Reviewed by Richard
I read a review of Twilight Princes from Gamerz Edge before the game came out, and one of the things the reviewer said was “When is a game so good that its other achievements outshine even noticeable technical flaws to the point that they are nearly insignificant? The answer is simple: When it reaches Twilight Princess’ level.” Now that I’ve beaten Twilight Princess I find this to be a very accurate statement. The game does have its technical flaws. But these flaws are absolutely insignificant in the grand scheme of the game. The level of expectation for Twilight Princess was unusually high, even for a Zelda game. Even with those lofty expectations the software gurus at Nintendo did an admirable job of living up to that hype.
It took me a little over 45 hours to beat the game without even thinking about the sidequests. That number would probably shrink to about 40 if I didn’t get stuck so many times only to realize that all I had to do was roll into something, or blow it up. That seemed to be a recurring theme in this game. Many times you will find yourself stuck somewhere using everything in your inventory, desperate to find the solution. Then after a lot of wasted time you’ll find that the answer was way simpler than you ever imagined. I got the impression that the game designers purposely made it like this. But that doesn’t mean that everything in the game is easy. There were a good share of difficult puzzles as well. A few of them were on a degree of difficulty unseen in Zelda games before. If you had any qualms about getting the game for Wii, put them to rest. The Wii is the system to get for this game. I found the Wiimote slashing pretty fun, though I wish there was an option to be able to use a button to swing the sword. Regardless, the controls work seamlessly and after a while you will forget that you’re holding a remote in your hand.
This is definitely the most difficult of the 3-D Zelda’s. I hesitate to say of all Zelda’s because the 2-D ones were made in a different era of gaming where programming restrictions and lack of standards in the industry meant that those games had an overall higher degree of difficulty than the games we see today. You can definitely tell the designers made a clear effort to increase the difficulty. If The Wind Waker was a Zelda game for everyone, Twilight Princess is a Zelda game for the hardcore fan.
To be honest, I expected the overworld of the game to be bigger. At first I was a little disappointed, but as I played it I realized that magnitude was not an issue. It was clear the designers were going for a deeper, more detailed over world, rather than just a huge one. One of the biggest arguments that antagonists to The Wind Waker had was that the overworld was boring and empty. This is a pretty good argument, because even though The Wind Waker had one of the biggest overworlds in gaming history, what was there really to do in it? Beat up a few sharks every once in a while? I think Nintendo realized this and decided to go with the moderately sized (though still pretty damn big) overworld full of life and hidden secrets.
Of course the biggest surprise of the game was Link’s transformation to a wolf. When I first heard of this, I was a little worried. I felt that this was too drastic a change and wouldn’t feel quite like a real Zelda game. Boy was I wrong. The wolf Link segments are exceptional, and very fun. You get a full explanation of why Link transforms into a wolf in the first place, and why he is and isn’t able to exist in wolf or human form in certain places. Surprisingly, after beating the game, I kind of wish the game did more to be unique. It’s definitely a true Zelda game at heart. But beyond the Link turning into a wolf thing, there really isn’t anything truly special about the game. Though I haven’t completed any sidequests yet, so that could very well change. It may be asking too much, because this game takes the classic Zelda formula and basically perfects it. But with such high hype comes high expectations.
One thing I really liked in this game was the items. The inventory menu was set up so that you can’t tell how many items you’ll end up with. Some of the items, and the uses for them, the Zelda team came up are truly out of this world. In fact one particular item in my opinion is the greatest item in the entire Zelda franchise, if not video games in general.
Depending on who you talk to, Twilight Princess is either an outstanding graphical game, or a mediocre one. Even though it’s being promoted for Wii, it’s really a GameCube game that was ported to Wii. So I think its fair that you treat it as a GameCube game when discussing graphics. That being said, the graphics are stunning. Make no mistake about that. I remember at the E3 ‘05 press conference Nintendo told us that the graphic engine was actually a heavily modified version of The Wind Waker’s graphics engine. If you really pay close attention to the visuals you can see the cel-shaded influence. I think this subtle impact adds a unique element to the visuals. I wouldn’t say that the graphics look realistic, but they are very beautiful with the excellent lighting and water effects. The classic smudgy Zelda textures are still there, but I’m not complaining. This is one of those minor details that is overshadowed by the good things around it.
Being a game music guru I was very critical of Twilight Princess’ music coming in. But I can confidently says that this game has one of the best game soundtracks in years. It doesn’t have the same greatness of the Ocarina of Time soundtrack, but I highly doubt any Zelda game will. Ocarina of Time centered on music, and made for some of the most memorable tunes in video game history. Twilight Princess’ music, however, is much more subtle. It has music that won’t really make a big impact on you when you first hear it. But as the game goes on you’ll find more and more songs getting stuck in your head. The main theme of the game plays countless times, but it wasn’t until it played during the credits that I really started to appreciate it as a beautiful song.
Almost every Zelda game up until this point has followed the same basic formula. Link must save Princess Zelda and Hyrule from Ganon by collecting a certain amount of a certain item by exploring dungeons and defeating the beasts within. In Twilight Princess, that same basic Zelda element is still there but with an added dimension. I don’t want to get into any spoilers but let’s just say that the main storyline goes beyond Link, Zelda and Ganon. There are certain moments in this game that I’m still playing back in my head and trying to figure out exactly what it all meant. If you really pay close attention, you will begin to see some elements of storytelling that you find in modern literature.
The dungeons are superb. They follow the same theme as the rest of the game. They aren’t overly huge as a lot of people thought they would be (though still pretty big). But the amount of detail in them is what really makes them special. The boss battles I thought were unique and a lot of fun, but some were pretty easy. They all follow the same basic Zelda formula of find keys and solve puzzles to get to a mini-boss who protects an item you need to get to the main boss. But they are just so much more elaborate than in any other Zelda game.
The only thing I really disliked about this game was how there just wasn’t anything that grabbed me by the throat and surprised the hell out of me. During the hype leading up to release, I wanted to believe that something was going to happen in the game that would shake up the Zelda franchise and do something totally different that even the most loyal fans wouldn’t expect. But at its heart it really is just a meat and potatoes kind of Zelda. But with the finest quality meat and your grandma’s famous sweet potatoes. Kudos to the Zelda staff for coming up with the wolf idea. It was definitely a great innovation to the series and made for some fun, exciting gameplay. I give Twilight Princess a 9.7 out of 10. The minor technical problems of the game made little difference to me. But I feel like the game is just lacking a little something. There is an intangible missing that I think most of us expected with all the hype the game received. Make no mistake about it though, Twilight Princess is a must have. I have a feeling there will be very few games this generation that will be able to top this game.
