So, I spent most of my Wind Waker post raving about how bold and original it is. With all that context, it should probably come as a surprise that the far more regressive Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda game, and one of my favorite games of all time. After all, this game took far more cues from Ocarina Of Time and went for the mature artstyle everyone wanted... but it also refined the Zelda formula to damn near perfection, in my opinion. When I think of my ideal, definitive Zelda experience, Twilight Princess is always the first entry that comes to mind.
Like with Wind Waker, I discovered Twilight Princess through the HD version. It was one of the earlier Zelda games I had played, and I remember kinda liking it, but not loving it. It was at that time where I felt like I needed to think of Ocarina Of Time as one of the best 3D Zelda games because everyone said it was one of the best 3D Zelda games. But then I replayed Twilight Princess a bit later down the line, after BotW came out, and everything just clicked. Maybe having played more Zelda games and realizing what I personally wanted out of the series made me realize that Twilight Princess had everything I could've ever wanted as a Zelda fan.
Twilight Princess's story isn't the most cohesive in terms of Zelda stories, but man is it good at generating "moments". Twilight Princess has so many moments that just stick with you, and nails creating a really strong feeling of dread. When Link turns into a Wolf for the first time and is stuck in the Twilight realm, the game conveys this really haunting and oppressive atmosphere. When Midna gets stabbed and you have to desperately bring her to Zelda, it feels like a massive gut punch and you want to save her. The entire Snowpeak chapter has this feeling of isolation and loneliness, it really feels like you're alone atop this cold, intense mountain landscape. And whenever Zant goes on screen, I'm always scared for Link's life, that guy is a menace. But on the other hand, Twilight Princess is great at creating moments that feel epic as well. Link knocking King Bulblin off the bridge and holding his sword to the sky is probably the Zelda moment for me, it captures the spirit of the series so perfectly. And all of these memorable moments are tied together with one incredibly strong connective thread, who is of course Midna. Midna is far and away the best partner in Zelda. She's witty, funny, charismatic, genuinely helpful in gameplay, and undergoes a fantastic character arc where she evolves from a mischievous and mean-spirited imp to a genuine hero. When push comes to shove, Twilight Princess is Midna's story, she is the beating heart of this entire game.
As far as moment to moment gameplay is concerned, Twilight Princess might still be my favorite of the 3D Zelda games, it takes the strong foundation that Wind Waker laid and fleshes it out even further. Swordfighting now has even more combos than ever which you can unlock by seeking out the Hero's Shade over the course of the game, and you can even swing your sword while running to cut grass fast, a QoL feature so helpful I'm stunned no other game included it. The item play is as fun as always too, with Twilight Princess packing in an impressive amount of iconic exclusive items like the more puzzle-focused Gale Boomerang and Dominion Rod, the satisfyingly powerful Ball N Chain, the awesome Dual Clawshots which let you act out your inner Spider Man fantasy, and of course, the iconic Spinner item. And of course, Twilight Princess lets you turn into Wolf Link, and it's decently fun as well. The main moveset for Wolf Link isn't too different from normal Link, and the exclusive moves like using Midna to encircle enemies and transport items are used fairly well. Though the Wolf Link bits are easily at their best in the second half of the game where you can swap between standard and Wolf Link at will, a very classic Zelda dynamic akin to swapping time periods in Ocarina or changing the weather in Oracle Of Seasons.
The campaign of Twilight Princess is somewhat infamous for its crushingly long length and abundance of padding and, like, I can kind of agree. It takes you three hours before you can enter Hyrule Field, and even after that, it'll take you quite a while before you clear out the entire world of Twilight. However, I will say that Twilight Princess manages to cram itself with a ton of varied and fun scenarios so that I never really felt the length. The first stretch of the game has you thoroughly explore all the environments as Wolf Link while being tossed into a bunch of neat setpieces like hopping across a poison swamp, escaping a burning building, and flying up a waterfall, before retreading those environments as Link while also being tossed into even more fun setpieces like the King Bulblin fight and the horse carriage chase. Though the second half ranks among one of my favorite stretches in a Zelda game, striking the perfect balance between fun overworld exploration (Gerudo Desert, Snowpeak, Hidden Village) and back-to-back dungeon crawling. So despite its length and the slow start, Twilight Princess ends up being one of the Zelda games I've replayed the most.
And speaking of the dungeons, my god. Twilight Princess has probably my favorite roster of dungeons in the entire franchise, and that's saying something with how steep the competition is. The dungeons in this game are lengthy, intricate, inventive, memorable, and just really freaking fun. From the cool magnet puzzles and Western-inspired bow fights in Goron Mines, to the thoughtful and satisfying spatial puzzling in Lakebed Temple, to Arbiter's Grounds and how it blends its atmospheric first half with its fun Spinner-centric second half, to the cleverly linear Temple Of Time, to the surreal City In The Sky, to my favorite Zelda dungeon period in the creative Snowpeak Ruins. And the boss fights are really great too, all super massive in scale if a bit on the easy side. Stallord, Blizzeta, Zant, and especially the fantastic final boss fight against Ganondorf definitely stack up to Wind Waker's already stellar boss roster in my opinion.
In terms of progression, Twilight Princess really does feel like my perfect Zelda game. It has a huge sprawling Hyrule Field to explore, but the main campaign is still story-driven and linear. The overworld offers a constant stream of fun one-off setpieces, and the dungeons perfectly balance creativity with engaging navigation. The combat is simple but has so much extra depth in its unlockable combos. And there is so much side content to delve into. From the impressive 45 Heart Pieces, to finding all the Poe Souls, to the complex but immensely rewarding Malo Mart sidequest, to the abundance of some of the best minigames in the series like Rollgoal, Snowboarding, Cat Finder, and the STAR Tent, there's so much here. Twilight Princess is equal parts massive in scale and incredibly focused, it takes you on a rollercoaster of an adventure while also letting you go off the beaten path increasingly more as the game goes on. That's what I want from a Zelda game.
The presentation of Twilight Princess is fairly divisive. For some, it's the mature realistic Zelda they've always wanted, and for others, it's a prime example of the "real is brown" trend impacting the gaming landscape at the time. Personally, I'm not really on either camp, I like Twilight Princess's look for entirely unique reasons. There's a vibe to the more realistic 6th gen games that I find really appealing, the way detailed textures are stretched over completely flat surfaces, the way everything looks so rustic and explorable. Twilight Princess visibly took a lot of aesthetic inspiration from Ico, and honestly I think it nailed the look, and the HD version cleaning up the textures only made the game look even more vibrant and enthralling to me. I love the Western inspirations here, particularly in Kakariko Village, and I also adore how ethereal environments like Zora's Domain and the Twilight Realm look. Twilight Princess has this distinctively haunting identity to it that I just love. The soundtrack is also pretty stellar, it's epic and dramatic, and full of some of my favorite Zelda tracks. The Hyrule Field theme might be my favorite Zelda theme period, and the Midna's Lament, Hidden Village, Lake Hylia, and Zant Battle themes also stand out as series highlights.
Twilight Princess may have taken a lot of inspiration from Ocarina Of Time, but it makes so many expansions, refinements, and unique changes to help it establish itself as something incredibly special. On the gameplay front, the combat, dungeon design, overworld navigation, boss design, item play, and side content is some of my favorite in the series. But on the presentation side, Twilight Princess manages to generate this enthralling sense of melancholy and grandeur that always stuck with me. Nintendo has always liked to experiment and add something new with their sequels, for better or for worse, but I appreciate that just this once, they decided to refine what came before. I don't think we'll ever get another Zelda game like Twilight Princess, but I'm glad it's there to begin with.
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