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November 12, 2022
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Hey, remember when The Wind Waker came out and a bunch of people got real weird and shitty about its art style? Well guess what, Nintendo made a Zelda game for ADULTS! That's right, NO KIDS ALLOWED, this isn't your baby sister's Zelda. Swords will BLEED!
Even at the time, Twilight Princess struck me as Nintendo bending the knee to fans who were upset that they never got to see the grim gritty Zelda Spaceworld 2000 demo fully realized as a proper entry in the series, a rare moment of the company acquiescing to fans. While The Wind Waker has been met with significant positivity on reappraisal (due in large part to the HD remake on the Wii U), at the time there was a very vocal contingent of Nintendo fans frothing at the mouth about how childish it looked. The aesthetic appeal of a game is largely subjective, but looking back at the "Celda" controversy, I think a significant amount of the blowback was borne from some weird mob mentality that meant it was never going to get a fair shake at the time.
"Celda" exhausted me. I had friends who bought into it, I read about it in magazines... It seemed like everyone disapproved of the game, and if I played it then they'd disapprove of me too. By the time Twilight Princess came out, I was completely uninterested in the series. Link is a wolf and travels around with a little gremlin? That's neat, I guess. I'm too busy over here getting all 326 routes of Shadow the Hedgehog knocked out because I'm a real gamer, so enjoy your RPG, nerds.
I finally decided to sit down and play it, and opted for the Gamecube version since I'd rather bore a hole in my skull than play with the Wii's motion controls. I didn't really have any expectations going in, I've never felt particularly strongly about Twilight Princess one way or the other, and now that I'm on the other side of it... it's pretty good! Doesn't break even my top five Zelda games, but I enjoyed myself.
Twilight Princess has some of the best 3D dungeons in the entire series. They're perfectly paced, intuitive enough that you'll never quite feel lost yet satisfied all the same when you solve a puzzle, and reward you with some of the most fun tools Link has earned across the entire franchise. That said, the hookshot does get a bit too much play, and other items like the excellent spinning top are underutilized. Combat is also expanded upon from the previous three games, allowing Link to approach encounters with a lot more versatility. Over the course of the game you'll learn a variety of moves that let Link circle around, flip over, and parry his foes. The further you progress, the more necessary it becomes to learn these skills, keeping combat both challenging and fun through the entire journey. However, Z-targeting (I guess L-Targeting on the Gamecube) feels a lot more wonky here. Especially when you're in the middle of a large mob, it's a lot more difficult than it ought to be singling out a specific target, which can result in some cheap hits that break the flow of combat.
The central gimmick in this game is of course Wolf Link, and it might just be one of the most underwhelming gimmicks in the series. As a wolf, Link can pick up and track scents, dig his way under obstacles, or call upon Midna to help him vault to higher places. Vaulting is contextual and cannot be used on-demand, and tracking and digging are very rote actions that are never employed in interesting ways. During the early parts of the game, you're trapped in Link's wolf form until you collect 16 tears of light, and there is similarly little variation in completing this task each time you're presented with it. Run around, kill some spiders, collect the tears. It's a time sink, pure and simple. After you break the curse later in the game, you're able to transform into a wolf at will, but the game still fails to do anything interesting with the form.
This tedium extends to Hyrule Field and the various subquests Link takes on between dungeons. Twilight Princess follows the typical Zelda gameplay loop of returning to the overworld with new tools in hand, opening up previously inaccessible pathways, and taking on quests either to provide small bonuses like pieces of heart or to progress the story. However, many of these quests are just kinda dull and one-note, and the overworld fails to make use of Link's tools in a way that feels as engaging as the dungeons you find them in. I usually like to hunt for every piece of heart in Zelda games, but as my time in Hyrule dragged on and on, I found myself far more compelled to hurry my way through it just to get back into a dungeon. As a consequence, this is the first Zelda in a long time that I didn't get 100% completion in, and I'm fine with that.
The one thing that does keep the overworld somewhat compelling are the characters you encounter. They're your typical Zelda weirdos, and while none of them quite come close to the absolute freaks of nature you meet in Termina, they're still a lot of fun to talk to. I also like how many characters look as if they've had pieces of their skull shaved away. Absolutely grotesque, more of that please. I also can't get over how expressive everyone is, there's some incredible facial animation work in this game, especially for Midna, which is appropriate given she's the character you spend most of your 40+ hour quest with. The story itself is also quite good for what it is, though it hardly breaks the mold. In fact, a lot of it reminds me of Ocarina, which seems to be Nintendo's intent given how much of Twilight Princess is decidedly reminiscent of that game.
Nearly two decades removed from "Celda" being a thing people said unironically, Twilight Princess is a pretty good game with some spectacular highs and tedious lows. A real middle-of-the-road adventure that is pleasing enough to spend 40 hours of my time on, even if it falls short of The Wind Waker on my list of favorite Zelda games. I bet I would absolutely hate it if I played it with motion controls, but who knows, maybe I'll check it out sometime when I'm willing to stomach Twilight Princess' overly long intro again. Might make for a fun second quest, best case.
Even at the time, Twilight Princess struck me as Nintendo bending the knee to fans who were upset that they never got to see the grim gritty Zelda Spaceworld 2000 demo fully realized as a proper entry in the series, a rare moment of the company acquiescing to fans. While The Wind Waker has been met with significant positivity on reappraisal (due in large part to the HD remake on the Wii U), at the time there was a very vocal contingent of Nintendo fans frothing at the mouth about how childish it looked. The aesthetic appeal of a game is largely subjective, but looking back at the "Celda" controversy, I think a significant amount of the blowback was borne from some weird mob mentality that meant it was never going to get a fair shake at the time.
"Celda" exhausted me. I had friends who bought into it, I read about it in magazines... It seemed like everyone disapproved of the game, and if I played it then they'd disapprove of me too. By the time Twilight Princess came out, I was completely uninterested in the series. Link is a wolf and travels around with a little gremlin? That's neat, I guess. I'm too busy over here getting all 326 routes of Shadow the Hedgehog knocked out because I'm a real gamer, so enjoy your RPG, nerds.
I finally decided to sit down and play it, and opted for the Gamecube version since I'd rather bore a hole in my skull than play with the Wii's motion controls. I didn't really have any expectations going in, I've never felt particularly strongly about Twilight Princess one way or the other, and now that I'm on the other side of it... it's pretty good! Doesn't break even my top five Zelda games, but I enjoyed myself.
Twilight Princess has some of the best 3D dungeons in the entire series. They're perfectly paced, intuitive enough that you'll never quite feel lost yet satisfied all the same when you solve a puzzle, and reward you with some of the most fun tools Link has earned across the entire franchise. That said, the hookshot does get a bit too much play, and other items like the excellent spinning top are underutilized. Combat is also expanded upon from the previous three games, allowing Link to approach encounters with a lot more versatility. Over the course of the game you'll learn a variety of moves that let Link circle around, flip over, and parry his foes. The further you progress, the more necessary it becomes to learn these skills, keeping combat both challenging and fun through the entire journey. However, Z-targeting (I guess L-Targeting on the Gamecube) feels a lot more wonky here. Especially when you're in the middle of a large mob, it's a lot more difficult than it ought to be singling out a specific target, which can result in some cheap hits that break the flow of combat.
The central gimmick in this game is of course Wolf Link, and it might just be one of the most underwhelming gimmicks in the series. As a wolf, Link can pick up and track scents, dig his way under obstacles, or call upon Midna to help him vault to higher places. Vaulting is contextual and cannot be used on-demand, and tracking and digging are very rote actions that are never employed in interesting ways. During the early parts of the game, you're trapped in Link's wolf form until you collect 16 tears of light, and there is similarly little variation in completing this task each time you're presented with it. Run around, kill some spiders, collect the tears. It's a time sink, pure and simple. After you break the curse later in the game, you're able to transform into a wolf at will, but the game still fails to do anything interesting with the form.
This tedium extends to Hyrule Field and the various subquests Link takes on between dungeons. Twilight Princess follows the typical Zelda gameplay loop of returning to the overworld with new tools in hand, opening up previously inaccessible pathways, and taking on quests either to provide small bonuses like pieces of heart or to progress the story. However, many of these quests are just kinda dull and one-note, and the overworld fails to make use of Link's tools in a way that feels as engaging as the dungeons you find them in. I usually like to hunt for every piece of heart in Zelda games, but as my time in Hyrule dragged on and on, I found myself far more compelled to hurry my way through it just to get back into a dungeon. As a consequence, this is the first Zelda in a long time that I didn't get 100% completion in, and I'm fine with that.
The one thing that does keep the overworld somewhat compelling are the characters you encounter. They're your typical Zelda weirdos, and while none of them quite come close to the absolute freaks of nature you meet in Termina, they're still a lot of fun to talk to. I also like how many characters look as if they've had pieces of their skull shaved away. Absolutely grotesque, more of that please. I also can't get over how expressive everyone is, there's some incredible facial animation work in this game, especially for Midna, which is appropriate given she's the character you spend most of your 40+ hour quest with. The story itself is also quite good for what it is, though it hardly breaks the mold. In fact, a lot of it reminds me of Ocarina, which seems to be Nintendo's intent given how much of Twilight Princess is decidedly reminiscent of that game.
Nearly two decades removed from "Celda" being a thing people said unironically, Twilight Princess is a pretty good game with some spectacular highs and tedious lows. A real middle-of-the-road adventure that is pleasing enough to spend 40 hours of my time on, even if it falls short of The Wind Waker on my list of favorite Zelda games. I bet I would absolutely hate it if I played it with motion controls, but who knows, maybe I'll check it out sometime when I'm willing to stomach Twilight Princess' overly long intro again. Might make for a fun second quest, best case.