Twilight Princess "Twilight Princess is a Good Game, but It's Not a Good Zelda Game"

[2bmc]

I have never understood this statement at all, please state some opinions as to what this means to you.

 

[GerudoDesert]

It was different. It wasn't my favorite, but I'd rather play it than the 2D ones.

 

[Fame Killz]

it's in my top 5, I really don't understand the hate on this game, here's something I said in the TP thread:

"replaying Twilight Princess for my first time (on gamecube) since launch week (originally had it for wii), I don't understand all the hate for this game in the Zelda community.

it's really epic and so far the story is dope, I just unfroze Zoras Domain.

but yeah the most hate I see for this game is "it's too much like OOT"

lol oh really? how? you don't get a musical instrument, you don't go forward and backward in time, etc etc.

in OOT the world wasn't this big, you didn't get bomb arrows and all that ****, you didn't get to take control of a giant evil bird to fly up to Zoras domain, I just don't understand the hate for this game. it's too epic

 

[MW7]

I've heard this said before. It's basically saying that Twilight Princess is a good game when compared to the standards of average gaming but isn't as good as other Zelda games.
I've never agreed with that statement mind you. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it stands at least on my top 5 Zelda games.

Yep that's exactly what I mean when I say it, and I say it a lot. My view is that it's the second best Gamecube and Wii game (behind Wind Waker and Skyward Sword on the respective systems), but relative to the series it's lower quality IMO.

Another thing from my perspective is that it had multiple instances of forcing a player forward in the story such as each tears of light quest and the quest right after the third dungeon. For instance in Skyward Sword (and pretty much every other game) if you're in the middle of doing something, you are free to leave to the sky at any time to go do a sidequest. In the tears of light quests, you have no choice- it's either get the tears or you can't do anything. Most Zelda games have at least one instance of this like the first cycle in Majora's Mask of being stuck in Clock Town, but Twilight Princess kept doing it over and over in the first third of the game. IMO that kind of thing isn't a Zelda-y way to design a game.

 

[Koosholts]

Yep that's exactly what I mean when I say it, and I say it a lot. My view is that it's the second best Gamecube and Wii game (behind Wind Waker and Skyward Sword on the respective systems), but relative to the series it's lower quality IMO.

Another thing from my perspective is that it had multiple instances of forcing a player forward in the story such as each tears of light quest and the quest right after the third dungeon. For instance in Skyward Sword (and pretty much every other game) if you're in the middle of doing something, you are free to leave to the sky at any time to go do a sidequest. In the tears of light quests, you have no choice- it's either get the tears or you can't do anything. Most Zelda games have at least one instance of this like the first cycle in Majora's Mask of being stuck in Clock Town, but Twilight Princess kept doing it over and over in the first third of the game. IMO that kind of thing isn't a Zelda-y way to design a game.

^That is completley true.

Also, the game designers forced the game to be a lot bigger than it should've been. There is no need for Hyrule Field to be as big as it was. Everything seems miles apart and it wasn't connected like they all seemed to be in OoT, which is a part that I really loved about that game. If you're going to make something that big, atleast fill it with some things to do while your riding around on Epona for what it seems like an eternity. The bugs were OK I guess, but it wasn't enough IMO.

 

[Fame Killz]

yeah the tears thing sucks but it adds more time to the game and the world is so big you get to live it as a wolf first to get familiar with areas, that's the plus of the tears stuff

 

[Patch]

:O I absolutely loved TP. All of it was insanely fun and I really don't see the relation between it and OoT. The storyline is completely different, and the world where Link resides in in TP is much more broad than the world in OoT.

 

[A Link In Time]

I've seen this argument several times and before I go on I simply must ask what makes a Zelda game different than any other videogame?

I agree with you, it's nonsense.

 

[Ronin]

I'm sorry, but in my eyes this statement is fallacious. Twilight Princess is a good game and a superb Zelda title. I can't decide between it or Majora's Mask (and now Skyward Sword, which I finished today). TP is just too epic for either title to overtake it. Midna is a huge contributory force to me liking nearly the most. Many people don't like her character, but she was meant to be bossy and conceited early on. But the further she with Link went into their journey, and the more she saw of the Light World's suffering, all that changed her. It's not her, but the level of the player's in/tolerance in this matter.

Getting back on track, Twilight Princess excelled in so many areas. Some moment of Skyward Sword seemed to stir up the same sentiments that I experienced during several quests in TP. Ilia's amnesia played was a very impacting element in the plot. I was astounded at how immaculately touching the reunion, and even sequences beforehand, were. Though Ganondorf's presence was only felt about halfway through the game, we still got to see he was the reason a pall of twilight descended over Hyrule to begin with. That justifies well enough his appearance, however sudden.

I could go on and on about this, but the issue is only to me as big as the amount I've let spill out above. Arguing it is quite trivial as I doubt it'd persuade anyone elsewise. Not that it was ever my aim.

 

[MW7]

I've seen this argument several times and before I go on I simply must ask what makes a Zelda game different than any other videogame?

I agree with you, it's nonsense.

It's just that my opinion of Zelda games is generally very high. I think it's fair for me to refer to the ones that I subjectively judge to be inferior to the rest to be the "bad Zelda games." I also love Mario games, and I'd say Super Mario Galaxy is a good one (meaning top 5 Mario games for me). However, I also feel that Twilight Princess is better than Super Mario Galaxy. My opinion can be summed up as Twilight Princess is better than Super Mario Galaxy (which is a very good game) but not as good as the majority of Zelda games. So the "bad Zelda game" is better than 99.99% of all games ever made from my perspective. Or a "bad Zelda game" is better than a "good Mario game."

It's just that if I think a certain game is one of the worst within its series, isn't it fair for me to label it one of the bad ones? From my perspective relatively speaking it would be one of the worst of the series despite the fact that it is simultaneously one of the best games of all time. Different competition or scales can change the label of something from opposite extremes.

An analogy would be that the Cincinnati Bengals (in the past) were perrenial losers and one of the worst teams of the NFL (if anyone takes offense to this, take into account that I'm a fan and I feel fine saying this). However, they were also almost inarguably one the 32 best football teams in the United States even at their worst. They would have absolutely annihilated 99.99% of all organized football teams in the US. Likewise for me TP lies near the bottom of the Zelda hierarchy, but TP is way better than 99.99% of other video games.

So I think it can't be nonsense unless you just mean you disagree with TP being one of the bad Zelda games. Then it would just be difference of opinion like with Thareous and many others. I would guess the majority of fans don't feel as I do on this topic.

 

[Fame Killz]

you fail by trying to compare...if you compare everything to "past zeldas" then you're never gonna get the most out of TP or w.e ur using to compare to OOT.

 

[MW7]

you fail by trying to compare...if you compare everything to "past zeldas" then you're never gonna get the most out of TP or w.e ur using to compare to OOT.

In your first post you said TP was in your top five, and you only could come to that conclusion by comparing it to past zeldas. So basically you're telling me I fail for having a different opinion than you, or at least that's what I am comprehending. Also TP is a past zelda now so I think it's fair to compare it now. In the case of TP, I prefer several Zeldas that are further in the past as well as a couple that are in the past but after TP.

 

[guapo2003]

It was a different kind of game. And yes it was a good game, but definitely not one of their best games.

 

[Fame Killz]

how could you NOT love this game?

 

[JuicieJ]

Eh, I can understand why some people say it, but I personally don't agree with it. It was pretty unoriginal as a Zelda game, but not too unoriginal to not be considered a great Zelda game imo. 9.5 as an overall game, 8.5 as a Zelda game.