This probably isn't an issue for a lot of normal folks, but it seems as though people who hang around internet gaming review sites get mighty miffed when a review they've been looking for is just a little bit late. Arc Rise Fantasia came out two days ago, for instance, and the internet is all atwitter about where the fuck the review is.
On behalf of all gaming review writers, I say: chill out. Seriously.
It's summertime, and you don't necessarily feel so much like sitting inside and playing videogames all day. It can make it hard to find time to seriously sit down and critically analyze a game, much less play a game at all. I have a stack of videogames that I've been meaning to make my way through for the purpose of writing reviews for Vigigames, but I found that, as with last year when I should have been playing things I had just bought but instead decided to play through the entirety of Ocarina of Time, all I wanted to do was play Twilight Princess.
A little backstory: I bought this game the first day it came out for the Gamecube. I hadn't jumped on the Wii bandwagon quite yet, and I frothed at the mouth to play a Zelda game, having been enormously impressed with Wind Waker. Back then, though, I was decidedly in the "mature" Zelda camp, rather than the "Toon" Zelda camp (even though I now am probably somewhere in the middle, hence my excitement over the art style for Skyward Sword), so Twilight Princess looked heavenly. Besides, those were some of the best graphics I'd ever seen on the Gamecube, and Zelda was easily my favourite series of all time.
I popped in the disc, and for about two weeks, I lived and breathed Zelda. The game actually passed by in a blur, really. There were so many story details I had missed, so little of the world I had actually explored. It was incredibly addictive, almost drug-like really. Even then, I wasn't really the person to get swallowed up by a game – I needed to have balance in my life (and that's still true today).
Then something horrifying happened. I got to the Sky Temple, and real life got in the way. So I saved my game and turned it off… right after I had defeated the mid-point boss. You know, the one where you're supposed to beat him and then pick up an item so that you can progress through the rest of the game? Well, I never picked up "the thing" (a Double Clawshot, in this case), and because I was stupidly trying to save space on my memory card, I only had one save to work from. 30 hours, ruined. I literally could not progress further in the game.
Fast forward to 2010. I'm dogsitting for my girlfriend's dad, and I haven't really been feeling like playing anything that I'm not already familiar with. I have a ton of time on my hands, though, and so I decided that four years had passed – it had been enough time. I was ready to start conquering this game again.
The funny thing about Twilight Princess is that directly after it was released, critics hailed it as the greatest Zelda game ever made, and it's not hard to see why. The game plays a lot like Ocarina of Time – after the experimental detours of Majora's Mask and Wind Waker, people were ready for a traditional Zelda experience. The game delivers the same razor sharp 3D Zelda gameplay. There's a reason why the core mechanics of the series haven't changed that much, and that's because they're some of the most perfect examples of the power of a controller when programmed by the right developer. Link doesn't need to be able to jump. Hell, he can do pretty much everything else.
In recent times, though, it seems as though people have turned their backs on Twilight Princess. Now it's been called an "Ocarina of Time remake," "too dark," and "too unoriginal." Nevermind the fact that Nintendo was delivering exactly what fans wanted at the time – Zelda fans are notoriously hard to please. The whole culture surrounding Zelda can make one frustrated, especially when you realize that Nintendo has been consistently delivering some of the best games ever made.
With that being said, Twilight Princess is probably my least favourite 3D Zelda. Don't get me wrong – it's an absolutely fantastic game, one of the best I've ever played in fact – but compared to its brethren, it's a (tiny) step back.
There's so much going for this game, though. The storyline, while not quite reaching the nihilistic darkness of Majora's Mask, is exceptionally well realized and written. In case you've been living in a cave for the past four years, here's the basic plot. As with Ocarina of Time, you start off the game as a boy named Link (or whatever else you call him) who comes from humble beginnings. Strange things are happening in the world – monsters are appearing everywhere, and your hometown is in danger. Through a series of events big and small, you slowly learn your true origin as the Hero of Hyrule, defeat Ganondorf, and save everyone. This is the same outline that one would see for Ocarina or Wind Waker, but here, there's an added element. See, the monsters are coming from "the Twilight realm," a dark land that was created to seal away the users of magic (and if you follow the Zelda timeline – which is a crazy thing to do, mind you – this places this game after Majora's Mask in the timeline, as Link could still use magic then), and Link teams up with an Imp named Midna.
Midna is one of the main reasons why this game's story succeeds as well as it does. Midna could have easily been another Navi-type character, but is instead fully fleshed out with her own motivations and personality. Her story is also genuinely affecting, and by the end of the game, you come to realize that true to the title of the game, this Zelda is really all about Midna, and less so about Link. He's just a cypher really; the interesting character development happens with Midna.
The art direction in the game received a lot of praise back in the day, but in reality I think it's a step backwards from Wind Waker and other Zelda-like games such as Okami. Occasionally, the art direction can create some breathtaking shots, but there's way too many bland textures and muddled shots. Don't get me wrong – for a Gamecube game that had been in development since 2003, it's still fantastically gorgeous, and one of the better looking games on the Wii – but compared to Wind Waker, which is still probably the most beautiful 3D game ever made, it suffers in comparison. Thankfully, the somewhat twisted art direction saves it, with fantastically weird Twilight enemies and characters making a strong impression.
Where every Zelda game has shined in the past, though, is in their firm commitment to gameplay. These are 40 hour games with extensive plots, and yet, you feel in control almost all the time. It's a good thing, then, that Twilight Princess continues the tradition of offering some of the best 3D gaming in the biz. The only rough spot is with the wolf segments. See, whenever Link enters into the Twilight Realm, he turns into a wolf. It doesn't really add too much to the gameplay, other than a new way to solve some pretty ingenious puzzles. Okami showed the proper way to integrate a wolf into Zelda-type gameplay though. This addition just kind of feels tacked on, and doesn't add too much to the gameplay.
What Twilight Princess really excels at, though, is in its world building. Hyrule has never been more fully realized, with a real sense of geography about it. The various provinces are all very different from each other, and really ground the game with a sense of place. The various dungeons, too, are incredible – they're challenging in very cerebral ways, but never frustrating. Only until the very last dungeon did I have serious troubles figuring out what the game wanted me to do, but rest assured – if you're a lateral thinker, some of the puzzles will be pretty dastardly. I wish they'd toss out those block pushing puzzles though. They're real momentum killers.
Overall, this is a game that held my interest and continually pushed me to play "just one more hour" (which would often turn into three or four), and that's a rarity. The game is incredibly successful at doing exactly what it promised to be, which is the most epic Zelda game of all time. It's that and more, though. It's pretty gorgeous, the music is fantastic (although they need to ditch the MIDI samples next time around), and the gameplay is rock solid. Just riding around Hyrule on Epona at sunset is astounding, and this game has so many evocative and haunting moments that there's too many to count. Even though this game is four years old, I feel like it still leaves so many 3D action-adventure games in the dust, and if there's any disappointment to be found, it's only in comparison to other Zelda games. This is still a true classic, and like all Zeldas, a game to return to again and again throughout one's life.
(Note: OK, here's what I think about the Zelda timeline theory. It's certainly an interesting and somewhat credible theory, given that Eiji Aonuma has gone on record to say that there is, in fact, a Zelda timeline. But here's how I see it – the various games in the series are retellings of the same myth, and depending on the inferred audience to that telling, different details change. For instance, Wind Waker could be the telling of the myth to a child, and Ocarina of Time, with all of its austerity, could be a more formal telling. I think this is a really interesting way to look at the series, as it makes it timeless and really keeping in line with being the LEGEND of Zelda.)