The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

"Zelda, Twilight Princess, Legend of Zelda"

So after about 110 hours of gameplay that took over a month, I finally reached the end of Twilight Princess. I know there are a lot of people who have complained about numerous things with this game but I found them to be very minor and not enough to detract from the overall score. To this day my favorite Zelda game has always and probably always will be Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past from the Super NES. The first 3D Zelda game I ever played was Ocarina of Time and as much as I loved that game, I felt that there were some things that could've been done better. The fact there was no real "Light World/Dark World" type feature that Link To The Past had was a major disappointment and the fact that the ending disappointed me a lot. The control and camera were also problems in that game but I feel that almost everything in Twilight Princess fixed every problem that I had with the other Zelda games. Many will disagree with me but this is the best Zelda game I have ever played next to A Link To The Past.

Gameplay 10: This is one of the most fun Zelda games to play because there is so much you can do in it. There is horseback combat for the first time ever in a Zelda game. Another touch that was really nice is the fact that there is a Dark World (Twilight Realm) and a Light World in it just like in A Link To The Past and it works pretty well. Maybe not as perfect as that game but its pretty close. There is a ton of different type of weapons and items in this game. Some are used more than others but they all serve a purpose and are fun to use. A lot of them were newer like the Ball and Chain, Spinner, Bomb Arrows, Water Bombs and the Double Clawshot (which is 2 clawshots). Most of the game is classic Zelda but what the Zelda team did with this game is very impressive.

It plays like a dream and its so epic that its hard not to get caught up in the game. The dungeons are pretty impressive and some are very big and take a lot of time to get through. The bosses are awesome to look at and play against. I guess I wish they could've been harder but no Zelda game I have ever played had a boss I found frustratingly hard. The boss fights play out just like they did in Ocarina except there are usually a few extra steps to defeat certain ones that might not be immediately obvious. The Spider boss did give me the creeps I have to admit battling gigantic spiders isn't my thing since I hate spiders. The final battle I felt was awesome and played out much better than the final battle in Ocarina of Time.

A lot of problems with Ocarina were fixed, I didn't find myself fighting the camera hardly at all and the controls are very smooth. I also love how with the Wii version you can point and aim arrows using the controller which makes things much easier than with when I played the GameCube version. I guess my only gripe is some of the mini-games sucked (Rollgoal comes to mind its evil) but most of those are optional. I would've liked to have seen more of the Twilight Realm in the game but it would've probably just have dragged the game on. Speaking of which you could morph into a wolf and into human form in this game and although I enjoyed being Link in human form, wolf form was kinda fun too. You have different abilities in wolf form like you change your view into a "Sense view" and see things you couldn't see before.

You battle pretty much the same way except instead of using a sword you use your teeth, tail and Midna. The game is HUGE, its the biggest Zelda game I have ever played. It took me 110 hours to beat (they said average is 60) to complete every last little thing. You can easily get lost in this game its so big and there is a lot you can do, be it doing one of the different mini-games or going on to the next part of the adventure. The only small issue with how big it is is it sometimes drags on. Sometimes your going to place to place and it just takes forever to get to dungeon # w/e and beat it. I think each dungeon took me between 2-4 hours depending which one it was with the the last 2 taking the least amount of time. Getting to those dungeons and doing all the things in between seems to take an eternity. A game being long doesn't really bother me nor is it a real negative. Its just when you start going "when is it ever gonna end" that kind of makes you impatient. Its pretty much perfect gameplay wise.

Story 10:Most Zelda games don't have much of a storyline but with the 3D games Nintendo has tried to incorporate more of a storyline to the games. This one by far has the most storyline of any of the Zelda games. The storyline is just epic and its awesome from the beginning to the end. Its the kind of game you really want to just keep playing to see what happens next. The story involves of course Link from Hyrule who lives in the village of Ordon who leaves to deliver a sword to the royal family but on the way the Twilight starts to engulf the Light. When the Twilight Realm starts to engulf the Light World the Light people turn into spirt form. Along with the problem of Twilight engulfing the Light World (since Light and Shadow can't co-exist) comes the fact that the Twilight Realm has been shrouded in evil. A mysterious person by the name of Zant who is trying to rule the Twilight Realm using evil powers and magic is behind it to an extent.

Eventually you find out who is the real mastermind and behind it all which is always the same antagonist in every Zelda game. What really added to the storyline for me was Midna, this mysterious little Twili person who helps you out through your adventure for unknown reasons. Its not revealed till almost the end why she is helping you at all but I really liked Midna in the game and by the end of the game started to really like her as a character. Most the characters are pretty cool and fun to talk to with everyone having a different type of personality. Its got one of the most involved story lines I have seen in a Zelda game and as usual, Link is your "Silent Protaganist" as always. It would be cool to see him one day actually say something but he does show emotion through facial expressions, reactions and grunts so you can kind of tell what he is thinking. There is no Voice Overs other than what Midna says in her weird language that is indecipherable. For once the game doesn't completely focus around Princess Zelda and w/o giving away too much the term "Twilight Princess" isn't what you would think initially. It really threw me off but in a very good way, like "wow that is different." The ending wrapped things up perfectly and eventhough it was a little bit sad, it worked pretty well. Amazing storyline and its gonna be hard to top it in future Zelda games.

Graphics 10: Eventhough I played the Wii version and it is a game that is on the Wii, it was never meant for it. This game was built from the ground up for the Nintendo GameCube. The only reason it ever saw release on the Wii was because the game was delayed a year for extra development and the Wii was right around the corner. The only differences between the 2 games are the motion controls, controller features (speaker on the Wii Remote is used) and Link is a righty in the Wii version instead of a lefty. Everything is mirrored between the 2 versions because of the hand Link holds his sword in (so a path that goes right in the Wii version goes left in the GameCube version). It also has a 16:9 Widescreen option for the Wii over the GC version. Now I could be stupid and rate the graphics for this game for what the Wii can do but honestly that would be unfair since this is a port of a GameCube game that is 99% the same.

None of the graphics have been changed from 1 version to another so this is not a good benchmark for what the Wii is capable of but for the GameCube this is as good as GameCube graphics can get. This game is beautiful, everything from the graphics to the art is just so inspired. Its kind of like when you first played Ocarina of Time and you were going down Hyrule Field and saw the sun setting. Its about 5x better in this game and the way the colors just bend and reflect really gives the game that much more atmosphere. Speaking of atmosphere the graphics really do make this game more atmospheric. Its a very vibrant game and even has an organic feel to it sometimes. Some people had issues with the textures or the clipping issues but this is an issue in most games from the console it was built for. None of those minor graphical issues bothered me nor did it detract from my enjoyment of the game. The graphics are awesome and its probably one of the most beautiful GameCube games out there.

Sound 10: For whatever reason many have had issues with the sound quality in this game. I actually didn't see what the big issue was.
I am no audiophile but I felt that the game had good sound with a lot of pieces being recycled from older games that gave it a nostalgic feel. The newer pieces are just as awesome as well and Koji Kondo really did deliver with the music. It really adds to the game's feel and it makes every moment of the game more powerful. Its a beautiful soundtrack and even if some of them are MIDI type pieces it doesn't bother me since I am more of an old-school gamer anyways. Soundtrack is everything I could ask for.

Replay Value 8: This is really the only problem with this game is that once you beat it, you have beaten it. There is no real reason to go back through it unless you just want to relive the same thing over again. It is a long game and there is a lot of stuff you could possibly miss from your first play through. There are tons of side/fetchquests to do in the game but for me it's probably gonna be awhile till I pick it up again and go through it.

Overall 10/10:Its perfect in just about every way with just a few minor gripes thrown in for good measure. A lot of people probably think I am nuts for liking this game for as much as I did and after attempting to beat it 3x I finally managed to play through the whole game. Its everything a real Zelda fan could want in a Zelda game and although it borders on retread territory, there is enough new stuff to keep it from feeling that way all the time. If you have a Wii or a GameCube, like Zelda games and haven't played this one, I can say its one of the best.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/09

Game Release: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (US, 11/19/06)