Graphics, interesting plot, so on and so forth, are all nice. But what about originality? What about innovation?

While there were a few twists thrown in, most of Twilight Princess's plot and gameplay (excluding swordplay) was borrowed from another game.

The wolf thing was kinda cool, no doubt, but you can get that in Okami.

No it isn´t!

For one is Okami better and two at the end Twilight Princess seems very "rushed" you just go through the last 3 dungeons without anything in between!

Best zelda is my first Zelda und will always be Ocarina of Time !

I couldn't stand Ocarina. Missed Majoras Mask and liked Wind Waker. Even though i was far from a fan of the series i still picked up Twilight Princess and i'll go as far as saying its not only the greatest Zelda game of all time, its the greatest game of all time. Full stop. Its the only game thats ever emotionally moved me (and i cant see any other game building a bond as big as the bond i built with Midna). I'm still playing it to this day, 3 years on. Nothing on Wii, 360 or PS3 will ever come close to matching Twilight Princess.

TP was truly a masterpiece, ranking just as high as the other 3D Zelda titles. Saying it is better purely on a technical level is a bit naïve, though.

The problem is, TP kept the formula from the other games, which I'm thankful they did, but actually worsened it. To name just a few, the flow of the game was too often interupted by cutscenes, too little freedom at the beginning and too little story at the end, difficulty was off etc. These things were done much better in other Zelda games.

If I may ask though, why is everyone accusing TP of being stale? The parts that ruined it for me were the forced mini-games and twilight bug hunts, and the lack of NPC interaction and too few secrets found in the overworld. The parts that heavily borrowed from ALttP and OoT were imo the best, and reason it was worth playing for. It was the new stuff, the "innovative" parts that felt wrong, not the tried and true formula, which it decently executed.

Honestly, I thought it was a great game!
I'm a big fan of Wind Waker, so I liked that this game's battle system was similar.
My main gripe, though, came from the limited uses of inventory items. Some felt like they became obsolete after fulfilling all the story scenarios they were required in. Oh, and bosses were easy.
Twilight Princess was extremely fun and lasted a while, but I know that it was not my favorite Zelda game. High up there are Wind Waker, Majora's Mask, and Link's Awakening.

@Hylorian

Alright, perhaps "lack of innovation" should be replaced with "poorly executed innovation"

No matter how fun the tried and true formula is, you NEED to add more to make it worthwhile. Otherwise, I might as well just play aLttP.

Nintendo just needs to work on making these innovations more appealing.

And I full agree that NPC involvement needs to take a MAJOR step forward.

I am SO glad that someone posted this kind of article. I absolutely loved TP, and I never understood why everyone was so disappointed in it. It's a classic Zelda game, and like you said, had great graphics, great music, great story, and great characters you could relate to.

Believe me, I understand where some of the disappointed fans are coming from. We want something new, something original, but will we ever be satisfied? I think it's time we sucked it up and appreciated a good Zelda game for what it really is.

@Erimgard

I agree with you, since I still play more ALttP than TP whenever I feel like playing a LoZ.

But I'd like Nintendo to take a step back first and ensure the basics are there, before going on gimmick rampage and throwing in all kinds of WM+ enhencements.

Something I think they have forgotten, is a very important aspect of the previous games. I remember playing ALttP for the first time, and thinking I had almost beat the game. My jaw dropped open as I suddenly found myself in the Dark World, opening up the game's majority of gameplay innovations. I have had this same effect in OoT (seeing everything ruined, ReDeads walking around), MM (about every story point and sad moment, especially the Giants), TWW (seeing Hyrule underwater) and TMC (going above the clouds).

Especially TWW and TMC had potential to exploit these locations to open up even more secrets and gameplay possibilities. Just imagine TWW suddenly going landbased and able to explore Hyrule all over again. Sadly, such moments were lacking in TP. I kind of hoped the Twilight Realm would deliver this effect, or even City in the Sky, but both were just short dungeons, ultimately offering nother surprising or new.

Twilight Princess was a great game, but by no means the best.

The pacing not only felt scripted, but was also too slow. In Ocarina of Time, you could skip the tutorials and jump right into the action. In Twilight Princess, you had to do every little thing the game told you to in order to advance. Since the beginning had you learning how to ride your horse, how to sword fight, how to fight long range, how to climb vines, how to fish, how to use items, how to play as a wolf, and other things, I often found myself getting bored before I could even get started. Wind Waker had a similar problem, but not by much; you went to, at most, three places and then the game starts.

The story was definitely good, but I think all the little tidbits of the story got in the way. Let's face it: the entire story focused on just Link, Zelda, Midna, and the villains. Did anything really happen with Ilia or the village kids? What about the Zora prince? In retrospect, they were there just for the sake of being there. Though they felt important at first, they got shoved to the side in the end. I like how in Wind Waker, characters like Makar and Medli became incredibly important.

Lastly, the graphics are definitely something worth appreciating… but the presentation was off. I certainly got a jarring sensation when, at first glance, I found myself in a realistic, dark-looking universe, but then found Link riding giant warthogs like a bull rider, wrestling with Gorons, and getting shot out of canons at a theme park built into Hyrule Lake. It's just weird.

Then there are a few smaller things: dungeons were incredibly difficult to navigate and the HUD was very cluttered. On top of all that, the game tried to do so much that it fell into a trap of not doing anything perfectly: some weapons became obsolete after exiting dungeons and the combat was very simplistic for a game that had dozens of biped enemies.

Sorry about the semi wall of text, but I just felt that Twilight Princess could have been so much more. Not that it was bad, it just needed an extra small hint of polish.

Although I totally respect your opinion, I must strongly disagree with it.

First, I have trouble saying Twilight Princess has the best graphics in the series. I mean, The Wind Waker's graphics are practically perfect for what they are. Also, looking at games today, Twilight Princess's graphics are already showing signs of age... The Wind Waker's aren't.

I agree that Midna was a wonderful secondary character, but some people need to calm down. I'm sorry, but Midna is over rated. Yep. I said it. And I also said that she's still a wonderful character, however there are people who think she's the greatest video game character EVER. I don't even think she's the best Zelda character, although she's in the top 5. Also, as a side affect of her story, Link and (especially) Zelda seemed to have taken a back seat.

I also think Majora's Mask had a better storyline. Twilight Princess could have been much scaries, but in the Twilight, no one really knows what's happening, so like in Ocarina of Time, no one really cares about the danger. Also, how about the giant shield surrounding Hyrule Castle? No one seems to notice that. Takes away the affect for me. And, as mentioned before, Ganondorf felt tacked on, and Zant lost the intimidating effect he had... However, personally, I like the ending. As great as Midna was, I feel like her goodbye plays a part in the emotional tale. Bringing her back would take away from the ending for me.

As the music score, I think Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, and (maybe) Ocarina of Time all had better scores. Sure the Hyrule Field, Ending, and Lake Hylia songs in Twilight Princess are some of my favorite Zelda songs of all time. However the rest of the score is pretty much average for me. I DO think it would have the best music if the creators decided to use orchestrated music, which they didn't...

And the game play. It was practically the same as other Zelda's with motion controls. As for difficulty, I think Zelda II, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and (especially) Oracle of Ages were all harder.

And overall, I don't forgive the creators for only using what seems to be half of the games potential. There could be a magnificent kingdom, magic spells, orchestrated music, and other things, but they aren't there, probably mostly for stupid reasons. And the wolf parts were a major disappointment. I won't forget how cool the idea looked when wolf Link was first shown in trailers. But once I played the game, I found myself getting annoyed with the wolf parts halfway into them. Horribly done, in my opinion.

I could go on, but I'll stop here. Twilight Princess was a good game, for sure, but it could have been better. It also wasn't nearly my favorite in the series.

I just finished the game for the first time (late Wii buyer, I know) and I do agree it was very underrated by the "hardcore" fans. I don't think it was the best Zelda, but it was the best at certain aspects. Actually, one aspect, but one that I find incredibly important in the gaming experience: Immersion.

The slower pacing in the beginning, as well as the graphics) really pulled me into the world, and every new section of Hyrule that opened up was gorgeous - it made me really want to stop playing and enjoy the scenery. Some of the atmospheric moments (like starting the game doing mundane chores, chasing Queen Rutela, the hidden village western shotout) were completely absorbing and brilliant.
The game does stretch on, and the effect gets lost when the last couple of dungeons turn out to be the easiest, but by that point you've seen everything and are rushing to the end. As far as immersion goes, this was the best one.

I thought the music could have used some more variety (they reuse the main theme in almost half of the soundtrack), and I prefer less dungeons that are more challenging.

I didn't care much for Midna. I didn't hate her, and I'm not disagreeing with your argument about her at all. I think it felt too much like I was being told to care about her, while caring about the people from Ordon Village felt much more natural. Also, one major factor making the newer games too easy is all the hints your partner drops.

I (might be alone on this one) liked that Zant went from creepy to hilarious in a couple of seconds and Ganon turned out to be the real boss (kinda reminds me of Conker's Bad Fur Day)... but the Ganon fights did end up feeling a bit rushed and way too easy.

I know I'm repeating a lot of what's already been said, but the real point I wanted to make is that I didn't really think of any of these things as I was playing because it was so damn immersive. The boss fights (as easy as they were) were innovative and the most fun I've had fighting a boss (shout out to Stallord, yehyeh), the environment was lush and expansive (i wish the Wii allowed you to spin the camera), and I cared about the characters more than I have before (except Midna).

Not my favorite personally, but it does deserve much more credit than it gets.

I'm guessing that some of you aren't old enough to remember "A Link to the Past"? I thought Ocarina was great, but "A Link to the Past" is my favorite.

I think I'm part of the generation that doesn't care about graphics (or live and die by what metacritic might say), but decide based on my own experiences.

It is good that you argue why "Twilight Princess" is the best to you, but I think your reasons suck. Graphics and sales should never be a reason why a game is the best in a series.

the game had so many possibilities
there couldve been more sidequests, better items and not the spinner, less predictable dungeons, and no wolf link.
whenever i was wolf link i didnt feel like i was playing zelda
and also the game moved to fast. after you beat arbiters grounds the game just flies by. i feel there shouldve been more between each dungeon.
also it shouldnt have even tried to have zant seem like the real boss because we all know that you always end up fighting ganon at the end

Twilight Princess was exactly what fans asked for. I read countless of articles about how the next zelda needs to be like Ocarina of Time and blah blah blah. Don't get me wrong- I loved Twilight Princess. Pretty much the only two things I did not like about it was Kakariko village, or the lack of, and Ganon being tacked on at the end AGAIN. I liked Zant just fine. BUT other than that everything else about the game was amazing! I don't see why it is criticized so much. Nonetheless, I find that my favorite zelda games are the ones that many fans hated the sight or thought of until it's release.

i agree twilight princess is the best zelda game ever. however it isn't the nonstop full blown zelda i imagined when it was first presented at e3. the storyline is very strong until you complete the sand temple and ganondorf is introduced. ganondorf didn't ruin the experience, but he did felt very tacked on into the story as if nintendo just wanted to add more and more to make it better, but they did not went through it twice and just went like "it's cool" plus maybe they just also wanted to end the ganondorf arc and felt twilight princess should be the game to do that. let's face it, ganon's gone. i also thought the puzzles in twilight were the hardest but the bosses were the easiest. bosses were as easy as in windwaker.

Couldn't disagree more with this article. You've made the same mistake that most TP fans make and completely misunderstand the nature of why people don't like TP. I agree that in terms of graphics, dungeon design, etc. TP was a better game. If I was a machine, I would probably categorically place TP as a higher game. But in a Zelda game that's just a framework.They're the points on the proverbial map, but what really matters is what you fill that framework with.

The best moments in Zelda are the ones where you lose yourself in the game-world, and allow yourself to be taken to a place you can't access in the real world. This has little to do with overly logical comparative features like graphics. The Hyrule of Twilight Princess can be described in one word: artificial. The forgettable, hollow NPC's, the fiddly travel, the narrow canyons that mask screen barriers, the sheer obviousness of the secrets etc etc. Your left with no sense of immersion, no exhilaration (outside of the boss battles, which are IMO the only thing TP does truly better than any other Zelda), and no reason for caring. TP simply has no soul. Like it's been churned out of a machine, all formula and nothing to make it owrthwhile. It's Zelda as EA would make it.

I can't find a decent reply to express the disagreement and disgust I have toward this article.

Twilight Princess is easily the weakest game in the series, I find it incredibly boring and very non "Zelda."

Radox took the words right out of my mouth with his second paragraph. TP has no soul.

wow, you really don't like tp Radox, in my opinion is a great game, one of my favorites, is a great game, besides, you sounds like if alot of people would agree with you, that's you opinion, but whatever, the point is enjoy zelda and nothing more

why tp don't have soul ? because you got dissapointed with the game ? in my opinion is as good as any zelda game

I would like to state that I feel exactly the same as Radox. TP was missing something that other Zelda games had. It just seemed as though they made it because they had to, not because they wanted to.

Ha! Fools!

In all honesty I can't say I've been as touched by Midna as most others have. I will admit that she has a habbit of stealing the show, but her significance to the game seems all too familliar. I think of her story arc simply as a retelling of Navi's or the King of Red Lions'. All three characters have a tight bond with the player/Link throughout the story, and they all vanish by the end of their respective games.

In my opinion Navi is a bit irritating, and that may be due to her being Nintendo's first crack at giving Link a sidekick. I would definitely say that the big N ironed out the wrinkles by the time they released WW and TP.

The King of Red Lions and Midna are not really all that dissimilar. They both have their own secret identities, and the burden that comes with who they really are. Personally, I would have to say that the King of Red Lions stirred more emotion out of me than Midna.

In my experience I felt that I didn't want to trust Midna right off the bat the way I completely trusted the King of Red Lions. Throughout TP I constantly felt better about Midna, but was shocked when I found out that the king in WW has some skeletons in his closet. What really made me feel for the king was his redeeming sacrafice at the end of WW. I just wasn't as touched Midna's "I'm really a beautiful princess and now I can finally go home!!!" happy ending.

I'm glad I finally got that off my chest. I mean if you don't feel anything when Link tries to reach and save the King of Red Lions at the end of WW you probably shouldn't even be playing these types of games. Just my two cents.

Yes, it is the best Zelda ever made. All the Zelda basics are executed better than any other Zelda game, but the 3D revolution of Ocarina of Time made it impossible for TP to top it as the "greatest" Zelda.

So yeah, I agree.

The bigger problem about TP was the developers stating, once and again, that it would be the best Zelda. This caused people to look at the game with an overly critical attitude, so that anything less than perfection would mean the game was overrated.
That being said, I don't think I would say it's the best Zelda, yet. (Almost) Everytime I play a new Zelda, I get the feeling it is the best Zelda, but after I finish the game and give it some time, the satisfaction of playing something new subdues and I am capable of really measure the game... And I think that time has not yet passed with TP.
About graphics, I think it's a waste of time to compare games from different consoles just by how beautiful they look. Comparing TP and TWW is okay, as both are NGC games, but saying TP has better graphics than OoT is relative. It obviously has better polygon count, textures, lightning, etc... However, if this was NOT the case, than a lot of people at Nintendo should lose their jobs... The only way I feel we should compare graphics is by taking the effect it had in it's own generation... OoT didn't have the best (realistic) graphics of it's generation, but neither did TP (RE4 takes the crown)... And taking into account the general effect the graphics had, I'd say TWW has the best graphics.
About relationships with NPCs, the only Zelda that was incredible in this aspect was MM, and it needed a game-defining gameplay mechanic for it to work nicely (the whole 3-day cicle)... Maybe it could be simulated in other ways, but it would be difficult. All in all, I like TP's NPCs as much as anyone from the Zeldaverse.
Bottonline: I don't think TP deserves the title of best Zelda, but also don't think it sucks. Nintendo just wanted to deliver what many fans of the series wanted in TWW (a realistic Zelda, "just like OoT"), and that's what they did. I just wish they will not follow blindly the fanbase demand with Zelda Wii... It's nice to deliver what your fans want, but they should focus in innovation instead. After all they didn't create TWW giving what the fans wanted, but the game turned out great.

Good to see that are people out there that liked the game <3333. It is very annoying to see only whine fests.

And yes, I like and I have played OoT, MM and Tp.

TP had no soul? lmao. Hilarious.

Anyway, I love the game. It played like a dream.

Actually I don't hate TP in the slightest. As I said before if you look it from a purely categorical viewpoint it can be seen as the best in the game in the series. But, to me at least, Zeldas have always stepped beyond just being a game. I can have a lot of fun playing TP, but I could never lose myself within it. Looking at it with this criteria, TP is about as far from OoT as any Zelda game has ever been.

The opposite is true for WW wherein you really need to be able to immerse yourself in order to stand the sailings. It isn't really that simple, but I'd wager a guess that most people who liked TP disliked WW and vice-versa. I suppose it simply depends on what criteria you use. TP can be both the best and worst Zelda.

I loved both TWW and TP.^^
However, I can see your point... These two games are like polar opposites of what a Zelda game can be...

I loved both TWW and TP.^^
However, I can see your point... These two games are like polar opposites of what a Zelda game can be...

TP had its cool "OoT" moments such as when you first step through the "time door" and find yourself in the Sacred Grove hundreds of years before - as the Temple of Time, with the music in the background and so on. Same went for the remix of the Serenade of Water - GREAT use of OoT elements. But things like Zora's Domain being frozen just felt a bit too lazy and didn't really satiate my nostalgia.

That said - I loved TP's dungeon design, loved the fluidity of the gameplay, and it is a great complement/contrast with TWW. It just felt to me like less of a thought-out effort than TWW was - and this considering that TWW had obvious voids where the cut-out dungeons wound up being. But in terms of core "exploration," which is one of my favorite parts of [i]Zelda[/i], TP felt empty, like a lot of cutscenes just strung together with the occasional cool main quest event like the wagon escorting mission.

That and TP's climax was pretty disappointing, while TWW's was fresh and interesting. (Not that I didn't love the atmosphere of Hyrule Castle - I just thought it was one of the weakest dungeons in the game.)

I certainly don't think Twilight Princess is the best Zelda game. It felt too much like ALttP and OoT. The three of them have the same core storyline pretty much. Go through 3 dungeons, get the Master Sword, go through more dungeons, defeat Ganon. There's more to it than that but that's just a small portion of it.

I like this game and it is one of my favorite Zelda games to date but it just didn't satisfy me at sometimes. Lack of sidequests, lack of interaction with NPCs, faulty wolf gameplay, etc. Hyrule itself is nice and big but there's nothing to do in it because it's just all scenery. In most other Zelda games, you could find stuff anywhere. The best example would be Majora's Mask. Sure Termina Field was small but there was a lot to collect and find in just that one area. Even Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time had things to get.

One of the things I loved about the game were the Hidden Skills. I thought that they really helped improve the gameplay a lot. With OoT and MM, you could only use basic moves. With TWW, they advanced that with the parry attacks if you pressed A at the right moment. Depending on the enemy, you could do the Ending Blow, Back Slice, and Helm Splitter. It was cool to see these moves brought back in TP along with a few new ones as well.

For a Gamecube game, the graphics were pretty good though I still wish Miyamoto has the time to improve the graphics for the Wii version which was originally supposed to happen. I remember hearing that the game was supposed to be a lot harder than other Zelda games which is what I heard at sometime during 2005 but they gimped it due to the casual audience focus for the Wii.

The controls for the Wii version were not the best controls for a Wii game but I thought it was a step up. I personally liked the controls for the Hero's Bow and Clawshot. I felt Nintendo did that right compared to other items. It would be cool for the bottle if you could hold the B button to wave the controller to swipe the bottle.

Anyway, I'd go on but I won't. I think Twilight Princess is a good game. Not the best but it did a few things right which is good but next time, Nintendo really needs to think. If they want to make the next game look nice, they really need to focus a lot of the gameplay, making a top-notch storyline, a lot of sidequests like MM and TWW that will help, and a lot tougher so bosses are tougher to beat. Mainly, there should be puzzles as hard as the ones in Oracle of Ages.

Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess tie as the best Zelda IMO. The main criteria being immersion of the player inside the game.

TP isn't perfect, of course not but then again no Zelda game has ever been. It is a repetition of the past Zelda format and IMO did it better than any that came before. The only things TP lacked that other Zeldas possessed was NPC interaction and side-stories (WW and MM) and other games were a bit more difficult (OoT and MM, but only a little) however the (I forget the name) Great Fairy hole dungeon in the Desert was the hardest anything there has ever been in a 3D Zelda (even harder than the one in WW)

*(ALTTP, LA, LOZ and AOL were all more difficult than any of the games that followed but people usually compare TP to the other 3D games and to bring the old games into the argument would require a revaluation of OoT (the standard everyone uses))

It is the Zelda that possesses the best combat so far, with the hidden skills, jousts and horseback combat. Argorok, Zant and Stallord were amazing boss battles and the others (while rather simple) looked epic. Zelda gameplay is primarily made up of two components: combat and puzzles. Though other games had better puzzles none of them come close to TP in combat.

The overworld would have seemed to have more depth if the locations of the Heart Pieces weren't revealed by that stupid Fanadi.

About the "three dungeons to get the master sword" thing, every game that featured the MS (OoX excluded) followed this idea... TWW had the potential to escape it (by having a dungeon before the third pearl), but lost it's chance. Even PH followed this "mechanic", and it didn't even feature the MS...

"The Hyrule of Twilight Princess can be described in one word: artificial."

Radox, you know that's not true. The Hyrule Field in Twilight Princess feels real. It has variety. Ocarina of Time's Hyrule feels fake. It's a field in the shape of a circle, practically barren, and surrounded by those walls.

I've said this several times in the past, and I can easily say it several times more. In all honesty, the only strong point about Twilight Princess is the music, a matter that has consistently been fantastic with all Zelda games. Less strong but still decent points are the Spinner (which was drastically underused), the Dominion Rod (also underused), and the design of the second dungeon. The Ganon fights were also fine. These are all small aspects. Note, one dungeon, one boss fight, two items. Small fractions in comparison to the number of dungeons, bosses and items there are in the game.

However I didn't care for the characters, the muddy brown graphics, the same old dungeon order, or the plot. All of which are aspects beaten in other Zelda games. The characters and plot are much more detailed in Majora's Mask. In that game, you felt close to the characters, and you actually cared what happened to them. In Twilight Princess, Zelda killed herself, you have to kill Ilia, and Zant, the kinda-kickass villain, gets killed by Ganondorf, who is overused. He (or his alter ego or whatever) was already the plot twist in Four Swords Adventures, so why this one too?

The graphics are significantly better in Wind Waker, and although that is in a completely different art style, that game actually had some colours other than black, brown and dark green. Much like Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask before them. In fact, the only three games that didn't have colour were for the systems that couldn't output in it. two of which no one's played, and the other was upgraded to colour. I'll admit I'm exaggerating, and that the graphics are indeed very well done for the Gamecube, I didn't see much of a break from the three colours mentioned other than looking at the sky, and I don't have time to look at the sky in a Zelda game.

Another point I mentioned was the dungeon order. It has been used again and again since A Link to the Past, and will probably continue to be used again and again until someone takes over Eiji Aonuma's role. And he said he won't quit until he makes a game that surpasses Ocarina of Time in quality. Quality is defined by popular opinion. In popular opinion, no Zelda shall be better than Ocarina of Time, much like no Final Fantasy shall be better than VII.

And of course, my biggest dislike towards this game are the sidequests. To expand your wallet, you need to collect barely visible bugs. This could be compared to collecting gold Skulltula tokens in Ocarina of Time. Much more fun, because you could actually see what you were looking for. the other major sidequest was poe hunting. Poe hunting to free some greedy old man from a prison of gold. What do you even get for doing so? More money? Why do you need more money? There's plenty in the dungeons, because of the empty chests you leave if you don't do the earlier sidequest, making the map harder to read because you have to ignore chests, but you want to get chests to get small keys, so you go to the same chests again and again forgetting what's inside them, making dungeons like the Arbiter's Grounds and Water Palace take far longer than they should.

Ina very brief conclusion, Twilight Princess is at best the worst of the 3D games, if not the worst of the series.

When comparing Twilight Princess to Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess wins in EVERY WAY...except one.

The only 1up that Ocarina of Time has over Twilight Princess was that it was New. Yeah, Ocarina of Time gameplay and style was very revolutional.
Twilight Princess, however, was not. It had new stuff, but nothing groundbreaking.

That's it. People who don't like Twilight Princess are just disappointed that nothing was new...and they are usually graphic whores too.

Twilight Princess was longer, more engrossing, sounded better, and had "more realism."

Twilight Princess is definately better, my friend.

"The Wine Waker "???

I hope you were making a funny joke..

i liked majora's mask the best, strictly because of gameplay, SOOO many items, and 4 awesome transformations :D. and when u finish it, u dont get bored, as u can REFIGHT the bosses(and almost any other enemy), as a lot of Zelda games like TP misses, which really SUCK as u cant fight fun bosses like Stallord.
so to me the gameplay of TP cant match MM's gameplay, but the story i guess can...anyway the nxt games the producers should focus on not just story but gameplay. as in TP, the wolf had only a couple of attacks, and at the end of the game, u could hardly utilize any of Link's hidden skills. and another thing, TP had to have more items. it only had two swords, which sucked! even thought wind waker only had one. but even OOT had another sword(biggoron's sword). and the same goes for a third shield. majora's mask does the best with swords(that were extremely creative) like the default swords kokiri with the edition of making it a temporary razor sword or a permanent gilded wildded. AND the great fairy's sword which was incredible and the Fierce Deity's Sword, which was AWESOME with those lightning bolts and that dominant felling u get when u destroy bosses with such ease.
well what im trying to say is like TP should've had more items like Majora's Mask and more cool and fast ways to travel like goron rolling and zora swim. so yeah if u combine majora's mask's items with TP's story u would get a very nice game.

I'm going to forego reading the other comments and get right down to it. Oh, and as a note, I've only played Ocarina and Twilight for these.

So given that my criteria will be modeled strictly between the two, I won't bother with trying to model one as the best Zelda game of all time but rather as an opinion constructed by why I felt one was better than the other.

I'll begin by addressing something the review already states: TP is a GC port. For all intents and purposes, that makes it quite an excellent GC game and still an excellent Wii game. On that note, I won't go in-depth in terms of graphics.

Now then, the first real thing I have to say is on the difficulty. I still think Ocarina of Time is more difficult than Twilight Princess in almost every way, and that's where a lot of my fun comes from. Don't get me wrong - there were fair challenges in TP. However, nothing ever really felt all that challenging. I can't make a direct comparison, but I honestly felt that dungeons were easier to navigate in TP and even the World felt especially easy to travel in, with or without the ability to warp. I think the Sun Temple was the only really difficult dungeon, though it was more irksome than genuinely immersive.

The stories for the two are quite different. It's weird because they never give Link any lines because he's supposed to be you. Nevertheless, the back stories for his character in each give you a way to identify with him in very different ways. In OoT, he's an outcast freak, and in TP, he's a well-loved boy. Using this as a springboard for identifying with the main character, I enjoyed OoT for sympathizing with him as an outcast, and I enjoyed TP for the interesting interpersonal relationships he weaves. As for the rest of the plot, I'd say overall TP crafts a better tale that goes into the intricacies of more characters and stories in depth whereas OoT was comparatively formulaic.

I agree that Midna is a far more interesting character than Navi. Her mischief and somewhat ambiguous character really made her captivating. Navi has nothing on that.

Despite the above points, it is the gameplay that really wins me over for OoT. As some have mentioned, there was nothing really revolutionary about TP. It was modeled after the OoT battle system, and frankly, even the way you held and used the controls were pretty much the exact same as on the N64. It's a great and fluid battle system, but besides having motion controls and the ability to sideswipe and roll sideways, it didn't add much to fighting. I don't know that you could dock points for it, but really, it was a bit less than expected. Do remember that for myself, having missed the GC generation, I really expected greater improvement from the last Zelda game I played several years prior.

Then, we can look at the items. Seriously, what good is that wand that moves statues for? A very select few areas and statues. I feel like except to grab heart pieces, it was pretty much useless outside of the one temple. Then that ball-and-chain and that spinning top, while interesting, also feel very limited. I'm not saying a weapon shouldn't have certain limits, but c'mon, really? Both of them lack generic mobility, except if you happen to have tracks in very select areas for the top. They have some use outside of their respective collected areas, but overall, have little bearing on the rest of the world. I guess you can save a few hits and bombs using the ball and chain. Also, the boomerang, if anything, stuns stuff or makes them not icy/fiery for a second. I just feel it would have been nice if some items had more usefulness outside of where you got them and more than just for certain puzzles.

Then with the sword and shield, I kind of which there was more variety there. I prefer having more upgradeable versions of your basic weapons as OoT did. If I remember correctly, OoT had the Kokiri shield, Hyrule shield, and the Reflective shield and then for swords, it had the Kokiri sword, the Master sword, the Giant's Knife, and the Biggoron sword. That's a lot of variety compared to TP which has only two permanently accessible versions of each item. I'll concede that the Hidden Skills add back some functionality to the sword, but I would rather have had multiple swords that maybe could not perform all Hidden Skills than one that could do all.

Also, we should pay respects to the musical elements as gameplay and magic, though for unique, new music and its use to elevate danger and other things were very good elements in TP (in other words, I differentiate the use of music as gameplay such as using an ocarina as opposed to the use of music in the background and for overall mood). These are classics in other Zelda games as well and were severely lacking in TP. I'm not saying that every Zelda game needs these as certainly it's great to vary it up, but they were sorely missed. I try not to feel one way or another about the exclusion of these, but I'm probably thinking about it underneath in my evaluation.

On top of this, the sheer complexity of Time Travel versus Wolf mode were just not a comparison. If we're thinking about it, each is supposed to add a new component to an existing environment. The differences between the past and the future and the differences in what you see in the normal world as opposed to the spirit world and whatever other wolf senses you have. In each of these, you are imposing limits and adding different capabilities. However, I found that the wolf version of things were just too limiting and added too little overall. The novelty ended well before the first half of the game was over and really gave me no reason to become a wolf very often except in very specific situations such as with Poes. With time travel, I felt like I moved into two extremely different but similar worlds (which they were) on a regular basis, felt the limits imposed in stature, strength, and item availability, I saw terrain that was new and old at the same time, and just altogether felt like I was genuinely experiencing two full and complete worlds each time I went through time. If they had fleshed out the world and the encounters you could have as a wolf that felt integrated through more of the game, I would probably have loved it as much as OoT, and maybe more.

So there you have it. In my opinion, I like OoT more for its difficulty and seemingly expansive environment, though that is primarily achieved through time travel to the same place at a different time. TP, in contrast, was somewhat more straightforward and while it provided unique and large areas to explore, it was an experience that was had in phases rather than warranting any returns to each area.

Honorable mentions include mini-games that were more fun in TP than OoT, collection quests that were more difficult and rewarding in OoT than in TP, and the unique Trials in TP which was an extremely fun and difficult part of the game. I didn't feel the need to directly compare these as they don't make or break the game for me.

You do make some good points, but I disagree on a lot of them.

"Now that I have that out of the way, lets talk about secondary characters. In this, I am referring to Navi, Tatl, Ezlo, A Talking Rock, King of Red Lions, and Midna. Of all of those characters, which one did you create the most connection with? If you answered anyone other then Midna, you naturally did not play the game to completion. "

Actually I'd say the KoRL. The KoRL IS Daphnes, and I think the story of Daphnes and Hyrule is just great.

"What makes it better? It did what all those game did in terms of story, but did it better. " I don't think you've played MM.

"For the first time ever, a "good" guy was on the brink of death... and you actually cared." This happened several times in MM. I agree, the Midna story was great. But nothing else about the TP story was very good or original. The emotional connection that you feel with Termina far surpasses what you get with Midna, imo.

"Now lets cover the musical score, as well as the game play. Frankly, while the score in Twilight Princess does rank at the top, I have to say that The Wind Waker's track was simply better." While I'd say that TWW has the best overall track, the Song of Healing and Stone Tower Temple theme, imo, are the best songs in the entire series. But I agree, TP had some good music (better than OoT).

"The game was "too easy", though that point is debatable as the game is actually harder then pretty much every Zelda game before it." Whoa, you can't just state that without giving an opinion. I didn't find anything about TP to really be difficult. The bosses were ridiculously easy (as they are in most of the series (although AoL is freaken hard)), but the puzzles were really easy too, and none were super original. Atleast none that I can think of.

MM, however, had probably the most difficult puzzles in the entire series. I mean look at the Stone Tower Temple. Run through the whole thing then... it flips!?

I can't imagine anything in TP being the hardest in the series.

TP is the best zelda and best videogame eva just till before Lakebed temple.
I have TP in my top 3 zelda games.

Honestly, I have to say kudos to you, and I really agree. While Twilight Princess is not my favorite Zelda title, it really does have a bad rap nowadays, and for exactly the stated reason, no one truly got what they wanted. Or at least, in my opinion.

Well, it certainly is nice to see someone not talking about TP like it's the abomination of Zelda yet somehow keep saying "it's a good game" at the same time.

I'm not that inclined to put TP as the best Zelda. Afterall, it's pretty hard to do so objectively. Looking at it as objectively as you CAN, however, may provide some different results.

In personal opinion, I still hold Ocarina of Time higher than any other Zelda title to date, and TP comes as my second favorite Zelda. I believe that the entirety of Ocarina provided an experience that was more epic than TP, a villain that really inspired justice and adventure, and a world that drew you in immediately.

When they wanted to make TP they wanted the best Zelda game, so they wanted all the best aspects of all the others working great in one And frankly, it does. it has a lot of exploring throughout the overworld like WW (maybe not as much but there are a lot of areas and such) it has a dark story and rich characters, and a crazy-ass villian from MM, and it has an epic storyline from OOT. and it builds upon those. the base system is the same as the one so-adamantly praised from OOT but all gameplay is improved. I don't see why everyone bitches about this game. They tried to meet everyone in the middle, take the best aspects and make them work seemlessly in an original story. People just don't know what they want. People praise OOT story but when they get one like it with added depth and stuff, its "un-original. (i know im rambling but last time) meeting everything in the middle was a great move, its nostalgic, yet fresh. please stop bitching. You guys GOT what you asked for.

its like bieng a reverse G-Whinner from Transformers. While anything that isn't like G-1 is automatically hated, Zelda its the opposite. Anything that has remote resemblense to OOT (story, gameplay, graphics, you name it) is automatically chastised. So when the creators take the best gameplay, and story design points (in this case dark story and deep characters.) everyone just calls it un-original. You liked it then, you wanted more, So whats the fucking problem?! D:<

If I say i didnt enjoy TP id be lying. But, it is far from being the best Zelda ever *not that I´ve played all of them*.

I think its main problem was that it was released for the Wii. I love the Wii. I love its new command and all the new aspects of it, like controls, gameplay, etc. What i hate is that it takes out a lot of liberties in order to produce a game. This is mainly MORTAL for NINTENDO, that tends to care more for gameplay than history *as they only develop the history to fullfill the gameplay in most cases, and became their weakness in the last console-gen.*. This has proven to be true with Zelda, Pokemon, etc, that have had little, if not any evolution in its games.

This isnt only Nintendo´s fault, as most of the fans also have a lot of guilt in the final result of TP. When they first saw the trailer, thought it would be something that resembles and surpasses OoT (nintendo´s ego might be counted here too) and started idealizing the game. Then, TWW was released, and most fans really disliked it, wanting the realistic and ault Link, and started to put pressure over Nintendo, in making the game more adult-like, this being impossible as it was going to be released for the Wii.

As for the music, it´s ok, I love the Hyrule Field theme *the night one creeps me out until now* thought it would have been best to make it orchestal. No complaints about the graphics *if there are few colours is to make it more realistic, Middle Age wasnt that clowny either...*. The gameplay and sword combat is good too... BUT... it was really easy, the bosses just were easier than some wild monsters, and the wolf thing is just for aesthetics rather than for playing. The Hylians are just a group of mindless walking manikis and the NPCs needed more development.

Now, I loved TWW, and I think it is the best Zelda ever *that i´ve played*, but of course, its not perfect. Neither is Tp or OoT. But TP lacks the "soul" (as some said above) that is present in the Zelda games.

I hope Aonuma really analyzes and studies what they are working for, and stop granting the fanbase´s foolish wishes and make what they are good at: EPIC ZELDA GAMES!!

TP had a soul, you just couldn't find it much outside of its main quest compared to other Zelda games. OoT had VERY bland, unimportant characters as well. Sure - You could talk to them, but for what? For wasting time, and looking at their ugly faces, and sometimes for sidequests, but I agree with you in the sidequest department anyway. The lack of item usage came alot from a lack of sidequests, too.

TP lacked sidequests, and thats about it for the taking away from the Zelda department. I'm sick of the souless talk, TP had more of one compared to OoT, but for its time and the games limited to back then, I guess it felt like it had more of a soul than TP does for its time. The music in TP was a disappointment, but not a complete letdown either. It simply needed something it was missing.

Everything else comes down to opinion. Bad story? Opinion. Bad Wolf usage? Opinion, although they could have done more. Doesn't feel like Zelda? Maybe thats a good thing. Tacked on Wii controls? Depends on how you look at it, especially considering Zelda games have always lacked a fluid combat system, and TP IMO did a better job of it compared to most Zelda games. I agree he missed some points that people who dislike this game make, but alot of people who dislike this game do say alot of unfair or opinionated crap as well, and alot of that was induced from the disappointment due to the games overhype.

TP was not the best Zelda at all... I liked everything about it except for one huge problem: I felt like I was in a dead world. I basically felt like I was in a post-apocalypto setting... This is because none of the towns came a live like they did in WW or OoT. You never really got to interact with towns in TP. Sure, you good do minigames and stuff, but you could never become a part of the town like you did in Windfall island by fixing it up.

I just want to start off saying that I respect everyone's opinion here, you guys are all entitled to that.

I'm not going to comment on the article, because its subjective, its technically correct for the writer.

For me, relative to the rest of the series, Twilight Princess was solid. I really think that word describes the entire game: solid. It wasn't a terrible Zelda experience that tainted the series, but it wasn't a jaw dropping experience that one could get lost in for hours. Difficulty was somewhat easy I think, a trend I've been observing (I played the Zelda games COMPLETELY out of order, too, so its not just that I'm getting used to it. MM and OoT were definitely harder than WW, and ALttP was much harder than the 3D games). Graphics were well done, but they are showing their age already. Story was well done, but while TP had maybe one or two characters that had real "life" to them, that pales in comparison to MM, where each character had a soul and a story. The presentation was done well, but on the same level as other Zelda games, not any better. While I can completely understand why people don't like this game, I don't think it excels any of the previous games in any aspects. As a whole, it might be better. MM remains as my favorite, however. TP was good and all, but it was made purely to satisfy fans, not to create a unique and incredible game, which is what franchises are started with. I kinda saw it as a commercial venture more than an attempt to make a beautiful game. I just hope that that their next game isn't commercialized. I hope that it has a soul.

Ok, I am old generation. Have played about all titles... yes including those horrible Sega Zelda titles (OH! you didn't know about them?) that luckily everyone just pretends never existed. I don't blame Nintendo, they just should never sell the Zelda title to any other company and have no hands in its development.

OK, so I just finished Minish Cap. Man it was super fun. And Capcom helped developing it. They did great. And it felt as a real Zelda. I think what we all fans love zelda for is for those super long side quests... and all those wholes and walls you can find and explode. Secret rooms (as that in Link to the past where you had to run through diferent sections of the world to fall in a regular hole but if you ran in a correct sequence the hole turned into a new secret room with the name of a Nintendo fan printed in the wall!) yes it might be a stupid secret room, but I learned this 10 years after finishing LttP and I went running to play it again, and I was inmersed to finish it completely.

I think we fans miss that. Be stuck in a room trying ti solve a puzzle for long minutes and the true satisfaction of achieving it. Having to try all items in every situation to see which one is the one that works. Finding all the Kinstones, and fusions, all the masks, and finish the Bomberbook or watever it was called, getting hard to find pieces of hearts. Secret items not needed in the game as Light Arrows for the Minish Cap, etc etc. MAN THAT IS WHAT WE MISS AND NEED.

For me, best zelda games in terms of reuse and tons of puzzels and side quests. 1 TWW, 2 aLttP, 3 MM, 4 LA, 5 tMC, 6 OoA and OoS, and yes finally 7 TP, i didn't loved OoT that much...