the game's atmosphere and vast world are top notch. Unfortunately, the decision to go overboard with the dungeons ends up turning a fun game into a chore, and while many long-time Zelda fans will welcome all these dungeons, a lot of the rest of us will find the game to be pretty boring. Overall outdated presentation and flat storyline really don't help things either. If you're a big Zelda fan...you already own this game so I don't really even need to tell you to get it. If you're a gamer whose relatively new to the Zelda series, though, (and especially if you're a casual gamer,) I'd recommend renting this first to see how you like it. If you find yourself bored during the first few dungeons, it'll be a pretty good indication that you won't like the rest of the game much. My overall thoughts are that while I really respect the game, I can't recommend it to anyone except long-time Zelda fans.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/07