The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

True exploration and adventure is something of a rarity in video games nowadays. Ocarina of Time was one of the first games to introduce exploration and adventure to the third dimension; in turn bringing a greater sense of immersion than ever experienced before. Since then, other than the odd game outside of the Zelda series, you’d have to wait until the latest Legend of Zelda game to experience this type of gameplay.

Twilight Princess sees you play the role of Link, an adolescent farm boy living in Ordon. Link was assigned the task of delivering a present to the royal family courtesy of the mayor. But, he and his friends get kidnapped, and have been taken to separate places. You get taken to Hyrule Castle, where you meet Midna and learn that the land of Hyrule has been taken over by Zant; the self-proclaimed ‘king of twilight’. Zant wishes to engulf the whole world in Twilight, and has nearly accomplished that. That only describes the first few hours of the game. The games ‘prologue’ sets the scene for a darker, far more epic Zelda game. The games plot twists won’t be spoiled in this review, but are executed brilliantly.

I consider Twilight Princess to be the spiritual successor to Ocarina of Time. From the introduction video alone, anyone who has ever played Ocarina of Time will pick up a scent of déjà vu. Link majestically rides Epona through Hyrule field, the camera swinging around them to give you a perfect view of Hyrule Field; yet barely scratching the surface of how much you have to explore.

It stays true to the tried and tested Zelda formula which Ocarina helped to create, whilst adding huge improvements and refinements, and adding some new gameplay elements; the most important being Wolf Link.

This being a game on the Wii, Twilight Princess has some motion controls implemented into it. You simply shake the Wii remote to swing your sword, and shaking the nunchuck to perform a spin attack. Sure, ‘waggle’ controls are nothing unique in a Wii game anymore. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Wii game without waggle. But, the controls work well. Unlike a lot of Wii games, they aren’t overdone. The motion controls are simple, un-complicated, and will eventually feel like second nature to pull off when you play, if not within the first few minutes. Combat has been changed a bit from the previous Zelda games.

Old weapons also make an appearance; such as the bow and arrow, the slingshot, the hookshot, and others. As you’d imagine, those which I’ve mentioned use pointer controls; which work very well. You can adjust the sensitivity of the pointer, but the default sensitivity works perfectly, resulting in surprisingly precise shots. It’s much easier to defeat an enemy using the bow and arrow with the pointer. This does seem like an odd thing to use at close range though; the game features a lock-on system like in the previous Zelda games.

Midna is a new face who follows in the footsteps of Navi from Ocarina of Time; offering you helpful hints where they’re needed. As I have said earlier, Link will turn into a wolf in this game, and it’s while playing as a wolf that Midna becomes much more useful than Navi was. She will be able to help you reach high areas which you can’t get to on your own, give you an extra ability in combat, and will allow you to teleport to certain areas. Midna will also be able to take things with her; an example being a missing part of a bridge.

The wolf has the added advantages of senses and digging. You bring up these senses with the side button on the D-Pad, and it brings up a filtered view of what you see on the screen, where you can see things, and sometimes people which you cannot see without senses. This helps gain information, and also gives an indication of places where you can dig. Areas which you can dig into are flashing when your senses are turned on, and are slightly rougher and darker in the normal view. You can dig up different items; like hearts and rupees. Also, you’ll often be able to dig your way underground to get into a certain area.

Playing as a wolf is fun, but, at least for the first half of the game, can seem like a bit of a chore sometimes. You see, in the first half of the game, you’ll normally follow a set pattern; get to a new area, turn into a wolf, rid the area of twilight, turn back into a human, and go to a dungeon. Rinse and repeat, and that pretty much sums up what the first half has to offer.

The process of ridding the area of twilight did often get tedious. You’d talk to the Light Spirit in the area, and would be given the Vessel of Light. You’d have to fill up the vessel of light by collecting all of the tears of light in the area. Thankfully, this process is scrapped halfway through the game; and you’ll gain the ability to transform into a wolf and back into a human as often as you’d like to.

The combat as a wolf is different from the combat as a human, giving you an advantage when facing certain enemies. When locked on, you can lunge with the A button which is preferable for enemies which are further away, you shake the Wii remote for a close range and aggressive attack, and you can do the back-flips and side-steps that you can do as a human. It seems pretty similar so far, but there’s more. With the help of Midna, you can hold the B trigger to summon an energy field. Releasing B when enemies are inside it will make Wolf Link lunge at each of the enemies, often killing average enemies instantly. For some enemies, you could perform a lunge attack, and it would then give you the option of repeatedly biting the enemy by mashing the A button.

A huge chunk of the main quest in the game is the dungeons. These dungeons are larger than in any other Zelda game, and feature some interesting, albeit easy, puzzles. Each dungeon is normally split into two halves. The first half is exploring what you can with the items you already have. What splits the two halves up is defeating a boss in the middle; usually to be rewarded with a new item. The second half of the dungeon consists of you exploring the areas that could only be seen with your new weapon, and eventually fighting a boss that you can only defeat with your new weapon. It’s a set up which has never gotten tedious in any of the other Zelda games; and this game is no exception. The bosses are all very well designed, each with their own set of attacks and also their own weaknesses. Some of them can get a bit easy, but they’re all fun to fight against. The dungeons are all very well designed.

How much you can explore is one of those things which can separate a great adventure game from a true adventure classic. The different Zelda’s have all had enormous areas, crammed with secrets that only those gamers with the eye for exploration will find. Nintendo proudly claim that Twilight Princess is the ‘biggest Zelda adventure of all time’.

And this is no mean feat. But Nintendo have somehow managed to pull it off; creating a world which can be explored to a ridiculous extent. Hyrule Field is a great example. It can take a huge amount of your time to simply walk around its perimeter without stopping; it’s that vast a land. On your first time through, you can sink forty to fifty hours into the game; and this is only when you do what the story presents right in front of you.

Another improved feature from Ocarina of Time is the horseback mechanic. Link can ride on his horse; Epona, summoning her using a whistle. Unlike in Ocarina of Time, you can use your sword while riding your horse, as well as the bow and arrow. Even when you gain the power to warp, you’ll still enjoy occasionally using the horse; if anything because shooting an arrow at someone while Epona is moving is incredibly satisfying.

Twilight Princess was designed for the Gamecube, and then ported to the Wii as a launch title. That being said, the graphics are still fantastic. They’re easily the best graphics I have seen on the Gamecube, with a lot of detail put into the character models and a good use of bloom effects. Because these are Gamecube graphics, they aren’t exactly pushing the Wii hardware. That being said, these graphics are better than those featured in most, if not all third party Wii games.

The music in Zelda games are a testament to how great Nintendo’s composers are. Like in the other games, Twilight Princess has a phenomenal soundtrack; ranging from adventurous and epic to calm and relaxing. Because the game was made for the Gamecube originally, the music is not orchestrated, but MIDI instead. It’s still one of my favourite Zelda soundtracks ever.

I could easily write a lot more detailing every nook and cranny; every boss battle, every character and every location to be seen in the game. There’s so much to see in this game, many of it you will want to see on your own. Twilight Princess is a great evolution for the series, vastly improving on what Ocarina did. Although it won’t be nearly as influential as Ocarina of Time, it’s still one of the best, most charming games you’ll ever play, and provides a long lasting experience. Buy it now or regret it.

Overall: 9.7

+ The game’s a behemoth

+ The wolf is a great new feature

+ A fantastic evolution of Ocarina of Time

- Gathering all of the ‘Tears of Light’ can get tedious

- Some of the puzzles are a bit easy

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