Gaming The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

[Ellerby]

[FONT=Tahoma][COLOR=DimGray][quote name='MoyakuKeramushe][b]The Nunchuk[/b'] Yes, yes, it's an awesome concept, and it does make the spin attack far more useful. But it really needs decent direction-recognition, especially when combined with the shield attack. I really got tired of doing a spin attack when I wanted to smack someone in the face with a shield.[/quote]
You know I've actually never had that problem. When I push the Nunchuk forward to do a shield attack, he does a shield attack. When I shake the Nunchuk to do a spin attack, he does a spin attack. I'm not really sure how you managed to do this. O_o

[quote name='MoyakuKeramushe][b]The Wiimote Speaker[/b'] By the gods, that thing sounds like crap. I can only hear that giggle so many times before I want to beat Midna over the head with something (although it's still not as annoying as Navi was in OoT).[/quote]
As much as I would love to defend this point I know it's not possible. The speaker is pretty low quality and sounds quite tinny. On Wii Sports it's okay but not Zelda. I turn it down on Zelda. :/

[quote name='MoyakuKeramushe][b]The Graphics[/b'] I'm sorry, but I've played Starfox Adventures, Resident Evil Zero, and Twin Snakes for the GCN. There's just no reason for Zelda to look like that, especially for the Wii version. Numerous games designed solely for the GCN showcased what it was actually capable of graphically, and TP is a bit of a disappointment in that area.[/quote]
I'm sorry, but this is a port. Not a game designed for the Wii from start to finish. And as far as the graphics go as a Gamecube game, I think it's much better than most of the others. The art is simply fantastic.

[quote name='MoyakuKeramushe][b]Non-Orchestrated Music[/b'] Yes, it sounds good, I'll give it that. What Zelda doesn't? But it could sound way better, and it's about time Zelda caught up with other series in this area.[/quote]
...yeah. lol

[quote name='MoyakuKeramushe][b]Link is NOT Right-handed[/b'] I understand that it was done to go along with the way the Wiimote worked, since the majority of players are right-handed, but darn it, Link's not, and yes, that bugged me through the entire game (a fact which my poor girlfriend can back up).[/quote]
...lol. I really could care less. I never noticed that Link was left handed until it was announced he'd be right-handed in TP. It didn't bother me a bit and if anything, I'm happy they did it. It just wouldn't feel right if to swing the sword I had to swing the Nunchuk. :/
[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Semjaza]

From what I've read, it seems like a lot of people having issues with the nunchuck movement are doing it too strongly. I'm sure it's hard to gauge it properly when you're just having fun, though. There's actually a video on YouTube showing off how to do it properly again and again lol.

[domkippy]

[QUOTE=Generic NPC #3][img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/754292bf-4965-4191-969e-bfde241e14a3.jpg[/img] [img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/8c3bb913-c29f-415b-9d11-9d91b5320805.jpg[/img]

[img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/fb05d3dc-a792-4681-8dbe-d8db5df70d93.jpg[/img] [img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/c2614fdb-87de-4b59-b0c6-d3e2eac5796b.jpg[/img] [img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/bd1de4b3-2635-4c6a-b10a-e2c5ffbefee8.jpg[/img] [img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/f4d8f436-e686-4e7a-b4d2-eb70f207b075.jpg[/img] [img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/94f83d5f-a86c-4e98-bd79-b209e14cfce5.jpg[/img] [img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/b6059bc5-cedc-435a-acd5-81c54cd66b9f.jpg[/img] [img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/c10dadb1-4e8b-424f-99c0-9bfb350829fd.jpg[/img] [img]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/c63e1ad3-8e41-4de3-8e21-b957db7e1bff.jpg[/img]

:love:



Holy crap. That's all Nintendo.com has to say about it. I can't wait for more information. Nintendo wins lol. The last shot is orgasm enducing. This Link kills Spaceworld Demo Link as far as I'm concerned.

Videos, right click and save:
Small 3 MB: [url="http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/e2bcbfd3-aa36-4b65-8170-b07c7083bab5.mov"]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/e2bcbfd3-aa36-4b65-8170-b07c7083bab5.mov[/url]

Large 18MB: [url="http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/b080225c-960e-4a52-a2c6-d7db10bdaef0.mov"]http://media.nintendo.com/mediaFiles/b080225c-960e-4a52-a2c6-d7db10bdaef0.mov[/url][/QUOTE]



How is that last shot: " BADNESS" inducing?

[SunfallE]

[COLOR=RoyalBlue][quote name='domkippy']How is that last shot: " BADNESS" inducing?[/quote]Are you referring to the level of graphics? Those look like they came straight off of nintendo's website. lol And since I have the gamecube version I can easily say that those may as well be tossed out as I've played it and there's a lot of improvements and details that have been added since those were originally posted. Nintendo obviously never bothered to update their site with what's actually in the game. Those are simple rough drafts and not the finished product.

The actual game looks quite a bit better than those pictures you've posted. ^_~[/COLOR]

[Ellerby]

[quote name='domkippy']How is that last shot: " BADNESS" inducing?[/quote]
[COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]I think he was referring to the fact that Link is fighting on horseback and there are swarms of enemies around him. When NPC posted that it was around the time that the whole horseback thing was announced.

I think it's badness inducing.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[SunfallE]

[COLOR=RoyalBlue][QUOTE=White][COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]I think he was referring to the fact that Link is fighting on horseback and there are swarms of enemies around him. When NPC posted that it was around the time that the whole horseback thing was announced.

I think it's badness inducing.[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]I got the impression that they were reffering to their comment that the graphics were sub-par and those pictures really don't prove that point. I guess only domkippy really knows what they meant. ^_~[/COLOR]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Whee! It's time for volume two of Dessy's Guide to TP Sword Techniques! :catgirl:

There's a really simple little trick to pulling off the shield attack every time, which is annoyingly omitted from the in-game instructions. That is, when you want to do a shield attack, flick your wrist forward [i]and downward.[/i] The motion should be made primarily with the wrist, though depending on how you're holding the nunchuk you may have to raise your arm a little so you can comfortably flick your wrist in a downward direction.

I found the downward motion to be really important in getting the shield attack to work right every time. And, doing it that way, I've never had the motion mistaken for a spin attack.

The spin attack, by the way, is best performed with a single side-to-side flick of the wrist. I find it more comfortable to flick left and then right but the order doesn't matter so long as you do [i]one motion in each direction.[/i] Shaking the nunchuk back and forth ten times will only make the move harder to perform; I've watched people try to do spin attacks that way and they'll sit there for five seconds before the game finally registers all the flailing as a spin attack.[/color]

[Semjaza]

Those screenshots in question are from around a time that horse back riding in a Zelda title was completely unheard of. When all you could do previously was shoot off some arrows, how is Link fighting a swarm of enemies on horseback not impressive by comparison? Personally, I think it was pretty cool.

You also have to remember that those are from, what? A year ago or so? The game was far more impressive graphically at the time considering what else was out there. A year later, when it finally released after delays and delays, not so much.

People don't seem to remember how old this thread is.

[Rachmaninoff]

Well I just finished the second dungeon and though the boss fight was pretty easy to figure out the rest of the whole experience was downright fun. I just loved some of the different aspects to that area. If you look at boss fights as a treat then like Charles mentioned, they are great fun.

Now I?m starting the third dungeon and some of the parts leading up to that moment were fantastic. I?m sure I?m not the only one who really enjoyed the part where you [spoiler]fly along the river to not only get to Zora?s domain, but to later track down some of the tears of light. [/spoiler] That was totally fun. I?ve also got three of the special moves and I can?t wait to learn more of them.

About my only serious complaint runs along the lack of a fully orchestrated track and some poor sound recordings. Take Midna?s laugh for example it along with the little chime you get when you solve a puzzle have a bit of a tinny sound to them. The way they sound kind of grate on my nerves a bit. Midna?s an adorable addition and I actually don?t mind her giggle, other than the fact that the recording of it just sounds awful.

Beyond that I?m still very impressed and completely enjoying the game, though I almost miss the [spoiler]Twilight look as I loved the surreal look to everything when you were in it. [/spoiler]

[Guest EvaUnit01]

After finishing the game, I somehow am left with the impression that it just isn't as technically solid as Wind Waker. I bought the GameCube version, so I'm very thankful I had camera control at all, but the degrees of freedom aren't nearly as high as what are available in Wind Waker. Other things too, like the loss of the ability to sidle walls, to throw items with the A button while dropping them by pressing R. I also didn't much like the auto-shielding, and at times the realistic graphics seemed rather generic (most notably the four adventurers in Telma's Bar). It could have been quite a bit harder too, but that's more of a Zelda problem than a Twilight Princess problem.

Other than that though, it was a really amazing game, and a fairly looooooong one too. :animesmil

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I'm curious about what you mean by less degrees of freedom in TP, since I didn't notice much of a change from TWW in the gameplay mechanics, other than the obvious addition of horseback combat and other stuff that just wasn't in TWW. The game does suffer from the problem of leading you around to each area of the overworld in turn without letting you explore other areas, but on the other hand, there wasn't much to explore in TWW's ocean.

About sidling along walls, though, you can actually still get across narrow ledges in TP. You can't sidle, but you can hang off the edge and move across that way, so the basic functionality is still there. It's not used much, but it was a pretty pointless feature in TWW to begin with.

And you can still either throw items or set them back down again, it just depends on whether you're running or not, like in OoT/MM. If you're running, it throws; if you're stationary, it sets it down.

I actually like the automatic use of the shield, too. The only reason there's ever been not to keep your shield raised whenever you're not attacking is so you can use the automatic counter-attack in TWW and that was removed to make the sword techniques manual. It saves me from having to hold in R all the time while fighting. Plus, your shield being able to block stuff all the time, not just when you're actively defending, is really nice.[/color]

[Rachmaninoff]

Hmm?and here I was thinking the auto blocking was a great new feature. It never made sense to me before that you target your enemy and yet you still had to holdup your shield for defense. I would have thought that by targeting your enemy you would automatically be on the defensive instead of still being totally open for an enemy attack. So I was pleased to see this change in how the system works.

[Guest EvaUnit01]

[quote name='Desbreko][color=#4B0082']I'm curious about what you mean by less degrees of freedom in TP[/Color][/quote]

Just in the camera control in the GameCube version (not even available in the Wii version). In Wind Waker, you could pull you camera out very far and push it in really close freely. Additionally, once you activated the camera you wouldn't go into first person view unless you first pressed L or went into another room. In Twilight Princess, you only have 2 settings for Y camera movement (X is unaffected), and if you're in the closer view moving the C stick forward will bring you into FPV no matter what, which is very dangerous mid battle. It's pretty stupid too, I find FPV completely useless in this game.

[quote name='Desbreko][color=#4B0082']And you can still either throw items or set them back down again, it just depends on whether you're running or not, like in OoT/MM. If you're running, it throws; if you're stationary, it sets it down.[/Color][/quote]

True, but it's annoying. I liked how it was done in Wind Waker because I didn't have to move to throw things, which made standing on ledges much less dangerous. I can't tell you how many times I've died as a result of wanting to throw a statue or whatever.

The reason I didn't like auto-shielding too much is because it made battles way too easy. I remember sweating like a dog, again, while playing Wind Waker in a few combat scenarios (not very many, WW wasn't [B]very[/B] hard either), but in Twilight Princess I probably could've beaten the game with just 3 hearts.

[Horendithas]

[COLOR=DarkRed][quote name='White][COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]You sing totally different melodies while in Wolf form. The ones you sing as Wolf Link don't bring Epona to you. ;)[/FONT'][/COLOR][/quote]Is that something that they altered for the Wii version? Because I have the one for the GameCube and if you howl the melody when you are next to the plant that you play when you are in human form to call Epona...Well...[spoiler]Epona does come to you when you are a wolf too. You can even speak to her in your wolf form just like you can also speak to the other animals in the game. The only difference is you can't ride her when you are a wolf.[/spoiler]

Of course this only works after [spoiler]you get Epona in the game again, until then it doesn't work for Link in either form.[/spoiler][/COLOR]

[Ellerby]

[QUOTE=indifference][COLOR=DarkRed]Is that something that they altered for the Wii version? Because I have the one for the GameCube and if you howl the melody when you are next to the plant that you play when you are in human form to call Epona...Well...[spoiler]Epona does come to you when you are a wolf too. You can even speak to her in your wolf form just like you can also speak to the other animals in the game. The only difference is you can't ride her when you are a wolf.[/spoiler]

Of course this only works after [spoiler]you get Epona in the game again, until then it doesn't work for Link in either form.[/spoiler][/COLOR][/QUOTE]
[COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]I said that like the day I got the Wii so yeah.. things have changed. :p[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Rachmaninoff]

Well I just finished the third dungeon and all I have to say is wow! Not only was the design of the actual dungeon fun to figure out, but the boss battle at this point took on a larger than life aspect. It was easy to figure out, but fun as hell to actually fight.

And then the point after the battle where you warp out was quite the plot twist. I mean you know something has to happen but I was rather surprised by what actually did happen.

So far this game has been the best at really sucking you in. I keep finding myself playing for hours at a time.

[Aaryanna]

[COLOR=Red]Can I do the happy dance of I finally have Zelda for the GameCube? :catgirl: I got it for Christmas and I spent most of yesterday and today playing it. Not only is Link a cutie in the newest game, but the entire game is simply beautiful! I just love how things look. The rupees have a really pretty look; the characters in the game have such fun expressions. And the part where the [spoiler] cat runs off with your fish and Link is dumbfounded is just too cute! [/spoiler]

It was slow getting started, but once it sucked you in, you were hooked! And the different look between the [spoiler] regular world and one bathed in the light of the twilight was fun! I loved how things looked so different with the lighting and colors. [/spoiler]

The fights may not be super difficult but they are lots of fun. I love playing as a wolf and I love the way Link moves when he?s using his sword. The way he [spoiler] puts his sword away with all the fancy swinging is kind of cute too. [/spoiler] Hehe, I?ve been pretty obsessed and I?m about to enter the third dungeon, I?m really looking forward to it after how much fun the new fighting skills are and the way you navigated the two dungeons. I just adore the [spoiler] gale boomerang and using the boots to walk on ceilings was fun too. [/spoiler]

But so far the part I giggled at the most was when [spoiler] Link was shirtless to learn his new fighting technique! Hehe! Cute, cute?and even cuter! [/spoiler] :catgirl: I?m really glad I don?t have school for another week. I?m having too much fun playing Zelda![/COLOR]

[eleanor]

[QUOTE=Aaryanna][COLOR=Red] Not only is Link a cutie in the newest game, but the entire game is simply beautiful!
[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[color=dimgray] I'd be lying if I said Link's appearance didn't get me into the Zelda franchise. ;)

So I [i]finally[/i] got a Wii. It was completely sold out in my city, but a swing of good luck came my way and I managed to get a lady at Target to hold one for me.

Like everyone said, TP is slow and first but picks up quickly. I was pretty bored for an hour or so, but once you get sucked into the twilight zone I got hooked. I had to stop right before the [spoiler]Forest Temple[/spoiler], but TP makes me giddy just thinking about it.

The Wii controls were incredibly intuitive for me. I caught on pretty quickly and never had a problem afterwards (except maybe with the fishing; it took me a sec to understand how to actually catch one). I didn?t go through the ?awkward phase? so many reviewers mentioned. It?s definitely as good as a controller, but right now I don?t know if it?s a better choice.

Graphics-wise, it?s what I expected. It doesn?t bother me at all while I?m playing, but imagining TP with hi-def graphics is sort of mind-blowing. The twilight zone is great, through. I?m loving the diluted look of it.

And as for the whole formulaic thing. Well, I like the Zelda formula. Knowing that Twilight Princess is the last ?traditional? Zelda game makes me a bit sad, but I?ll enjoy it while I can. [/color]

[Horendithas]

[COLOR=DarkRed][quote name='Aaryanna][COLOR=Red']Not only is Link a cutie in the newest game, but the entire game is simply beautiful![/COLOR][/quote]I think it?s safe to say that a fair number of people play the game because Link is pretty damn cute. ;) I know that was one of my biggest disappointments in The Wind Waker. It was fun, but Link was turned into a kid. So to have Link back to being cute and a game that?s put together nicely as well is just sweet.

And speaking of sweet, I just finished the fifth dungeon. I rather enjoyed the boss fight for the fourth one even though it was too short for my tastes. I?m really hoping I get to use the [spoiler] spinner more often since it?s a fun new piece of equipment. But I gotta say that I love that huge ball and chain. Smashing things with it is fun too. [/spoiler]

What I loved best about the boss fight in the fifth dungeon was how everything looked. [spoiler] from the way you fought by using the reflection on the ice, to the details on the boss and the other aspects of that fight. And more importantly, I really liked the thread of organ music woven into that fight. There?s just something about organ music that comes across as creepy to me and I enjoyed it. [/spoiler]

Now I?m doing a bit of side exploring before I head out to the next dungeon since I remember a few things that I couldn?t do before I got the newest equipment. [/COLOR]

[Rachmaninoff]

[quote name='indifference][COLOR=DarkRed]I think it?s safe to say that a fair number of people play the game because Link is pretty damn cute. ;) [/COLOR][/QUOTE]Well..I'd have to say I play it because it's fun and because Zelda's the cute one. :p Even though you don't really see her very often in any of the games.[QUOTE=indifference][COLOR=DarkRed]What I loved best about the boss fight in the fifth dungeon was how everything looked. [spoiler] from the way you fought by using the reflection on the ice, to the details on the boss and the other aspects of that fight. And more importantly, I really liked the thread of organ music woven into that fight. There?s just something about organ music that comes across as creepy to me and I enjoyed it. [/spoiler'][/COLOR][/quote]You are awful. You know I love [spoiler] Organ music! It just sets such a wonderful tone for creepy evil things! [/spoiler] Now I'm going to end up all night playing just to get to that part. Even though I haven't figured out what I need to do to get there yet. I know I'm missing something but I don't know what. I've tried to go into the snow area but I keep ending up back at the entrance. ;_ ;

On another note, I agree about the fourth dungeon boss, that fight was totally fun! It was far to short.

[eleanor]

[color=dimgray] Just have to add something about the remote speaker. I find it pretty annoying. The quality of the speaker isn't that great, and I would much rather have all of the speaker sounds just come from the tv. In addition, the thing is damn loud. <_< Everything else in my house was sleeping and the sword sounds were jarring when I turned the volume down. I wish there were a way you could lower the remote volume.[/color]

[Shinmaru]

[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray'] Just have to add something about the remote speaker. I find it pretty annoying. The quality of the speaker isn't that great, and I would much rather have all of the speaker sounds just come from the tv. In addition, the thing is damn loud. <_< Everything else in my house was sleeping and the sword sounds were jarring when I turned the volume down. I wish there were a way you could lower the remote volume.[/color][/quote]

There is, actually. You just press the home button on the remote and click on the Wii Remote Settings menu, where you'll be able to lower the volume on the remote. I did the same thing, haha. The extra sound is sort of nifty at first, but the low quality is annoying, and it just wastes too much battery power for what it does. I quickly got used to playing Zelda without it.

Anyway, I finished the game recently and I was not disappointed one bit (well, except for the continued ease of the bosses once you figure out their patterns). I don't have time to give detailed thoughts right now, but maybe I'll edit them in later lol.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I, too, found the remote sound effects to be really annoying until I turned down the speaker's volume. Midna's laugh, especially. But with it quieter I don't mind it anymore.

Anyway, I just beat the game. The end dungeon was really great, possibly even my favorite in the game, for one simple reason: There's lots of enemies. It's the only area of the game, aside from the Cave of Ordeals, where the combat plays as large a role as the puzzles. And the puzzles that are there (a couple of which were pretty clever) make use of nearly all your items, which was cool. I really wish all of the game's dungeons had been balanced more like it.

The end fight was great as well, though I found a couple annoyances. First, [spoiler]when you change to wolf form to fight Ganon, the game seems way too picky about making you charge and "lock horns." (Link doesn't have horns, but you know what I mean.) It took me five tries to get it to work even though I'd hold A as soon as the prompt appeared on screen. I have no idea why it worked the fifth time, either.[/spoiler]

Second, [spoiler]when you're dueling Ganondorf in the final phase of the fight, he's invulnerable exept during designated openings after certain attacks of his. One time when he jumped I dodged his first slash as he landed and rolled around behind him to use a Back Slash before he could start his spin attack. I pulled it off perfectly; my sword went right through the back of his neck. But he's invincible all through that attack sequence, so I was then hit by his spin attack even though I managed to dodge and counter-attack, which is just not right.[/spoiler]

In the end, Twilight Princess turned out to be my favorite of the 3D Zeldas even though it suffers from a lot of the same problems as the others. Lack of significant enemies in all but the final dungeon and overall difficulty are the two big things, as well as the "stun and slash" boss syndrome that I complain about so much. It's very much a bigger and better Ocarina of Time, improving on nearly every aspect of that game while also fixing the problems with TWW's combat system. TP isn't quite what I had hoped for, but it came pretty close and I'm happy that it's at least made improvements in the 3D games' lacking areas.

Now, the long wait for Wii Zelda. . . .[/color]

[Shinmaru]

So, yeah, I eventually found my way through the seventh temple, haha. As Des posted earlier, that definitely was the best boss battle up to that point, and maybe even the best in the whole game (the last battle is a lot of fun, too, but the final part of that battle is sort of disappointing). The sheer epic nature of the battle is fantastic. [spoiler]I tell you, it's nice to [i]finally[/i] have the Hookshot/Clawshot's ability to raise Link to amazing heights be used in a boss battle. Scaling the columns and then Clawshotting from Peahat to Peahat (I think they're Peahats, anyway lol) to evade the dragon's fire is great fun.[/spoiler]

The eighth dungeon is solid. [spoiler]The stuff with the Sols is okay, the Light Sword is kickass for the short time that you have it, and scaling that one gigantic room with the floating light platforms and the weird Easter Island head enemies is a lot of fun. Too bad that the mini-boss fights were so damned easy. Blargh.[/spoiler]

Zant's treatment is also bizarre, to say the least lol. [spoiler]I was expecting him to be a bit more formidable, though considering how petty he is throughout the game, I suppose it makes some sense that he's such a whiny little *****. Even when Ganon makes him his puppet, Zant can't stop with the emo. Anyway, his boss battle was definitely disappointing. Rehashing earlier boss battles with slight twists isn't that much fun; I only really enjoyed myself at the end, where Zant becomes absurdly desperate and wails at you nonstop with his attacks. His constant disappearing/reappearing act cracked me up, along with that frustrated shout he makes whenever he misses an attack or you hit him. It was fun seeing Zant's true character shine through during that part of the battle, though obviously it doesn't make him the most intimidating of villains... lol.

I suppose that's the point though. Zant's not an unrelentingly evil figure like Ganon; he's just some dumb, pitiable sap who got greedy for power and met an unfortunate (yet cool-looking) end because of it.[/spoiler]

Final dungeon is also great, for the reasons Des mentioned. It's great that the dungeon made use of just about every item in your inventory ([spoiler]even a small section for the Spinner, yay![/spoiler]). I wish more of the dungeons were like that; only the Clawshot is consistently used from the time that you get it until the end, and it doesn't figure into puzzles all that much (though it is a hell of a lot of fun navigating around dungeons with it). Still, the main items are used solidly throughout, so whatever. I can only hope that your entire inventory is used to better effect in the next Zelda game.

Final battle is a pretty good capper to the game. [spoiler]The first part is pretty simple and easy, but I wasn't expecting any different; the look of Evil Zelda~! made it fun, and it was cool doing the classic back-and-forth stuff with the Wiimote. The second part of the fight is tougher, and I'd say that it's the toughest part of the battle. Demon Ganon is a beast... he rammed the crap out of me pretty handily before I got the timing down and took him out, haha. The wolf part of the fight is a bit frustrating, though, as Des said. However, at least it's a nice payoff for all of the goat/Goron wrestling Link did earlier in the game. :p

The last part is fun but I felt that it could've been a lot more. I mean, Ganon had that big ghost army but it didn't even figure into the battle I fought (do they even do damage to you at all?). I just cut off Ganon's path, let Zelda hit him with the Light Arrows (should've let the player take care of that), and then I got him with a quick swipe of the sword. Not too difficult. The final swordfight is a kickass way to end the game, and the atmosphere is so wonderful, but again, it's just too damn easy. Since the only way to damage Ganon is to wait for the right prompting, there's really no reason to try to engage Ganon with any of your normal swordfighting techniques. It would've been great to have been able to chip away slowly at Ganon, after which you'd then be able to counter his attack and send him flying. The fight feels too abbreviated the way it is, to me, which is annoying because what's there is pretty damn fun. It just could've been so much more.

I'll give it this, however: Using the finishing blow on Ganon is a cool as **** way to end the battle. The final image of Link and Zelda standing before the sunset and Ganon off to the side with the Master Sword running him straight through is awesome in ways that I can't even express. It's amazing how Ganon's death scenes continue to surpass each other game after game.[/spoiler]

Even with the minor disappointments, though, I enjoyed the hell out of Twilight Princess. The fun combat, solid dungeons, ginormous boss battles, and surprisingly engaging storyline are more than enough to make up for any slight disappointment TP gave me. As for its place among the 3D Zeldas, well, I'd have to think about that a bit more before I make any sort of statement about that, especially because it's been a while since I played the others. I will say that TP is pretty high up, at least.

*joins Des in waiting for Wii Zelda*

[eleanor]

[color=dimgray] So I was a total dork and got my dog to sit next to me while I had Link howl. And she howled back! :D

[spoiler] I just finished the desert temple, and the spinner is my favorite weapon now. I just wish there were more places we could use it in. And of course I was not surprised to see that the Mirror of Twilight had been shattered. I'm sort of stuck now, because I don't know how to find the mountain temple.[/spoiler]

I have question, though. [spoiler] Is the hidden skills warrior Link from OoT/MM? I know he says that only heroes can learn the hidden skills, but does that mean Hero of Time heroes or just any heroes? And the songs you howl are all from OoT/MM, so I'm guessing if it is another Link, it'd be that one.[/spoiler][/color]