The latest title in the Legend of Zelda series is a game that had been delayed a number of times. It was in Nintendo’s pipeline long enough to be named the best action/adventure game at E³ in both 2005 and 2006. As fans of the series clamored for a follow-up to 2003’s excellent The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the game was puched back from Thanksgiving to spring to next year’s holidays. It finally saw release as one of the Wii’s launch titles, and it’s no stretch to say that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was worth the wait.
In this game, you control Link as a young man from the small village of Ordon in the farthest reaches of Hyrule. He regularly lends a hand around the village, from herding goats to rescuing cats to retrieving items stolen by monkeys. He is asked to take a gift to the palace by Rusl, the village’s blacksmith. However, on the day that he is to begin his journey, he and two of the village children are attacked by goblins mounted on a boar, and he is knocked unconscious. When he awakes, he tried to pursue them, but is pulled into another world.
Link finds himself transformed into a wolf, chained in a cell. A spirit of shadows who identified himself as Midna shows up and takes an interest in Link. With a combination of hints, taunts and the occasional helping hand, Midna assists Link in getting free of the dungeon and to the top of the castle. There, the cloaked Princess Zelda reveals herself to Link and explains to him that the King of Twilight, Zant is transforming Hyrule into a world of twilight, and intends to do the same to the entire world. Midna reveals that she seeks a weapon called the Fused Shadow to save the realm of twilight from Zant.
Link and Midna return to Ordon, where Link finds that he can cross between the normal and twilight versions of Hyrule in certain circumstances, and that he regains his true form while in his own realm. With the sword and shield Rusl crafted and the legendary green clothes of the hero, he sets out on a journey to find and reassemble the Fused Shadow (and later, the Mirror of Twilight) and save Hyrule from Zant. Along the way, he will discover the history of the beings in the Twilight Realm, Midna’s true identity and motives, and, of course, how Ganondorf fits into Hyrule’s current plight.
Link gains a number of useful abilities during his quest that have not existed in Legend of Zelda games before Twilight Princess. The familiar hookshot is transformed into a clawshot, which can be used to grab onto ceilings and swing over pits (and he eventually obtains a second, allowing him to stay off the ground indefinitely). The bow gets a number of enhancements, like the ability to combine it with other items to make special arrows and the hawkeye attachment, which allows it to be used like a low-tech sniper rifle. New tools include the dominion rod, which gives Link the ability to bring statues to life, and an enhancement to the boomerang which allows it to create small whirlwinds. Link also learns a number of new attack techniques during the game, such as the downward thrust from Zelda II, now used as a finishing maneuver against monsters who have been knocked prone.
When in his wolf form, a number of things change for Link. For the most part, humanoids treat him as a monster while he is a wolf, but animals will converse with him normally. He can dig into the ground to unearth objects and tunnel under obstacles. He also gains an unnamed mystical sense, which reveals items hidden in the ground and shows him (and allow him to interact with) spirits. He can also howl to summon Epona and for a number of other effects as you progress through the game. Link can still fight using modified versions of most of his maneuvers as a wolf, though he cannot use items.
Midna, for her part, sits in Link’s shadow like Stan from Okage: Shadow King. Once she teams up with Link, she is assigned to up on the directional pad. You can press that button at any time to get some advice from her about your current objectives (though it’s not often terribly helpful). Occasionally, she will giggle, indicating that she has something important to say or can do something to help, like giving Link something to target to jump across platforms. As a being of twilight, Midna is most helpful while in the twilight realm, though she manages to be annoying no matter where you go.
This game is an excellent challenge from start to finish. The game is filled with the usual assortment of puzzles, some of which are a little short in the clue department (and thus virtually need a FAQ to solve). Many of these puzzles are hazardous to Link’s health, as are a greater than average number of the battles he faces along the way. Many enemies, especially the wide variety of bosses, have unique weaknesses that must be exploited in order to defeat them. The estimate Nintendo gave of 70 hours of gameplay seems right, and finishing every side quest the designers put in will keep players busy for long after that.
The controls in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be familiar to anyone who has played a Zelda game on the N64 or Gamecube. On the nunchuck, the thumb stick controls Link’s movement, while the Z trigger allows you to lock onto a target or re-center the camera. The C trigger allows you to look around without moving. The A and B buttons on the remote control actions and item use, respectively, and the directional pad either selects which item is associated with B or controls additional actions. It takes some time to get used to the controls, but it’s hard to imagine getting a better response from them.
Unlike prior Zelda games (and the Gamecube incarnation of this one), attacking is handled using the Wii's the motion-sensitive controls. Swinging the remote performs a slash or thrust, and holding down A turns it into a jumping strike. To perform the spinning attack, you shake the nunchuck. The remote is also used for some other tasks like fishing and aiming projectile weapons and functions well enough for these purposes. A fairy, reminiscent of Navi from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, shows where on the screen you are pointing, except when you are using a targeted item, when it changes to a crosshair. The motion controls are sharp and highly intuitive.
The graphics in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess are fairly good. This game uses a much more realistic art style than prior titles in the series. The fact that body proportions are within human norms is a pleasant surprise; it's nice to see characters that aren't stick figures or bodybuilders. A little less uniformity in monster design wouldn't go astray, but they are still impressive. The world is very detailed, and varies from the vibrant to the bleak, providing an excellent backdrop to the story. There are the issues with clipping and shadows that you expect from a launch title, but the problems are never so bad that you have trouble figuring out what you’re looking at. It is a little strange, however, seeing the Matrix-style animations associated with the world of twilight. Overall, the game looks very nice, but nothing about it screams "next-generation."
The sound in this title is also very good. The music is deep and, for the first time in the series, is orchestrated in parts. Many tunes are composed well enough to be worth listening to separately. The music is well-matched with the setting and story, making it easy to get pulled into the scene. Sound effects, both on screen and played through the remote, are accurate and timed perfectly. Speech sounds could have been better; either full voice-overs or nothing would have been better than the baby-talk-like noise that accompanies dialogue. It doesn't take long to get annoyed by Midna's laughter, either.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess joins a very short list of launch titles that are worth having out of the gate and jumps immediately into the discussion of best games in the Zelda franchise. The game combines the solid gameplay of prior titles in the series and a. The Wii-specific features only improve slightly on the Gamecube version, but this game and Wii Sports provide enough reason for most gamers to pick up Nintendo's new console.
If you're a fan of the series, you should already have this title, and anyone who is at all interested in action, adventure or roleplaying games should seriously consider adding it to their collection.
