I think this may be my favorite Zelda game.
I wouldn't consider this my first attempt at playing Twilight Princess. When I was a kid, my stepdad had a copy of the game for the Wii, and while I did make it past the first dungeon, I never picked it back up afterwards. Finally, probably over a decade later I returned to Twilight Princess to finally give it its due. And god, I loved it.
Zelda dungeons have always been some of my favorite things to come across, and Twilight Princess genuinely has some of the best. The puzzles are great as always, I loved stuff like the magnetism in the Goron Mine, or the Statue Puzzles in Temple of Time. They feel so well designed, and I loved trying to clear out every single dungeon I came across. I think if anything, I didn't particularly was one segment in Palace of Twilight. I found the Zant's Hand to be too punishing, but that's how I view it.
And the bosses were so fun. When it comes to most bosses, they're pretty easy to understand, and I wouldn't say any were difficult at all. I never died to any of the bosses. However, while understanding a boss is one thing, the execution of fighting it is another, and I love it here. There's oftentimes a sense of spectacle that I love here, especially for some of the later bosses too. I think the only boss I had any issue with was Morpheel, but that's mainly because I could never understand the swimming controls all that well.
The general combat is really fun too. I will say at first, the general combat is your basic fair. It's what you would typically expect from other Zelda games, right? But as you progress further and further, you can obtain new types of attacks that allows Link to fight enemies in more different ways. It really fleshes Link out I'd say, and I really enjoyed it.
And listen, I've praised this game so much, and I have yet to address the elephant in the room here, being Wolf Link. Wolf Link is such a neat idea, being able to transform into a Wolf and have new ways of interacting with the world is so cool. I love how you can say, track specific scents, or sense things that can't normally be seen by the naked eye. Wolf Link is such a fun idea and I think they did it really well.
The story is really interesting. While Zelda has been dark before, no game really comes close to how dark Twilight Princess is. But, at the same time, I would say it's incorrect to describe Twilight Princess as the "dark" Zelda game. While dark stuff does happen, the game always is able to balance things out. But don't get me wrong, this game can be genuinely scary at times, and when it does, oh is it memorable. Those parts are easily some of my favorites for just how bizarre they are, and no other Zelda game has replicated that for me.
I can't say Twilight Princess is for everyone, but it will most likely remain as my favorite Zelda title. There's so much that I absolutely loved, and I'm glad I finally was able to do what child me just forgot to do.