Miyamoto has done it again. Literally. Welcome to Ocarina of Time 2.5
Where does one begin with a reveiw of one of the most eagerly anticipated titles of the past decade, nay, of all time. What started out as the great flagship series for Nintendo and became the swan song for the gamecube quickly became the runaway launch title for the Wii. But that didn't deter me from starting my journey with the "lesser version" released almost a month after the Wii version. Besides, I've had this version on reserve for about 2 years now!
When it comes down to it, Zelda: Twilight Princess is everything I had hoped and more. But at the same time. . .something feels. . .odd. A strange sense of deja vu. . . as if. . .somehow, I've played this before? This game took everything you knew and loved about Ocarina, Majoras Mask, and Wind Waker and thew them in a blender and hit frapee. And when it was done, spit shined and polished the bejesus out of it. This game took the foundation that Ocarina laid, threw in the shapeshifting of Majoras Mask, fixed up the interesting combat system of Wind Waker (read: Link strikes foes like he means it now), and as well as borrowed the unique personalities of Wind Waker inhabitants. The end result is still fun to play, but dreadfully familiar. Where is the innovation that made Ocarina one of, if not THE greatest games of all time?
Graphically, ZTP stands up with some of the best gamecube has to offer (which is basically Resident Evil 4 and maybe a few other games that fail to come to mind). What stood out to me the most about the graphics of this game wasn't the fact that Links a big boy again but the Miyazaki-esque aesthetics of the world. Be it the style of Hyrules denizens clothing, the look of the architecture, or the unique look that many of the games animals have. Alot of style and look of this game just screams Princess Mononoke to me and I love it. But, perhaps that's just me and either way it's all absolutely stunning and beautiful. All the character models are clean, easy on the eye and move with well animated articulation.
Sound as well is absolutely great. There is plenty of small ambient environmental sounds that I picked up on when I payed attention and they all sounded great. Granted, I'm far from complete with this quest, but with the time I have spent, the music is always atmosphere appropriate and sounds great. Minus the fact that it all sounds synthesized on a keyboard. Where is the full orchestral opera? Couldn't they fit that into the budget? Oh well. But wait- no one is talking. Even the Wii version (although the wiimote speaker with it's clever little speaker sounds is neat!!) dosn't have any voice work, save for Link's occasional grunts and gasps and the occasional NPC's vocalizations in the way of typical anime grunts, growns, oohs, ahhs, and "unh"s. Perhaps it's a good thing that Link is still the silent protagonist. Because in this day in age, bad voice acting can ruin even the best game. But couldn't they have gotten at least some voice work? Why do I still have to sit through hours of written dialouge? Why can't I hear my instructions for the next leg of my quest while I sit the controller down and go get a soda? Hmm, must not have been in the budget either.
Gameplay wise, nothing new hear. Link as well as Epona handles as well as they have in past games and the system still holds up well. Link does seem to battle with a little more passion and strikes with great fury upon his opponents, even against scarecrows and chickens.
The story is where this game really stands out to me. As most Zelda games always retold the story of Gannons return from realm of banished bad guys only to release evil upon the land and kidnap Zelda in hopes of obtaining the Tri-force and ultimate power. This time around though, it seems they borrowed a page from the recent gameboy stories. Seems a new evil has been unleashed. A darkness spawned of a new enemy. But surely Gannons plans must be involved. Most of the series staples are in place and not much has been changed actually. Epona? Check. Ganon and Zelda? Check. All the series items and weapons? Check. Fishing? Check. The only real difference is instead of a little fairy to guide you, you now have Midna (at least in wolf form). All in all, its all very familiar and still the Zelda game we know and love. But why did it take so long for this game to be released? Probably because they were tooling this game to work with the Wii and its unique wiimote. It's all very polished and finely tuned. That's a good thing,especially when many developers like to try something new all time with fans beloved franchises and can turn many fans away.
But isn't Miyamoto known for his unique way of trying something new and always coming out gold? There are a few minor things that could have been done to make you forget all about Ocarina, but it lacks the innovation that blew us all away when we played Ocarina and Majoras Mask, but at least it dosn't have that ugly cell shading thing that Wind Waker had. This is still a very solid enty to the series and will no doubt keep fans happy but it 's just lacking all the trimmings of a truly modern masterpeice.