After beating this game (playing for about 80 hours) I was definitely entertained, and had a fairly good time. But, I definitely feel a bit disappointed and I’m a pretty huge Zelda fan. All in all the wind waker experience just felt a lot better. There were many problems with this game for me. 1. The story was lame and irrelevant Don't get me wrong the first maybe 30 hours were amazing, but after the magic got lost. I mean the epilogue was magical you really felt as if you were being sent off on a great adventure. Not to mention the sudden ambush really had me by suprise especially the spunk of Midna. But, in the end a. The Twilight was hardly interesting I mean you go through this twilight world and you see these frightened and tortured souls you expect epic and dark and chaotic, like "a Hell" to be existing in the twilight or perhaps, at least something dark, different and chilling. Instead the twilight is a place where you search for freaking BUGS!@ I mean come on, wtf. I mean it turned out to just be the same world but in grayscale. It was like a horrible rip off of Metroid Prime Echos, and it annoyed me slightly there b. It was a recycling of the other game’s story Besides the new elements, most story was recycled and this annoyed me. I.e. you have to prove yourself worthy to the goron’s before they like you help you. c. The actually interesting story bits were thrown out the window as soon as your introduced to them. I mean take the city in the sky example, your told about how legendary it will be and all this magical history, and how proud a people the birds are, and then there’s nothing! Just another dungeon with birds and a half destroyed town. I mean the birds don’t even talk to you the town is dead and lifeless. There’s not even a sign or a cut scene explaining any of it. You rescue the place and you hardly even get a thank you. d. Zant was a throwaway plot device I’ll admit Zant had a cool story, the thing about him actually being royalty related was quite interesting, as well as the fact he would not be accepted as ruler, could have been a great element. But, while thinking about it sure is interesting, its portrayal wasn’t. When you think of this element it’s basically a variation on Macbeth (in that follows a tale of the dangers of the lust for power and betrayal of friends). But, you never felt this, I mean the exchange between Midna and Zant and the cinematic, just didn’t really make you feel any aspect of Zant’s betrayal of his former “friends” and after playing that long I wanted something with more depth. Though I admit that this part was cool so I’m not too disappointed with it. 2. The Gameplay was linear and didn’t give you any initiative to explore or even complete the task at hand. In other words the world was lifeless The game was basically play though dungeons to collect pieces of a mirror. After playing Wind Waker I was amazed and love the game. A big part of it for me was the exploration of it all. Now while all the islands used a similar terrain and look, you still had a feeling that you were exploring new and dynamic environments, because of the interactive world, and the stories that even characters of the sidequests had. [FONT="]I just didn’t feel that in this game it was lifeless. Busy cities like Kakariko village were empty (with 2 new charcters); Faron had one inhabitant; The city in the sky had a mere 1 character; and the Zora village had many characters who basically told you the same thing. The busiest city, Castle Town also, had very few characters who spoke to you, and the ones who did weren’t very interesting. [/FONT][FONT="]Sure the game was huge, but who cares when there’s nothing dynamic about it.[/FONT][FONT="]The most interesting dynamic village was Ordon (there was everything from a pregnant mother, a devoted father/mayor, a farm boy; children; a caring and sweet girlfriend; and more! Plus, we see all these characters in different states of emotion. From the happy times at the beginning; to a state of disaster during the town fire; to emotions of worthlessness after the kidnapping. This for that reason was my favorite part of the game, because you felt as if what you were doing mattered. The problem is, is that this all happens in the beginning of the game.[/FONT] Conclusion Anyways, I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. And while I enjoyed the classic tweaking of the Zelda gameplay and the some of the new items and environments ( the snowtemple was awesome, and I had a lot of fun with the Ball and chain, as well as the spinner boss). Zelda game play just doesn’t cut it after the fantastic Wind Waker experience which had all this plus more. Does anyone else feel the same?
i agree to some extent, but i have to say i enjoyed wasting time on it, and some of the game atmosfears were great as the final battle was. oh, and i think it's time for link to start interacting and speaking with people, to have equip in RPGs fashion etc etc.
I admit, I haven't played it in months. I got so frustrated at the swimming controls (and the horse controls, now that I think of it) that I decided to put it down for a while.
I underlined the important note. Yes Yes Yes. I've been saying this since december. Wind Waker was just a far better experience. Sure WW was far too easy yet the experience in all of it was fantastic. I mean in the first 5 mins of wind waker, you had this feeling that the game is going to be epic. The first hour of TP had me bored and feeling clastrophobic. The initial town was overly small, the forrest was just a long collection of corridors and super small rooms. Sure the dungons felt bigger but the adventuring part was dreadful. Second the game visualy was ass. Texturing was but ugly in so many places (There are so many spots where you see crap low res texture and a decent texture on a common surface wall way too much) and the NPC animations were horible (the monkey in the first temple looks like someone shoved a stick up it's ass and then animated from there. :crying: I'm somewhat worried about the next zelda for DS. Cool they are trying to keep that classic 3/4 overhead view but personaly the DS can achive OOT/MM no problem. So why not just give the DS a full 3D experience? I think the 3/4 view looks horible with 3d geometry insted of 2D tile work.
although TP has evaded me so far, it feels like the developers were completing a check-list and rushing it too, instead of injectng some character into the game, say like the two n64 and GC title before it. It is perhaps a bigger ocarina, but void of meaning.
Karsten, I definitely agree with you about the final battle, and it really was awesomely amazing for me. I mean, right before entering the castle I looked back and starred at the ominous sky for at least 5 mins. And the battle was tons of fun! Especially the horseback battle against gannondorf, something I had been itching for since I found out link could swing his sword on horseback. In my opinion the game needed more of these epic horsebattles. As for the atomsphere, the snow temple was breathtaking and beautiful. But, Subbie your 100% right, I mean everything about what you said is what I was thinking. Not only was the story better but, the atomsphere, was "less clastrophobic" or less empty. As I said before, I hated in TP that your left alone alone, everywhere is unihabitated there's like 4 people in Kakriko and 0 inhibatants in city in the sky! I mean you had a entire "nintendo gallery" of new and exciting characters of different backgrounds in Wind waker. You had almost nothing here. Though actually Ordon is the exception and I did find it to be rather "unclastrophobic". The story of WW was better then TP. But, I do have to admit that, while the WW story was much better, had TP been alot shorter i.e maybe 5 dungeons, the story likely would've been slightly more enaging . My main problem with the story was it was just so so so boring after collecting the Fused Shadows. Had they ended it there, and gone onto the ending it would've been fine. All and all I think the games quality can be summed up in a comparision to Ocarina When you compare Wind Waker and Ocarina improvements The WW stands out as making the game that much more different and as a result exciting. E.g. Deku Leaf, New and different grapling hook, wand, boomerang. You find yourself appreciating the items. Do the same for TP and Ocarina and it seems that everything is the same, but really you have less things! It may seem like you have more items but tossing aside the Icredible amount of stuff that is only used 1 or 2 times in the game or none at all and really its just not that impressive. Futermore nothing has been improved when it comes to you transportation method. The wind waker had the king the of red lions, who could fire cannon balls, take part in numberous battles which you would encounter daily on the sea and he could fish. Epona is boring... and nearly the same as in the first game. Its fun to ride, but after you become a wolf, you can cross hyrule on your own. The developers did improve many aspects of epona, such as being able to fight while riding, but you really only get a slight glimspe of what this should've entailed in the last battle.
I'm still kinda mixed on Twilight Princess, but I'd like to add that Wind Waker heavily suffered from being short and too easy. Basicly, when I beat the game, I was expecting to be at the point in Zelda 3 where you get to the dark world, or in Ocarina of Time when you turn into adult Link. I honestly didn't think the game would end there. I really thought I'd be exposed to some sort of insano castles and/or another set of extra bosses atleast. My main annoyance with Twilight Princess was probably the fact that I felt there was way too little exploring/freedom. Everything was so straight forward. Instead of letting you look around for yourself, everytime you had to go somewhere, someone would basicly hold your hand to make sure you got to the right place.
I had the same feeling. Nothing jumped out at me forcing me to play the game till' my hands were raw and bloody. :110: Its a fun game, just not when compared to past experiences with Link. :thumbsup:
Just started replaying TP and it's growing on me the second time around. The beginning is strangely linear for a Zelda game but once the world opens up for exploration it gets more interesting. Though a lot of folks were disappointed with the style and story of Wind Waker I loved it, and I was hoping that Twilight Princess would be a true sequel to that game. Wind Waker still stands as my favorite Zelda game ever.
I agree pretty much on all points. It was an Ok game, but lets face it. It was all filler material. I was AT LEAST expecting it to be somewhat related to Wind Waker's Story, and why the kingdom got flooded and all. The Twilight world was also pretty boring, except for Zant, who acted like Daffy Duck as soon as you met him for the last time. Im talking about the actual Twilight World, now, with all those NPCs that dont say anything important, other than "Ooh"ing at Link like a retarded caveman who just discovered fire.
Got it at launch. Here is my opinions about it: Good: -Dungeons were the right number at 8 when compared to Wind Waker's 5. -Overworld was varied and had a variety of locations. -Some dungeons had some pretty clever puzzles -Wii controls did pretty well when compared to the horrible way they did the GCN controls Bad: -Twilight areas were lost potential. I would have loved a LttP scenario where previously visited area's dungeons would change. -Next to no quests or things to do. Sure, there was the river shooting game and the star tent, but there was not that many other quests. -No extra equipment besides what was needed. No better sword then the master sword, no better shield then the Hyland Shield, Magic Armor was fairly worthless outside the SL. No magic items, no magic arrows. -Story was a mess. They were hyping it to be a game set between Ocarina and Wind Waker, yet they made the story make even less sense. Zant was a weak villian, and Ganondorf came way too late for it to have any effect on anything. -GCN version was half assed. Controls were a pain in the ass and felt like a port of the Wii version then a actual game in itself To be honest, the game wasn't bad at all. I liked it far better on a game and story standpoint then Wind Waker (Even if it was a weak story when compared to what it could of been), it gave me 50 fairly enjoyable hours. However, for all the hype and delays it had, they left it half finished and somewhat half assed. Phantom Hourglass also worries me quite a bit, since I get the feeling it will be a somewhat short game. EDIT: Come to think of it, the development does seem like it was half assed. Here is what I think happened: E3 2004 trailer: Concepts mostly, direction not choosen yet, game in beginning stages of development after the core engine is finalized. Early alpha stages by now. E3 2005 trailer: Game seems near completion (Game was supposed to come out November of that year), many things seem near completion with most working concepts in place. Should be in the late alpha stages by now. After 2005 trailer to around December or so: Dare say this is the point they decided to delay the game for polishing (Since some of the areas in the 2005 trailer are different or reworked then the final). Should be in the mid beta stages by now (Testing, tweaking, control, etc). I dare say they started the Wii version around this time (They said they quit working on the GCN for awhile in favor of the Wii version), which meant porting everything to the Wii via flipping it and redoing the battle engine to support the remote aiming and motion sensor controls. It also seems like they may have not even finished parts of it for the GCN and spent that last month after the Wii version porting any unfinished parts over to it. So, in reality, they were pretty much done, but used the extra time to port it to the Wii so it would be a launch game instead of a lost cause on the GCN.
I also fully agree. It's nothing like I was expecting it to be when I first saw the first trailer and to me Its still way to wind wakery for me. I would have liked it to be more like Oot and have it true to like old zeldas not have link some farm boy :|. Also I wasn't to keen on the layout. With the castle being in the middle and loads of ways to get to it. Also when I first went in to the castle I was really disapointed that there wasn't really that much to do in it like there was in Oot. The most stupidist thing for me has to be the ending. Spoilers Ganondorf just randomly appearing at the end was really disapointing :| Also the final few dungeons felt rushed like they all felt the same design and it was like going in to one room and walking in to the same with different kinda layout with the same people/things to kill. This was not like Oot at all and I was really dispointed when I completed it. The ending sucked so much.
I was playing Twilight Princess but lost interest in it,I have my Wii and the game right by me but I seem to neglect that game more than ever.Don't get me wrong,Im a big Zelda fan,but something about this game doesn't fit right with me,maybe I'll give the game another chance and see if my mind can change.
I also started it but got boring with the game, i just thought i was groing up and that was the problem (im 26 atm) ...
I think another problem is that the 3d Zelda games have stuck to the same formula for YEARS. Same with the 2d Zeldas, but in my opinion, usually those games are different enough to be considered entirely new adventures, and usually have all sorts of new items. The 3d Zeldas AT MOST will have 4 or 5 new things in them. The overworlds in OOT, Majora's Mask, and TP are (arguably) all the same. Always a Goron mountain area, a lake Hylia, Hyrule Castle, etc. MM wasn't in Hyrule, but Termina in my opinion was some sort of weird alternate dimension Hyrule, with similar locations in almost the same spots from the previous games and so on. The stories are different and unique in MM and WW. The one thing all these games have in common, however, is the gameplay. Its like every one of these games was made from the same engine, or at least feels that way. They all share the same items, similar "themed" Dungeons, except for a very select few. Its almost like the games never evolve, or change enough to feel exactly like a new experience, like in the handheld 2d Titles. What I really think the next big 3d Zelda game needs, if nothing else, is a massive overworld with tons of exploration. And maybe dungeons that are integrated into the overworld itself, with no loading screens. Oh, and I think some of the dungeons need to feel more "natural" as well. I got the feeling several times in some Dungeons "Block room -> Block room -> Room with water...." I thought some of them were good, I liked Hyrule Castle in TP because the structure of the rooms fit the architecture of the structure, but it still felt rushed at parts. Most dungeons feel like "Go into door in secluded spot in overworld. Go into dungeon that doesn't make sense architecturally, like going into towers and stuff you would see jutting out on the world map and so on". That might be just my own thing though, but it bugs me in some games.
Well there have only been 4 3D zeldas games and MM, WW, and OoT are all quite distinct. I loved OoT because it was the first and golden standard. I loved MM's overworld actually felt very distinctly different as well as the game because of the fact they made it blantently obvious that things were being reused. You really appreciated the game much more because it had the whole alternative reality thing going for it. It was nothing like OoT. No castle no princess to save, just a mixed up skull kid. The story is fresh and very very different. WW was great because it was entirely different, flooded world, new enemies, great new style and story. But, really what does TP have going for it. This time two princesses need to be saved and two castles. ...its ocarina with a wolf and scavenger hunting in greyscale. Its definitely masterful, as it refines OoT, but its not the new epic you want out of a game you've been hoping would be a grand new epic. I dunno I loved playing it at times, but it just doesn't stand up there as a proper evolution in the series.
I have to agree I didn't get that feeling that I had to finish it anytime soon, disapointing perhaps, but still a great game.
