Australian Gamer Review :: Zelda

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Zelda - Twilight Princess

Reviewed on: Wii
Available on: Wii, Gamecube

One of Nintendo’s largest and highly popular franchise is back on both the Gamecube and Wii. Link has matured and is about to step foot into a much darker realm, darker than any other Zelda game.

Players: 1 Player
Genre:
Release: 2006-12-07

Developer: Nintendo
Distributor: Nintendo

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One of Nintendo’s largest and highly popular franchise is back on both the Gamecube and Wii. Link has matured and is about to step foot into a much darker realm, darker than any other Zelda game. Twilight Princess takes over from where Ocarina of Time left off. For those who have played and made Ocarina of Time their number one game will quickly recognise the gameplay, art, characters, locations and most importantly.. the storyline.

Twilight Princess begins in Link’s home village called Ordon Village, it’s a very peaceful and quiet town where everybody knows each other. Link is well known around the area for being very helpful to the villagers with certain tasks like raising the live stock, keeping an eye on the kids and finding a missing cat, cute things like that. During these tasks Link learns the ways of the sword from the village’s lone swordsman, Rusi. Rusi is like a father figure for Link as he guides and teaches him the true and honest ways of life.

The town is experiencing problems these days about monkeys causing trouble around the village. During the day some monkeys show up, the kids get over excited and chase them out of town, a certain brave kid follows the monkeys into the forbidden forest. After Link rescues the kids and shows his bravery to the town Link is then given a task from the mayor of Ordon Village to deliver the village’s tribute to Hyrule Castle.

The game couldn’t start off any better, of course what I explained above isn’t even half the story and tasks Link must complete before he heads off for his epic quest. Twilight Princess is a massive game and when Nintendo said that, they really meant it. During Link’s main quest you must complete side quests to gain knowledge, understanding and items to progress through the game. It balances out extremely well making it almost a 40 – 50 hour quest.

Each dungeon within Twilight Princess introduces improved puzzles, brand new items for the Zelda series and.. well as I said before, some of the things you must complete are trickier and clever than ever before. One of the biggest twists in the game is that Link is able to transform into a Wolf. This needs to be done early in the game so Link is able to enter and exit from the Twilight Realm. The storyline and gameplay is heavily based around the Twilight Realm with certain puzzles to complete and bosses who are begging to be slapped in the face by the Master sword.

Without ruining too much of the story for most of you Twilight Princess does hold a very deep and emotional quest for Link, you are most certainly going to enjoy every twist and turn along the way. The world of Hyrule is extremely massive, with lakes and landscape ranging across the sun setting horizon giving you acres of room to ride Epona around to hunt those secrets. To put this to scale, Hyrule field in Twilight Princess is about 10x the size in Ocarina of Time, it’s huge.

After completing Twilight Princess I strongly recommend purchasing Zelda for the Wii, the controls work brilliantly. Never before have you been able to ride upon Epona and whip out the Bow to strike your enemies so easily, quickly and accurately, it really does add to the game. Link’s sword fights still use the classic Z lock-on so Link is able to move freely with the nunchuk and perform swift sword attacks with the Wiimote. Link’s sword movement is precise to how you swing the Wiimote/nunchuk with either horizontal strike, vertical strike or spin moves. Storing the items with the d-pad on the Wiimote is much like assigning them to B, X, Y on the Gamecube or C buttons for the N64. It sticks to the roots and works like a treat.

One of the most impressive control features (only available on Wii) is fishing within Twilight Princess. Yes, the classic fishing which first featured in Ocarina of Time is back and is much deeper than before. Near the beginning of the game Link is given a fishing rod which he can freely carry around and fish from any time for leisure or for quests. But don’t think it stops there, Nintendo has added in a specific area where Link can hire a canoe and fish within a beautiful fishing scenery covered with waterfalls, dense forest, an island and gorgeous water reflections. The fishing rod Link is given this time is much more advanced than his own one as you can properly chuck the rod with your Wiimote and reel in a fish with the nunchuk in a circular motion, so you use the actions you would while fishing in real life. It works like a charm and you can easily spend all day catching fish and adding them to your logs.

One of the biggest issues people have with Twilight Princess is its out of date graphics. The game was originally designed for the Gamecube but Nintendo at the last minute announced it for the Wii with special motion activities. The graphics are indeed slightly out of date but for most of you this won’t bother you at all. The animation and art work in the game is simply astonishing; some of the best character design, scenery and facial expressions that are even fantastic to today’s standards.

The Legend of Zelda is popular and adored by all music fans. Koji Kondo, the father of Nintendo tunes has once again mastered the soundtrack of Twilight Princess by introducing fresh and memorable tunes to the game. Twilight Princess features full orchestrated pieces during cut scenes and gameplay which sounds amazing on Pro Logic II, although Midi’s are played during some gameplay locations which noticeably stand out. Zelda fans will easily recognise some tunes from Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask which will without doubt bring back some golden memories.

Being a great fan to the series and a highly anticipated gamer for Twilight Princess I do have my ups and downs for the game. I’ve clearly mentioned the pro’s about TP above but I’ll take my time here to mention some of the let downs.

There are a few towns in Hyrule field and within those towns are only a few people to interactive with. All fans will know that Link is able to talk to everyone within the village to find gossip and hints on quests. The land of Hyrule is huge, so why is there only three or four towns with about 5 to 10 people within it. It just doesn’t seem as epic and interactive as the previous Zelda titles, so it does take away the interactive social environments I would have liked to enjoy.

Another problem I experienced in Twilight Princess was the lack of side quests. Sure there are side quests you must complete to help Link on his main mission but what about those optional quests? You know the ones I mean, the epic ones where it takes 5 or 6 people to help to obtain a larger bomb bag or something. But within Twilight Princess it takes only 1 person to help and it’s done as quickly as you started it. It takes away the fun and effort gamers used to put in from previous titles.

But apart from those two issues everything else in this game is truly superb. Some of the events you experience in Twilight Princess will be as memorable as those within Ocarina of Time.

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Yug's Comments

I actually picked up the Gamecube version of the game (exclusive to EB) and played through a good 20 hours or so. Graphically it's one of the best looking GameCube games available, although alot of the colours in the environments did feel a bit 'washed out'.

The Gamecube controls while compared to the Wii are of course much more traditional, yet still just as functional. Fishing isn't as exciting, but it still works.

Realistically though, this is Zelda at it's finest, with everything you expect and at the highest quality. I suppose that may have been my main problem ... saving the Gorons AGAIN, unfreezing Zoras domain AGAIN, getting pretty much the exact same weapons ... Ocarina felt epic, Twilight feels like a repeat. A good repeat though :)

Final Verdict

Now time for the big question, is Twilight Princess as good as Ocarina of Time? Comparing these two games together would be rubbish, when Ocarina of Time first came out it introduced a new definition of how to play a game. What Twilight Princess has done was not bring in a new definition, but to build up and improve from where Ocarina of Time had achieved. I will say this under my own breath, Twilight Princess is one of the best entries to the Zelda series and it achieves it with some of the best gameplay, art direction, music and story any developer or publisher have to offer.

Pros
The biggest epic quest Link has ever set foot into, beautiful art, amazing sound, gorgeous cut scenes, imaginative characters, massive landscapes to explore, 40 – 50 hours of gameplay, fishing, and a storyline to die for.
Cons
There could have been a few more side quests to add to lengthen the game, some busy villages feel like a ghost town (where are the people?), it is a Gamecube port so don’t expect world breaking visuals but do expect some fantastic animation, all Zelda titles eventually come to an end.