The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess Ign Review
| Game Info |
| Box Art N/A |
| Platform Wii U |
| Publisher Nintendo |
| Developer North/A |
| Release Appointment Mar 4, 2016 |
The elements that made The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess so exciting when information technology launched aslope the Wii in 2006 haven't anile very well, and that's not entirely a bad thing.
The experience of playing through Twilight Princess with Wiimote in hand —€" assuming you didn't concur out for the GameCube version — was a powerful way for Nintendo to innovate its new movement-sensing hardware. Firing an arrow out of the tip of your controller was exhilarating. Its simulated swordplay was rudimentary, but satisfying. Fifty-fifty its darker, more "adult" (for lack of a better term) world assured me that Twilight Princess was the deep, polished Zelda game I'd wanted for and so long, and persuaded me to ignore the many reasons that it was not.
More ix years afterwards, The Fable of Zelda: Twilight Princess Hard disk drive doesn't have the distracting zeitgeist of a hardware launch to accompany it, and absent that, its flaws are a bit more pronounced. Twilight Princess HD lays blank the decade-old original, only in doing so, gives it an identity beyond gimmicks.
Twilight Princess HD isn't just dark, it'due south bizarre
Structurally speaking, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess doesn't devious as well far from the franchise'due south time-honored path. The usual routine of dungeon diving, Pieces of Heart collecting and princess rescuing remains intact, but with a twist: Link is able to transform into a wolf when he interacts with the Twilight Realm, a parallel world to Hyrule that plays host to cryptic, shadowy beings. One such Twilight inhabitant is Midna, Link's abiding, smart-donkey companion throughout his journeying.
Twilight Princess is unique among Zelda titles considering of its pervasive darkness, a theme that informs the artful, grapheme pattern and general feel of the entire game. That aesthetic is at its extreme in the Twilight Realm, simply fifty-fifty regular old Hyrule looks half-alive and ominous, and the events that transpire at that place are equally unsettling.
This art direction isn't always successful. When exploring a village illuminated by glaring dusk light, or a dungeon where abstract neon lines cutting through shifting black fog, Twilight Princess can be a lovely game. Only while its subdued palette makes it unique in the Zelda series, many of its environments resemble the lifeless, unsaturated worlds that characterized most of the previous console generation.
Image: Nintendo The visual enhancements of The Fable of Zelda: Twilight Princess Hard disk are impressive, where present. A lot of textures — particularly those on important character models —€" have been fully replaced, making Link and the cast he comes in contact with equally vibrant as they deserve to be. The more essential modify is to the screen itself: Twilight Princess HD'southward UI is pared downward —" the original's Wiimote-shaped interface, which took up nigh one-quarter of your Tv set's real manor, has been removed.
Twilight Princess HD's graphical improvements drive home what's truly unique most the game'southward aesthetic: It isn't just dark, it'south bizarre. Across the diverse Hylian races, character proportions differ wildly from person to person. Faces drift between realistic and cartoonish, from clown-like to monstrous. Inhabitants of the Twilight Realm aren't only evil versions of franchise mainstays; they're tentacled mutants sporting ornate, gigantic blackness masks. Many enemies, and fifty-fifty some friends —" here'south looking at you, Ooccoo —€" are downright uncomfortable to look at, making them all the more striking and memorable.
That distinction really shines through in the Twilight Realm, which despite what its proper noun suggests, doesn't feel oppressive or scary every bit much as it feels completely alien. The game's soundtrack, which is solid throughout, is at its absolute best here, where every combat encounter features eerie atonal horns that shout over frantic synth arpeggios. It all comes together to give the Twilight Realm a strange, cohesive sense of place.
If just Twilight Princess allowed you lot to spend more than fourth dimension exploring the Twilight Realm. The game limits yous to just a few visits to the parallel version of Hyrule, during which y'all're usually performing repetitive fetch quests, like collecting Tears of Low-cal. (Mercifully, Twilight Princess Hd simply requires you to hunt down 12 Tears in each province, downwardly from the original's sixteen.)
The Twilight Realm's scarcity is a waste matter: Twilight Princess, like most modern Zelda games, doesn't always know what to practice with you when you're not exploring a dungeon. Merely a few interludes introduce new mechanics and characters —€" snowboarding with the yeti of Snowpeak is a particular high betoken. Just about involve a mind-numbing amount of backtracking, which was time I would take much rather spent exploring the Twilight Realm in greater detail.
Twilight Princess Hd's transitional sequences can occasionally get pretty impuissant, just unfortunately, the main offender comes right at the very height of the game. The introduction to Twilight Princess is the serial' accented worst. Information technology's a laborious, repetitive slog that sticks you with some chores —€" similar caprine animal herding, a terrible minigame that you take to perform twice in the beginning hour —€" and sends you through the aforementioned path of the same patch of woods iii consecutive times. The HD remake trims a job or two off the original's checklist, but no amount of scene-setting or tutorial-distributing is worth the two hours of effort that Twilight Princess Hd makes you clamber through before the fun can begin.
Its entrada is uneven, but Twilight Princess Hard disk's high points are exceedingly loftier. Nearly all of its dungeons are stellar: The aforementioned yeti's water ice-carved mansion is probably the about ingenious location in the whole series. The statue-centric puzzle solving of the Temple of Fourth dimension forces yous to think about the same dungeon in two different, clever ways.
The stars of the testify are the tools you'll find in those dungeons, which pretty wildly diverge from the serial' tried and true catalog. Later dungeons introduce the Ball and Concatenation, the Spinner, and the Dual Clawshots, which set the phase for some of the best puzzles and most exciting dominate fights this franchise has always seen. The Spinner, and its corresponding dominate fight, is naught less than a stroke of genius.
The Cavern of Shadows, the new "dungeon" that's unlocked with Twilight Princess HD's Wolf Link amiibo, cannot (and doesn't actually try to) alive up to the standard of the archetype game's dungeons. It's simply a reimagined version of the Cave of Ordeals, Twilight Princess' combat-axial, wave-based endurance challenge — only the Cave of Shadows restricts you to Link's Wolf grade for all 40 floors of the cavern.
It'southward kind of a drag, largely because gainsay isn't really satisfying when playing as Wolf Link. Swordplay in Twilight Princess is top-notch —€" sparring against the colossal, armored Darknuts is exciting, and requires reflexes and mastery of your unlike sword maneuvers. As a wolf, Link'south gainsay options are too express to be remotely satisfying 40 times in a row. Not only that, you have to consummate the Cave of Shadows over the grade of 3 dives, and trips two and three will require you to beat the floors you just finished all over again.
Twilight Princess Hd'southward best new feature is the addition of Hero Mode difficulty, which is nothing new for the series, but is a perfect fit for this particular game. Hero Style doubles the damage Link takes and prevents recovery hearts from dropping in the wild. With those 2 elementary changes, the systems of Twilight Princess Hard disk drive click together more tightly.
Hero Mode forces you to thoughtfully employ Link'due south different offensive and defensive sword maneuvers to avoid taking damage carelessly. It makes you consider your healing potions and inventory before setting foot into new territories. Information technology gives you a good reason to hunt downward every Eye Piece you can get your hands on. Information technology fits thematically, too: In Hero Mode, Twilight Princess HD can finally be as dangerous as it looks.
Wrap Up:
Twilight Princess Hard disk drive presents the original with exacting clarity
Sitting downwardly to play Twilight Princess Hard disk drive, I was struck by how little I remembered well-nigh the original. I think in 2006 I consciously tried to overlook and ignore its worst traits, focusing on its surface-level innovations — its gritty art style, its motility controls. In doing and then, I never got a complete picture show of the truly worthwhile Zelda adventure Twilight Princess represented: one that was flawed, yep, merely as well strange, bold and exciting. Twilight Princess HD is virtually every bit straightforward equally remakes come up, but information technology finally presents that pic with exacting clarity, warts and all.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD was reviewed using advanced retail copies provided past Nintendo. Yous can find additional information most Polygon's ethics policy hither.
About Polygon'southward ReviewsSource: https://www.polygon.com/2016/3/1/11137784/the-legend-of-zelda-twilight-princess-hd-review
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