General Modern Skyward Sword or Twilight Princess

[Egregious]

I have mixed feelings about both games; I mean, I love both of them, but I think that they do each have strengths and weaknesses. For full disclosure, I do not have a Game Cube, so I had to play the Wii version of Twilight Princess.

My personal preferences were as follows:

• Art Style - Twilight Princess. I can definitely understand why people could prefer Skyward Sword's style, but I did not. I loved the aesthetic choices that the developers made for TP; the eerie colors of the twilit provinces, the more realistic style, and the "dark" elements. By comparison, I felt that Skyward Sword's colors were too bright and "cartoonish". It didn't really work for me - I definitely prefer Twilight Princess's look and feel.

• Controls - Skyward Sword. Skyward Sword's motion controls were much more fine-tuned. I guess this makes sense since Twilight Princess isn't really supposed to BE a Wii game. I hate the fact that both games were made for right-handed players; I am left-handed and since Link is supposed to be left-handed, I just got annoyed that they reversed Twilight Princess. I think that they should have at least let you choose the handedness. Not that this really affected gameplay too much, but it's mostly the principle of the matter that irritates me. The stabbing and different sword stroke directions worked great for me, so I preferred Skyward Sword.

• Overworld - Twilight Princess. I didn't like Skyward Sword's overworld much; flying around was annoying and I'd rather be able to travel on the ground between the different areas rather than having to fly around between regions. While this makes sense for the plot (being that Link is from the sky) it made sense, but I didn't like the mechanic regardless. By contrast, I liked in Twilight Princess that you gradually unlocked more pieces of Hyrule Field, and there was a lot more regional variety. The map was large, but horse and wolf-travel made that not such a big deal. Even more importantly, night time existed in Twilight Princess. I love seeing day/night changes, which were completely missing in most of Skyward Sword.

• Dungeons - Twilight Princess. This was pretty much a tossup; both games have really good dungeons and really bad dungeons. The good - Lanayru Mining Facility, which is probably the best dungeon between both games. Also; Arbiter's Grounds and the Lakebed Temple, both of which I enjoyed greatly. The bad - Fire Sanctuary, which was boring and lame to me. I was so disappointed to find that there was a second fire temple in lieu of a shadow or ice temple, and nothing particularly interesting happened within the temple. To a lesser extent, the Sandship was a revamp of LMF with the timeshift stones, but I give it a pass because it is a decent dungeon and timeshift stones are still pretty creative. On the TP side, City in the Sky is the worst dungeon from either game. It is truly awful and if I could kill it with fire, I would. Overall, I went with Twilight Princess because there is more variety in themes and location.

• Music - Skyward Sword. This was a difficult choice, because I really love Twilight Princess's soundtrack. However, the orchestral quality of Skyward Sword made it much better than Twilight Princess's overall tracks. Particularly memorable are the desert tracks from Skyward Sword - the way the music changes when you activate timeshift stones is magical. In Twilight Princess, the tracks were still wonderful, but just didn't have that extra spark.

• Plot - Skyward Sword. I did like Twilight Princess's plot; especially helping Link's Ordon friends, the Zora Prince, and Midna's storyline. However, I think that the plot loses focus toward the end. After you gain access to the City in the Sky, Link's friends become completely irrelevant, and going to save Zelda from Ganon feels really contrived considering how little development and screentime either character has. By contrast, I liked Skyward Sword's prequel elements, and Zelda was a much more interesting and engaging character than her Twilight Princess counterpart. Ghirahim was also a much more involved villain than Zant, who pretty much just reverted into an insane hot mess for no reason. I also liked that the time travel element returned, which didn't appear in Twilight Princess.

• Enemies/Bosses - Skyward Sword. This goes hand in hand with the controls, but I think that Skyward Sword's boss battles are more varied and interesting; sword direction becomes an important element. In Twilight Princess, I felt that I pretty much either whacked the bejesus out of everything with the sword, or shot it in the eye with an arrow and then whacked the bejesus out of it with the sword. That being said, I did not appreciate the fact that 2 out of the 6 temples in Skyward Sword essentially didn't have a boss; rather, the boss was a character rather than an environment-specific entity that made sense relative to the temple. This was more obnoxious in Fire Sanctuary than Skyview; at least Skyview was a great introduction to Ghirahim. Also, The Imprisoned was awful, and made me not want to ever visit the Sealed Grounds in case it woke up.

• Overall - Twilight Princess. Like I said, I like many aspects of both games - it's just a matter of what you value in a game. I preferred the overall feel/atmosphere of Twilight Princess, the graphics, the regions, and the overworld. I don't think either game is bad, or either game is amazing; but I do think that both have an important place in the series and I would happily replay either one. It just comes down to personal preference, really.

 

[Kupsacker]

My favorite game literally switches between these two every day, but for the most part, I've got to say my favorite is Twilight Princess because it's the game that introduced me to the Zelda series.

 

[A Link In Time]

I prefer Twilight Princess but Skyward Sword accomplished a lot as well making it difficult to compare the two games. With SS especially I've maintained that I can't form a genuine opinion until I've played through it several times and observed its impact in retrospect which I have yet to accomplish.

Personally TP did a great job of conveying darkness and despair which truly justified the "Teen" rating. Zant was the prime example of this accomplishment. He would appear as though out of thin air and thrust Midna into the way of a light spirit, nearly killing her, or resurrect a thousand year old dragon with a casual hand gesture. The battle animations certainly assisted in providing a more mature experience as well with Wolf Link barking and tearing the Twili to pieces coming to mind.

The gameplay was also extremely varied. Hidden moves provided an extra layer of depth during combat with emphasis placed on evading, blocking, and strafing. The Shield Bash and Fatal Blow were later included in SS showcasing TP's influence on the franchise. The Wolf Link transformation was also a breath of fresh air considering the beast's altered physics and ability to converse with other animals. In addition, I was fond of collecting the Tears of Light when dawn turned to dusk and back again as regions emitted an eerie reddish-brown aura.

SS was a milestone not only for the series but gaming in general. It undoubtedly offers the finest motion control on the marker surpassing anything available on the Kinect or PS Move. That emotional connection failed to resonate with me, however. There were certainly times when my hair stood on end as Impa rushed to protect Zelda from Ghirahim's blade near the Lanayru Mining Facility or the Imprisoned imbued itself with more of the goddess's life energy as he sought to regain his more perfect Demise form but overall the narrative was mundane, even if reinforced with great cinematics. The same goes for the areas. SS brought with it the traditional forest, fire, and desert regions. While multiple perks such as timeshift stone when reverting the Lanayru Sea to its past state were utilized, I never felt floored.

This is a subjective matter of course but as stated earlier TP is my favored game. It lived up to all of my expectations and more, cementing a truly distinct, darker tone for the franchise whereas SS failed to enthrall me outside of its motion control and some cut scenes. That said both pale in comparison with the legendary Ocarina of Time.

 

[PokaLink]

As much as i love Skyward Sword i would have to say Twilight Prinesss had better dungeons, bosser bosses, better plot line, and less frustrations when it comes to motion contorls. Skyward Sword did have better control of your charecter and more sidequests, but Twilight Princess was still better.

 

[ShadowDiety]

Twilight Princess. I just find it all around more appealing than SS.

 

[MW7]

I had some issues with both games, but both had plenty of great things going for them. Twilight Princess had some really great dungeons and some of my favorite puzzles of the 3d games with the various ice block puzzles and the guardian puzzle. The lantern caves were a small part of the game, but they were very memorable as well. Skyward Sword had fun motion controls, and great dungeons too. Both games had frustrating moments though. For instance both had some gameplay halting notification system (rupees for TP and bugs/treasures for SS). Also I really didn't understand limiting the cutscene skipping mechanic to hero mode in Skyward Sword. Overall though Twilight Princess had more annoying factors than Skyward Sword did for me. The tears of light were just not fun for me, and the linear nature of the game felt out of context. I would say I prefer Skyward Sword.

 

[Ventus]

I'm gonna go with the stereotypical "rebel" response and vote Twilight Princess. Like Random Person outlined above me, Twilight Princess had one goal in mind and that was simply to make for a more mature Zelda. And a mature Zelda it made! The plot, though personally didn't feel as much, really WAS darker than the typical Zelda. Not surreal like Majora's Mask before it, but dark. The art style lent itself well to this end, as did the music in most cases. Midna's Desperate Hour or, by other name, Midna's Lament is one of the most beautiful pieces I've heard from Zelda, even if it isn't one of my TOP favorites.

I have extensive problems with SS. The game doesn't have any difficulty outside of the controls, and this is for me a huge problem. The difficulty IS the controls, that is, once you learn the controls you essentially learn the game as every enemy, at least for the most part, is built around that glowing blade of Link's. This shouldn't be the case -- once you learn the controls you should be DECENT at the game, but you shouldn't be able to ace everything in one go. Games with a decent level of difficulty don't do this to you, or at least they dont' do it to ME.

I didn't care for the plot of SS. Nintendo advertized how Zelda goes from a silly sky girl to someone who knows how to handle her destiny. And that she did, if not for the too well known "fall from grace, totally changed" archetype from the days of the story of Adam and Eve. I could go on, but I just really hated SS' plot.

The music in SS was drab and devoid of all emotion for me. Great quality don't get me wrong, but none of it fit the areas they were featured in and none of them are memorable for me save a few. Just bad all around.

SS is like a bad taste in the mouth of Zelda to me. Whereas TP is a subpar Zelda, SS is just the lowest of the low if you don't count the CD-Is as Zelda games (I do, though, so SS isn't THE lowest but ever so slightly above CD-i).

In short, TP > SS for me.

 

[Cfrock]

It's a tough choice but ultimately I have to give it to Twilight Princess.

Twilight Princess was a Zelda game on a grand scale. It really captured the epic feel the series deserves unlike any of the other games. The art style was gorgeous and really brought Hyrule to life for me. The characters were loveable, funny, meaningful and well realised. Kakariko Village felt like a real community, we learnt a lot more about Goron society and for once Hyrule felt like a real kingdom. The music was magnificent, that's all I can say. I can't think of a single dungeon in the entire game that I didn't like and there were some very unique and original items.
Twilight Princess also has one of my all-time favourite sequences from any video game. When I first went up Snowpeak, I would never have guessed that I would soon be snowboarding with a Yeti and then helping him make soup for his ill wife.
All in all, Twilight Princess immediately became one of my favourite games of all time.

Skyward Sword has many of the same things going for it. The art style is beautiful and imaginative, the music was incredible and the characters were fantastic fun. The Motion+ controls gave the game a whole extra level of intense fun and I never grew tired of using items like the Beetle, Bow and even the Bug Net. It tried some new things like item upgrades and a real-time inventory as well as Stamina Meter and they all added an element of uniqueness to the game. The story was amazing and Girahim is easily one of the best villains in gaming history.
Skyward Sword also had some amazingly creative sequences too. Swimming through the submerged forest, sailing across a desert in a time bubble and tracking down a sky whale in a storm are all moments that I'll always remember and will consider highlights of the entire franchise.
I loved every single second I spent playing Skyward Sword and it is easily one of the best Zelda games ever made. However, I voted for Twilight Princess. The reason why is because, although I would rate both of them as fairly equal in terms of quality, I have played Twilight Princess more and have more memories of playing it. I hesitate to use the term 'nostalgia' but it's a similar feeling. For that reason alone I voted Twilight Princess.

 

[JuicieJ]

I'm gonna go with the stereotypical "rebel" response and vote Twilight Princess. Like Random Person outlined above me, Twilight Princess had one goal in mind and that was simply to make for a more mature Zelda. And a mature Zelda it made! The plot, though personally didn't feel as much, really WAS darker than the typical Zelda. Not surreal like Majora's Mask before it, but dark. The art style lent itself well to this end, as did the music in most cases. Midna's Desperate Hour or, by other name, Midna's Lament is one of the most beautiful pieces I've heard from Zelda, even if it isn't one of my TOP favorites.

And making a darker Zelda somehow automatically makes it superior? I don't see how that's the case, especially since the dark undertones clashed with the "hero saves princess" story to the point of the game feeling like it was trying to be two different games at once.

I have extensive problems with SS. The game doesn't have any difficulty outside of the controls, and this is for me a huge problem. The difficulty IS the controls, that is, once you learn the controls you essentially learn the game as every enemy, at least for the most part, is built around that glowing blade of Link's. This shouldn't be the case -- once you learn the controls you should be DECENT at the game, but you shouldn't be able to ace everything in one go. Games with a decent level of difficulty don't do this to you, or at least they dont' do it to ME.

That's how it's been with every Zelda since Ocarina of Time, dude. Just sayin'.

 

[surferguy7]

*Clicks topic*

Zelda Cycle

*Runrun*

 

[Ventus]

Zelda Cycle

People, more specifically, Zelda fans can't help that Nintendo continually churns out stuff that *isn't* appealing to them. That being said, I see no reason to brand this the Zelda Cycle. Many people were INITIALLY displeased with SS. Fans of TP, MM, TWW, OOT, ALTTP...hell even AoL made it known that they disliked SS for whatever reason. It's perfectly fine that I do not vote for SS, or that I vote for TP, or maybe even vote for neither. It's called opinion, which is why the OP even made the thread in the first place :yes:

 

[JuicieJ]

People, more specifically, Zelda fans can't help that Nintendo continually churns out stuff that *isn't* appealing to them. That being said, I see no reason to brand this the Zelda Cycle. Many people were INITIALLY displeased with SS. Fans of TP, MM, TWW, OOT, ALTTP...hell even AoL made it known that they disliked SS for whatever reason. It's perfectly fine that I do not vote for SS, or that I vote for TP, or maybe even vote for neither. It's called opinion, which is why the OP even made the thread in the first place :yes:

You're a living example of the Zelda Cycle. You hated nothing more than TP before SS's release. You now consider it acceptable as a Zelda title.

 

[Gemquarry]

I have already known what my favorite was. Skyward sword :mastersword:! Most of the things in TP creep me out...in a bad way. JucieJ covered most of my thoughts,
although I did find more good in TP than he appeared to have found :thinking:.

 

[Trio the Punch]

Honestly, describing this as a contest is hilarious to me. As far as I'm concerned, TP is like an inebriated infant with cerebral palsy and SS is like King Kong on angel dust. What I mean is, SS is the winner by a ridiculously wide margin. But, evidently my opinion is not the popular one. Oh well.

 

[JuicieJ]

I have already known what my favorite was. Skyward sword :mastersword:! Most of the things in TP creep me out...in a bad way. JucieJ covered most of my thoughts,
although I did find more good in TP than he appeared to have found :thinking:.

I found a lot of good in TP. Don't take my post the wrong way. When I say something is "some of the weakest/the weakest in Zelda", that's not really saying much. All Zelda games are good. Hell, all Zelda games are great (with maybe the exception of Zelda II, which is still really good). Oftentimes the "bad" things in Zelda are basically what's par for gaming in general. So, what I'm saying is Twilight Princess is not a bad game (as I also said in my post). It's just nowhere near Zelda's best.