Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

[Marek]

[A tangent from this thread.]

I'm further into Zelda now and in terms of moment-to-moment gameplay it's the most refined I've seen in years. There's such a gentle flow to the action and the puzzles that you hardly notice how much areas you've already covered in the game.

Structurally it does have its problems. In the beginning after I'd done the tutorial stuff in the village, I was really looking forward to just exploring the woods and discovering some more caves and other straight adventuring. Then along comes a 30 sec cutscene, in which:

• The status quo is completely obliterated;
  
• Twilight is introduced, world turns dark;
  
• Link becomes a wolf;
  
• A permanent sidekick is introduced;
  
• Kids are kidnapped;
  
• You are teleported to a whole different area.

That's way too much all at once. I would have loved it much more if twilight creatures and areas started bleeding into the normal world over a period of time, and all those plotpoints were more spread out.

The quality of the gameplay itself made that bump in the road completely tolerable, but had the gameplay been any less brilliant that cutscene would have made me super sad.

I'm about to go into the second dungeon now. It's a blast.

[Git Force Gemini]

Does it live upto Reggie's promise of the best Zelda ever? (in my estimation that title belongs to Majora's Mask)

[Udvarnoky]

(in my estimation that title belongs to Majora's Mask)

[ysbreker]

I'm in my very first dungeon of my very first Zelda game and I'm loving every second of it

[Marek]

Does it live upto Reggie's promise of the best Zelda ever? (in my estimation that title belongs to Majora's Mask)

Having played only a few Zeldas... I have no idea.

[Roderick]

So far, I think so, though ironically (due to the groundhog day aspect of Zelda) the various parts of the series are so diverse comparisons are somewhat lacking. Majora's Mask was way too difficult in parts to be enjoyed fully. Visually, I preferred Windwaker, though that one had little dungeons and an off pacing. All in all, yes, I think Twilight Princess is one of the best Zelda's so far. The gameplay has been perfected, not only on a 'feeling' level, where everything just feels damn smooth, but also in its pacing. There's a steady rhythm to the game that constantly feeds you new stuff to do even in the cyclical repetitiveness of exploration/twilight/dungeon.

[miffy495]

It's longer than any previous Zelda yet I beat it in less time than any of the others (and yeah, I've played all of them) so that says something for the quality. On the other hand, I really miss Wind Waker style. I don't know if I'm fully willing to call it the best, but it definitely is in the running. Some of the later dungeons are amazingly creative and took me completely by surprise.

A yeti's mansion? The ruins of the Temple of Time? The home city of the bird things? Holy crap!

One of the better games I've played in a long while. So good.

[LOPcagney]

Does it live upto Reggie's promise of the best Zelda ever? (in my estimation that title belongs to Majora's Mask)

it has to be that or ocarina.

I have to say one of my favorite video game moments ever is in ocarina (i think, or Mask) when you are in the temple with a ceiling of vines and eventually flip the temple and find yourself walking on the vines with the level above you and the abyss of the sky below

[sobersiddhi]

I'm only up to the part where you get the

steel boots

, and I'm finding the whole thing a bit linear to be honest. Does the game loosen up and let you explore more / pursue side quests / generally fuck about more, or is it more like the atrocious Star Fox Adventures?

And yeah, Majora's Mask is the best Zelda by a mile (though admittedly, OOT obviously set the scene for it).

[miffy495]

Yeah, it's pretty linear. If you

just got the boots

though, you're still really early in the game. Once you

have cleared the twighlight from all of Hyrule

the world becomes yours to explore. Much like Ocarina, the game doesn't really get going until you've cleared the third dungeon. There's never any question of where the game wants you to go, of course. The next temple is always hung tantalizingly above your head. You don't have to go there though. There's heart pieces to find! Quivers and bomb bags to expand! Sometimes just riding around Hyrule on horseback and getting into fights with boar-riding goblins is its own reward. And don't forget to get all four bottles. Don't really know why. Honestly, two is plenty. I just don't feel right about calling a Zelda game "done" unless I have all the bottles.

[sobersiddhi]

Yeah, it's pretty linear. If you

just got the boots

though, you're still really early in the game. Once you

have cleared the twighlight from all of Hyrule

the world becomes yours to explore. Much like Ocarina, the game doesn't really get going until you've cleared the third dungeon. There's never any question of where the game wants you to go, of course. The next temple is always hung tantalizingly above your head. You don't have to go there though. There's heart pieces to find! Quivers and bomb bags to expand! Sometimes just riding around Hyrule on horseback and getting into fights with boar-riding goblins is its own reward. And don't forget to get all four bottles. Don't really know why. Honestly, two is plenty. I just don't feel right about calling a Zelda game "done" unless I have all the bottles.

Just what I wanted to hear. I mean, I expected as much. I was just a bit worried about this kind of thing, mostly because Star Fox Adventures received such rave reviews. I thought perhaps there'd been an unfortunate sea change in the genre (though I've only played a little of The Wind Waker).

[loonyboi]

I finished it on Sunday.

I'm not a Zelda fan. In fact I generally dislike Zelda games, but I finished this one.

It's easily the best Zelda I've ever played, but that doesn't mean I loved it. The only reason I finished it was because I bought the strategy guide...there were very long sections that I found tedious and just plain not fun.

But I still enjoyed it. It had the best story of any Nintendo game I've ever played, and I liked the Wii-interface.

Plus it looked good. Not next-gen, but it looked good.

[Marek]

It depends completely on what the artist did. The starting area has some amazing forest areas with bushes and grass and wonderful detail, and coming back to that gives a great feeling. But sometimes there's very thinly populated areas where your attention is drawn to giant smudgy ground textures.

It's good though. It doesn't have to be HD.

[nsps]

After completing all the obvious tasks in the training thing, I scooped up some bee larva and spent the last hour trying to catch a fish that isn't a small fry and wondering why I'm not playing Rayman.

[miffy495]

The fishing in the initial town is kinda shit. Wait until you get the fishing lodge over by Zora's domain open. It's actually all right there.

It's even made more worth it by the fact that

one of the bottles is sunk on the bed of the fishing pond.

[nsps]

quick question then:

Do I have to keep fishing to get off this godforsaken level, or am I completely wasting my time? I really just want to do something other than try to catch a fucking fish, which I can't do.

Any advice on the matter would greatly increase the chance that I'll ever touch another Zelda game as long as I live. (This is my first since the NES.)

[ysbreker]

Did you talk to everyone in the village? They might give you a hint or two where to proceed next.

Did you catch a fish for the cat? Did you get the slingshot from the store? Did you do some target practice with the kids near your house? DId you herd the goats? Did you get your wooden sword yet?

[nsps]

Thanks for the tip...

I thought that shooting the beehive was all I had to do with the slingshot, and that I was supposed to use the resulting bee larva to catch a nicer fish than the one I gave the cat.

[miffy495]

I didn't even use the slingshot to hit the beehive. My method was to call a hawk and send it headfirst into the thing. That worked fine as well.

Please don't let the fishing spoil you on this game. It really will get awesome, and soon.

[chunks]

I ran into a major technical problem and was wondering if anyone else was suffering from it... My + - and home buttons do not work in twilight princess, but they work in other games and on the wii menu.

[loonyboi]

After completing all the obvious tasks in the training thing, I scooped up some bee larva and spent the last hour trying to catch a fish that isn't a small fry and wondering why I'm not playing Rayman.

Just buy the guide. It helps for all those annoying little things that would prevent you from finishing the game (at least, it did for me...I never would have made it through otherwise).

[miffy495]

Really? Maybe it's just that I've played too much Zelda over the years and can recognize the patterns, but I was never stuck for more than 20 minutes. Ocarina was another matter. Never would have gotten through the Water Temple sans guide, and the Spirit Temple later. Course, with the fishing, just standing at the proper distance to have the fish land on the dock so the cat can grab it was a pain in the ass. The fishing early in Orodon is easily the worst part of the game.

[fildesy999]

I got stuck on that fishing part with the cat for a whole day yesterday until i looked up a guide explaining how to fish i know that sounds really bad but still its really hard but the rest of the game i'm up to death mountain and oh my god this game is by far the best zelda ( maybe not as good as Links Awakining LOL) i love it

[Roalin]

Having played only a few Zeldas... I have no idea.

having played every zelda out there, yes, the argument is finaly over, this IS the best. oh and i gotta say occarina comes at 2

oh and on the rapid introduction of twilight i think theres a reason. think of the condusion u were experiencing, i know i had a thousand possible reasons for bein a wolf goin through my head. now think how our young hero musta felt? it did a wonderful job of throwing u into the characters shoes and all through the game u get these emotional highs from the story and ur descoveries, just like link. now isnt that what you WANT from a zelda game? lol

[Roalin]

Really? Maybe it's just that I've played too much Zelda over the years and can recognize the patterns, but I was never stuck for more than 20 minutes. Ocarina was another matter. Never would have gotten through the Water Temple sans guide, and the Spirit Temple later. Course, with the fishing, just standing at the proper distance to have the fish land on the dock so the cat can grab it was a pain in the ass. The fishing early in Orodon is easily the worst part of the game.

realy? u just catch 2 and its auto lol. oh and same here, the puzzels were fun, but not too hard, it was more the in between dungeons quest that got me. and i loved oot, im bout to go play it now since its been years and ive forgotten the puzzels hehe