The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

aka: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker 2, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, Zelda TP, Zelda no Densetsu: Twilight Princess
Moby ID: 25103
Wii Specs
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Description official descriptions

Twilight Princess is the first Legend of Zelda game for the Wii and also the last for GameCube. At first, Link is a simple farm boy, whose tasks consist of herding goats to watching children in Ordon village, Link's hometown. One day, Link is asked by the mayor to run an errand in Castle Town, but things suddenly go wrong…

The land becomes dark, and strange creatures appear from another world called the Twilight Realm, which turns most into ghosts. Link, however, becomes a wolf. After becoming a wolf, Link is aided by Midna, a resident of the Twilight Realm. Midna helps Link find a way to turn human again along with other tasks.

The wolf cannot use a sword or other items. Instead, as a wolf Link must use his senses to solve puzzles and get past obstacles. The beast can also dig holes to find hearts and rupees and to get in places. It can push blocks with its head to climb higher or reveal hidden passageways. Additionally, it can attack enemies by biting or pouncing on them.

As a human, Link can move around quickly, aim his bow, swing his sword, and even fish. Link also collects many different items, which allow him to perform varied attacks and reach places he couldn't before. Link performs many attacks with his sword and can even learn other sword moves.

The game's art is similar to the naturalistic style of Ocarina of Time, rather than the cel-shaded look of The Wind Waker. Chronologically, the game takes place between the two aforementioned titles, and quite a few locations from Ocarina of Time can be visited. The main adventure takes place in several provinces with dungeons and temples. With the help of Midna, you can easily travel around quickly later in the game.

The Wii U remaster of the game includes:

  • Enhanced graphics
  • Wii U GamePad support (allowing for a mini-map to be displayed on the touchscreen, or items to be changed using the touchscreen)
  • Miiverse support
  • Some areas of gameplay have had minor adjustments
  • A new difficulty mode
  • A new dungeon, the Cave of Shadows, which is accessed using the Wolf Link amiibo
  • Additional amiibo support for health refills or arrow refills

Spellings

  • ゼルダの伝説 トワイライトプリンセス HD - Japanese Wii U spelling
  • ゼルダの伝説 トワイライトプリンセス - Japanese spelling
  • 젤다의 전설 황혼의 공주 - Korean spelling

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Credits (Wii version)

227 People (188 developers, 39 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 94% (based on 173 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 226 ratings with 15 reviews)

One of these rooms is going to break you.

The Good
Nice graphics. Interconnected world for exploration (Metroid and Braid fans will find this particularly satisfying). Horseback fighting. Very long single player campaign. It took me 20 hours to get to "Chapter 6" (Zelda Dungeon.net has a guide that's divided into 22 chapters). Good production values -- everything flows well and smoothly.

The Wii Remote + Nunchuck controls are especially praise-worthy. The controls work, with at least a dozen moves that feel quite natural. Or it would have worked, if the level design had been more forgiving. But the Japanese who designed the levels (dungeons) had issues, and they decided to take it out on the players -- See the next section.

The Bad
Zelda games have ALWAYS been hard. In the past it was the boss fights that were hard. Now it's the camera angles.

Exploration has always been futile in Zelda games too. It has never been reasonable or sane to beat a Zelda game without reading guides. Twilight Princess required me to read a guide, or even two guides, basically everytime I entered a new room. There are tiny, tiny items or switches that you are unlikely to see at all, but have to interact with, in order to proceed. So, even with a guide, you don't complete your quests easily.

Almost every room in Twilight Princess is a test of your endurance. One of these rooms is going to break you, and you'll just give up. I made it to Chapter 6 (the Goron Mines). It's a dungeon with lava everywhere. It's so easy to die in this dungeon. After I finally got to the third room, I saved my game and turned the Wii console off. The next time I loaded my game, I was back at the entrance!? That's it. I quit.

The Bottom Line
Just know what it isn't. It isn't a game you can play through casually. It isn't a game you can play through with some dedication. If you decide to play Twilight Princess, you have to be really devoted. It's hard work. There is only one difficulty. You have no choice. Honestly, I found most of my textbooks (college and graduate level, mind you) to be much easier and friendlier, after I played Twilight Princess.

It is also not like the old top-down Zeldas. In A Link to the Past for example, you could see the whole map very early in the game, and you could go very far and you could go in any direction. Twilight Princess is a lot more linear. You're limited to go to only a few places, or only one place, at a given time.

Wii · by Pagen HD (146) · 2013

Very epic, dark atmosphere and over all a good experience.

The Good
The games has some amazing soundtrack, quite good graphics, amazing storyline and really good characters. It keeps the interest of the player.

The Bad
The difficulty variates too much. And it's not always clear where you're supposed to be.

The Bottom Line
An amazing puzzle fantasy adventure action roleplaying game. With very dark atmosphere, very epic soundtrack.

Wii · by Johanna London (3) · 2014

One of the best games in the series.

The Good
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is one of the best games in the Zelda series. First of all, it can appeal to people who have been fans since the beginning, as well as newcomers. I also disagree with GameSpot about the Wii version's controls. While they are at times slow or unresponsive, I don't believe that they were "tacked on", as their reviewer put it. One thing I found funny was the shapes of some of the heads of animals. The monkeys look like someone shoved bananas through their ears and there is a bird with an Afro selling oil. Of course, Ganondorf/Ganon (one of the greatest villains in video game history) makes an appearance.

The Bad
Although I enjoyed this game overall, there are a few things I feel I must talk about. First of all, the controls were sometimes late or unresponsive, which led to much frustration (especially when trying to pick up bombs). Another thing I didn't really care for was the Midna character. More often than not, gameplay will be interrupted by a (mostly unhelpful) statement from her. Although she is sometimes helpful, she mostly appears to point out the obvious. One of my main complaints, though, is playing as wolf Link. This feels very crippling and, if you dislike Midna, you're going to be in for a long few levels because she feels it's necessary to ride you.

The Bottom Line
Overall, Twilight Princess is a very good game. It has it's flaws, but every good game is bound to have a few.

Wii · by J.D. Majors (14) · 2009

[ View all 15 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Android version? Deleted (13945) May 18, 2019
Genre Correction Mark Picard (1) Jul 9, 2013
Mirrored? beetle120 (2415) Nov 25, 2007

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Delay

The game was originally announced for release for the GameCube in November 2005. This was delayed to November 2006 so that the developers could add more content to the game and release it on the Wii as well as the GameCube.

Development

  • During development, Midna's hair was red and green, while in the final version it's red but ends in blonde-yellow.
  • Although Sheik, Zelda's ninja-like alter-ego from Ocarina of Time, does not appear in Twilight Princess, an updated design of the character was drafted up in its development. He is however available as a playable character in the Wii game Super Smash Bros.: Brawl.

Characters

Throughout the game you'll encounter the strange Shadow Beasts (the dark blue/black coloured humanoids with the bizarrely shaped disc-heads and tentacle hair). However, in two cut-scenes, you can see two big Shadow Beasts with differently designed disc-heads flanking Zant like bodyguards.They don't appear in-game as enemies.

Glitch

There is a bug in a room with a big cannon Link can use to warp. If you save in that room, an invisible character won't let you leave, but he can't be spoken too. Link can't transform into a wolf either. Customers could return the disc to Nintendo to have it replaced. A video of the glitch is available in the related links section.

Inside Zelda

Nintendo of America's official magazine, Nintendo Power, published a monthly series of articles called Inside Zelda, which revealed how the game was developed. The series can be read in its entirety here.

Inspiration

  • The Oocca race appears to be inspired by M.C. Escher's painting Another World.
  • The masks worn by the Ancient Sages resemble those worn by chorus members in Ancient Greek dramas.

Midna

The character Midna, who speaks gibberish, is actually speaking English that has been scrambled beyond comprehension. Some of her unscrambled voice lines are related to the game's story whilst others are related to key gameplay elements (such as "I'll take you there with my power", which is used when warping to other areas. This is especially interesting as Midna's voice actress, Akiko Kōmoto is Japanese.

References

  • if you look around the fishing hut, the owner, you'll see an old black and white photograph of the Fishing Guy from the Lake Hylia fishing pond from Ocarina of Time. The hut's owner and operator Hena refers to him as the "legendary fisherman" and comments that she may be a descendant of his.
  • In Hyrule Castle Town you meet a character named Thelma, who owns a bar in the city and is a fairly important NPC to the storyline. She also owns a cat named Louise, who helps you as well. The two characters are a reference to the movie Thelma & Louise.
  • The characters Malo and Talo, children living in Link's hometown Ordon Village, are named references to Malon and Talon from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, who are references to Marin and Tarin from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
  • The symbols that represent each Sage are the Six Medallions from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Version differences

Unlike every other Legend of Zelda game, Link is right handed in Twilight Princess. This is so most people (right handers make up 85% of the population) can make use of the Wii controls in the same hand as Link. Sword in the right, shield in the left. The GameCube version has Link using his left hand as usual. To make the game work for the right handed Link of the Wii, the Wii and GameCube versions of this game have the world map and everything in it mirrored So everything stays the same relative to him.

Awards

  • GamePro (Germany)
    • February 01, 2007 - Best Console Game in 2006 (Wii version) (Readers' Vote)
    • February 01, 2007 - Best Console Action-Adventure in 2006 (Wii version) (Readers' Vote)
  • GameSpy
    • 2006 – Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Console Game of the Year
    • 2006 – GameCube Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Wii Game of the Year
    • 2006 – GameCube Game of the Year (Gamers' Vote)
    • 2006 – Wii Game of the Year (Gamers' Vote)
    • 2006 – Wii Adventure Game of the Year
    • 2006 – Wii RPG of the Year

Information also contributed by Keeper Garrett, Mark Ennis, Sciere and Thomas Dowding

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Keeper Garrett.

Wii U added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Android added by firefang9212. GameCube added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Sciere, Freeman, gamewarrior, samsam12, —-, Patrick Bregger, Grandy02, Rik Hideto, Kam1Kaz3NL77, FatherJack, Deleted.

Game added November 20, 2006. Last modified February 11, 2024.