Twilight Princess is overrated. It is not the legacy of Ocarina of Time, which many people herald as the greatest piece of gaming experience. I think Ocarina of Time is an excellent game, but I do not believe in the hype that it is the best game ever; nor do I find Twilight Princess even a slightly remarkable feat in terms of ingenuity.
*Rupees
There is something seriously wrong with how rupees are incorporated into gameplay in Twilight Princess. In Wind Waker, you actually had some good uses of your rupees throughout the game. In TP, rupees actually become a burden. Your wallet will fill quickly and soon you won't be able to pick up rupees from treasure chests. Of course, there are 3 major ways to 'dump' your rupees, such as donating a ridiculous amount of rupees to a guy in Hyrule city to eventually earn a piece of heart, or donating a ridiculous amount of rupees to repair a bridge that does not do anything in the big picture (it is a pointless side quest), or donating a ridiculous amount of rupees to help a friend open a shop in Hyrule city, only so that you can purchase a magic armor that 'burns' rupees as you wear it.
Another minor issue with rupees is the amount you can hold. In Wind Waker, you could hold up to thousands. In TP, you start out with 300 maximum, and when you upgrade it twice, it can hold up to 999 or 1000, I forget which. But even 1000 is so small compared to the huge amounts of rupees you collect, so your wallet will fill up quickly. Once your wallet is full, Link will no longer pick up rupees from treasure chests which causes another minor problem (I will talk about it soon), but for now let's just talk about the wallet size. In order to upgrade your wallet completely, you have to catch every bug (depicted as shiny lights and glittering sound) in the game, and give them all to a girl in the Hyrule city. This is a ridiculous task for anyone who plays this game without help of a guide. Whatever the team behind this game was thinking, this wasn't their brightest idea. Why make wallet so tiny and hard to upgrade, when rupees themselves are so useless? Do they actually expect anybody to spend hours chasing bugs because that adds more playtime to this game? This game gives you no incentive to upgrade wallet, as you have no real need for rupees, yet the developers insisted on the most time-consuming side quest I have ever seen in any game in my life.
*Dungeons
Dungeon experience also suffers from the tiny wallet problem. In Wind Waker, there were sea charts that you can collect from treasure chests, which surprisingly gave enough incentive for players to actively seek treasure chests in dungeons. However, in TP, there is much less incentive because there is less variety in the items you receive. There are rupees, pieces of heart, dungeon map, compass, and small keys. Since small keys are essential to the progression, they are located in such a manner that you have to open the chest that contains the key at the intended time of dungeon exploration. That means if you have missed out on a chest and is going to back to open it, there is no way it contains small key. Finding dungeon map is useless at this point, because if you are backtracking, clearly you have found the compass and are using it to get to the treasure chest location. Once you have the compass, dungeon map is useless. The chest you are going back for shouldn't contain a compass either because you already have it if you are going back for chests you missed. That leaves rupees and pieces of hearts as the only two options. Now, the chance of the treasure chest containing a piece of heart is very low, and for some reason, in TP all the pieces of heart found in dungeons are located in more obvious chests that you shouldn't miss in the first place, so it turns out about 95% to 100% of the chests that you go back for only contains rupees. In my case, it was literally 100% of the chests. Dungeon exploration is no longer a rewarding experience for this precise reason, and this is only made worse by the fact that Link no longer absorbs rupees from treasure chests when the wallet is full. That means for perfectionists like you and me, we actually have to empty out our wallet to open all the treasure chests found in the dungeon. Note that compass is also useless when your wallet is full because it will show even the treasure chests you have actually been to because you could not take the rupees. Despite this minor complaint, some dungeons are extremely well thought-out, chiefly the Desert temple, which had been one of my favorite moments in TP. Its design makes the use of both human form and wolf form's abilities to full extent. Underwater temple, on the other hand, seems too long and uninspired compared to other temples.
*Cut scenes
The game also features some really odd, out-of-place cut scenes. The worst is the one where Illia and Link are raining down. It is obvious that they were going for the bizarre and dark atmosphere, but it just seems to me that the team behind this game is having an identity crisis. This is not a horror game, nor does it have to be. Aside from a few bizarre cut scenes that should have been removed, other cut scenes in general do an okay job of storytelling, but nothing more. Considering the fact that CG cut scenes are almost a given in video games of similar budget, Nintendo falls behind hard in technical terms because they make absolutely no use of pre-rendered CG.
*Presentation and the story progression
This department also reveals many flaws. I actually laughed when all of a sudden monsters came out from nowhere and knocked out Link and kidnapped other children, then Link turned into a wolf. Why not make him get hit by a lightning along the way? The way the story progresses is a joke, especially in the beginning.
*Characters
Some characters are way too bizarre and deserve to be removed. Ones I can think of right now are the mailman and the cannon guy at Lake Hylia. However, TP also features two very likable and unique personalities, one being Malo the baby and the other one being Midna. I seriously doubt anybody can hate Midna. She is a playful twilight creature who guides Link throughout the game, but only because she needs him.
*Music
TP uses many of old tunes that Zelda fans are already familiar with, which is not necessarily a bad thing. A few other melodies hit home run as well, including the Sacred Grove theme. Many other tracks, however, are mediocre at best, and the fact that Nintendo still relies on MIDI sound tracks in this day and age is just awful.
*Gameplay
Game starts out with the awkward progression of story. Forest Temple and Link's initial twilight encounters as a wolf are fairly okay. However, the developers soon figure out what they're doing right and dungeons become much more fun experience. TP has many mini games but none of them are worth your time. They are not very good ones. Combat system is nothing jaw-dropping, but definitely has improved from previous Zelda games. Aside from combat, there is hardly any innovation in the gameplay. The core gameplay is very similar to previous titles.
In summary, this is a good game, especially for Wii owners who cannot find a decent game because god knows most Wii games are garbage. However, I am utterly surprised at how it retains 95 metacritic score, which is the average review score of major review sites. 95 is an extremely high rating. However, considering how fans outraged at Gamespot giving it a score of 88 and led to the reviewer getting fired, it all makes sense I suppose. Personally, Wind Waker seems like a better game to me. It is a more solid experience. TP is no doubt a fun game, but it is rigged, unbalanced, and should have gone through more beta testing to adjust many small hiccups before the release. |
Expedited Available
"sooo much fun!"
"AWSOME!"
"Twilight Princess is overrated"