Picture this: the year is 2004. You're a 16 year old boy who loves video games. The last Legend of Zelda game to release was the GameCube's Wind Waker. A fine game, but certainly far too "kiddy" with its cartoonish style, and certainly not a style that diehard Zelda players wanted to see again. No, Zelda fans wanted something dark and gritty to wash the taste of the childish "Celda" from their mouths. In a time where Nintendo had fallen out of favor of mainstream gamers with their niche, gimmicky lunchbox console with games for babies, they desperately needed to come out with something that would sway your friends at the school lunch table into thinking that Zelda was, in fact, a game for big boys. Enter E3 2004: Nintendo announces the newest game in the Zelda series, and it looks badass. Link looks realistic and the graphics look so dark and gritty. He's fighting dudes on a horse and mowing down dudes left and right, and holy shit did that say blades will BLEED? IS THERE GONNA BE BLOOD IN A ZELDA GAME? THIS RULES!

Needless to say, if you're a Nintendo fan, you know this trailer. The moment is completely electric, and who doesn't love seeing Miyamoto come out with the Master Sword and Hylian Shield? Revisiting this moment in Nintendo's history is a big part of understanding the thesis of Twilight Princess. It came in a time where Nintendo was beginning to realize that they might not be the top dog on the block anymore. Despite being among the most beloved games in Nintendo's entire library now, Wind Waker's rather annoyed reception back in 2003 was a product of a fanbase that felt belittled, almost as if they needed reassurance that they were on the right team. Nintendo won't be beaten by Sony or Microsoft, right? They can make something for adults, surely? For that reason, Twilight Princess might be the first game to ever be a direct product of peer pressure. They were gonna deliver the mature game that the fans wanted. It was gonna be dark and gritty and bloody and badass, hell yeah...

And then the game came out and people were subjected to herding goats and doing chores for the first three hours of playing.

Yeah, Twilight Princess makes a pretty rotten first impression, even when the weight of being "The Dark Zelda Game" has dissipated at this point. Being forced to tend to the village errand list for the first hour or so is bad enough, but after that, Link is relegated to Wolf Link form for the next hour and change. This is interesting initially and presents a ton of intrigue within the story, as it's a huge twist and comes with a shocking and explosive shift in tone, but once the intrigue has worn off, you're still plodding along and jumping about as a wolf, and worse yet, your primary task is a scavenger hunt to find drops of light and restore an area to its former normalcy. What the hell?

I understood later that this intro serves the game's thematic elements exceptionally well. But man, it's pretty dreadful to go through. This applies to all Wolf Link sections until the midway point of the game. A new form for the player character to transform into is a fine idea, but was the best application they could come up for this really just... a scavenger hunt for drops of light? More sluggish chores? Three damn times? It brings into question whether or not the inclusion of Wolf Link in this game was even really necessary to adding anything to the experience, or if it was perhaps just another effort to make the game appear grittier and darker. Every section that you use it in seems rushed and abbreviated to the point where I wished there was some way to skip them. I think Wolf Link could have been really brilliant if there had perhaps been a boss and perhaps a mini dungeon for each area instead of the scavenger hunts that do nothing outside of waste your time. The way it is utilized in dungeons for the second half of the game where you can freely transform back and forth (rather quickly I might add, which is nice) is much better, but it still feels tacked on and VERY undercooked.

Regardless, Twilight Princess hits its stride about halfway through the game. Getting the Master Sword is a pretty brilliant sequence, but the dungeons that follow are superb. This game has what is perhaps the tightest, most focused and succinct dungeons in the entire series. Each one has an excellent theme and atmosphere and I personally think the more ambient tunes fit them exceptionally well. None of them overstay their welcome either - each one has a great sense of momentum and progress. My personal favorite is the Temple of Time. It's shorter, and essentially a straight line, but the multipurpose nature of each room is made apparent once you get the Dominion Rod. Making your way back through the same halls with your little statue buddy is undeniably awesome. On a similar note, most of all, the items are bar none my favorite in any Zelda game. While they don't get as much use outside of those dungeons, which is unfortunate, what you do get inside the dungeons and boss battles is super fun and extremely creative.

What I think Twilight Princess excels at (and what Nintendo was REALLY trying to accomplish) is being cinematic. There's nothing brilliantly designed or absolutely revolutionary about Twilight Princess in the same way that, say, Ocarina of Time is, but everything about this game just oozes style. The items you get are all creative, yes, but each one is so... dramatic. The ball and chain is a gigantic clobbering weapon that takes a ton of windup. The spinner is a damn beyblade that you can scale tracks with. The double clawshots make you into a dynamic spider-person. The dominion rod allows you to control statues. Each one seems to have this flair in practice that isn't found in other Zelda games. The bosses are especially cinematic. While none of them were even remotely challenging, they all employed fantastic set pieces and dramatic methods of attack. The raging Fyrus requires you to yank him down with his chains; the titanic Morpheel involves Link grappling onto its eye to stab it over and over; Armogohma is defeated by the hammers of gigantic statues; Argorok has to be taken down as Link grapples through the sky and onto its back with the clawshots. It feels like Nintendo was really trying to capture the drama at every possible opportunity. That isn't even mentioning the multiple battles that Link takes part in on horseback, including a dramatic jousting match on a picturesque bridge. The realistic graphics and dark color palette were intentional, yes, but the real meat of Twilight Princess' thesis lies in the commitment to making everything feel cinematic and bold.

Did Nintendo succeed in reestablishing their brand as "The Guys Who Can Make A Dark And Gritty Zelda Game"? I mean, sure, but that isn't even what they really aimed to do here. It's what the fans wanted, and I'm sure many people who played this in 2006 felt as if it was the Zelda game of their dark and edgy dreams (after they finished herding goats, of course), but I think this is a far less ambitious title than people like to say. It's a superb Zelda game once you trim the fat of the unwarranted tedium of the Wolf Link sections, one that immerses you in the adventure of Link by way of making it feel as grandiose as possible. This game's ending embodies this philosophy most of all. A four phase war against the Great King of Evil reborn, Ganondorf, which ends with a one on one duel to the death amidst lightning and dark skies out in Hyrule Field, grappling with destiny as all of the callbacks to Ocarina of Time throughout the game have laid out the subtext of Hyrule's circular history repeating itself evermore. It's perfect for the tone of Twilight Princess and one of my personal favorite conclusions to any video game.

This review obviously glazed over a ton of key facts about Twilight Princess. The story is one of Zelda's strongest, and the character arc of Midna, everyone's favorite companion character, is probably the best in the entire series; the combat (which, of course, also commits to being bold and flashy and cinematic) that allows Link to pull off a handful of fancy maneuvers to fell enemies is a blast; and I love the fact that this game is essentially a spiritual successor to Ocarina of Time, employing some excellent callbacks and references without being overbearing. Nintendo succeeded in their quest, and despite not really doing anything to push the Zelda series or formula into the future, it still stands as a key step in the journey of 3D Zelda. It's a shame that the Wolf Link sections weigh on my mind so negatively, but otherwise, this is easily one of Zelda's strongest titles.

I really, really want to love this game. I really do. But I just can't. Grab a blanket and some snacks; you're in for a long read.

My first time playing Wind Waker was a magical experience. I was blown away by the scale of the world, the mystery behind what each island would contain, and the unrestricted access to the entire world after a certain point. I thought the visuals were charming, the story was solid, and the general atmosphere of the game was second to none. Upon beating it, Wind Waker became not just my favorite game in the series, but my favorite game of all time.

Every time I've replayed the game since, I've liked it less and less. Here are a few reasons why:

1) The game as a whole is very easy. I recognize that this is a somewhat subjective point and that various people have their preferences regarding difficulty in video games. Because of that, consider this point the least important one. That said, I consider the combat and most of the puzzles in Wind Waker to be way too simplistic and non-challenging. Admittedly, the combat is actually really fun and smooth to control. The items you get from dungeons have a lot of offensive utility, and it allows for a variety of options when taking down enemies. However, the game showers you with health refills, sucking the tension out of all combat, and enemies do very little damage to you. I wish the game got me more invested in fighting by making each enemy encounter more dangerous. To be fair, this is an issue in a lot of Zelda games (even my beloved Majora's Mask), but it’s exacerbated in Wind Waker.

Beyond this, the boss fights are severely unimpressive. The only ones that I genuinely liked were the Helmaroc King, Molgera, and each phase of the final boss. The others are jokes; they're incredibly easy, restrictive, and repetitive. Mini-bosses are similarly unimpressive, partly because the best ones show up repeatedly, losing their luster a little bit each fight.

It’s been a little while since the last time I played Wind Waker, so I was hoping that the dungeons were better than I remembered. They weren’t. None of them were difficult to actually navigate, and the puzzles you solved inside the dungeons were mostly unremarkable. None of the dungeons are bad, per se, but they don’t have the challenging and complex level design of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, nor do they have the imaginative settings and creative concepts of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. The items you get in the dungeons are fun and have a lot of different uses, but the dungeons surrounding them are pretty uninteresting to me. I didn’t find any of the overworld puzzles interesting either.

2) The game is obviously the product of rushed development. If you know anything about Wind Waker’s production, you probably know that development was cut short in order to get the game out as soon as possible and attempt to boost the GameCube’s struggling sales. This shows in both the game’s main quest and side content. There are obvious spots in the campaign where a dungeon would have been (e.g. Greatfish Isle, the Ghost Ship, after the Wind Temple, etc.), and the game attempts to fill in these gaps and pad out its total playtime with tedious and uninteresting fetch quests. To be clear, I’m not criticizing the game for having a small number of dungeons, but I am saying that what the developers put into the game in place of the missing dungeons is boring and makes the pacing of the game haphazard. In addition, some concepts the game introduced (like collecting spoils and stealing enemy weapons) are not fleshed out as well as they could have been.

The rushed development also affected the game’s side content. There are very few fun and interesting side quests to speak of. The Pictobox quest is kind of amusing, and there are some enjoyable small things to do on Windfall Island, but the vast majority of these quests are tedious fetch quests, just like parts of the main campaign. If you like the game, you may think my criticism of the side content is ridiculous, especially considering the amount of islands you have to explore in the overworld. Isn’t that quality side content? I hear you, but this actually connects to my biggest issue with Wind Waker…

3) The game’s overworld is vapid and dull. The vast majority of space in Wind Waker’s world is occupied by a bland, featureless ocean; there really isn’t a lot to do in between the islands. Sure, there are occasional enemies to fight and platforms/submarines to explore, but combat on the ship is slow and clunky, and the optional platforms and submarines are all basically the same and really don’t have much content in them. Most of what you’re doing while traveling is just pointing your boat in the direction you want to go and waiting. It’s tedious and unengaging. At least with other Zelda overworlds, even as empty as they can be sometimes, I’m actively in control of my character and never disengaged. Let me be clear, the main issue I have with sailing is not the slowness of it; that’s part of why I don’t like it, but my gripes have more to do with the lack of fun things to do while sailing.

I could forgive the tedium of sailing, however, if the islands you explored had content that made up for said tedium. In my opinion, they don’t. In fact, I would argue that the vast majority of the forty-nine islands are incredibly anticlimactic and lame. The problem with most of them is that they either have barely anything to do on them, have unsatisfying treasures and rewards, or both. Concerning the lack of things to do, I fail to understand the purpose of islands like the archipelagos and reefs beyond padding out the total amount of islands; none of them have interesting things to do or treasures to find. Some of the islands, like the ones that only have fairy fountains, could have and should have been combined with other islands in order to make each individual place more interesting and rewarding. Even some of the better islands really don’t have that much to do on them beyond a simple little cave and maybe a Korok tree to water.

I would argue that the world of Wind Waker is just too big. By stretching the content of the game super thin, it makes each individual discovery less fulfilling, since you’re basically just finding minor rewards that would have been in small caves in any other Zelda game. I would have preferred there to be less islands in the world but for each of those islands to have more content on them (quality over quantity). Since the world map is divided into forty-nine squares with each square having one island, it also makes the world predictable, and it ruins the illusion found in most other Zelda games that a secret reward could be anywhere. Here, you’ll only find things to do on these tiny blocks of land, and any secrets are not even remotely hidden. The slowness of the sailing doesn’t help the disappointment either.

To make matters even worse, the rewards you find on these tiny blocks of land are super unsatisfying. While exploring in Wind Waker, you will usually find one of four things. First is heart pieces. Because of the game’s easy combat, these rewards lose their usefulness. I would bet that most players could stick with the heart containers found at the end of dungeons and be just fine without getting any more health upgrades. Second is rupees. Other than using them for the required Triforce hunt at the end of the game, there is barely anything useful to spend your money on. You’ll be hoarding money throughout the game with nothing to show for it. Third are spoils, things like Joy Pendants, Skull Necklaces, etc. Some of these are useful, but only to a certain point. Once you have ten Knight’s Crests, for example, you never need to get another one again. Most of the spoils have this cutoff point, and the only thing they are used for afterwards is to get more rupees. Last is sea charts. A few charts are genuinely neat, but the vast majority of them lead to one of the three other rewards I've already mentioned, except now you have to waste time traveling to a particular spot on the map to claim your mediocre treasure. It cannot be understated just how deflated I felt when my exploration was rewarded with a sea chart.

Other than these things, there are no interesting treasures or items to discover in the world, which is massively disappointing considering that the previous games in the series rewarded you handsomely for exploring. Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask have several optional items and weapons that you will only discover by exploring the world’s secrets. Even the relatively simpler Oracle games on the Game Boy Color rewarded the player with optional treasures that slightly shifted the way the game is played. Wind Waker has none of this, probably due to the game’s rushed development. What we’re left with then is a short but decent main campaign with a big, empty world and lots of tedious travel time.

Yes, the HD remaster on Wii U fixes some of these issues, enough to where I would bump my score from a 6/10 to a 7/10. The new “Hero Mode” introduces some neat twists that bump up the difficulty of combat and thus make heart pieces more rewarding. The new Swift Sail item dramatically increases the speed of travel, thereby reducing some of the tedium of exploration. There are also some nice quality-of-life changes that make the minute-to-minute gameplay much smoother. However, Wind Waker HD does not fix the mediocre dungeon design, the boring overworld, and lack of meaningful rewards. These are my biggest issues with the game, and I’m not convinced they could have been fixed with a simple remaster. More drastic measures needed to be taken.

It’s truly a shame that I feel this way, because I genuinely did adore Wind Waker after that first playthrough. I still like a lot of things about it that I liked initially. The visuals and art design of the characters, enemies, and locations are incredible. The story isn’t without its flaws (namely the inconsistent pacing and a few questionable lore decisions), but it’s really solid. The game has some of the most likable characters in the series, and the script has some meaningful things to say about courage, the past, and paving the way for a new generation. There are intermittent moments in the combat, dungeons, and overworld that are genuinely great. More than anything else, however, I appreciate the spirit of Wind Waker. It was an incredibly ambitious project that was unfortunately kneecapped by a rushed timetable. If this game got more time in the oven, I would probably consider it one of the best games in the series easily. As it stands, I can only play what I have. I understand why it has its fans, but I also consider Wind Waker to be a little overrated. I don’t use that word lightly. It’s a charming game, but I’m left wondering what could have been.

Ocarina of Time is a very special game to me. It’s the first Zelda game I ever played and the first single-player video game I ever owned. There’s not much to say about Ocarina of Time that hasn’t already been said in ways that would be more articulate than anything I could ever attempt. So I want to mostly talk about why Ocarina of Time is special to me personally and discuss my personal relationship with it.

I talked about Link’s Awakening’s Mabe Village giving me a “welcome home” feeling in my review of that game, the entirety of Ocarina of Time feels like that to me. I played through Ocarina of Time probably 7 times now while being at completely different places in my life and each time I find myself resonating with different parts of it. As a kid wanting to be a grown up, my favorite parts were when you’re playing as Adult Link and it felt like the entire world is dependent on you. Just like Link, it made me feel like I was still kid me but in an adult body and I was so heroic in it. I couldn’t wait to grow up and not be limited by my childish body, I couldn’t wait to be an adult that was a hero and not like other adults.

I remember finding the Adult world dungeons to be very difficult, I remember exactly what puzzles I had to look up the solutions to back then. I found myself growing into realizing how to solve those same puzzles in subsequent playthroughs. Ocarina of Time is filled with things like that for me, I have a memory attached to every corner of the map. I remember being 11 and hanging out at Lon Lon Ranch getting to know Malon. I remember being 15 when I managed to go through the Water Temple without a guide. I am now 23 and I still get freaked out jumping into the well of Kakariko Village.

Ocarina of Time wasn’t just a game I played multiple times throughout my life, it feels like my life revolved around Ocarina of Time. Saria, to me, is that childhood friend that I got distant with due to the circumstances of life. The same way she is for Link. I look back on that character and I just get a somber feeling wishing I spent more time with her while I had the chance, the same way I feel about good childhood friends of mine that I grew distant from. Kokiri Forest is the hometown I’ve moved out of and moved on from without looking back but still find myself nostalgic over how it held my hand and walked me through how to navigate the world. It was the perfect training ground for my journey not just in Ocarina of Time but with gaming in general.

Outside of what it means to me, let’s talk a bit more about Ocarina of Time. The game upped the ante for the series in every way. It had a huge world for the time which can be quite overwhelming, especially in a 3D space. Thankfully, the game is very linear and makes sure to hold your hand in every step of the way. Some people view this as a bad thing in retrospect but I really really don’t. Ocarina of Time is the first Zelda game that has an actual story happening throughout the entire game and that is thanks to its linearity. Constructing a good narrative requires sequencing, which you can’t do without linearity as we see in the new open-air Zelda games. I understand both sides have their crowds but I definitely belong in this one.

The transition of the series to 3D was done fantastically. At its core, Ocarina of Time takes the formula introduced in A Link to the Past and focuses on how to make that formula work in a 3D space. I’m especially impressed by how they made dungeons work in 3D. I won’t get into too much detail but this game truly is a technical feat especially for that time. To other franchises, the transition to 3D was very shaky and would take a couple of entries to be done right. How impressive is it that Ocarina of Time gets it right in its first attempt??

Ocarina of Time holds a great sentimental value in my heart. I always find myself coming back to it and I can never get sick of it. I’ve just finished it and I already can’t wait to go back and replay it again. This is one of the best games ever made and one of the most influential games ever made period. It was always my favorite game of all time and my favorite game in the Zelda series by a landslide.

However at the time of writing this review, I already finished Majora’s Mask as part of my marathon and in a shocking turn of events, I ended up ranking Majora’s Mask higher than Ocarina of Time. Was everything I know a lie? Is Ocarina of Time not my favorite Zelda game anymore? I don’t know. I never played Ocarina of Time so close to other Zelda games so maybe this marathon is going to provide much needed insight for me. This is exciting for me now because I’m curious what game ends up making it at the top after this marathon is over, but I am shocked how a game this special to me got dethroned by the entry right after. However, whether it ends up at number 1 or not, there’s no taking away the impact this game has had on my life and the gaming sphere as a whole.

Twilight Princess is exactly the type of game you’d expect to follow up Ocarina of Time. The 6 games that released post Majora’s Mask featured a significant shift in the overall vibe of the series. Not a bad one per se but as someone that holds the vibes of the Ocarina of Time-Majora’s Mask duology near and dear to their heart, it wasn’t hard to notice that the series was trying to forge a new identity for itself. One that strays away from the occasionally creepy and dark vibes of Ocarina-Majora and leans towards a more light-hearted and cartoonish vibe like in The Wind Waker and The Minish Cap.

While I still I really like those games, I couldn’t help but feel like an ingredient of the Zelda recipe was missing from them. All the games pre-Majora’s Mask felt like they had a good balance of feel-good light-heartedness and serious, more mature undertones while the post-Majora’s Mask games seemed to lean more towards the prior. I really have no issues with this as I thoroughly enjoyed them but I can’t deny that they felt different.

This, of course, caused a lot of discourse within the fandom. Ocarina of Time was a cultural phenomenon widely regarded as a pioneer of not only 3D games but gaming as a medium. This departure in identity over the 8 following years cast a fair share of doubt on the series ever reaching the heights of Ocarina of Time again. The Wind Waker was ruthlessly scrutinized, The Minish Cap barely sold, and Four Swords Adventures came and went with no noise. Forcing Nintendo to be like “You want another Ocarina of Time? Fine, we’ll make one.”

Twilight Princess isn’t just a modern version of Ocarina of Time like some people like to say, it is a full blown spiritual successor. Everything from the art style, to the music, to the world and dungeon design feels like a proper evolution of Ocarina of Time. It just feels like the obvious direction they would’ve went with with the series. Twilight Princess relies on the foundations of Ocarina of Time while forging its own unique identity.

The game goes for a grounded and more mature vibe overall, completely contrasting The Wind Waker. I love The Wind Waker’s vibe a lot but playing it after what came before brings a feeling of unfamiliarity, I know most of us had to readjust ourselves for The Wind Waker in the beginning of it and said “oh okay this is different!” That readjustment wasn’t as present in Twilight Princess. As soon as you boot the game up you get an overwhelming “oh we are so back!” feeling as it exudes the same aura as the pre-Wind Waker games. That familiarity to me is very comforting which is why I find myself gravitating towards Twilight Princess more, even though I think The Wind Waker is the much bolder and more adventurous game.

Twilight Princess is often criticized for its linearity. While it sports a big map, it’s not really an open-world experience like The Wind Waker’s. Frankly, I don’t really care about that. A lot of people say that exploration is a huge standard of the Zelda series and it is often used as a tool to gauge how good some of these games are. I don’t really agree with that, Zelda isn’t a series that thrives on openness and exploration for me. Instead I think Zelda thrives on the sense of discovery more. You’re discovering new areas, overworld secrets, dungeons, towns, etc. Linearity doesn’t stop that sense of discovery, it just guides it. I can see how that can be a problem if you’re looking for a sense of unguided discovery, but that’s not what I play these games for. I’ll get into what I do play these games for later in the review. But for now I just really want to establish how I don’t have any issue with the linearity of Twilight Princess. I think it’s the reason why the game works, the linearity allows for a tighter and more planned out narrative-driven hero’s journey take place.

The overall story of Twilight Princess is alright. It’s nothing really revolutionary, I prefer the story of The Wind Waker as an overall narrative, but Twilight Princess shines through its fantastic story moments. It’s very cinematic in the sense that the scenes feel like they were directed like they’re for a movie. There’s a lot of framing techniques, musical cues, and moody lighting used. Characters are very grounded with their movements and express themselves like normal humans do in the real world. Scenes like the attack in Kakariko, the vision in Lanayru, Midna’s lament, and Illia’s memory are wonderfully directed and are some of my favorite scenes in the series. If Twilight Princess was a movie it would definitely be a big blockbuster. It’s just so grand and epic in every way with massive set pieces sprinkled throughout.

My first criticism about Twilight Princess is the pacing of the first half of the game. I know people usually complain about the opening hours of the game but I really have no problem with the opening. I feel like it’s a great tone-setter and shows you what normal life for Link look’s like before the main inciting incident happens. It’s a literary tool that is used in most movies, books, and other forms of narratives we see today. My issue actually starts after the inciting incident happens. The the world is now engulfed in twilight and every time you go to a new area you have to first go through the twilight realm version of that area and free it. This is the worst thing in the game for me and not because of the Tears of Light quest.

A lot of the previous Zelda games featured a dual-world mechanic with one being the normal world and the other being a distorted version of that world. Seeing the normal versions of those areas first and then seeing how the distortion makes them look is cool, but doing that order in reverse doesn’t work for me for several reasons. First, it's about the first impression you get of the new areas, the Twilight realm feels the same in every region of Hyrule, so having the excitement of going to a new location be met with an oppressive atmosphere that is shared by every other area in the game, even when that atmosphere is done masterfully, just doesn’t give a good first impression to any area in Hyrule. It doesn’t help that the most notable change that happens after freeing these areas from the twilight realm is that they’re now brighter and have their own musical theme. The areas just feel the same but with a different filter on now so it doesn’t feel that satisfying to free them.

My other big complaint about these sections is how they bring some of the narrative conflicts to a halt and ruin some story moments that would have otherwise been much better done. This comes with the fact that in the twilight realm, you can see what’s happening in the real world but you can’t really interact with anything from it. A big example is the kidnapped kids from Ordon Village. When you see them get kidnapped you naturally worry about where they’ve been taken and want to save them. What is the next thing the game does with that sub plot? Have you stumble on them while you’re in the twilight realm, finding out that they are safe with adults while not being able to interact with them until you finish releasing the area from the twilight. I don’t like these sections at all. I will say though that the sound design in the twilight realm is fantastic. As it is with the rest of the game.

What I love about Twilight Princess is that it’s very atmospheric and that comes in large part from the music. The music is spacious, triumphant, and nostalgic, even if you’re hearing these tracks for the first time. There are so many highlights including: Title Theme, Ordon Village, Midna’s theme, Twilight, Meeting Zelda, Light Spirit’s Elegy, Faron Woods, Forest Temple, Hyrule Field, Kakariko Village, King Bulblin Battle, Queen Rutela’s Theme, Lake Hylia, Zant’s Theme, Midna’s Lament, Sacred Grove, Arbiter’s Grounds, Snowpeak, Hidden Village, City in the Sky, and Final Battle. I didn’t realize how many favorites I had until I started listing them out. This might be one of my favorite soundtracks in the series. The only criticism I have with it is that I wish it wasn’t MIDI. These melodies are mesmerizing and deserve a lot better. I hope if the game gets another rerelease, they remake the soundtrack to be orchestral.

An area where Twilight Princess shines for me is through its characters. Not counting Majora’s Mask, Twilight Princess takes a massive leap in terms of character writing. The people of this world feel real with real struggles, and complex motivations. Link himself is one of my favorite incarnations, he is just so expressive and responsive to what’s happening around him. He shows a wide range of emotions throughout the game: he gets passionately angry sometimes, remorseful, cheery, relieved, etc. He’s not as stoic and serious as all the promotional art of the game depict him. He’s just a simple farm guy with a big heart and wants to help out however he can and the game sells that through his characterization. He also works especially well with Midna, who is probably my favorite character in the franchise.

Midna’s the first character in the series that gets a proper arc. Midna is mischievous, sassy, charismatic, and just wants to use Link for her own selfish gains but as the game goes on, she grows a sense of admiration for Link and the sense of camaraderie that builds up between the two really carries the game. They are a great dynamic duo that really give the game its own sense of identity. Midna actually in many ways feels like the protagonist of the game with Link being the deuteragonist. She is the driving force behind the narrative, the stakes are much higher for her than they are for any other character, and she’s the one that has personal beef with main antagonist. This is Midna’s game and Link is just a vessel for her story to be told. The closest thing we got to a character this dynamic before was Tetra in the Wind Waker but the way she was handled in the back-half of that game kinda fizzled her out for me. God, I love Midna. Most of the emotional punches of the game for me come from her. There’s obviously the big Midna’s Lament sequence but that doesn’t come close to her agency and involvement during the final section of the game. All for it to lead to one of the most beautiful endings of the series which wouldn’t have hit at all if her character didn’t work.

Twilight Princess also has other characters that are really compelling! Zant and Colin come to mind as other stand out characters. Some characters do leave some to be desired though. Illia’s treatment is just weird to me, she’s Link’s childhood friend/potential love interest. I’m gonna go over minor spoilers Illia as a character so feel free to skip this paragraph if you haven’t played the game. I just don’t understand what they were even going for with Illia, she’s introduced in the beginning as someone that Link really cares about, then gets kidnapped and disappears for a while. At that point she’s used as a main motivator for Link to go through his journey. You don’t find her with the rest of the kidnapped kids, so you’d think they’re delaying that moment to do something interesting with her. Once you do end up finding her you find out she has amnesia? Interesting choice but nothing is done with that plot line at all. She just disappears for the rest of the game until close to the end where you help her get her memory back in a wonderful scene.. only for her to just stand there doing nothing for the remainder of the game. Just a very weird way to handle the character which is why she never worked for me.

Other characters that kind of fall short for me are Zelda and Ganondorf. Their designs do all of the heavy lifting for their characters, these two never looked this good before (or since to be honest). But other than that, they’re a bunch of nothing. Zelda gets a total of 3 minutes of screen time in the whole game and is only challenged by Ganondorf’s 3.5 minutes. Did these two really need to be in this game? Zelda and Ganondorf’s inclusion just feels like it happens out of necessity to the series traditions. Part of me wishes for a version of Twilight Princess that fully skips on including these two and instead makes Midna and Zant the Triforce wielders of the game. You could even change their names to Zelda and Ganondorf to offer a cute twist of expectations having the incarnations of those two be from the same tribe this time. I know the manga adaptation gives Zelda and Ganondorf some cool stuff so all I can hope for is for that to be added if we ever get a proper remake on the same level as Final Fantasy VII Remake. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening so I guess I have to live on with these incarnations that feel like nothing.

My favorite thing about Twilight Princess and what I think sets it apart from the rest of the series is its dungeons. This is the best dungeon lineup in any 3D Zelda game. Every single dungeon in the game ranges from great to fantastic. Forest Temple, Lakebed Temple, Arbiter’s Grounds, Snowpeak Ruins, City in the Sky, and Palace of Twilight are among my favorite dungeons in the entire series. Each dungeon has a visually and sonically distinct atmosphere that sets it apart from the others, some dungeons are spacious vistas of nature like the forest temple, some are ancient locations with cultural impact like the Arbiter’s Grounds and City in the Sky, and then there’s Snowpeak Ruins which is a fancy and sprawling mansion. I also love them all from a game design perspective, they serve a great balance of the simplicity of The Wind Waker’s dungeons and the labyrinthine design of Ocarina of Time’s dungeons. To me, these serve as the perfect level of challenge where they’re designed well enough for players to be able to figure out how the puzzles work without taking mental leaps to do so. They really are a highlight and the most fun part of the game for me, everytime I finish from a dungeon, I’d be so excited to get to the next one. Contrasting the sense of dread I get from some of the dungeons in some other Zelda games.

All of these dungeons are capped off with boss fights that I can’t describe in any word other than epic. Mechanically, they all function like regular Zelda bosses where you have to use the item you acquired in the dungeon to defeat them, but in every other way, these bosses are leagues above everything that came before. The sense of scale has been upped significantly, these bosses are big and they do a great job of making you feel like the most badass guy in Hyrule. I talked earlier about how Twilight Princess feels like a blockbuster movie with its set pieces, these bosses are what come to mind. Something really great is that each boss has their own distinct theme this time. Actually there are some really cool musical moments that happen with the bosses, mainly the triumphant tune that comes in as you get the upper hand on these bosses just fills you with so much adrenaline. Highlights for me are: Morpheel, Stallord, Blizzeta, Argarok, Zant, and of course Ganondorf.

Everything in Twilight Princess culminates in the climactic final part. Arguably the best final section of any Zelda game (only to be contested recently by Tears of the Kingdom). Only to be topped off by the best final boss fight of the series thus far, again only to be contested by Tears of the Kingdom. Ganondorf might only have 3.5 minutes of screen time but he makes them count! Fantastic final boss in every way and a fantastic ending to go along with it. I will never forget the first time I finished this game and how much I was in awe over this ending sequence. Top 3 favorite endings in the series by far.

Twilight Princess is not a perfect Zelda game but it sure comes close. It has every element that I look for in a Zelda game. I said earlier in the review that I will get into what I look for when I play Zelda games. What’s most important in a Zelda game for me is atmosphere, story, characters, music, dungeons, and bosses. Moving forward, I will be focusing on these 6 elements with each Zelda game I review as these categories are what’s most important to me. Twilight Princess excels in all of these categories which solidifies it as an S-Tier game for me and one of my favorite games in the series. I freaking love this game and I’m obsessed with it. I wasn’t planning on writing this much but I really love Twilight Princess so much that I just can’t stop talking about it.

I've bounced back and worth between not really liking Majora's Mask to thinking it's one of my favorites. This recent playthrough of the 3DS version I think has finally confirmed to me that while I do really like this game, it's definitely not nearly as good as I remember it being.

It might just be me getting older and more impatient, but this is the only Zelda game I like that I can't just jump into. I really have to be in a specific mood and mindset for it. Otherwise, I find myself having somewhat of a miserable time at points.

It's very impressive and ambitious. I love the atmosphere and the darker/weirder tone of the game. The story is very good too. I really just don't really like having to plan so many things out in advance. I'm generally more of a play-it-by-ear type of person, so this game can definitely feel like doing a bunch of chores rather than playing a video game.

The main questline is pretty short, and the dungeons aren't really that great. I don't think any of them are on par with the Ocarina of Time dungeons. Stone Tower Temple is especially an oddity with me because most people seem to love it, but I always found it annoying as hell. Conceptually cool, sure, but as far as the actual gameplay goes? Not really into it. I do love the usage of transformation masks in each dungeon and in the overworld in general. Masks are definitely the coolest and most interesting part of the game for me in terms of gameplay mechanics.

The sidequests make up the bulk of the game, but I never found them that particularly great. The Romani Ranch and Anju/Kafei quests are really the only standout ones. People act like this game has the deepest quest lines ever which has always been bizarre to me. Insert that picture of Spongebob and Patrick screaming on the kiddie roller coaster.

Oh also, I definitely have a better understanding now of the more negative aspects of the 3DS version of this game. I don't think they're that bad (barring Twinmold, Jesus Christ why did they make that fight so godawful and tedious), but I can see why people would rather play the restoration patch version of this. I still refuse to watch that video with the infamous thumbnail on principle though. You know the one.

Don't get me wrong, Majora's Mask is very good. Lots of love was poured into this and I do like it a lot. I wouldn't give it 4 stars if I didn't. I just don't think it's the masterpiece everyone acts like it is.