Twilight Princess Do You Think That You Should Have Been Able to Use Magic in Twilight Princess

[rvman815]

What do you think?

 

[Ventus]

**** yes I do. Magic would've made TP a million times better, and a million times less boring.

There is literally nothing in TP that would restrict the ability for Magic. Hell, Midna's power is totally a magic-related thing in and of itself. So why place mechanical restrictions on the game?

 

[A Link In Time]

Growing up on Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, I'm naturally biased towards the magic meter and was disappointed to see it absent from Twilight Princess. As many others have said in previous threads about the topic, Twilight Princess was originally supposed to incorporate the magic meter, but the idea was scrapped slightly before release. If I recall correctly, the magic meter is pictured on the back cover of at least one of the versions of the game, if not both. As Ventus stated, any power granted to Link by Midna as well as hidden skills should have used the magic meter. I think the Wolf Link portions would have been more strategic had the magic meter been implemented.

 

[Dragoncat]

Idk. It wouldve been cool, but I think the game was good enough without it. As for Midna's powers...well, if Link could use magic, that would kinda defeat the purpose of having her there. Because she had a bigger role in the plot than Navi, and her race, the twilis, is a magic wielding race. Hylians like Link aren't as magically inclined. OoT Link was special, since Navi apparently couldn't do magic, the goddesses gave the spells to him instead. The only magic we ever see a fairy use is the healing kind. Why Navi doesnt heal...maybe it's only the wild fairies that can? Maybe they lose their healing powers when they bond with a kokiri, or in this case, hylian.

So, TP Link wasn't given magic spells. The goddesses saw that a magic wielder was helping him out, so why would they want to give him magic when he was perfectly fine without it? Every time he needed to warp or zap something into a different place or whatever, he just had to get Midna to do it. It works because Midna and Link were a team, depending on each other. TP Link having magic would kinda lessen that effect.

 

[Mangachick14]

Yes. I reeeeeally wish they had included it, along with some new spells and elemental arrows. I really do miss the magic in Zelda. The Skyward strike from SS has given me a little inkling of hope that magic will be more integrated in Zelda WiiU. :nod:

 

[Ver-go-a-go-go]

It was a super confusing departure from the norm, that's for sure. And with Skyward Sword opting to do the exact same thing, you have to wonder exact what's going through the developer's minds. But you also have to keep in mind that a whopping 100% of modern Zelda games - Twilight Princess, Phantom Hourglass, Spirit Tacks, and Skyward Sword - all lack it as well, so this is slowly becoming the new standard. I do have a few theories concerning why it's been omitted, but keep in mind that I can't prove any of these, and that I have little to no facts to support them.

First off, the most obvious reason would seem to be what someone already outlined above; it was either planned at one time and scrapped, or there just hasn't been enough time to worry with it. From what I remember, Twilight Princess was under a LOT of pressure to be released, so that makes sense, just because it was announced too early and probably got over-hyped. But.... that's kind of where the reasoning ends for me. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks really don't seem like they would've taken a massive amount of time to create when you compare them to TP and SS. And on top of that, was there ever ANY pressure to really release those games? I mean, it's not like the entire world was pumped for them, and honestly, on an unrelated note, I consider both of those to be bottom-of-the-barrel Zelda games. Adding that to the fact that they were both direct sequels to Wind Waker, which sported the magic bar, I can't really justify them not having it. Skyward Sword is kind of the same..... But I guess you could argue that SO MUCH MORE was going on with that game. You had the new graphic style, the new level-based style of progression, and of course the completely revamped combat scheme. Combine all of that with all of the new things SS did, and I could understand why a magic bar was the last thing on anyone's mind. (I really don't get PH and ST lacking it though...... Maybe because no other handheld game ever had one?)

My second theory is that...... Maybe magic was getting kind of obsolete and boring anyway. I can only speak for myself personally when it comes to this, but I found that in the three 3D games that had one, (Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and Wind Waker) I never depended on it that much. This is especially true for OoT and MM, where I would purposely omit elemental arrows and the goddess abilities just because they were never super necessary, and I guess I'm just a resource hog like that anyway. And yes, I know about the light arrows. But is having just those alone really worth the magic bar? I don't know really, because it varies so much. I will admit though, the Giant's Mask/Chateau Romani was a nice little quirk in MM.
I also feel that WW does the same thing for the most part. The major exception to this is, of course, the Deku Leaf. Because that thing could completely break the game without a magic meter to keep it in check. So I think if more items like that were invented, a magic meter would hold some relevancy.

All in all, I think we can learn to live without it. Sure, having more things to use at our disposal is always fun, but don't forget to think about why the magic meter was there in first place, and how it could get rather stale as a gameplay element if new things weren't built around it. That's probably the key to all of this; developers haven't found a way to use it in a new way that isn't repetitive, so they took it out. Zelda has always been about gameplay innovation anyway.

 

[DarkestLink]

Technically we could. They just kept that annoying magic meter out.

 

[Salem]

I know in old screenshots of TP, there was one with the magic meter, but that was removed in the final game, one of them was in the Temple of Time so I assume it was supposed to be used for Dominion Rod or something, I can't imagine what else they could have used it for.

Magic was the least of my concerns with the Zelda series, it really didn't matter to me that it is no longer used, so I dunno.

 

[the8thark]

I think of it this way.

Why does Magic exist in any Zelda game? Simply as a way to limit the use of certain items. You can't spam fire arrows or Din's Fire or the Deku Leaf or whatever forever. Basically making a powerful item trickier to use, limited shots before you run out of magic. I remember back to Zelda 1. It had no Magic metre. It also had no consumable arrows (used rupees as arrows). The no magic in Zelda 1 didn't harm the game at all. So the fact TP didn't have it also didn't harm the game.

The bigger issue is how do you limit the use of the more powerful items without a magic metre. And I think this could have been handled a little better by TP.
So to directly answer the main question. No. TP was ok without magic. But I do think the other limitations in place to limit the stronger items in TP were not really up to par.

 

[Salem]

The bigger issue is how do you limit the use of the more powerful items without a magic metre. And I think this could have been handled a little better by TP.
So to directly answer the main question. No. TP was ok without magic. But I do think the other limitations in place to limit the stronger items in TP were not really up to par.

Nice post overall dude, but here I think ALBW handle the "magic" in an alternative way, all items use the Item meter, and it replenishes back on it's own, could this be how magic should have been used in TP?

 

[CraptainFalcon]

It would have been great if they put the magic meter in the game.

 

[Random Person]

No I do not. I'm fine with it in the other games of the series, but TP clearly tried to set a more modern gaming sense and I believe getting rid of the magic bar helped that. TP also had a more clear lean towards technology which I believe neglecting the magic bar helped to stress. There are ways that they could've accomplished their goals and kept the magic meter, but I think taking it away all together was the best. Is it "Non-Zelda like?" Yes, but I feel it was a necessary step for this game. SS on the other hand felt lacking without it as that game still had that light-hearted Zelda atmosphere.

I'm not against its return, but I don't think the magic meter belonged in TP.

 

[tenkashixd]

Actually no. I mean elemental arrows would help with dungeon design but then it would feel way too much like oot. I like that it felt like oot even though it didnt take risks. It felt like a better looking oot and most parts. Which was nice I want an HD remake of this game. The only thing I would want added is SS expression on links face. I enjoyed seeing him get angry.

 

[Justac00lguy]

Well what exactly is magic? It's basically an extension of Link's powers, offering him upgrades for special attacks and whatnot. If we break magic down though, it's really nothing that special, used for elemental weapons and nothing much else - in the 3DS games anyway. So basically the whole magic system is as simple as an ammo system, a limiter so to say.

If we're talking magic on the scale of A Link to the Past or Zelda II then by all means it has a case to be implemented in any Zelda game, past and future alike. However, I'm left with the underutilised and mediocre magic system which hasn't showed it's true potential in the 3D games. So would I think it would have made TP better? Well not really, it could have made combat and item usage make varied, but then again, this can be done simply by mixing up item usage anyway.

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Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of magic I this series unless used right, otherwise it's no big deal to the game overall, for me that is I'm sure others may differ.

 

[Salem]

If we're talking magic on the scale of A Link to the Past or Zelda II then by all means it has a case to be implemented in any Zelda game, past and future alike. However, I'm left with the underutilised and mediocre magic system which hasn't showed it's true potential in the 3D games. So would I think it would have made TP better? Well not really, it could have made combat and item usage make varied, but then again, this can be done simply by mixing up item usage anyway

Talking about only the medallions, I think they're too overpowered, probably why they hardly used them again. As for everything else, most of them don't really need a magic meter anyway.