The Lucario Trainer
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2007
- Messages
- 261
- Reaction score
- 0
As an avid Zelda fan, I would have to say I was bit dissapointed with this one.
Twilight Princess is probably the most underwhelming Zelda game I've ever played. To let you understand how I let me explain in great detail.
First, I want to rant about TP’s plot since fans and critics seem to think it is flawless. But before I can even go into how godforsaken TP’s plot is, let me take you back to the N64 Zelda era stories:
In Ocarina of Time, after you pull the Master Sword and wake up from a 7 year slumber, you see how much has changed. Ganondorf now rules, and it has affected the land greatly. Castle Town is completely destroyed, Kokiri Forest (your childhood home) is now overrun by monsters, the Gorons are now taken to Death Mountain to be eaten by a dragon (Darunia being your sworn brother), the Zora’s are frozen in Zora’s Domain, Lake Hylia is drained, Lon Lon Ranch is now corrupted, Kakariko Village catches fire when Ganondorf unleashes Bongo Bongo, the carpernters are captured by Gerudos, Nabooru is captured by witches, and Zelda gets captured by Ganondorf after you beat the last temple. Unlike TP, there is way more reason to save the world after you pull the Master Sword. And, better yet, when you defeat temples, things go back to normal (with the exception of Zora’s Domain and Castle Town). You actually have a reason to complete the temples in OoT because you see your efforts affect the world around you!
In Majora’s Mask, Skullkid cursed the world of Termina with a moon that will crash in 3 days. If you don’t stop him, everyone in Termina will die. That’s just the main plot outline; there is more to it than that. You actually see first hand how Majora’s Mask’s evil has affected the people of Termina. All the side-quests in MM have you affecting the world in a positive way, and you see the results.
In Twilight Princess, you never see your efforts pay off, in fact, why should you even care? Here is why TP’s story is completely underwhelming! Yes, I said that, but I can’t stress it enough. You never have the urgency to beat the game other than to say you beat it. After Aribiter’s Grounds, there really is no reason to collect the Mirror Shards. Ganondorf if just sitting on his throne with Zelda (and how did she get there? Didn’t she die giving her power to Midna? Or did she does disappear back into the throne room?), doing nothing but waiting. . . for god knows what because its not like his character is after anything. There is absolutely no reason why he should have been including in the plot. Then there is Zant, also sitting on his throne. . . waiting for nothing. Perhaps that is the reason he went crazy? Not sure, but I do no this, Hyrule is in no danger. The Twilight is gone, and no one can even see that barrier that covers Hyrule Castle. There is no reason to go out and “save” anyone… who the hell needs saving?
Now, I wish my ranting on the plot of Twilight Princess could stop here, but it can’t.
The story is a mess, and things that should have been explained aren't.
In Wind Waker, it is explained why Link's sister is kidnapped; the bird mistook her for Zelda, but it TP, they don't even bother to explain why the Bulbin Chief randomly kidnapped Ilia and Colin. This may seem small, but it is annoying. Why wouldn't Nintendo explain the reason behind Link starting his adventure? It's retarded and results in the plot being incomplete and feeling rushed. To add to the rushed feeling, they tack on the Master Sword and Ganondorf just so it can be "cool" like Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past. There was no thought in it whatsoever, and it resulted in one of the worst transitions in plot I've ever seen in a game (or a movie/book for that matter). It's unacceptable.
There are other parts in the story that are just terrible executed. What the hell happened to Zant? The first two cutscenes make him look not only like a badass, but scary. Up until then, we never saw a villain like him. So what does Nintendo do? In a matter of one cutscene, they completely destroy his character! Now, you can say “I liked how Zant turned crazy for no reason”, but that is not my point, my point is that that it felt like a 4th grader just took over that cutscene without even seeing who Zant was in the earlier cutscenes. There is absolutely no reason for Zant to go crazy like that! I actually had to play the game over again to make sure I didn’t miss a cutscene where it may give some foreshadowing to Zant becoming that way, but there is none! Of course, Nintendo wanted to make Ganondorf look like a bigger badass, but they didn’t succeed. Instead, it made Zant look retarded, and Ganondorf looked like he didn’t belong in the game.
Of course, my ranting can’t be complete without bringing up how dense and undeveloped the towns, side-quests and mini-games are! Obviously, the towns in Twilight Princess are empty with nothing to do, and they are small. Castle Town is the only town that is filled with people, but you can't talk to half of them and the people that do talk say the exact same thing the whole game. There are no developed NPCs with backstory like in Wind Waker, Ocarina or Majora's Mask; In TP, they are all cardboard and uninteresting. This may not seem like a big deal, but you’d expect TP to expand on NPC instead of taking a step backward. Then, there are no mini-games except that STARS one, but is that really even worth a mention? The town itself is extremely small when you actually think about it and compare it to towns in pretty much any other game that came out this generation, and the camera is fixed resulting in a restricting feeling area. As if all that isn't bad enough, you can't even enter 90% of the homes, and this is supposed to be the central hub on TP. What the hell? After Clock Town and Windfall, or even Kakariko in OoT, you'd expect a lot more from a game like Twilight Princess. The towns have absolutely nothing to offer, and this is a punch in the balls to fans that were expecting an upgrade from the N64 games.
There is absolutely no reason to go to towns. There are no side-quests there (or anywhere for that matter). I don’t feel like I have to get into too much more detail here since most can agree with me. The towns, side-quests, and mini-games (aside from the fishing) are dull and uninspiring. This is a huge disappointment since side-quests and towns opened up so many possibilities and rewards in the other three 3D Zeldas. Twilight Princess is a huge step backward in this area.
Last, but not least, Twilight Princess is the most linear Zelda game. This was going to be my strongest point, but to be honest, I’m tired of writing this thread right now, so I’ll just fling my point out there; Twilight Princess restricts you and holds your hand throughout the entire game. There are so many parts in the game when you are restricted to just one area in the game, and you have no freedom to complete dungeons out of order. The environments are just singles paths to dungeons (Ordon/Faron Woods is a single path to the Forest Temple; Death Mountain Trail is basically a straight line to the Goron Mines). The temples themselves have no backtracking; they just lead you straight to the next area. The overworld itself is just a single circle of messy lands clumped together by narrow paths and cliffs. . . I'll just hold off there for now. I know that once Hylian Dan or Mystic Link read this thread, they will be glad to take over from here.
To conclude the massively boring rant, I think Twilight Princess has a terrible plot, underdeveloped towns and characters, and linear gameplay that just makes TP look like a joke when compared to the other games. Twilight Princess is an overhyped, overrating, underwhelming, and unrewarding Zelda game.
Twilight Princess is probably the most underwhelming Zelda game I've ever played. To let you understand how I let me explain in great detail.
First, I want to rant about TP’s plot since fans and critics seem to think it is flawless. But before I can even go into how godforsaken TP’s plot is, let me take you back to the N64 Zelda era stories:
In Ocarina of Time, after you pull the Master Sword and wake up from a 7 year slumber, you see how much has changed. Ganondorf now rules, and it has affected the land greatly. Castle Town is completely destroyed, Kokiri Forest (your childhood home) is now overrun by monsters, the Gorons are now taken to Death Mountain to be eaten by a dragon (Darunia being your sworn brother), the Zora’s are frozen in Zora’s Domain, Lake Hylia is drained, Lon Lon Ranch is now corrupted, Kakariko Village catches fire when Ganondorf unleashes Bongo Bongo, the carpernters are captured by Gerudos, Nabooru is captured by witches, and Zelda gets captured by Ganondorf after you beat the last temple. Unlike TP, there is way more reason to save the world after you pull the Master Sword. And, better yet, when you defeat temples, things go back to normal (with the exception of Zora’s Domain and Castle Town). You actually have a reason to complete the temples in OoT because you see your efforts affect the world around you!
In Majora’s Mask, Skullkid cursed the world of Termina with a moon that will crash in 3 days. If you don’t stop him, everyone in Termina will die. That’s just the main plot outline; there is more to it than that. You actually see first hand how Majora’s Mask’s evil has affected the people of Termina. All the side-quests in MM have you affecting the world in a positive way, and you see the results.
In Twilight Princess, you never see your efforts pay off, in fact, why should you even care? Here is why TP’s story is completely underwhelming! Yes, I said that, but I can’t stress it enough. You never have the urgency to beat the game other than to say you beat it. After Aribiter’s Grounds, there really is no reason to collect the Mirror Shards. Ganondorf if just sitting on his throne with Zelda (and how did she get there? Didn’t she die giving her power to Midna? Or did she does disappear back into the throne room?), doing nothing but waiting. . . for god knows what because its not like his character is after anything. There is absolutely no reason why he should have been including in the plot. Then there is Zant, also sitting on his throne. . . waiting for nothing. Perhaps that is the reason he went crazy? Not sure, but I do no this, Hyrule is in no danger. The Twilight is gone, and no one can even see that barrier that covers Hyrule Castle. There is no reason to go out and “save” anyone… who the hell needs saving?
Now, I wish my ranting on the plot of Twilight Princess could stop here, but it can’t.
The story is a mess, and things that should have been explained aren't.
In Wind Waker, it is explained why Link's sister is kidnapped; the bird mistook her for Zelda, but it TP, they don't even bother to explain why the Bulbin Chief randomly kidnapped Ilia and Colin. This may seem small, but it is annoying. Why wouldn't Nintendo explain the reason behind Link starting his adventure? It's retarded and results in the plot being incomplete and feeling rushed. To add to the rushed feeling, they tack on the Master Sword and Ganondorf just so it can be "cool" like Ocarina of Time or A Link to the Past. There was no thought in it whatsoever, and it resulted in one of the worst transitions in plot I've ever seen in a game (or a movie/book for that matter). It's unacceptable.
There are other parts in the story that are just terrible executed. What the hell happened to Zant? The first two cutscenes make him look not only like a badass, but scary. Up until then, we never saw a villain like him. So what does Nintendo do? In a matter of one cutscene, they completely destroy his character! Now, you can say “I liked how Zant turned crazy for no reason”, but that is not my point, my point is that that it felt like a 4th grader just took over that cutscene without even seeing who Zant was in the earlier cutscenes. There is absolutely no reason for Zant to go crazy like that! I actually had to play the game over again to make sure I didn’t miss a cutscene where it may give some foreshadowing to Zant becoming that way, but there is none! Of course, Nintendo wanted to make Ganondorf look like a bigger badass, but they didn’t succeed. Instead, it made Zant look retarded, and Ganondorf looked like he didn’t belong in the game.
Of course, my ranting can’t be complete without bringing up how dense and undeveloped the towns, side-quests and mini-games are! Obviously, the towns in Twilight Princess are empty with nothing to do, and they are small. Castle Town is the only town that is filled with people, but you can't talk to half of them and the people that do talk say the exact same thing the whole game. There are no developed NPCs with backstory like in Wind Waker, Ocarina or Majora's Mask; In TP, they are all cardboard and uninteresting. This may not seem like a big deal, but you’d expect TP to expand on NPC instead of taking a step backward. Then, there are no mini-games except that STARS one, but is that really even worth a mention? The town itself is extremely small when you actually think about it and compare it to towns in pretty much any other game that came out this generation, and the camera is fixed resulting in a restricting feeling area. As if all that isn't bad enough, you can't even enter 90% of the homes, and this is supposed to be the central hub on TP. What the hell? After Clock Town and Windfall, or even Kakariko in OoT, you'd expect a lot more from a game like Twilight Princess. The towns have absolutely nothing to offer, and this is a punch in the balls to fans that were expecting an upgrade from the N64 games.
There is absolutely no reason to go to towns. There are no side-quests there (or anywhere for that matter). I don’t feel like I have to get into too much more detail here since most can agree with me. The towns, side-quests, and mini-games (aside from the fishing) are dull and uninspiring. This is a huge disappointment since side-quests and towns opened up so many possibilities and rewards in the other three 3D Zeldas. Twilight Princess is a huge step backward in this area.
Last, but not least, Twilight Princess is the most linear Zelda game. This was going to be my strongest point, but to be honest, I’m tired of writing this thread right now, so I’ll just fling my point out there; Twilight Princess restricts you and holds your hand throughout the entire game. There are so many parts in the game when you are restricted to just one area in the game, and you have no freedom to complete dungeons out of order. The environments are just singles paths to dungeons (Ordon/Faron Woods is a single path to the Forest Temple; Death Mountain Trail is basically a straight line to the Goron Mines). The temples themselves have no backtracking; they just lead you straight to the next area. The overworld itself is just a single circle of messy lands clumped together by narrow paths and cliffs. . . I'll just hold off there for now. I know that once Hylian Dan or Mystic Link read this thread, they will be glad to take over from here.
To conclude the massively boring rant, I think Twilight Princess has a terrible plot, underdeveloped towns and characters, and linear gameplay that just makes TP look like a joke when compared to the other games. Twilight Princess is an overhyped, overrating, underwhelming, and unrewarding Zelda game.