The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Playthrough Part 5
02006, GCN, Wii. Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars
By 2006, the Zelda franchise had found a pretty comfortable rhythm using the basic structure of A Link to the Past as its main template. Ocarina and Waker had done so and Twilight follows suit. The concept of a light and dark world is not a new one, but Nintendo does a good job making it stand out with the character Midna, who is one of the more interesting protagonists Link has had. She’s not just spouting advice; she has a real character arc. Her backstory and motivations drive the plot moreso than Link or Zelda’s actions and gives the narrative some real weight.
The game itself is ambitious in its scope and its reach. Hyrule has never felt quite so big before (but not overwhelming) and there are, as always, tons of secrets and things to find. The main structure of the game is a little odd with the first half of the game focusing on fleshing out Hyrule and the three fused shadows and then almost ramming through the last six at breakneck speed with some minor setpieces in between. It’s a curious choice in terms of pacing. The game also takes more than a few cues from Ocarina as a whole. In some ways, particularly with some of the bosses and the dungeon design, it feels like the game Nintendo wanted to make in 1998, but couldn’t.
This is not so much a fault as it is a stylistic choice. The game still delivers the goods when it needs to with top-notch game design, gameplay and one of Kondo’s best soundtracks. Playing as Wolf Link for a third of the title works very well and handling him with a controller or Wiimote (the former was used for this playthrough) is very natural. Past Zelda games of this magnitude tried to push the envelope and try new things and really evolve. Twilight only evolves its scope and scale, but not much else. It settles for being an excellent Zelda game that is still a joy and pleasurable to go through. Sad that a Zelda game should aspire to more, but the greatest franchise ever doesn’t get the breaks mere mortals would.
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