Ok, so I just started playing this game for the first time. And wow, this shit is driving me crazy. I swear to god I’m getting stuck in this game every five minutes.
I got stuck with the damn cat. I kept trying to capture him with the hawk. Then I figured out I need to give the cat some fish. I tried fishing for like 20 minutes and couldn’t figure it out, so I went to Gamefaqs. When I caught the fish, I had the cat follow me to the lady’s house, but he wouldn’t go in. Turns out you need to have the cat follow you to the pond first, then catch the fish…
I got stuck when you first turn into the dog. The creepy little dude told me to dig. So I did. I dug and dug and dug in every spot in the room for what felt like ten hours. I was digging in the hay stack and started imagining the pile was getting smaller and smaller. It turns out you have to break some crate, then dig under the gate. I didn’t even know the dog could attack…
In the first dungeon (where you get the boomerang) I only got stuck once. Now I’m in some canyon with the dog. I learned some ability by howling at some stone (what exactly did I learn? I have no clue). I then got to some part with heat seeking meteors and couldn’t figure out where to go next. I’m getting pretty damn close to breaking this game in half.
I guess my question is should I just stop now? Is it just going to get worse? I mean, I’m not new to games or anything. I’ve been playing every type of game since the late 80s and nothing has ever made me feel this stupid. Especially the fact that it’s on the Wii and marketed towards kids. There are probably five year olds out there that are having less trouble than me.
Is this your first Zelda? If so, quit right now and play yourself a good one. I don’t want Twilight Princess to forever taint your perception of this once-great series. I play games for a living, and even I found it a chore to work my way through that dreck.
Twilight Princess, is at times, illogically difficult. I did the exact same thing with the cat! Had him follow me to the house, only to discover that’s not how you complete the mission! That is merely the first of many piss-poor moments. What’s funny is that three of my Zelda-loving friends, who tried to play the game, all quit at the exact same point! (right before the second dungeon). The game is unnecessarly long (the longest Zelda, by far–at least 40 hours), convoluted (that damn worthless overworld!) and the controls for the Wii version could have used some series tweaking.
Now that’s not to say some people haven’t enjoyed their time with it, but I simply can’t stand that game and would suggest you bail now, and go download either A Link to the Past (SNES–perhaps the most refined in the series), Ocarina of Time (revolutionary at the time, still good), or Majora’s Mask (my favorite 3D Zelda) for the virtual console (all but Majora is currently available in the states).
However, if you really want to finish it, might I suggest this guide (it’s the best I’ve seen):
I enjoyed the game a lot… Granted, the “tutorial” sequence in the first village is BS, no argument there. But I quite enjoyed it all the way through.
I do think it’s not the best game to play as an introduction to the series, though. Twilight Princess isn’t necessarily part of continuity, but a lot of the enjoyment to be derived from it comes from being familiar with the Zelda series.
If it is your first introduction to the series, then I would echo playing Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time first. Not necessarily Majora’s Mask, however, as it’s a sequel to Ocarina of Time. Plus it’s just plain confusing and not a good example of the series (which shows how much my opinion differs from Red Barchetta’s, I guess).
TTP is my second Zelda (I’ve played the SNES one through twice), and while I was pretty frustrated at the beginning it does get easier. It seems like it takes a while to get used to the controls, really. I still suck at fishing and just barely got that cat thing done because of my lackluster skills, but I haven’t run into the need for fishing again yet.
The save points are stupid and confusing I think. I save all the time but it’s very hard to tell where I actually am when I come back to the game.
I have only turned to the walkthrough once (no spoilers on linked page), but I am only at “After Forest Temple: Part 2” for now. I am going through very slowly.
The whole wolf with ugly anime thing on its back is weird and throwing me off some, but…whatever. I’m no “gamer” so I am just enjoying it as a time-waster.
I will concede that either Link the Past or Ocarina would be a better start for a newcomer, but playing Ocarina isn’t neccessilarly a pre-requisite for Majora’s Mask (though I might still recommend it). With that said, I find Majora’s Mask to be categorically superior to Ocarina. Ocarina, at times, feels dated, whereas Majora’s Mask innovative structure still feels fresh. Plus it offers the most ‘alive-feeling’ world I’ve ever experience. Everyone has their own schedule and doing their own thing.
There’s no doubt that Majora is an oddball in the series, but it’s one that’s certainly worth trying–won’t know if you like it or not till you try it.
If you’re thinking about starting a different Zelda, You could consider The WindWaker. That was my first Zelda, and I was just looking for a game to tide me over for a month until Christmas. I (and my wife and my sons) really liked that one, and we’ve bought several others since. You can probably get it cheap, and it will play in your Wii with a regular GameCube controller. You’d need a GameCube memory card too (those are cheap).
I see no one above mentioned WindWaker, but maybe it wasn’t their first one, and they were put off by the Cell Shading graphics.
It’s not my cup of tea, but I can’t deny a lot of people enjoyed it (more so than Twilight Princess, it would seem).
I just freakin’ hated the stupid ocean (I like to refer to it as the “longest loading screen” ever, and having to change the wind direction every 5 minutes–ugh.)
This isn’t my first Zelda. I really liked the first three (yes, even Zelda II). But looking back I can’t say what exactly I liked about them. When I tried Ocarina of Time I got bored after a couple of hours. I never tried Majora’s Mask or Windwaker.
Honestly I just don’t think I enjoy puzzle games. And the puzzles always seem to fall into one of two categories: a) Too simple where you end up getting bored. b) Too difficult where you get frustrated and want to quit. Neither of these are fun. This would be fine if the puzzles were more spread out. But it seems like the reward for finishing a puzzle is… more puzzles.
You know, I largely agree–the dungeons are my least favorite parts of Zelda. Which is partially why I love Majora’s Mask so much–it only has four! (as opposed to like 12 or something in Ocarina and Twilight Princess). To compensate for the dearth of dungeons, the game has more “environmental” puzzles–that is, less contrived puzzles that involve actual characters in the environment. I really dug it.
See, I’m going to vote for “I loved Twilight Princess”. The only puzzles I got stuck on all game were the two stupid tutorial ones already mentioned (the cat and the digging out of jail in wolf form).
By the same token, I would rather smack myself repeatedly in the wang with a wiimote than play Majora’s Mask again. I got through the first dungeon and sold the damn thing at Gamestop so I could buy something with less annoying game mechanics–like, say, Daikatana.
See, I liked it and didn’t find it that hard. But I will admit that I probably am simply used to retarded Zelda “logic” by now. If something seems easy but long and time consuming, that’s probably the answer, if something looks easy and SHORT to pull off, think of something more complicated to try that achieves the same effect. That rule always seems to work for me.
Same opinion here. Ocarina changed the entire feel of the game, and I think it lost its charm to the 3D realism. I felt that Windwaker was a step in the right direction, bringing the game back to its roots, but so many people expected more realistic graphics.
Zelda 1 was all about Link and his sword. He had a few other tools to help him on his journey, and there were a few “puzzles” to solve along the way, but these puzzles were integrated into the game play. Zelda 2 focused on the sword even more, and the puzzle aspect was left out entirely. A Link to the Past captured all the charm of the first game and the strategy of the second, while also improving the puzzle-solving angle of the game. This was the best game in the series, in my opinion.
Ocarina, unfortunately, emphasized realism and graphics over game play, and the games feel like a series of puzzles and action sequences strung together. Majora’s Mask was better, with the puzzles woven into the game play, but I lost interest in it early on. Windwaker was much more fun and interesting, but the enormous ocean and pointless chest-opening-cut-scenes made the game drag on for hours.
As much as I love the series, I will likely never play Twilight Princess. Partly because I don’t want to buy another console, but mostly because I’m not interested in the direction the developers are taking this game. It used to be about searching for items, battling enemies, and finding your way through labyrinths, but now its all about solving mundane puzzles and doing tasks in the right sequence.
I beat this game about a year and a half ago so I can’t remember much. I remember having trouble with the cat(your description jogged my memory) and getting out of jail when your the wolf. The dungeons were always the most annoying to me, I didn’t get held up too long or often. You should be okay if you got through the first dungeon, thats the one with the monkeys, right? I suggest getting the book