My criticism of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)

[Gaco]

(Please don't kill me Zelda_Fan! (xmasgrin))
I gave myself a Nintendo Wii for chrismas (with some help from my parents) and I decided to buy the new Zelda obviously because of the incredible reviews and user response. I've never really played a Zelda game before and I heard the style was a little retro, while still refreshing and entertaining, so I gave it a go.

First let me say that it was a great choice. LoZ: Twilight Princess is a great game and in complements Wii Sports (game that came bundled) just fine.

I'm a good 7-8 hours into Zelda and I think it's really good. Here's why:

The game is good in many respects (huge world, cool puzzles, nice feel of characters and gear progression, fairly good combat, wii controls are implemented well and actually a also bit of good humor), but it sure isn't as perfect as everyone, namely old Nintendo fans, are saying it is. Here's why:

*Graphics aren't that good. This is actually the smallest complain I have, that's why I'm mentioning it first. I never expected better graphics, it just would've been nice with sharper textures and a more detailed world, but graphics design makes up for it to some degree.

*Only MIDI music - what's up with that Nintendo? It's not catastrophic, but please realize that this is the year 2006, not 1986. Orchestral score for this game would've been awesome, and even some mixed-in MIDI couldn't have hurt.

*Voice acting is Missing in Action! Again this is 2006, I expect some good voice acting in a excessively hyped modern RPG/Action game like LoZ: Twilight Princess. Just look at the successful implementation in Oblivion. Just a little more introduction lines like in Baldurs Gate II would be a lot better instead of the unintelligible mumble as in The Sims

*Confined spaces and too many damn loading screens. Take the start for example. Why does the tiny area around Link's house present a loading obsticle, even for the Gamecube? Some larger areas and more detailed backgrounds without so many loading screen could work wonders. I mean wondering around in that Ordan town really felt like a confined space, a video game from 1998. Such a shame. But to be fair the only thing that really keeps the game from gaining 'eternal classic status' is the graphics and the limited leveldesign in terms of volume/size. Unfortunately this counter the epic feel.

I hope Nintendo get the messege: Oldschool retro style isn't all that great. You more or less got away with it this time, but please don't carry on practice to such a great extend in the future.

I'd still give Zelda a clean 9/10 because in the end it's long and entertaining with more intelligent puzzles, hidden secrets and gameplay features than what you would expect if you've never played a Zelda game before :)

To all the Wii/Zelda owners in here, what did you think? I was pleasently surprised since this is my first Zelda game and I thought it looked kind of semi-generic in spite of the excellent reviews (xmasmile)

[PeterJensen]

Gaco where did you get a wii in denmark?

[Gaco]

Gaco where did you get a wii in denmark?
A store manager from EB Games in Roskilde announced in a thread on dailyrush.dk that they had just received three Nintendo Wii consoles unexpectedly. I was quick to call and have him hold one of them for me. When I picked it up the following day he told me that the last of the three Wii's were just sold a couple of hours prior to then. I had planned to pick up Wii Play (1 extra wiimote + a compilation of minigames for about 100 kr/15$ more the price of a Wiimote), but they were sold I. I bought Zelda, which turned out to be a good game, as expected, apart from the complaints listed above.

In other words, I got lucky. Good luck trying to find a Wii (snow=D)

[Namrok]

To be honest the only complaint I agree with is the graphics one. While I found them adequate, I certainly could have enjoyed them more.

The voice over thing, eh. Perhaps they should have voiced over key dialog ala FFXII. I hate games that voice over everything, it's just a pain and I can read so much faster. I don't want to have to listen to a side character prattle on slowly about random crap for an hour, nor have to deal with the schizophrenic sounds it makes when I'm skipping lines. "But--we---then---and---of----".

To be honest I never noticed the music as being speficially "MIDIish" but then again I'm not much of an audiophile.

And load screens...I guess they much have been there, but I don't remember any. I do recall some slight pauses when moving between areas, but nothing of Oblivion like proportions where I'm loading for 30 seconds to enter a freaking house!

My major complaint was that the majority of the dungeons were too simple. They all followed a rather basic hub & spoke design. Go off and accomplish several small sub-objectives from the main area, come back, get through the big door to another hub area. I mean on the one hand, yay, I don't have to play through a dungeon in one sitting! On the other hand, the dungeons felt very simplistic. The puzzles were rather small scale with the exception of the water temple which flirted with grander design, but ultimately left me wanting.

I just remember that even the dungeons in Wind Waker, few though they were, had better overall design than the dungeons in Twilight Princess. But maybe thats just my memory playing tricks with me. I've been meaning to replay it anyhow, it only takes about 10 hours :p