A gratifying experience, but not what Ocarina of Time was

User Rating: 9 | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess WII
By dan543 | Review Date:
Twilight Princess is one of the best Zelda titles ever made. But it doesn't live up to the name of the Legend itself. What TP really lacks is innovation. The game is beautiful and a great adventure experience, as well a great achievement, but all those that played Ocarina of Time must feel the same way: a recycled experience. Event though it introduces new gameplay elements (introduced mainly by the Wiimote), the foundations of Twilight Princess are built upon Ocarina of Time. The basic elements of the game are all in resemblance with those of Ocarina of Time, which has highly influenced the later games, nevertheless, every single one of them had a new implementation that made the experience fresh and exciting, such as the Three Day System in Mayora's Mask, or the Great Sea in the Wind Waker as well as the Graphic Style. Unfortunately, Twilight Princess didn't did this at all, and also presented some step backs in the series. TP took many of the last games and recycled them: a huge world, transformation and the massive number of temples. Event though all if these elements could make a great dream-like Zelda Game, they all lack in some aspects: the huge world feels empty, mainly because they are just fields used to go to one point to another, deserted places with some enemies. Even Hyrule Market feels empty in spite of the great multitude of people, because you cannot interact with them, they just walk by. In every other Zelda game you can talk to every single character and they have something to say, which makes a great immersive experience. Even Ocarina of Time's little market feels more alive than the Twilight Princess's huge market. Most of the characters lack in development and the huge world seems to feel a little bit empty, and there were very few sidequests to complete (MM had a tremendous replay value, the time system allowed to create incredible sidequests that never got boring and make Termina a lively world). Transformation is not new in the series. In Mayora's Mask you can also transform to three different characters. The Wolf is ok, but the Twilight World can get a little bit boring, especially because you must always do the same thing with the Wolf, find bugs and kill them. The storyline, the temples and locales remind me too much of Ocarina of Time, sometimes making me feel that I'm playing Ocarina of Time 1.5. Even you get the Zora Tunic again. The number of temples is greater than any other Zelda Game, but the last temples are just to short to complete, in contrast with those of Ocarina of Time, that took a great deal of time to complete. Also, the difficulty has been tunes down for new players into the series, which makes the game feel sometimes way to easy for any Zelda veteran. At the very end, TP feels like an enchanced Ocarina of Time with some elements from MM and WW. Don't get me wrong, it is a great game and definitely worth a check, but it's not what Ocarina of Time was on it's time (it defined a Genre), or even what ALttP was too (even OoT has ALttP shades), the game feels old in this aspect, but the Wiimote gave some life to the series. I hope the next Zelda game introduces something new, just like MM or the WW, because the formula is getting overused by Nintendo and some changes need to be made, both in storyline and gameplay (we Zelda fans are tired of killing Ganondorf at the very end). The Wii has the capability to do it. The gameplay can be preserved, but definitely needs to have new features. Overall, TP is a good game, and a great experience to new players into the series, but a little bit of a let down to the veterans.

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