The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Impressions

To nobody's great surprise, Nintendo's flagship Wii launch title The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess has been showered with critical praise in the days leading up to and following its release, much of which is likely by default as much as for any other reason. It is a Zelda game, after all, and that tends to be what happens when a Zelda game is released. The game has also taken some criticism--albeit frequently reserved and heavily disclaimered--for riding too much on the series' coattails, delivering an experience that, while still of high quality, does not provide enough freshness. The reality is that the Zelda-style adventure game has essentially become a form in video games, if not exactly a genre. Its structure still falls along the lines of completing dungeons, acquiring new items, and progressing across an overworld to repeat the process, but to consider that a flaw borne out of a lack of inventiveness would be akin to calling Hadyn or Mozart a musical loafer for always constructing sonatas out of an exposition, development, and recapitulation--or, for that matter, a first person shooter developer for making use of the "shoot lots of guys while finding increasingly powerful or unique weapons" structure. Of course, there is something to be said for brand new experiences. There is quite a lot to be said, in fact, and it is true that video games, as any other type of entertainment, can always use them. With Twilight Princess, however, Nintendo clearly set out to create a game that is the culmination of two decades of Zelda development, a game that is fundamentally familiar to most gamers yet in many ways still constantly surprising. Twilight Princess' obvious touchstone is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a game that often inhabits the short list of "Greatest Games of All Time," whatever that means, and by most accounts is one of the two most highly praised Zelda titles along with Link to the Past. Rather that reinvent the successful format that Ocarina of Time imported into 3D, Twilight Princess seeks to one-up Ocarina of Time in as many ways possible in terms of scale and grandeur. The polar opposite of its other internally developed Wii launch title, the ultra-accessible Wii Sports, Twilight Princess is a long, deep, involved gamer's game. Almost as if to weed out those expecting something quick or easy, the substantial introductory segment is uncharacteristically (and perhaps overly) slow, not in line with what is to come later. One of the most notable aspects of Twilight Princess is its relatively strong focus on storytelling, not just atmosphere. While Zelda games tend to be steeped in the latter, the former has never been a crucial part of the series, and indeed has never been a matter of particular concern for Nintendo's developers. Current Zelda director Eiji Aonuma, who was assistant director to Shigeru Miyamoto on Ocarina and has held the series' reins since the followup Majora's Mask, has made clear his intention to take the Zelda world and put an emphasis on the "Legend" part of its moniker, establishing the games as individual chronicles of a broad mythic folk saga passed down through the ages. In some ways, and please forgive the indulgent analogy, Twilight Princess is Half-Life 2 to Ocarina of Time's Half-Life. (This is in no way a statement on quality and no implications as to which of those games is "better" than any other should be inferred!) Being an adventure game, Ocarina of course has more of a focus on plot than Half-Life. Still, neither game relied on plot nearly as heavily as on atmosphere. Both games made radical strides in terms in providing a coherent and engaging realtime game world in their respective genres, with pacing and storytelling (as opposed to story itself) supremely suited to the strengths of video games as opposed to cribbing from film. Half-Life 2 and Twilight Princess, both part of the modern gaming world with the technological benefits that have surfaced since 1998, each takes more of an outwardly cinematic approach than its predecessor. Half-Life 2 maintains the series' convention of never leaving first person perspective, but there are still static movie-like cutscenes that are guaranteed to occur at specific points; similarly, Twilight Princess is frequently punctuated with more cinematic cutscenes and explicitly plot-driven material than any other game in the series. Fortunately for both games, these elements are handled surprisingly effectively. In some ways, changes like these arguably dilute some of the "game-ness" of the game, as at least with most current game plot-telling techniques, degrees of control must be removed from the player to execute them. This is one reason I prefer Half-Life to Half-Life 2, though it must be said that both games are easily among my favorites of all time. On the other hand, I prefer Twilight Princess to Ocarina. Ever since it was taken into the 3D realm, the Zelda games have always seemed on the cusp of this kind of evolution, particularly because, despite Nintendo never having provided any kind of overarching series timeline, the strange same-world-but-new-realization has always implied something bigger, if even unintentionally. Aonuma made great strides in that unifying direction with Wind Waker, and that game's visual presentation was in addition to being enormously impressive and well-crafted also perfectly fitting to the series' mythological flavor, but the game was also held back by some odd oversights such as its snore-inducing late-game Triforce hunt. Twilight Princess' visual style is less iconic than Wind Waker's, and more reliant on graphical horsepower. Ever since I first saw the game I had my doubts as to whether Nintendo's designers could create something as affecting and emotive with this kind of look. I believe those doubts were well founded, but Twilight Princess simply has different goals than its immediate forebear. Certainly, it has charm, and given the staggeringly enormous size of the world it is extremely impressive how much more personality and history is infused into the many NPCs than in most games; the writing, though not exactly transcending the video game medium, also seems to have taken a noticeable step up. The amount of polish evident throughout every environment is constantly surprising, even from the first moment: the fact that every animal in Ordona Village has its own swimming animation just in case you tos it the water; the cat door that slightly swings if you happen to headbutt the village store; the close attention paid to eye movement that was present in Wind Waker but due to the style is much more subtle here; the huge number of convincingly lupine characteristics of Link in wolf form. It is not worth continuing the list, but suffice to say the world feels very much alive. Still, charm is not this game's stock in trade. This game deals in intensity, in epic scope, in breadth and variety. Is any of this hurt by the visuals being designed for GameCube hardware? No, not really. When you snap out of Zelda-induced gaming stupor after several hours of continuous play, it is easy to notice that the textures could be sharper and the geometry more complex. Given the ridiculous amount of content in the game, is is also easy to forgive the developers for not going back and building the Wii version from the ground up. Essentially, it will bother some more than others, but Twilight Princess is by most accounts a very impressive looking and great feeling game to play. One gets the impression that a theme during development was the idea of constantly one-upping past Zelda conventions. This time, you don't just go between two worlds, or play different incarnations of the same character across two time periods, you do both at once, shifting to and from a parallel world where your character is an entirely different species. There are brand new items, and also familiar ones, but many of the new items have unexpected functionality or even multiple modes of use. The world is huge, dwarfing Ocarina of Time's once remarkable 3D Hyrule and even outgrowing Wind Waker's interesting but poorly managed ocean, replacing it and expanding it with actual land mass and a better transportation system. As if to drive the point home, the life hearts have five pieces now, not four. There has been furious debate on the internets about Twilight Princess' Wii controls, and whether they are "tacked on," a phrase that is not particularly helpful as a descriptive term as it has nothing to do with function or usefulness. As a ridiculous aside, the much-loved sword vs. gun scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark was tacked on mid-shoot, but the film is all the better for it. So, is Zelda made better by way of the Wii's motion-sensitive, two-part controller? In a word, yes. Aiming with the remote's pointer feels utterly natural, a perfect evolution for the series. If you like, you can turn that functionality off, but for just about everyone, that is going to be a ridiculous notion after actually having some hands on time using it with the bow or slingshot. It is implemented wonderfully; with the nunchuk's analog stick allowing supplemental horizontal turning, it is an extremely fast and accurate aiming method. Of course, there has been much more more controversy about the game's swordplay, some of which is controlled by shaking the remote, for a regular attack, or the nunchuk, for a spin attack. Though it may sound like a cop out answer, when it comes down to it, this is as enjoyable as you are willing to let it be. If you are determined to find this aspect of control pointless and cumbersome, you are unlikely to have your mind changed. Unlike the aiming controls, it doesn't bring anything new to the game, it merely offers a different--and, believe it or not, frequently more immersive--way of doing the same thing. For what it's worth, I have never died or even felt disadvantaged as a result of using these controls. No, isn't any particular finesse conferred by the controller in terms of intricately directing your strokes, but why should there be? Leave that to a different, more combat-centric game. Has anyone ever criticized a game for treating analog triggers digitally? Well, yes, probably, but it's a slightly dubious criticism. Brief mention should be made of the Wii controller's two-part design. Believe it or not, this might be the single greatest conrol-related boon to an intensive single-player game like Zelda that we've seen in years. Since you only ever need to actually point at the screen for shooting segments, you can spend the majority of the game letting your hands fall wherever feels most natural. Remember earlier when I mentioned a Zelda-induced gaming stupor? Those are the times when you will appreciate the relative freedom conferred by a few feet of cable. Traditional controllers still feel just fine, but despite the existence of Wii "Get Off Your Ass and Play" Sports, the controller certainly allows you to be a couch-bound lump. The Zelda team has indicated on multiple occasions that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is likely to be the last home console game in the series that fits the current, much-praised mold. With that in mind, it is fitting that Twilight Princess serve as the current series' swansong, a refinement of the many Zelda games that have come before. Like most Nintendo games, anybody can play it, but at its heart, this is a Zelda intended for the gamers. Like a great sonata, Twilight Princess doesn't necessarily reinvent the formula, it just does it better. Turn the page for David's impressions.