You know, Twilight Princess is pretty great still.

[Dr.Grass]

Kenryoku_Maxis said:

Khuutra said:

Kenryoku_Maxis said:

Khuutra said:
Kenryoku I don't think we were playing the same dungeons, because the dungeons in Twilight Princess are awesome.

Apparently not.  But I didn't see the same creativity in level design the past Zelda games had.  Instead, I saw a lot of reusing the same ideas of the past but in rather bland ways.  And trying to take those ideas and stretch them so far and make them so 'grand' that they lost all meaning and 'fun' factor.  In essence, there's meaning behind the simplicity and seemingly straightforward designs of the previous Zelda games, whereas Twilight Princess (and Wind Waker to a certain extent) felt like a mess of circular rooms, hallways and tasks (busywork) that eventually led to a boss battle.  I hardly think pushing ice blocks to solve annoying puzzles or climbing up and down multiple levels and pulling levers to raise the waters level in the right direction is grand level design.  Just more like I said, busy work to make the dungeons longer.

And that's pretty much how I viewed the game in the end.  A game which was very pretty and 'technically' great, but suffered for it in gameplay.  Which is the opposite of how Zelda games usually are.

Well, I think you're the first person to ever tell me that, so.... here's that.

Sorry, I just don't see how you can see it that way. Faron Woods alone!

You must have skipped all those Twilight Princess threads for the last 2 years then.  My views are not alone.

And it doesn't come down to me thinking the game sucks compared to another Zelda game or me obsessing over one Zelda game and thinking Majoras Mask should be 'like' it.  I have liked nearly all Zelda games that have come before and to a certain extent, I liked Twilight Princess.  But not for the same reason as the past Zelda games.  Twilight Princess focused heavily on production values, story and characters (like Midna).  And while some of those characters were great (Midna probably the best character in a Zeldga game yet) and the graphics were amazing, the gameplay wasn't as good as past Zelda titles.  It was as I described, long and arjuious with even bouts of tediousness; such as having to do the stupid puzzle with the statues to get the Master Sword or collecting soup items for an Abominable Snowmans wife....nearly everything about the game screamed stalling and busy work and fetch quest instead of the usual strong Zelda level design.  I mean, are we playing Zelda or Resident Evil?

It also doesn't help that the farther you go into the game, the longer the levels get and the less interesting the game gets.  Probably the most interesting thing to do in the whole game was climbing on ceilings with the Iron Boots.  And you do that early on.

This is one of those moments where I can lift my opinion and feel really ashamed, or just shut up and take the easy route. Oh God.

*gulp*

___

I found swinging the Wiimote to swing the sword very gimicky and off-putting. The dungeons were too easy, and they did seem to be very much like dungeons in previous Zelda games.

The biggest problem I had with the game was the control. It's amazing to me that I haven't heard anyone say this, but the analog control is imho much worse than in Wind Waker. It feels imprecise. I just don't experience that simply joy of running around and cutting grass.

There's also the embarressing thing that it took me about 4hours to catch a damn fish, but that's just my bad, not the game's.

____

Ok, now before you flame me, note that Nintendo is my #1 favourite, and that I bought a Wii before anything else. If you just check through my previous posts then it's blatantly obvious.

All that said, it is STILL an amazing game imo. It's magical and sometimes genius. I was just SO blown away by Wind Waker (played for 3 weeks stright) that I expected the same thing to happen as soon as I put it in and play.

Now, what'll be interesting is whether my fellow Nintendonians will burn me at the stake for this treason, or whether they'll accept my honesty on this matter.