The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess is the most recent Zelda game to be released to the public. Originally intended for release only on the Gamecube, development shifted towards Nintendo's newer console, the Wii, and the adventure title was eventually released for both systems. It was first released on November nineteenth, 2006 as the premier launch title for the Wii. It is considered among many to be the most comprehensive and immersing game in the Zelda series, and shares many similarities with The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

History
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was first revealed E3 2004 when Nintendo showed a "Trailer" of their new Zelda Game to a small group. When the Zelda Community found out, they almost exploded with excitement. Threads popping up on Zelda Forums everywhere discussing what the new game looks like, sounds like, even smells like. After ten months of complete silence from Nintendo, a new trailer was finally revealed at the Game Developers Conference on March tenth, 2005 to an eager audience.

It was learned at the Nintendo E3 conference on May 9th that Twilight Princess will be released in Quarter 4, 2006 and will simultaneously be released on Gamecube and Wii.

On Wednesday September thirteenth, 2006 it was revealed that Twilight Princess will be a launch title for the Wii which will be available on November 19, 2006, while fanatics will have to wait another month for the GameCube version to be released.

Game Information
The game is meant to have a more mature atmosphere than the rest of the Zelda games, as well as significantly darker. It is also the longest Zelda game to date, accumulating at least sixty hours of play, twice as long as Ocarina of Time, confirmed by Iwata. Zelda and another memorable character (spoiler) also appear in Twilight Princess.

The game's story takes place after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, but before The Wind Waker. As featured in The Wind Waker, Link uses special facial expressions to inform the player and give subtle clues on how to solve certain puzzles. For some gamers, the game still proves to be more challenging than other Zelda games preceding it. Another returning feature is the day and night system of Hyrule, consisting of not only the cycle of days but weather and atmosphere effects as well.

Motion capture is used to bring the characters alive in a realistic manner. This is most evident during cinema sequences.

Story
Link, a youth at the beginning of the game, is a ranch worker (but has also been called a cowboy of sorts) in his home town of Ordon Village in the Ordona Province of Hyrule. Strange beasts begin to appear in the forest outside of the village just before Link is supposed to make a trip to Hyrule Castle to present a gift to the royal family, a sword and wooden shield crafted by the townsfolk of Ordon. Three young children of the village, who serve in the beginning as one of Link's main motivations for fighting, are captured by Bokoblins while playing with a forest monkey, and taken to the entrance of the Forest Temple. With wooden sword in hand, Link goes to save them. He is able to free the monkey and his friend Talo who was caged by the Bokoblins, but this is only the beginning of his trouble.

The next day Link gets attacked by Bulblins and their leader King Bulblin and falls unconscious in the spirit spring near Ordon Village. When he awakens, he follows the pathway into the forest, whereupon he sees a large black wall draped over the ground. Approaching the wall, symbols begin to appear upon it, and as he nears closer a large and menacing black hand reached out and pulls him through the wall.

Link, now in an entirely different looking world, notices a sharp pain run through him and doubles over. The Triforce symbol on his hand glows, and his entire body transforms into a wolf. As a Wolf Link is captured and held prisoner within the boundaries of Hyrule Castle, which has been covered by the twilight realm that and spread over Hyrule. In his prison cell he encounters Midna, a rogue shadow Imp with mysterious powers, who aids his escape and helps him explore in his wolf form.

In the tallest tower, he and Midna find a cloaked young woman. Immediately she explains to Link how Hyrule came to be shrouded in twilight, and reveals her true identity: Princess Zelda. Although in another world, Zelda is still the princess.

It is now Link's quest to save Hyrule from the Twilight as the hero chosen by the gods. He must restore the light to all the lands in Hyrule and collect mysterious dark artifacts known as fused shadows in order to gain enough strength to defeat the one who rules the Twilight.

Game-play
Link controls normally, but those using the Wii Remote will find that there are entirely new controls for using each weapon, which some veteran players may need to get used to. Players will also have to become used to Link's two forms: Wolf Link and Human Link. Whenever Human Link enters into the Twilight Realm he transforms into a sacred wolf, changing his attack style but not the controls used for attacking. While in Wolf form Link has the ability to use "senses" - special sight that allows the player to see spirits while in the Twilight Realm, who are unknowing humans who have been changed into floating balls of light as the Twilight covered them.

On top of this, Wolf Link's abilities extend to using his senses to follow scents, the first being the scent of the children of Ordon Village from the wooden sword they dropped. When in the sense view, the entire screen blurs and becomes darker, revealing various hidden objects that were not visible in normal view. Wolf Link is also able to dig for items in the ground and dig through the ground to go underneath fence and into homes. His senses can also be used to find spots to dig, which shimmer while in the sense view.

Z-targeting makes its return in Twilight Princess. Wolf Link is able to jump far distances with the help of Midna, who travels to the distance and at which point can be Z-targeted. Pressing A initiates the jump, which Midna calls "guiding Link with sure footing."

Link does not return to a human when leaving the Twilight Realm. Instead, the only way Link is able to return to human form after entering the twilight is to have the power of one of the Spirits of Light return him to normal form. In the beginning this is accomplished by collecting the Spirit's stolen light, in the form of tears of light. Once the light is collected, Link returns to human form, but whether he is in the Twilight Realm or in the normal world does not change his wolf-like state after entering it.

The item menu is circular and does not display the number of items left. However, there is a second item screen available by pressing the "plus" key on the Wii Remote that shows Link's equipped items and his valuables, namely his wallet, clothing, heart pieces, letters, and journals. Logs are kept of such things like fish caught.



Link can summon beasts with certain types of plants. For example, the horseshoe-shaped plant summons Epona, Link's horse, with a song strikingly similar to Epona's Song from Ocarina of Time. Hawks can be summoned with other types of grass commonly found in Ordon Village.

Epona also has the ability to walk in shallow water, a new ability absent in previous games. Link is able to steal and ride enemies' mounts, but this does not take place until later in the game.

Both familiar and unfamiliar weapons make appearances. Some familiar weapons have been transformed entirely, such as the Gale Boomerang, which acts exactly as the normal Boomerang but creates a whirlwind when thrown. Other items are entirely new, and some have been left completely unchanged.

Sound
This game, like most other Zelda titles, features very little to no voice acting. There is only one example of vocal acting, Midna, with grunts and yells from all other characters. Midna is the first character in a Zelda game to be fully voiced.

Along with the standard features of sound in a Zelda game, the Wii console offers something more to the customers buying the Wii version of Twilight Princess. Using the Wii Remote it is possible for "depth of sound" take place - that is, sound comes from both the television and the Wii Remote's internal speaker, providing a much more immersing experience.

Music
Music once again plays a role in Twilight Princess, as in previous Legend of Zelda games. While Link does not carry a musical instrument of any type until well into the game, he can pick grass from certain patches and whistle with it to call an animal, either a Hawk or Epona, Link's horse (later on, an instrument shaped similarly to the grass used to summon Epona is given to Link and has the same effect as the aforementioned grass). Also, while as a wolf Link can howl near the same patches, to the same effect. When Link is in his wolf form, there are six "howling stones" located around the world where, after Link howls a certain melody shown on screen a few times, a golden wolf appears and jumps somewhere else in the world. Link must then change back to his human form and find the wolf to learn a hidden sword technique. The songs howled by Wolf Link are taken from Majora's Mask, Ocarina of Time, and The Wind Waker, with the exception of the final howling stone, which is the "bass" of the game's Hyrule Field main theme.

In a first for the Zelda series, part of the soundtrack has been orchestrated as opposed to using MIDI. The fact that Nintendo has decided to use mostly MIDI for the sound-track, however, has been a point of criticism. MIDI allows the background music to be more dynamic, but the sound quality suffers. Koji Kondo, the lead composer for the game's sound-track, originally stated that he "would really like to push for" the music to be orchestrated. Part of the full sound-track (featuring the songs "The Legend of Zelda: Orchestra Piece #2", "Hyrule Field Main Theme", "Ordon Village", "Kakariko Village", "Death Mountain", "Midna's Theme", and "Illia's Theme") is received when a Nintendo Power subscription is purchased (the subscription also comes with a game guide for Twilight Princess). A sound-track also is packaged with the Twilight Princess Collector Box, an exclusive item sold at Target stores. The soundtrack also features two bonus tracks. The first bonus track, known as "D.S. Trailer Pack", was the theme that was to be used instead of the present Hyrule Field Main Theme.

Graphics


Heavily modified version of the The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker engine. This heavily modified version of the The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker engine makes the graphics in Twilight Princess very realistic, as opposed to the cartoonish design of The Wind Waker. These graphics are the greatest we have seen and most likely will ever see for the Nintendo Gamecube. They aren't that great by Wii standards (yet, they look amazing for G.C.N.-standards) and will most likely look even better for the next game.

Dungeon Information
This section lists the nine dungeons of Twilight Princess in order of exploration, followed by obtained item information and the boss that awaits within.


 * Forest Temple - Gale Boomerang - Diababa: Twilit Parasite
 * Goron Mines - Hero's Bow - Fyrus: Twilit Igniter
 * Lakebed Temple - Clawshot - Morpheel: Twilit Aquatic
 * Arbiter's Grounds - Spinner - Stallord: Twilit Fossil
 * Snowpeak Ruins - Ball and Chain - Blizzeta: Twilit Ice Mass
 * Temple of Time - Dominion Rod - Armogohma: Twilit Arachnid
 * City In The Sky - Double Clawshot - Argorok: Twilit Dragon
 * Palace of Twilight - Light Sword - Zant: Usurper King
 * Hyrule Castle - Zelda: Ganon's Puppet, Ganondorf: Dark Lord

Inventory

 * Lantern
 * Gale Boomerang
 * Iron Boots
 * Bombs
 * Water Bombs
 * Bomblings
 * Hero's Bow
 * Hawkeye
 * Clawshot
 * Double Clawshot
 * Spinner
 * Ball and Chain
 * Dominion Rod
 * Fishing Rod
 * Bottle #1
 * Bottle #2
 * Bottle #3
 * Bottle #4
 * Horse Call

Equipment

 * Wooden Sword
 * Ordon Sword
 * Master Sword
 * Ordon Shield
 * Wooden Shield
 * Hylian Shield
 * Hero's Clothes
 * Zora Armor
 * Magic Armor
 * Quiver
 * Big Quiver
 * Giant Quiver
 * Bomb Bag #1
 * Bomb Bag #2
 * Bomb Bag #3
 * Wallet
 * Big Wallet
 * Giant Wallet

Mini Boss Appendix

 * Ook
 * King Bulbin, Round I
 * Dangoro
 * Shadow Bird Rider
 * Twilit Bloat
 * King Bulbin, Round II
 * Deku Frog
 * Skull Kid
 * King Bulbin, Rounds III & IV
 * Death Sword
 * Darkhammer
 * Dark Nut
 * Aerofols
 * Zant's Phantom

Boss Appendix

 * Twilight Parasite Diababa
 * Twilight Igniter Fyrus
 * Twilight Aquatic Morpheel
 * Twilight Fossil Stallord
 * Twilight Ice Mass Blizzeta
 * Twilight Arachnid Armogohma
 * Twilight Dragon Argorok
 * Usurper King Zant
 * Ganon's Puppet Zelda
 * Dark Beast Ganon
 * Dark Lord Ganondorf, Part I
 * Dark Lord Ganondorf, Part II

Time-line Issues
One of the killing points in the game for many fanatics was the incredibly large chronological confusion that came with it. It was expected by many to be the game that would bridge the gap between Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask and The Wind Waker. Instead, however, it seemed to almost veer off into a completely different span of events. According to T.W.W., Ganondorf had come forth from the depths of Hyrule and attacked, prompting the Godesses to cause the torrential rain and flood the land. Instead, Ganondorf was resurrected at a different point in time and sealed again in the Twilight Realm. Later, when he escaped it, he battled Link and was defeated. Zant apparently snapped his own neck, and since they were connected at the time, Ganondorf supposedly died on his feet, thus he would not be able to spring the events that resulted in the geological situation in T.W.W. There are a few theories concerning the continuity because of this:

1. The only way that the events of T.P. could have canonically occurred would be if they occured in a realm different from the other games in a similar fashion to the hit role-playing series Final Fantasy.

2. Ganondorf was resurrected sometime between T.P. and T.W.W., leading to possibilities of yet another game to bridge the gap. Another optional addition to this theory is that T.P., not T.W.W., occured a century, as opposed to several decades, after O.T., and that the T.W.W. occured several centuries, perhaps even a millenium, after O.T.

3. T.P. is simply not a canonical part of the chronology, and merely an innovative side-story.

Theory #2 is regarded as the most likely.