Submitted by: Nick Rathman at 28/11/06
Game rating: 9.8
GameScore: 9
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Editors Plus Rating: +.8
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The Legend of Zelda is a name known to gamers of all walks of life. Known for its long history and its addicting and groundbreaking gameplay. With classic titles such as 'A Link to the Past' and 'Ocarina of Time' -- the latter of which is considered by many to be THE best game ever created -- , it is quite a feat for any game to surpass these timeless classics. A game is out now that may just surpass these classic games, and not surprisingly it is yet another Legend of Zelda game. And it is Twilight Princess.
As you have probably heard many times before by now, the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess starts you off in a small rural village in the province of Ordon. Link, a young farm hand who is also adept in the ways of the sword, is assigned to bring a gift to the royal family of Hyrule. However, things start to go bad quickly. Link is knocked unconcious and his friends are kidnapped. Upon Links awakening, he discovers he has been transformed into a wolf and put in a jail cell. He also discovers an odd looking character by the name of Midna, who becomes your companion for the rest of your journey. That is pretty much as far as I will tell you story wise, as I do not want to spoil the epic storyline for you.
This game is also huge. And I mean it when I say huge.
Thought the Wind Waker had a big over-world?
It is nothing compared to that of Twilight Princess. There is also a ton of things to do in this game that are not neccesarily required to advance the game. There is 45 heart peices to collect, 24 bugs to collect, several treasure filled caves swarming with enemys to explore, tons of minigames, sidequests and more.
Without doing any of the side-quests etc. , this game can easily take you around 60 hours to beat (versus 6-10 hours for your average game ). It boasts 9 expansive dungeons that will always have you doing mind bending puzzles and trying to figure out how to make your way to the dungeons boss, which means you could easily be spending hours in a single dungeon. Between dungeons there is also loads to do, so more often than not you will be spending an hour or so doing various things before you even start to make your way to the next dungeon.
Twilight Princess also features some of the most interesting items I have seen in any game thus far. I won't spoil too much of them for you, but there is one item I have come across that simply can't be spoiled. It is the spinner. A device that looks a bit like a gear combined with a drill. Link actually gets on top of the spinner and rides it! It is a very unique and very fun item indeed.
You are probably wondering how the game feels, due to the different control scheme that Nintendo introduced with the Nintendo Wii. I know that there are many skeptics out there that believe that the new control scheme will/does suck and that the Gamecube version will be far superior, but I am happy to say these skeptics are wrong. The game has strayed from the control scheme that has pretty much stayed the same throughout the entire franchise, or at least since Ocarina of Time. Fortunately, this is a good thing.
The game offers a fresh control scheme. Simply swing (or shake) the WiiMote to swing links sword. It is not 1:1 sword swinging though. Swing or shake the WiiMote any which way you want, but link will always do a horizontal slice (or a combo). To change how link swings, you can use Z targetting to have him to a verticle slice, Z target and push forward to thrust, shake the nunchuck attachment to do a swing attack, or you can do the jump attack, which is also the least engaging sword maneuver, as it is simply Z target + A button. This control scheme is far far more engaging then the standard B button mashing.
A welcome feature to swordplay in Zelda is the ability to run AND attack at the same time, while in previous titles link had to stop to swing the sword. While this doesn't really give a whole lot of tactical advantage, it sure is fun to do. Another feature is the ability to learn new sword attacks. This isn't new to the franchise however (Minish Cap did this to), but it is a first to a 3D Zelda adventure.
There is about 7 or 8 'hidden skills' for you to learn, and they are great. Among one of my favorites is the shield bash. It doesn't actually damage the enemy, but instead stuns them and leaves them vulnerable. To perform the shield bash you thrust the nun-chuck forward and link smashes his sheild into the enemy.
The sound is also great. Classic Zelda tunes make a return to the series, as well as several new tunes that are either variations of older ones or completely new. The sound is in midi, but this does not really affect the quality, plus it allows for dynamic music to come into play.
The WiiMotes speaker also plays a big roll in sound effects. Every time you throw an item, use one of your many items, roll into a wall, swing your sword, fill up your bottle etc. , it all comes out of the WiiMotes internal speaker. The character Midna also does a creepy little giggle when she wants you to talk to her (Much the same way that navy from Ocarina would say "Hey! Look! Listen!").
The sound from the internal speaker is noticeably bad quality though, and it occasionally hiccups or simply does not work at all. Fortunately, turning down the volume seems to make for somewhat higher quality, and the hiccups rarely happen.
Now onto the wolf. As mentioned earlier, link is transformed into a wolf fairly early on in the game. As a wolf you lose access to all of your items. But you also gain access to new abilities. Wolf link is faster than normal link, can quickly get across large gaps and cliffs with the help of Midna, can digg and can use wolf senses, which allow you to see hidden enemies, people turned into spirits by the twilight, digg-able places etc.
Wolf link controls pretty much exactly the same as human link, except obviously faster and more agile. One attack that is distinctively unique to the wolf though is the ability to kill all enemy's within a certain radius around you instantly. Wolf link can create an energy feild around him, any enemies caught within this energy field will be killed off when it is released. This is an essential attack, as without it you cannot open up portals for quick traveling. For the first while of the game, you will be occasionaly forced into being a wolf, which can be a bit annoying.
Fortunately later on in the game you gain the ability to turn into a wolf and back again whenever you please.
Despite me raving about how great this game is, it is not without its faults, because of course, no game can be perfect. One of its most noticeable faults is the graphics. The textures are blurry and fairly low quality, to the point that it is pretty noticeable.
Another very annoying fault about Twilight Princess, one that you probably have not heard of before unless you have played the game, is the ruppee identification.
It seems that every time you pick up a ruppee after you enter an area or save your game, the game automatically thinks it is your first time picking up that type of ruppee (except for green ruppees), and as a result it pops up a message telling you what kind of ruppee it is, and how much it is worth. Extremely annoying.
The game can also sometimes get a bit repetitive. For example, for the first while of the game you have to collect these things called the tears of light. You have to go searching around the area for a bunch of these little insects that hold the tears of light. While you only have to search for tears 3 times in the game, it can get a bit dull searching for them and feel repetitive. Another part that sometimes feels repetitive is activating portals.
Portals are used to quickly travel between areas. In order to activate them you have to defeat these weird looking monsters. It gets annoying having to fight them (you basicly use the exact same tactic each time).
Closing comments:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a game that truly lives up to its classic predecessors such as Ocarina of Time, and in many ways surpasses them.
With a huge over-world, fresh game-play, classic music and an epic storyline, Twilight Princess is shaping up to be one of the best games of all time. However it is not without its faults. Sub par graphics (though made up for with awsome art direction) for a next gen game, the ruppee identification and sound that occasionally stutters brings the score down somewhat.
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pfff
have you completed the game then?....cool
No I havnt completed it yet. Im on the 6th dungeon.
oh ok...great review dude :D
9/10? Why such a low score?? I'd give it at least a 9.5/10, if I was having a bad day.
because for some reason we just plain cant have 10s or near 10s... also the game does have flaws which bring down the score. Still 9/10 is a awsome score IMO.
You know... the sound is annoying sometimes but the reason the graphics are sub par is because the wii just doesn't run with a 256 mb gpu. Nintendo chose gameplay over graphics and this is by far the best game I've played since Ocarina and Majora's Mask. Saying it has flaws is one thing but blaming it on things the console isn't capable of is completely unfair.
Ya, I realize that the Wii is technicly inferior graphics wise compared to the other consoles, due to nintendos decision with pricing etc. But still, for a next gen game the graphics do kind of suck. Mind you, they still look damn pretty. Despite the score, LoZ: TP is still my favorite game of all time.
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