Zelda: Twilight Princess

I just beat this game on the Wii over the weekend, and I have to say I was impressed. My favorite Zeldas will always be the first one for the NES and Link to the Past for the SNES, but TP slides in at third. It seems like Nintendo took a good, hard look at the strengths and weaknesses of previous installments and tried to make the best Zelda game possible. I think they came pretty damn close.

The most apparent lesson learned is the treatment of the overworld. One of my complaints with Ocarina of Time was that the overworld was nothing more than a big field. Even the now-archaic original Legend of Zelda had a great deal of nuance to its overworld; a single screen was information-dense, with lots of character and frequent secrets. Ocarina’s world, though 3D, was comparatively simple. After Ocarina Nintendo moved on to Wind Waker, and I had the opposite complaint – the world was too big, and it took forever to navigate it. Changing the wind became tedious, and fighting enemies from a friggin boat was just obnoxious.

Twilight Princess is a harmonious mix of the two and the most successful 3D interpretation of Hyrule. The world is huge, with a variety of interesting little locales. It’s also much easier to get around: you get a horse early on, and there are lots of warp locations (that you must earn, of course). I think this is the Hyrule Nintendo wanted to create for Ocarina, but could not due to technical limitations. I’d also add that Twilight Princess is a Zelda for the Massively Multiplayer Online era – I got the impression that the scope and character of World of Warcraft was an inspiration for Twilight Princess.

The game play has evolved admirably from Ocarina. Ocarina invented Z-targeting, and Twilight Princess perfects it. Combat is a joy in this game, a little tougher than it was in Ocarina and undeniably deeper. This is because TP takes some of the innovations from Wind Waker and better incorporates them into the interface. For example, instead of simply hitting “A” to do a special attack, you have to dodge twice and then swing the Wiimote. This not only makes combat faster – you’re no longer waiting for enemies to give you an opening – it also makes it more satisfying. There are seven special moves that add to Link’s arsenal, and they all useful in some situation or another. In short, the combat is both deep and rewarding. I will say I was more annoyed than most people by the Wiimote’s sensitivity (or lack thereof), but it was not a huge hindrance.

To add a final possible TP inspiration to the list, I’d suggest Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 also makes its mark. TP is a relatively darker Zelda game. There’s no kid Link (thank the goddesses), for one, and some of the palaces are downright spooky. Some of these ancient dungeons, with their broken-down complexity, recalled RE 4′s attention to detail. The overall tone of the game is generally spot on. There are nice touches, like Link communing with a previous Legendary Hero (appearing as an armored skelton) to hone his skills. While the ending falls short of Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time, the final boss fights might well trump these predecessors. The sense of style for these fights is again quite high, though they were also too easy for my taste.

Finally, there are the dungeons. While it’s mostly familiar fare – direct descendants of the Ocarina era – the quality of each location is consistently high. The puzzles are sometimes pretty devious (the dreaded Water Temple makes its return, and it is again one of the tougher dungeons) but not unfairly so. Actually, there was one part where I had to cheat, and I take umbrage to the lack of direction for this particular room (bonus points if you can figure out which room it was). But everything else is handled quite well. The game’s big gimmick, wolf form, actually doesn’t figure into the game play too prominently. After a while you’re given the choice of using wolf or human form, but Link’s Bond-esque array of gadgets makes that choice a no-brainer to me. The gadgets, by the way, are cooler than ever.

Altogether I appreciate the amount of thought that went into Twilight Princess, and I’m left with nitpicks but no substantial criticisms. It seems Nintendo is really pushing forward the franchise revolution started by Ocarina of Time, and for the first time in a while I’m eager to see where they’ll go with it.

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