A solid entry to the 3D Zelda series, but not without its caveats.

OPENING
Twilight Princess features what is essentially a double opening – one to introduce you to Link, the Hero of Twilight, and another to display the best (which admittedly isn’t much) of his new wolf form. While it appears to many to be a slog, I am of the opinion that it opens the game near-perfectly, balancing the two forms while making an opening still better than the pain that was Skyward Sword’s opening hours.

STYLE
Twilight Princess’s more somber and muddled atmosphere is a knee-jerk reaction to the negative attention brought to The Wind Waker’s cartoon cel-shading. It’s a love-it-or-hate-it, controversial style, and while it accurately reflects the game’s tone, it remains drab and colorless sans a few dungeons and hidden areas. The GameCube-realism style has also aged quite awfully.

OVERWORLD
Hyrule is more packed than ever before, with enemies left and right, Epona combat on a new level, a bustling Castle Town area, and puzzles scattered all around. Unfortunately, the grass textures are boring and lame, somewhat remedied by the standout and memorable Field theme. There’s not much to do as Wolf Link, however, which seems to be a trend throughout the game. The Tears of Light are too abundant and tend to miss their point (introducing the player to a new area), instead becoming a bit boring and tedious.

DUNGEONS
Link adventures through several of the series’s best dungeons – Lakebed Temple showing off a surprisingly complex interconnected spinning staircase puzzle, Arbiter’s Grounds uniquely using the Wolf form for a Poe hunt and the underappreciated Spinner to ride around the dungeon, Snowpeak Temple and City in the Sky displaying new mechanics with excellent atmosphere, and Hyrule Castle tying each mechanic together in a great tie-up to the game. The other dungeons, while less notable, are still stellar for the most part despite getting a bit caught up in the Zelda formula.

ENEMIES and BOSSES
Twilight Princess is NOT difficult. Despite this, it has excellent enemy variety (a nice compliment to Breath of the Wild’s bland “Bokoblin, Moblin, Bokoblin, Moblin” pattern) showcased just by the mere presence of the Bulblins, enemies that appear only once more (in the often neglected Spirit Tracks). Most enemies are creatively designed to fit with the game’s more realistically textured atmosphere while using attack patterns that bring out the best of Link’s expanded combat capabilities – my favorite example being the Darknuts. On the topic of bosses, while not very difficult, the designs are stunning and unique. Stallord, Blizzeta, Zant, and the many phases of Ganondorf, while (again) not difficult make up for it in just how darn fun they are. Unfortunately, there are Morpheel and Diababa, who flop. The minibosses are great as well, my favorites being Death Sword (for his use of Wolf Link) and Skull Kid.

COMBAT
Link: Awesome. Wolf Link: Meh, okay. Link sports many Hidden Skills that he can learn from his Ocarina of Time ancestor throughout the game that are fun to use and fun to watch unfold. They’re more interactive than Wind Waker’s “skills,” thankfully. Wolf Link, on the other hand, sees some nice use with scents and Poes, but otherwise feels a bit too cheesy and forced in. He’s never really given a time to shine.

ITEMS
Twilight Princess boasts awesome items that are sometimes underutilized. The Double Clawshot (an improvement on the Clawshot in every way), Ball and Chain(very unique, utilized well in Snowpeak but not much else), Dominion Rod (much better than The Wind Waker’s statue song), Hawkeye, Gale Boomerang, and Spinner (famously underutilized, but it’s actually not!) are all seriously fun and creative all while feeling Zelda-authentic. I’d love to see these items expanded on more in a future Zelda title. Too bad the Horse Call is obtained too late-game.

MUSIC
The compositions are awesome, memorable, and evoke all the right emotion, but are slapped in the face by a vaguely-MIDI soundfont as opposed to actual orchestration. It’s fine in some places, it’s not in others. Thankfully, the compositions are great enough that it’s great to listen to anyway.

STORY
This is where Twilight Princess distinguishes itself. The devs ditch the annoying companions for Midna, who has a real and tangible character arc and isn’t annoying. Zelda, while serving as a key character who brings on some tear-jerking moments midgame, serves as more of a Triforce-obligation as Midna takes center stage. While I won’t spoil every detail, the story of Twilight Princess is highlighted by memorable characters (who unfortunately have ugly, disproportional faces. sorry Malo) and memorable enemies. One amazing ongoing theme is Link’s feud with King Bulblin, who appears to cause trouble numerous times. The big bad seems to be the outcast Twili dictator Zant, who wishes to take Hyrule for his own and cast a twilight shadow over the land. However, halfway through the game it is revealed that Zant is being manipulated by none other than Ganondorf, the King of Thieves himself. This is a very widely criticized plot twist, often cited as happening at the end of the game and for ruining a perfectly good villain (Zant). I disagree entirely, with the former claim being untrue (Ganondorf was shown as early as the Arbiter’s Grounds) and the latter being misguided – Zant’s manipulation is a key part of his character, just as his shift to insanity was (an equally criticized and controversial move). However, I feel that Zant’s crazy streak was foreshadowed at Lakebed and differentiates him from every other super serious and super evil villain. Evil dudes are about flaws, and Zant’s flaw is his ambition for power that he’ll never be able to use properly and his wish for revenge against some imagined wrong against him. These flaws aren’t really seen too much in games. While some say the Twilight Palace scene makes Zant look like a “manbaby,” I say it shows his true character – a lunatic, a fanatic, and someone who knows that he is done for and only tries to use the last of his power – but fails, as always. Plus, he gets some redemption at the end by snapping his own neck to kill off Dorf for good!

MISC
Link is buff. There is a real recipe for Superb Soup. Hena’s fishing hut is hilarious and very Nintendo-esque.

As if listening to a mass consumer market making comments about cartoony graphics and swollen heads, Nintendo went full circle and made a darker, more adult version of Zelda to appeal to it’s aging fan base.
The game starts with Link as a farm helper on a goat ranch where he literally tosses goats into submission. The story is convoluted and includes another dimension where everything is basically the same but all black and purple and mysteriously mysterious. It also brings back the fishing feature and includes yet more monkeys. The little imp helper you get is the only sort of ‘cutesy’ part left in the game and even she was turned into pornographic fan art by Zeldaphiles. The story, as mentioned, is a bit choppy and the gameplay can drag on a bit but overall it’s enjoyable and a well sold game of 2006, competing with Oblivion and Okami. It was made available for both the Gamecube and the Wii which may have helped it’s sales but also included a majority of Gamers who were not on the latest console bandwagon yet.

Conclusion: Good game but certainly follows the vortex pattern of quality diminishing as it flies further from the OoT nest. But the fans got what they asked for, yet again, and were still not totally happy with their experience, which nearly concludes our Reviewathon with the final installment next.