Twilight Princess in retrospect

[jetsetradio4ever]

OK, I'm not tryin to start flame wars or anything, and this may seem random as hell but, quite frankly, I feel guilty. I got TP as a present last Christmas, and played about 1/3 of the way through. (I almost beat the Goron mines.) Today, though, I started playing again out of boredom and, well, guilt. Someone payed $60 for it and I haven't played it in about 8 months.

My Wii hasn't been getting much loving lately because all the games I want to play are coming out in the next few months, so I'm not sorried about that.

I just wanted to know...what am I missing here? I mean, my brother got a Wii and TP, too, and he played a little further than me. Honestly, he agrees: it's not as fantastic as everyone says. Even one of my friends who was in my situation, but got bored and beat it one weekend recently, said the same thing. It was good, but it wasn't great. Can anyone think of any words of advice on what will make me see how awesome it is?

Thanks, and sorry for the randomness.

[Wolfrider31]

I'm right there with you buddy. I lost interest in it around the 2/3 mark and only just beat it this summer. It's not that the game is BAD by any means. All the parts are there, but it's missing something.

I think the problem is two-fold. One, the story is very minamilstic, even more so than in Ocarina or Majora's Mask. It starts off looking like a grand scale epic, but they pull back from anything approaching a meaningful plot. Finish it and then go back and play the beginning and you'll see what I mean. The game starts off and it looks like you're going to develop a relationship with every character you meet, and by the 2/3's mark EVERYONE fades into the background and becomes completely utilitarian. Now, Zelda's plot's always been minamalist, but I don't remember feeling so completely indifferent to any of the characters in OoT.

The second issue is that this game IS OoT. And Majora's Mask. And Wind Waker. It's a by-the-numbers Zelda game, and the fact that it shares so much stylistically with the N64 original just accentuates it. WW dodged a bullet by being completely different in terms of style (and having a relatively compelling story) even though the gameplay was exactly the same. TP doesn't have this going for it.

It's weird. Even the last boss (don't worry no spoilers) felt like they were trying to make it EPIC but it just didn't work. Certainly not in the way that it did in OoT.

Zelda really needs a reboot and quick because it's starting to taste a tad stale.

[BydoEmpire]

Personally, I really loved it. I'm tempted to say it's my favorite Zelda game ever (note that I'm not a Zelda series fanatic). The pacing is great, the level design and puzzles are among the best I've ever seen, it looks beautiful and the characters have... character. With that in mind, not everyone has to like every game, no matter what the overall consensus it. I would day my favorite dungeons are a little bit later in the game (though I did love the water temple), so maybe you want to stick with it. It's one of those gamses that you have to be in the right frame of mind to really enjoy. I think I dug it because I was in the mood for a Zelda game and let myself get sucked into the world. I can see not really liking it (or any other game) if you're having to force yourself to play.

[jetsetradio4ever]

I can see not really liking it (or any other game) if you're having to force yourself to play.

And see, that's the thing. I know that, if I try to force myself, I'll end up liking it even less. That's why I'm asking for comments on why I should stick with it.

But, then, I seem to have had a problem with Zelda games since OoT. That was the first one I played, so it set the standard for me. MM was...lacking after playing OoT, and WW wasn't that great in my opinion. It felt almost the same way that TP does, where it's spending so much time trying to be a kick-ass blockbuster, that they forget to make a new game.

I felt kind of let-down after a while in TP because, like you said, the beginning (about the first 6 hours) were excellent, but then it fell into a rut just like MM or WW. The reason I asked for it for Christmas in the first place was that everyone was calling it "OoT 2" and saying that it would be as amazing as OoT was. But, honestly, it doesn't feel that way to me.

[Apollo]

To be perfectly honest, after I beat the game, I had no desire at all to play it again. I realized how every dungeon only incorporates the tool you find from that specific dungeon, with the exception of the bow and maybe two others. Seriously, for those people at the 2/3 mark, when was the last time you used the Gale Boomerang? It's great if your a Zelda fan, but as a game by itself, it isn't that great.

[c0ldb33r]

There was a related thread a long time ago, and I said then, and I'll say now, that this game is way too over-hyped. When it was released people were acting as if this were the second coming of Jesus, but I felt like it was a chore. I played for hours and it just sucked I liked the cube Zelda much, much more. It was just more fun.

I never got into the controls of the Wii game. It always bugged me that it was just the cube version with shitty motion controls tacked on. So I can't play it because it pisses me off so much. I also own the cube version, which if I wanted to get into this game I would play the cube version since the controls don't feel like they're tacked on, but the story and gameplay aren't interesting enough to let me start from scratch.

Twilight princess = meh.

[smokehouse]

I’ll dawn the flame suit and go on record stating that other than Windwaker, I just don’t like ANY of the 3D Zelda titles. I’ve tried, I own all of them (except for TP) and I just can’t get into them. I’m the same way with Metroid, I just can’t stand what it’s become. I’m not going to flame anyone who prefers the 3D version of the games but they are just too far off from what I grew up with a love.


BTW…my buddy owns TP on the Wii and he hasn’t finished it either. When I asked him about it he stated he just got tired of it and quit playing.

[exit]

I got it right before X-mas and really got into it, then I got distracted with other things and put it down for awhile. I just recently beat it in June during my vacation and I really did enjoy the hell out of it, but I don't think I'll want to go back to it like I did with LttP and OoT. Speaking of things being useless, Epona was completely useless once you were able to turn into the wolf and warp around Hyrule.

I don't really think it's the series itself, it might just be how things have evolved in general. Games try and to pack as much things as possible now, which is great at times, but when things get too complex, the games get long and players may eventually get bored. I think it's just that the simplicity is gone and it's slowly starting to cause a negative effect.