Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Finally Catching Up

It wasn't until after I'd started on A Link Between Worlds that I finally got around to revisiting Twilight Princess. I started as in my other games by loading up my game file and revisiting each environment, looking for hidden items. I used my wolf sense across the entirety of the overworld map, just to make sure I was thorough. In this way I found all of the Golden Bugs, and also found and went through the Cave of Trials that I had somehow missed the first time around. But I was still missing at least six Pieces of Heart. Not sure how or where I could have missed so many, and feeling disheartened (no pun originally intended, but I like how it came out), I knew that I'd probably need to do one more playthrough.

Unlike the DS entries I've just covered, this had been my second time playing through this game, and my first time on the Wii. For my last replay, I decided to go back to the Gamecube version, which would allow me to digest my opinion of it alongside the Wii version. It would also allow me more time to play, since the Gamecube is in a different room from the main TV and I could play while my wife watched TV, for example. Whenever I found something, I went back to my Wii file and got it there, too, until I finally found everything.

On my last playthrough I repeatedly had a maddening experience. As thorough as I thought I'd been, I still found nearly half a dozen different locations I had previously missed. Each time, with eager anticipation, I walked up to the previously unknown treasure chest. Each time, I was seriously disappointed when I pulled out an orange Rupee. 

On a side note, if you look at the amount of Rupees you can find in the game, and the amount of things in the game you can spend those Rupees on, and take the ratio of the two, I think you would find that Twilight Princess has the highest such ratio in the entire series. It is surprisingly difficult to not have your wallet maxed out in this game. I think, in retrospect, that the single most useful feature of the Magic Armor is not for defense, but to give you room to accept the 97th orange Rupee you find in the game.

Anyway, it took a while, but I finally did find them all. It wasn't as bad as I initially thought; it turned out four of the ones I was missing were in two dungeons. I'm not sure how I missed those, as I always make it a point in every Zelda game to collect every chest in every dungeon. But there it is. I know at least one of them was one that I couldn't figure out how to get, in Snowpeak Mansion. I had speculated maybe I needed to come back later, but I finally discovered the solution was something you can do while you're there the first time. The other one was easy though, I must have just missed seeing it somehow with my compass. As for the two in the Twilight Realm, I honestly can't remember why I might have passed those by.

There was one I found on the overworld, which you need the spinner to get to across a chasm near the entrance to the Hidden Village. It's easy to overlook since it's across a chasm.

The last one I found was also at Snowpeak. This is where doing a replay may have helped. I had tried very hard to get a good time racing the Yeti on my other file, not to get a reward, and not remembering that there was no reward for the very first time you race him. When I saw that on my last file, I scratched my head. But then I did something that I'm surprised I hadn't done before: I spoke to the Yeti's wife after the race. Sure enough, she challenges you to a more difficult race and gives you the Piece of Heart for the reward.

Twilight Princess as a whole is a game that I have mixed feelings about, which I can't quite resolve. And not because I have any bad feelings about it. It's more like I have these really great feelings about it, but when I look back on the game after I put the controller down, for some reason I can't put my finger on, it seems like something was missing.

There's really nothing negative I can find to say about the game, and every time I've played it through I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually can't stand having such thoughts and impressions that I can't qualify, so I'm always trying to find a reason why. After thinking about it a lot, the only thing I can come up with is that, whereas most of the Zelda games work hard to come up with some angle or other to really make themselves stand out, Twilight Princess mostly reworks concepts that have already been used. It is obviously aiming to be like Ocarina of Time, but the things that the game does to set it apart from Ocarina of Time are things that have been done before in other games. The Twilight Realm is highly reminiscent of the Dark World from A Link to the Past. And the wolf mechanic is essentially the same as the transformation masks on Majora's Mask. So all in all, even though everything this game does is done extremely well, it just doesn't end up standing out in memory the way other games in the series do. (I think this line of reasoning also may apply to A Link Between Worlds as part of the reason I wasn't as impressed by it.)

But I absolutely love the story in this game. It's right up there with all of the other 3-D Zelda stories. The characters in this game are very well done. It has all the right moments to tug at all the right emotions. And Link's companion Midna is far and away one of the most interesting characters in the entire series, and one of the only guide-type characters that I really came to care about. She may be my favorite, but it's hard for me to pick a favorite between her and Zelda from Spirit Tracks.

This game also possibly has the best dungeons of any Zelda game, which has always been one of my favorite parts of any Zelda. I also love the range of new types of equipment, such as the Spinner and the Ball and Chain.

Finishing Twilight Princess brings me to one of my most pleasant surprises in playing through the series, which is playing through The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I have yet to digest my full opinions on this, because I have still only played this one through once. My first playthrough must have finished around March or April, because I remember that I didn't finish it before the release of Breath of the Wild. 

After finishing my last replay of Twilight Princess, which must have been near the end of November, I spent several weeks looking for the collectibles in Skyward Sword. I wanted to find them all before starting a replay, if I could, because Hero Mode replaces your original file, and I wanted the original file complete. I considered replaying a non-Hero mode file if I couldn't find everything, but it turned out unnecessary, as I found all of the remaining Pieces of Heart and Gratitude Crystals in my final scour of the game. In general the environments in this game are a little more compact than previous games, so it's not as difficult to go through the whole game again. And this game's Piece of Heart count is the smallest of any 3-D Zelda, and any Zelda since the Oracle Games. I think the last Piece of Heart I found was one you get racing mine carts in Lanayru.

As I believe I mentioned in one of my early blog posts, Skyward Sword is a game I tried to play years ago, but I didn't get past the second dungeon before I put it down and didn't pick it back up again. I couldn't quite put my finger on why it didn't grab me then, but I always knew that a part of it was because I felt out of touch with the series as a whole. It was a primary motivation for me to go back and replay the series, including the games I hadn't played yet.

I have to say that once I finished that endeavor, coming back to Skyward Sword was quite a different experience, and far more engaging than I had expected. Even though I had tried through the years to avoid anything about this game on the internet, I had nevertheless gotten some wind of the impression that it hadn't been received as well by the community. So I tried not to get my hopes up too high. But I also was determined not to keep them too low either, as I certainly don't always agree with the internet population's general consensus. But the overall experience very much surprised me. I think that this might actually be my new favorite Zelda game, even before digesting my impressions in a replay.

The game's story is every bit as good as other 3-D Zelda's. In some ways it's particularly engaging because of Zelda's more active role in the story. I don't know if the story is actually better than previous games, but I really enjoyed it. I love the way they developed Groose's character through the game, and the game's incarnation of Impa is probably my favorite. This game's ending makes me tear up a bit, perhaps more than other Zeldas.

I absolutely love this game's soundtrack. The Ballad of the Goddess is a new favorite of mine, but I really like the music all the way through. Although I do wish that there were a bit more to the harp you play in-game.

I am part of the camp that absolutely loved the controls in this game. I know that this is a dividing point among fans, but it's one area where I can't fully understand the other point of view. I thought that what they did with Wii Motion Plus was amazing, and I am very disappointed that it probably won't be the future direction taken with the series. This game has the most engaging sword combat in the entire series, and sword combat is the one thing that Breath of the Wild feels like it's taken a step backward in. It's hard for me to go back to traditional controls after playing this game. Yes, there are things in this game that could have and sometimes maybe should have been done with traditional controls. But nothing beats using your actual controller as your sword. Also, throwing and rolling bombs or other items, cracking your whip, swinging the bug net, and aiming your bow or slingshot are all things that come off better with the Wii's unique control capabilities. I'm very grateful that the last one on this list, at least, was not abandoned in Breath of the Wild.

Lastly, one of the things I loved about the game was its difficulty. In my last entry I described my feelings about the general challenge level in the Zelda series since Ocarina of Time. In this game, for the first time since the series went 3-D, combat became a real focus to the point that it actually takes some skill to stay alive. At first I was a little put off when I started the game with six hearts, something very nontraditional for Zelda. But then I learned that for the first time in forever, you actually need those hearts. It's the first Zelda game I played in decades where I actually felt a danger of dying, and the first one in decades where I actually found myself actually using the potions and fairies I had on hand. Part of this is due to the learning curve associated with the new control scheme, but I found that even when I had gotten used to it, I still found a lot of challenge fighting enemies. This game involves actual skill in gameplay, something that I hadn't really seen in Zelda since the NES days. And it's something that definitely adds a lot to the experience.

I have been very excited to try the game's Hero Mode, especially since playing the one in A Link Between Worlds. I started about a month ago, but I haven't made much progress. My little 5-year old girl was watching me as I played through the game's opening areas, and she took a great interest in it. So I've decided that I'm mostly going to play it when she's around. That has so far limited me to a few hours a week, when both of us are home on the weekends and my wife is not using the TV. I finished the first dungeon last weekend. I died twice in Faron woods before the dungeon, and once inside, but otherwise managed to make it through, though I used my only potion before I got to the boss. Fortunately I caught a fairy in the large room outside of where you get the beetle. Ghirahim took all of my hearts, but my fairy kept me alive, and I was able to best him. I definitely got a lot of practice on him on the Thunder Dragon's challenge on my first playthrough.

I don't mind the slow progress, because I've been using my former Zelda time to resume a focus on Dragon Quest II and III. And I've really made a lot of progress there, and am really excited for a few things to try with that game on the horizon. More about that soon!