Bloggin it up

by request - Zelda - Twilight Princess Review

Preface,

I really enjoy RPG's, and adventure games like Zelda, I have played the first 3 or 4 Zelda games, I have not played Majoras Mask, but recently finished Windwaker after borrowing it from James.

So at this point I am about 10 hours ish into Zelda.

I am not really sure how far into the game I have progressed, but if I had to guess, I think I am less than 25% complete, I like to search around every nook and cranny to get 100% completion in games this can slow me down quite a bit. Usually I make up for it by putting crazy hours into a game, but with the DS hogging 1/2 my gaming attention this has not been the case so far.

On a side note, New Super Mario Bros on DS... awesome.
Brain age (Also DS) is edumacationalistic, I got my brain to age 20 last night, YEA!

Back to the review, I am really enjoying the game so far, I was amazed by the graphics, this is the most realistic Zelda I have seen, while Windwaker went for a more cartoony look and feel, Twilight Princess went for a much more realistic look and feel. It is well done, but naturally not really comparable to any of the high def games put out for Xbox 360 or PS3. Personally though, I prefer a cartoony look and feel in a game.

I have not really become caught up in the story like I did with windwaker, again I blame the DS for this, I would be much more into the game without it.



Controls,
Moving around is done with the numchucks analog stick, very easy, becomes second nature right away.

Swinging the sword is done by slashing with the wiimote, doesn't matter how you move the wiimote around Link is doing the same swipe regardless of how you do yours, it does not follow your movement.

Spinning sword to attack 360 degrees is done by shaking the numchuck, again same move for any shaking.

Shooting with the slingshot / boomerang, makes a much better use of the new controls. use the pointer, point at the screen, and move the cursor where you want to shoot, then press the B button (bottom on wiimote). Or you can skip the new way, and use Z locking (press Z to lock onto a target), much more fun to use the pointer though.

There is a neat fishing part of the game, but it seems like it was just thrown in because the controller can make it cool, it doesn't (hasn't yet) really been necessary for the game.

There are a few more controls I am going to skip, they are all pretty intuitive.


- SPOILER WARNING -

Storyline so far. (for some reason I want to type this)

You start out getting a basic, "learn your controls" tasks, with some storyline mixed in.
Your in a very small town, you don't seem to have any parents around, you have your own house, the town wants you to go to Herule (sp?) to deliver something. yada yada.

The first tasks are
go run up and find your horse.
go take the horse through town,
herd some goats,
jump some fences.

Talk to people around town, perform menial tasks.

So far the game has been very linear, you can't go flying around the whole world in search of Heart containers, but the beginning of windwaker was the same, so I might not be at that point yet. I like skipping the main tasks to go do other side quests. So far there have been no side quests to note.

About 4-5 hours in you get kidnapped along with the local bossy cute local girl, and some other little timid boy.

You wake up to find yourself alone and that you have transformed into a wolf, and you are chained to the floor, a very cocky magical female shadow kid comes to your cell, and helps you out, making fun of you when you do the wrong thing.

When you get out of the cell the shadow kid becomes your permanent side kick, riding you like a horse, then helping you jump to unreachable areas (as a wolf) while the level progresses.

You eventually find out that your in Herule (sp?), and that the entire place is covered in darkness, any people that were in Hurule have become spirits, the spirits don't know that they are spirits. You have Wolf senses, that you can use to follow scents, see spirits... Hum, yah that is all they are good for so far. You have to go into sense mode, where your vision is limited to a small area around you,

So the little shadow kid leads you to meet Zelda, Zelda is not a spirit, she is the .... dah dah dun duuuu Twilight Princess. She tells you the story as to why everything is dark... bad/dark people came in, took over the land by force, told Zelda to choose between death (for everyone) or darkness.

She also mentions something about a Dark King. Then we get rushed out of her room before the guard comes back.

From there we go back to our town (the shadow kid can teleport us around), and proceed to find the shattered light and return it to a light protector god type thing. Which returns the light to the little town, and surrounding area.

When the light returns, you return to human form, and walk around as the towns folk ask you to go save the children (all the children got taken away by the darkness).

So you return to the darkness (and back to a wolf), and try to return more of the light pieces (light bugs actually).

That is where I am now.


Overall a good game, being the first game I have purchased in quite awhile it seems unnecessarily expensive, but a great game none the less, it's a must play game for those who like RPG/Adventure games.

Oh, and if your reading this far, go get yourself a Wii

posted by Matt @ 8:50 AM