(Be warned: This isn’t your typical review on the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. This review is told from an entirely different perspective… You hath been warned!)

I’m the kind of guy who can never play a horror game or watch a horror movie on my own. Sure, I loved the Fatal Frame series and has played through the game several times, but the actual number of minutes I’ve held the controller in my hands the whole time can be counted on a single hand (minus the time required to solve puzzles).

Okay, I was exaggerating.

Two hands.

Best looking Link to date?

Storyline

If you’ve played any Legend of Zelda games, you already know the storyline. If you’ve never played Zelda before, here’s a one sentence summary for any Zelda games ever created quoted from Yahtzee from Zero Punctuations:

Pick any one of the ninety billion Zelda games there have been so far and odds are good that you’re always the same blardy guy saving the same blardy girl with the same blardy boomerang.”

Equipments

• Boomerang
• Bow & Arrow
• Clawshot
• Bombs
• Fishing rod

What more do you need?

Experience

My first true Zelda experience was Phantom Hourglass, where I affectionately calls Link sillyface. The Link from Twilight Princess, on the other hand, would be seriousface. The only real expression he ever shows on his face is through his eyes which is kinda disappointing.

Twilight Princesss is one of the creepiest game I’ve ever played. The dusky world along with the almost non-existent soundtrack and echoes of twilight realm never failed to give me the chills. It didn’t help that Midna’s eerie laughter came out of the Wii-mote and the first dozen times or so her laughter never failed to make me jump out of my chair. Actually it still makes the hair at the back of my neck to stand once in a while when I’m not expecting for Midna’s call.

The dungeons can be very dark when Link is in human form even when I’ve turned the brightness level of my TV up. But that didn’t really come as a surprise since the game already prompted you to make sure you’re at least able to see 4 different shades of darkness before you start the game. As you’ve probably guessed, I don’t really like being in the dark at all (which explains why I was never able to finish any Tomb Raider game I’ve bought).

Twilight Princess has plenty of places where you need to jump into holes on the ground and you’ll be falling through a long, dark shaft before you land in an underground cavern. I often dread these the most, since there are almost always enemies waiting to ambush you before you even get a good glimpse of your new surroundings. Did I mentioned I’m claustrophobic? Yes, it affects me even in-game, so I really, really, hate these shafts and caverns.

Speaking of ambushes after a drop, the best way to handle it is to do a 360 degrees spin attack. That usually takes care of any enemies trying to pounce on you, but the sound that is produced afterwards that signals the end of the delay time for the attack reminds me of the sound you make when you scratch your nails on a blackboard. Horrible.

Let’s not even get started with the Poe souls, which are basically ghosts but you’ll only see them as floating lanterns unless you turned on your senses as wolf Link. I almost shit in my pants the first time it appeared out of nowhere from behind me.

But I’m still playing…

Interestingly enough, I’m still playing on, albeit rather slowly. In fact, the biggest frustration I always face is the sometimes insanely impossible puzzles you need to solve when exploring dungeons in human form. Because the dungeons creeps me out, I never like to stay in one place for long and very reluctant to move back and forth, which unfortunately makes it harder for me to solve whatever needs solving.

The mini-games can be found all over the place and are always good fun. There are enough mini-games to keep you busy and entertained for a very long time. Which can be good or bad, since I’ve already played nearly 20 hours of gameplay and I believe I’m only around 1/4 done. This is one helluva long game.

Hyped?

Is it hyped? Actually, I really don’t know. The game came out quite long ago and at the time I wasn’t the least bit interested in it.

Honestly though, my expectations for the game was very different from what the actual game delivered. Maybe it’s because I got used to sillyface and the more lighthearted gameplay of Phantom Hourglass, especially when it comes to the soundtrack and mood of the game.

I had also expected more from the Wii-mote with control capabilities like that utilized in WarioWare, but at least they still made good use of it with most of the equipments. The controls are rather smooth, easy to pick up and you can really do quite a lot of tricks just by playing around.

But overall, the fact that I’m still playing it is proof that it’s a great game.

I present to you, the most overused screenshot for Twilight Princess…

Some images sourced from (it’s really obvious which images came from there): GameSpot.com

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