I still wish they would have made what I was supposed to do after taking Zelda to the shrine more clear. I just now found a walkthrough which told me I was supposed to go the village. Back when I played the game, I kept looking around for a cave with an old guy in it like in the original Zelda. It never even dawned on me to check the village. And so I missed out on yet another great game because of my extreme lack of gamer skill.
I was pretty young when I played the first 3 Zelda games, but still, I remember being frequently unaware of what I was supposed to do next. It’s already happened to me a few times in Twilight Princess, too, so I suppose it’s a “feature” of the series. I don’t like it.
Twilight Princess continues the 3D Zelda tradition of being hilariously easy, even moreso than OoT. But at least that had some interesting puzzles and intricate dungeon design. I’m not even sure if there’s a point in TP where you have more than 1 silver key. The only “whoa! this gameplay is really cool!” parts were using the iron boots to go upside down, double hook shotting off walls and ceilings, and the (sparsely used) spinner. So that’s about 1 hour out of 32 it took me to finish it.
The only thing in TP which continuously put a smile on my face was Midna. She’s the heart and soul of the game. Especially when she breaks the fourth wall.
The Yeti dungeon was small. It felt like a mini-dungeon. It was enjoyable, but maybe only because I like snow themed levels more than the average person. The Time and Sky temples were boring and felt empty. I was excited for the Sky temple. I expected grand vistas, amazing blue skies, clouds, diamond lattices, maybe some shiny purple platforms, or SOMETHING interesting to look at. It felt more like a burned out factory. Gray everywhere.
The start of the game is a slog. There’s nothing but tutorials and mini-games (“goat in” twice, really?) for about 30 minutes.
During the credits they played an awesome remixed LoZ theme and I was like wait, why didn’t they play that in the Hyrule field sections instead of the forgettable pablum they consider to be epic? Most of the music is mediocre. It doesn’t help that the enemy music plays over everything, just like OoT.
On the plus side, the speed run is awesome. So many crazy glitches.
I wouldn’t recommend TP to anyone but OoT fanatics.
TP thoughts…
Loved the atmosphere, sounds, production…a lush beautiful game.
Hated the boss battles, it is a tired mechanic in games these days. I’m too old to consider trial-and-error dying and repeating ad nauseum hunting for the obscure weak spot move sequence to be entertaining anymore.
Too many jump puzzles, which the imprecise control of Link made frustrating.
Ocarina of time: It’s a great game, simply, almost on par with Link to the past. I especially love the music and the concept of the ocarina, which I think is clever still today. The only thing I’d change, off the top of my head, is to make the Adult Link world darker, more grim.
Majora’s Mask: I’m playing it right now for the first time, actually. It took a while for me to warm up to, but I’m liking it a lot now. It’s obviously a very clever and unique game. It’s a bit menacing from time to time. The mask concept is really fun, although the backtracking that comes with the time thing can be quite tiresome.
Wind Waker: I have mixed feelings about this game. The graphic presentation and production is amazing. I love the look of this game and also think it has good gameplay and character. However, there were so big portions of it that were either too boring or too easy. I want to love this game unreservedly, but don’t really feel like I can.
Twilight Princess: It’s a good action adventure game. But I don’t know. It tries so hard to outdo Ocarina of time that it loses sense of proportion. It’s too epic for its own good. There are obviously some cool things in this game, but I can’t say I’ve felt like replaying it yet. It’s probably my least favorite 3D Zelda to date.