[UPDATE:] It seems I am about a week behind on this, forgive me, Dinker, and Linker, but one of my oldest and greatest affiliates, Dinker n' Linker have recently redone/recreated their wonderful site, which I urge you all to visit here. I'll have the link on the right hand side updated shortly. And on another affiliate note, although The Random Plane has been offline for quite some time, I have spoken with its creator and I do not think that it is quite yet dead, so therefore, it remains on my affiliate list. [/UPDATE]
Well. Here I am once again. But this time around it's been less than a year since my last update, so I can't help but feel a bit of undeserved elation. It feels good to be sitting here working on all this again, and although I write with the usual lack of significant updates, I'd like to share a few of my musings, or more accurately, discover just how I feel about several things as I write. So just a few updates prior to this one, way back in 2007, I spoke briefly of how I disliked Twilight Princess. Back then, I had played a mere few hours into the game, already knowing how every boss battle and the final ending sequence was going to unfold. I was a fool and in my excitement to learn as much as I could about the game before it was officially released in America, I had gone on YouTube and watched all the leaked boss battles. Once I actually got my hands on the game, I found that it was boring and as utterly non-enchanting as a videogame can be. I put it aside and didn't even think of revisiting it until the beginning of this summer. Enough time had finally passed that I had forgotten the majority of what I once knew of the game, and having not adventured into Hyrule in quite some time, I decided to pick it up again. And this time, I played it to completion. And once again, my verdict is the same: Twilight Princess just feels very static and mechanical. The graphics are nice, some of the musical arrangements are decent (yes, "decent"; my expectations were quite high. The main field theme was especially disappointing in my opinion), but the gameplay and story left much to be desired. Gameplay, for the most part, has not changed since The Wind Waker, and even that didn't really change much from Ocarina of Time. And in the latter two, I feel like it worked beautifully, but something about TP just felt too rigid. Right from the beginning, Link is sent on a quest to collect the three Fused Shadow pieces. After tediously destroying an inordinate amount of bugs to collect "tears of light", Link finally manages to dispel the majority of the twilight from Hyrule, and to what avail? So Zant can once again be seen in his silly outfit, and so that the player can be treated to a brief and almost unnecessary set of cutscenes, before once again being sent on a quest to collect 3 pieces of the Twilight Mirror. Oh, and somewhere along the line, Ganondorf was thrown into the mix. And he's still as legit as ever, it's just that his introduction just seems out of the blue, and Zant's role as his puppet seems unconvincing - never once did I feel like Hyrule was doomed when in the Twilight - the races of Hyrule just went about their business as usual. But I'm getting off track - so finally, Link collects the pieces of the mirror in some of the most unlikely locations. Why is one kept in an ice mansion? And why, after laboring to get all the way to the City in the Sky, are the residents so unfriendly? After having that idiotic Oocoo thing follow Link around the whole game, one would think that once Link finally helped it get back to it's proper city, it'd actually be useful. False. And why the heck is the City a dungeon right from the second Link lands there? Lastly, why, why, why was the Temple of Time turned into a dungeon? In my opinion, the Temple of Time is way too sacred of a place for Zant to enter, let alone seal away a piece of the mirror. The temple was pretty enjoyable, although for some reason, as the game progressed, the dungeons actually got...shorter and easier? Yeah, don't know about that. At least the Temple of Time could have had a legit boss. The arachnid akin to the reincarnation of Queen Gohma was a bit...pitiful. As was the Dominion Rod. The Dominion Rod has appeared in other forms in other Zelda games, but this time it just felt like it was thrown into the mix just to try to prolong the story as much as possible. But enough griping about the dungeons. Let's discuss other aspects of the games. For the first time I can remember in a Zelda game, I actually felt no desire to pursue any of the sidequests or interact with any of the NPCs. Games like ALTTP, OOT, MM, and TWW - all these games created a sort of atmosphere that was conducive to exploring and embarking on nonprofitable sidequests or learning more about the individual NPCs' situations. In TP, all the NPCs felt forced. Remember that annoying mailman? Yeah. Hyrule Castle Town, however, was absolutely teeming with NPCs. There were so many of them, it was almost overwhelming, but that didn't make a difference, because none of them were fun to interact with, and most of them had silly dialogue. The game on a whole, felt like a to-do list: Get the fused shadows. Get the mirror shards. Beat Zant. Beat Ganondorf.
Now, all griping aside, there were some cool things in the game. The main characters were all beautifully rendered, Link, Ganondorf, and Zelda all looked amazing. Zant and Midna looked ridiculous, and honestly, I have no idea why they were thrown into the game. I enjoyed the Hidden Village western style shootout, although in the big picture, that whole village was really unncessary (it can be argued that the majority of any videogame is unnecessary, but what I mean is, Link visited the Hidden Village pretty much once and then was done with it forever. There was no reason to go back there). I really enjoyed the throwbacks to old Zelda games, like the bomb-arrows, some of the enemies, and the golden pyramid that engulfed Hyrule Castle. The final stage of the final battle on Hyrule Field with Ganondorf was pretty fun, but other than the boss battle in Arbiter Grounds, the rest of the battles were uninteresting and on the whole, way too easy.
After playing through TP, I returned after almost five years, toThe Wind Waker, and in revisiting it, I found it to be incredibly refreshing and enthralling. I had no serious issues with the graphics before and accepted them; but this time around, the graphics seemed beyond acceptable, they seemed gorgeous. The musical pieces and the soundtrack are so enchanting. I actually feel immersed in Link's world and I enjoy nothing more than sailing the Great Sea or wasting time interacting with random NPCs or just fooling around with items. TWW feels like a game of epic proportions. TP was supposed to be the biggest Zelda adventure yet, and Hyrule Field certainly was gigantic, as was most of Hyrule - but the storyline/gameplay/adventure? Pitifully short. When I think of TWW, I think of standing on random mountain cliffs, listening to the background music fading away as nothing but the wind fills the speakers; I think of crawling in the small passageways underneath islands, being sent to the black abyss by random mice; I think of navigating my way around the Forsaken Fortress, working my way through it as the game progresses; I think of visiting the countless islands and exploring their every nook and cranny - these are the things that make the game so much fun to play, these are the things that create this ambience that Hyrule is filled with countless adventures and mysteries. Similarly, when I think of OOT, I think of exploring The Lost Woods, chilling with the Gorons at Death Mountain, having fun with the Windmill guy, creeping around the bottom of the Kakariko Well or silently flitting around the Graveyard. I think of the places, characters, music, and moments that completely immerse me into the game and make it believable and enjoyable. TP...had none of that. And this is nothing new, no novel discovery - I've spoken about this before, the "magic" of most Zelda games, the "experience" - TP just proves to be the exception to the series, I guess. ! Lastly: I did enjoy the twist of the Hero of the Past that taught Link his moves (the "Hero's Shade" as some people call him) - I felt like it nicely added to some of the mysteries of the Zelda universe that are yet to be finally figured out. Hopefully the next Zelda game that is supposed to be released on the Wii will be loaded with similar odds and ends. And just for the record, I do not think that TWW was a phenomenal game - it's a great game, especially compared toTP, but it has the most pitiful ending of any Zelda game in the series. From the farewell to the King of Hyrule to bubble credits? Fail.
Once again, just some more ranting and ramblings, I'll update again if I feel all this building up again.
Until then, take care.
---
9/12/2009; 12:56AM; InformeroftheSages
Well. Here I am once again. But this time around it's been less than a year since my last update, so I can't help but feel a bit of undeserved elation. It feels good to be sitting here working on all this again, and although I write with the usual lack of significant updates, I'd like to share a few of my musings, or more accurately, discover just how I feel about several things as I write. So just a few updates prior to this one, way back in 2007, I spoke briefly of how I disliked Twilight Princess. Back then, I had played a mere few hours into the game, already knowing how every boss battle and the final ending sequence was going to unfold. I was a fool and in my excitement to learn as much as I could about the game before it was officially released in America, I had gone on YouTube and watched all the leaked boss battles. Once I actually got my hands on the game, I found that it was boring and as utterly non-enchanting as a videogame can be. I put it aside and didn't even think of revisiting it until the beginning of this summer. Enough time had finally passed that I had forgotten the majority of what I once knew of the game, and having not adventured into Hyrule in quite some time, I decided to pick it up again. And this time, I played it to completion. And once again, my verdict is the same: Twilight Princess just feels very static and mechanical. The graphics are nice, some of the musical arrangements are decent (yes, "decent"; my expectations were quite high. The main field theme was especially disappointing in my opinion), but the gameplay and story left much to be desired. Gameplay, for the most part, has not changed since The Wind Waker, and even that didn't really change much from Ocarina of Time. And in the latter two, I feel like it worked beautifully, but something about TP just felt too rigid. Right from the beginning, Link is sent on a quest to collect the three Fused Shadow pieces. After tediously destroying an inordinate amount of bugs to collect "tears of light", Link finally manages to dispel the majority of the twilight from Hyrule, and to what avail? So Zant can once again be seen in his silly outfit, and so that the player can be treated to a brief and almost unnecessary set of cutscenes, before once again being sent on a quest to collect 3 pieces of the Twilight Mirror. Oh, and somewhere along the line, Ganondorf was thrown into the mix. And he's still as legit as ever, it's just that his introduction just seems out of the blue, and Zant's role as his puppet seems unconvincing - never once did I feel like Hyrule was doomed when in the Twilight - the races of Hyrule just went about their business as usual. But I'm getting off track - so finally, Link collects the pieces of the mirror in some of the most unlikely locations. Why is one kept in an ice mansion? And why, after laboring to get all the way to the City in the Sky, are the residents so unfriendly? After having that idiotic Oocoo thing follow Link around the whole game, one would think that once Link finally helped it get back to it's proper city, it'd actually be useful. False. And why the heck is the City a dungeon right from the second Link lands there? Lastly, why, why, why was the Temple of Time turned into a dungeon? In my opinion, the Temple of Time is way too sacred of a place for Zant to enter, let alone seal away a piece of the mirror. The temple was pretty enjoyable, although for some reason, as the game progressed, the dungeons actually got...shorter and easier? Yeah, don't know about that. At least the Temple of Time could have had a legit boss. The arachnid akin to the reincarnation of Queen Gohma was a bit...pitiful. As was the Dominion Rod. The Dominion Rod has appeared in other forms in other Zelda games, but this time it just felt like it was thrown into the mix just to try to prolong the story as much as possible. But enough griping about the dungeons. Let's discuss other aspects of the games. For the first time I can remember in a Zelda game, I actually felt no desire to pursue any of the sidequests or interact with any of the NPCs. Games like ALTTP, OOT, MM, and TWW - all these games created a sort of atmosphere that was conducive to exploring and embarking on nonprofitable sidequests or learning more about the individual NPCs' situations. In TP, all the NPCs felt forced. Remember that annoying mailman? Yeah. Hyrule Castle Town, however, was absolutely teeming with NPCs. There were so many of them, it was almost overwhelming, but that didn't make a difference, because none of them were fun to interact with, and most of them had silly dialogue. The game on a whole, felt like a to-do list: Get the fused shadows. Get the mirror shards. Beat Zant. Beat Ganondorf.
Now, all griping aside, there were some cool things in the game. The main characters were all beautifully rendered, Link, Ganondorf, and Zelda all looked amazing. Zant and Midna looked ridiculous, and honestly, I have no idea why they were thrown into the game. I enjoyed the Hidden Village western style shootout, although in the big picture, that whole village was really unncessary (it can be argued that the majority of any videogame is unnecessary, but what I mean is, Link visited the Hidden Village pretty much once and then was done with it forever. There was no reason to go back there). I really enjoyed the throwbacks to old Zelda games, like the bomb-arrows, some of the enemies, and the golden pyramid that engulfed Hyrule Castle. The final stage of the final battle on Hyrule Field with Ganondorf was pretty fun, but other than the boss battle in Arbiter Grounds, the rest of the battles were uninteresting and on the whole, way too easy.
After playing through TP, I returned after almost five years, toThe Wind Waker, and in revisiting it, I found it to be incredibly refreshing and enthralling. I had no serious issues with the graphics before and accepted them; but this time around, the graphics seemed beyond acceptable, they seemed gorgeous. The musical pieces and the soundtrack are so enchanting. I actually feel immersed in Link's world and I enjoy nothing more than sailing the Great Sea or wasting time interacting with random NPCs or just fooling around with items. TWW feels like a game of epic proportions. TP was supposed to be the biggest Zelda adventure yet, and Hyrule Field certainly was gigantic, as was most of Hyrule - but the storyline/gameplay/adventure? Pitifully short. When I think of TWW, I think of standing on random mountain cliffs, listening to the background music fading away as nothing but the wind fills the speakers; I think of crawling in the small passageways underneath islands, being sent to the black abyss by random mice; I think of navigating my way around the Forsaken Fortress, working my way through it as the game progresses; I think of visiting the countless islands and exploring their every nook and cranny - these are the things that make the game so much fun to play, these are the things that create this ambience that Hyrule is filled with countless adventures and mysteries. Similarly, when I think of OOT, I think of exploring The Lost Woods, chilling with the Gorons at Death Mountain, having fun with the Windmill guy, creeping around the bottom of the Kakariko Well or silently flitting around the Graveyard. I think of the places, characters, music, and moments that completely immerse me into the game and make it believable and enjoyable. TP...had none of that. And this is nothing new, no novel discovery - I've spoken about this before, the "magic" of most Zelda games, the "experience" - TP just proves to be the exception to the series, I guess. ! Lastly: I did enjoy the twist of the Hero of the Past that taught Link his moves (the "Hero's Shade" as some people call him) - I felt like it nicely added to some of the mysteries of the Zelda universe that are yet to be finally figured out. Hopefully the next Zelda game that is supposed to be released on the Wii will be loaded with similar odds and ends. And just for the record, I do not think that TWW was a phenomenal game - it's a great game, especially compared toTP, but it has the most pitiful ending of any Zelda game in the series. From the farewell to the King of Hyrule to bubble credits? Fail.
Once again, just some more ranting and ramblings, I'll update again if I feel all this building up again.
Until then, take care.
---
9/12/2009; 12:56AM; InformeroftheSages