Review: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | Principal Platforms: GameCube, Wii | Developer: Nintendo | Publisher: Nintendo | Genre: Action-adventure | Year: 2006

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This is a review of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess based on my experiences with the GameCube version of the game. It may include spoilers.

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Originally starting life as a GameCube exclusive, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was released cross-platform on both the GameCube and the Wii consoles. Nintendo sought to address the criticism that surrounded the cartoonish Wind Waker by promising a game that was darker and truer to the Zelda formula. Did they succeed?

Straightaway the game makes an impact with its visuals. Thanks to the advances in graphical fidelity, Twilight Princess does indeed appear grittier than previous games in the series. The Skulltulas have never looked creepier! The graphical heft that the GameCube can churn out has me impressed, all whilst maintaining a stable 30fps. There’s no doubt Nintendo have produced a very fine-looking game here and it deserves mentioning.

Early on, Link enters the Twilight Realm where he gets transformed into a wolf then gets kidnapped. It’s here where we are introduced to Midna, who rescues Link and subsequently becomes his companion. Midna is like Tatl, in the way that she is self-serving at first but eventually comes to recognise Link’s heroic acts and becomes selfless.

Link and Midna bond over the course of the game and when the time comes for them to part ways, it’s surprisingly effective in its tragedy. It’s even implied that Midna has developed feelings for Link. Although Midna’s character design appears overly sexualised, she is nonetheless a likeable character and someone you’ll be sad to see go in the end.

The Twilight Realm itself makes use of some fancy visual tricks which give the areas an alien-like quality. This works to some degree, but the intense bloom effects can look jarring at times. Enemies also take on a whole different look, with most of them giving out shrill, distorted cries as they hasten creepily towards you.

The Lantern can light torches to brighten up dark areas and needs to be maintained with lantern oil, a similar mechanic would later appear in Dark Souls 2. Unfortunately, this mechanic is underutilised and becomes almost meaningless in the late game.

Playing as Wolf Link is somewhat underwhelming because your moveset is considerably smaller in wolf form. Highlighting this weakness are the sections where you need to tediously hunt down invisible insects. It's a lame way to utilise his wolf form and only serves to pad out the game length. Wolf Link's usefulness is very limited towards the end of the game too, especially during the final boss.

Howling Stones are encountered throughout the game that allow Link to use his wolf form as an instrument to complete howling minigames, it's easily the most inspired use of the whole wolf concept. Successfully completing these challenges will unlock new combat techniques, adding to human Link’s repertoire. These new skills add more depth to the combat and keeps it feeling varied. Link can learn up to seven hidden skills including the Shield Bash, Back Slice and my personal favourite, the Helm Splitter.

The world of Twilight Princess is large and can take several minutes to navigate even on horseback. Unfortunately, the Horse Call item, which allows you to summon your trusty steed Epona (she's also nameable!), is acquired far too late because you'll already be able to fast travel. Epona becomes obsolete at this point which is a pity considering the focus on large scale exploration.

Travelling does become much easier once the warp ability is acquired but it’s something that is heavily relied upon in the later portion of the game. The environment could have been brought closer together to reduce downtime rather than relying on fast travel to get the player around.

Items are accessed through a radial menu which allows for quick switching, some of the classic items make a return from previous games but with new applications. The Gale Boomerang can activate wind-powered contraptions and the Iron Boots can magnetically attach Link to certain surfaces. These added effects are used during the respective dungeon bosses too. However, some items such as the Slingshot and the Water Bombs quickly become redundant. The Slingshot quickly gets replaced by the Bow and the Water Bombs don't get used enough.

Hyrule Castle Town is well populated with NPCs which helps it feel like a living place. I especially like how the townspeople cower in fear when they see Wolf Link run by!

By and large the bosses of Twilight Princess are well designed, aside from an infuriating underwater boss. Each one will test your knowledge on what you have learned in the dungeon that precedes it. The Skullord boss fight located at the Arbiter’s Grounds is particularly memorable because of its creative use of the Spinner item.

The Blizzeta boss fight in Snowpeak Ruins makes clever use of screen space reflections to inform you of the boss's whereabouts. The accompanying dungeon also marks one of the highlights of the game which sees you explore a dilapidated mansion nestled in the snowy mountains.

The hardest challenge in the game though is The Cave of Ordeals, a ruthless dungeon that pits you against forty floors of increasingly stronger enemies. It's a test of endurance so you will need to find every bonus you can to stand a good chance of surviving this tough gauntlet. Twilight Princess is a pretty easy affair, so this challenge adds some much-needed bite to the proceedings.

There are two sets of collectibles in the game, Gold Insects and Poe Souls. Gold Insects can be exchanged for a lump sum of rupees, the game's currency. Poe Souls can only be obtained with Wolf Link and there are sixty to collect, unfortunately the reward for hunting them all down is a mere 200 rupees. Up to 1000 rupees can be held with the largest wallet, so this reward wouldn't even fill a quarter of your coffers! It's disappointing to see this repeated from Ocarina of Time's own Gold Skulltula quest which featured the same reward.

The biggest missed opportunity in Twilight Princess however is Zant, the faux villain. Boasting cool character design and an intimidating presence, Zant should have been poised to be a great Zelda villain. Instead he gets thrown away pointlessly and it’s disappointing considering that he’s built up as the main villain for most of the game. It's made more of a shame by the fact that his boss fight is quite good, as it tests everything the player has learnt about the previous bosses.

Twilight Princess features a bevy of new supporting characters, although none of them are particularly memorable.

Zant could have easily ranked as my favourite villain in the Zelda series but instead Nintendo decide to play it safe by going with a final act that is all too familiar. As Ganondorf is revealed as the true villain the game switches to auto pilot and plays out pretty much as you'd expect. Ganondorf isn’t built up enough as a credible threat so it fails to make a meaningful impact when the plot twist occurs.

The glaring similarities to Ocarina of Time are obvious at this point and it's something that severely hurts the final act. An important story beat sees Princess Zelda give her own life to save Midna, however the impact of this powerful scene is undone when Zelda is revealed to be alive. Because Zelda needs to be involved in the final confrontation, it just serves to undermine her sacrifice.

This leaves Twilight Princess feeling like a mixed bag overall, which is a shame because the makings of a great Zelda game are very much here, and it gets a lot of things right. However, it falls short in some key areas and relies too heavily on copying what made Ocarina of Time so good instead of committing to its own ideas.