Post by Shrikeswind on Jul 22, 2018 5:32:55 GMT -5
I've been talking a lot about Twilight Princess lately, and laying some pretty heavy praise on it, much of which may not seem warranted, some of which most certainly is, and I think it's probably important that I explain where I stand on Twilight Princess as a whole. As a game, Twilight Princess is the most worthy successor in the franchise to Ocarina of Time, being the game which draws the heaviest inspiration from Ocarina and which most clearly follows in its footsteps. Aside from Twilight Princess, most games in the franchise either distance themselves from Hyrule (as is the case for the Oracle games, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker and its sequels, Skyward Sword, and even Breath of the Wild in its way) or focusing on a Hyrule more like that of Link to the Past (as in Link Between Worlds and the Four Swords games), which results in this weird scenario where the second-highest grossing game in the franchise and more importantly the highest-rated game in the franchise and one of the highest-rated games in gaming at large is also the game that Nintendo has gone to the least amount of inspiration from, which is a shame because, despite being a fantastic game, Ocarina of Time is not perfect.
So, why do I keep implying that Twilight Princess is such an excellent game, even as I admit that it is deeply flawed and not my favorite game in the series? Well, first of all, because Twilight Princess actually is an excellent game. It kind of has to be, given how similar it is to Ocarina of Time. In a lot of ways, Twilight Princess is a massive improvement on Ocarina of Time, with a lot of Ocarina's flaws being rectified pretty solidly in Twilight. Exploration is made easier. Midna is the best helper fairy the franchise has ever produced. The combat is generally improved on. These are some solid points which don't really demand much further unpacking, since they're pretty uncontroversial (or I've already gone into detail regarding them.) But there are other ways in which Twilight improves on Ocarina, one of which is going to seem much more controversial to hear, but which is also worth unpacking for that exact reason.
Recently (as in, in my absolute most recent post on this thread, as of the time of writing this one), I've responded to Shadrio regarding what many people have described as one of the worst things about Twilight Princess, post-dungeon item functions. The examples Shadrio used were the Iron Boots' magnetic capabilities, the Spinner, and the Dominion Rod. Here's the problem, though: Not only is this also a problem in Ocarina of Time, it's actually a bigger problem in that game. With 3 exceptions (Ooccoo, Bomblings, and the Horse Call), every item in Twilight Princess is either useful or given use beyond their introduction, including the Iron Boots' magnetic function (though this in particular is limited to one cave.) In Ocarina, 12 items that you pick up are never used beyond their introduction, and 11 are completely unnecessary, either not being necessary to obtain (such as the Biggoron Sword or the Hylian Shield,) having uses that you never actually need (such as Deku Nuts, Fire Arrows, or Nayru's Love,) or being too useless or niche to be worth going out of your way for (the Giant's Knife, Ice Arrows, Mask of Truth, or Stone of Agony.)
So where does Twilight Princess go wrong? How did it get its generally poorer reputation? Well, first of all, Twilight makes the mistake of making exploration vital to its plot. Yes, I am talking about the Dominion Rod. The Dominion Rod is, mechanically, a great item, and the game gives it all manner of opportunity to be useful beyond the Temple of Time by littering the world with locations which can only be accessed with the use of an Owl Statue. It could have been great. But then, all of this exploration got tied to the plot. By forcing you to explore with the Dominion Rod to complete the game, it stopped actually being exploration and started just being...well, progression. This is definitely something that Twilight Princess should have gone another way on - making items from past dungeons more useful in later ones, and easing back on the linear progression which, extrapolated further, led to Skyward Sword.
Another failure of Twilight Princess is the general lack of interesting characters. This was a reversal from the previous 3D Zeldas - even Ocarina gave us more interesting characters than Twilight. Majora's Mask was a much more intimite game, with a much greater focus on interacting with NPCs and getting to know them, while Wind Waker made an effort to give everyone a history. Twilight Princess introduced us to a lot of people, but in the end, only a very small handful of characters were really interesting, and even fewer were minor characters. Most of the characters we were introduced to were just...there. There was something generic about most of the characters. Everyone felt very dour or background. The real exceptions were Midna, Zant, Agitha, Telma, the Yetis, Hena, and Malo. You'll notice that three of them (Midna, Zant, and Telma) are plot-critical, four of them (Agitha, the Yetis, and Malo) have distinctive personalities (quirky innocent insect-lover, big loud lout and his small quiet wife, and disturbingly intelligent smart-ass baby), and one of them (Hena) actually has interests and a history that she'll share with you. But this is 8 characters. Majora did it with 30. Wind Waker gave us its entire cast.
Perhaps the biggest problem though is that Twilight Princess was too beholden to being a Zelda title. This'll sound weird to say, but Link is not the main character of Twilight Princess. Midna is. Introducing Ganondorf into Twilight Princess? Absolutely unnecessary. This was Midna's story, and her feud with Zant is the strongest part of that story. Ganondorf's presence just buries this story in the Zelda franchise, instead of letting it run its course as it needed to. A Zelda title could work just fine without Ganon - Majora did just fine without him, thank you very much. A few games had by this point, in fact.
All told, though, Twilight Princess was a massive improvement on Ocarina of Time's biggest weaknesses. I would certainly, going forward, try again with the Ocarina style, using Twilight Princess as a springboard. There are a lot of things that Twilight Princess needs to improve on, things which it had regressed on that needed to be retained, but all told, I would certainly like to see a successor to Twilight Princess of some sort.
So, why do I keep implying that Twilight Princess is such an excellent game, even as I admit that it is deeply flawed and not my favorite game in the series? Well, first of all, because Twilight Princess actually is an excellent game. It kind of has to be, given how similar it is to Ocarina of Time. In a lot of ways, Twilight Princess is a massive improvement on Ocarina of Time, with a lot of Ocarina's flaws being rectified pretty solidly in Twilight. Exploration is made easier. Midna is the best helper fairy the franchise has ever produced. The combat is generally improved on. These are some solid points which don't really demand much further unpacking, since they're pretty uncontroversial (or I've already gone into detail regarding them.) But there are other ways in which Twilight improves on Ocarina, one of which is going to seem much more controversial to hear, but which is also worth unpacking for that exact reason.
Recently (as in, in my absolute most recent post on this thread, as of the time of writing this one), I've responded to Shadrio regarding what many people have described as one of the worst things about Twilight Princess, post-dungeon item functions. The examples Shadrio used were the Iron Boots' magnetic capabilities, the Spinner, and the Dominion Rod. Here's the problem, though: Not only is this also a problem in Ocarina of Time, it's actually a bigger problem in that game. With 3 exceptions (Ooccoo, Bomblings, and the Horse Call), every item in Twilight Princess is either useful or given use beyond their introduction, including the Iron Boots' magnetic function (though this in particular is limited to one cave.) In Ocarina, 12 items that you pick up are never used beyond their introduction, and 11 are completely unnecessary, either not being necessary to obtain (such as the Biggoron Sword or the Hylian Shield,) having uses that you never actually need (such as Deku Nuts, Fire Arrows, or Nayru's Love,) or being too useless or niche to be worth going out of your way for (the Giant's Knife, Ice Arrows, Mask of Truth, or Stone of Agony.)
So where does Twilight Princess go wrong? How did it get its generally poorer reputation? Well, first of all, Twilight makes the mistake of making exploration vital to its plot. Yes, I am talking about the Dominion Rod. The Dominion Rod is, mechanically, a great item, and the game gives it all manner of opportunity to be useful beyond the Temple of Time by littering the world with locations which can only be accessed with the use of an Owl Statue. It could have been great. But then, all of this exploration got tied to the plot. By forcing you to explore with the Dominion Rod to complete the game, it stopped actually being exploration and started just being...well, progression. This is definitely something that Twilight Princess should have gone another way on - making items from past dungeons more useful in later ones, and easing back on the linear progression which, extrapolated further, led to Skyward Sword.
Another failure of Twilight Princess is the general lack of interesting characters. This was a reversal from the previous 3D Zeldas - even Ocarina gave us more interesting characters than Twilight. Majora's Mask was a much more intimite game, with a much greater focus on interacting with NPCs and getting to know them, while Wind Waker made an effort to give everyone a history. Twilight Princess introduced us to a lot of people, but in the end, only a very small handful of characters were really interesting, and even fewer were minor characters. Most of the characters we were introduced to were just...there. There was something generic about most of the characters. Everyone felt very dour or background. The real exceptions were Midna, Zant, Agitha, Telma, the Yetis, Hena, and Malo. You'll notice that three of them (Midna, Zant, and Telma) are plot-critical, four of them (Agitha, the Yetis, and Malo) have distinctive personalities (quirky innocent insect-lover, big loud lout and his small quiet wife, and disturbingly intelligent smart-ass baby), and one of them (Hena) actually has interests and a history that she'll share with you. But this is 8 characters. Majora did it with 30. Wind Waker gave us its entire cast.
Perhaps the biggest problem though is that Twilight Princess was too beholden to being a Zelda title. This'll sound weird to say, but Link is not the main character of Twilight Princess. Midna is. Introducing Ganondorf into Twilight Princess? Absolutely unnecessary. This was Midna's story, and her feud with Zant is the strongest part of that story. Ganondorf's presence just buries this story in the Zelda franchise, instead of letting it run its course as it needed to. A Zelda title could work just fine without Ganon - Majora did just fine without him, thank you very much. A few games had by this point, in fact.
All told, though, Twilight Princess was a massive improvement on Ocarina of Time's biggest weaknesses. I would certainly, going forward, try again with the Ocarina style, using Twilight Princess as a springboard. There are a lot of things that Twilight Princess needs to improve on, things which it had regressed on that needed to be retained, but all told, I would certainly like to see a successor to Twilight Princess of some sort.