I am watching the Quick Look and remembering I never beat this game. I bought a Wii when they came out and was 16 years old, I really didn't like motion controls at the time and didn't make it very far into this game. I've heard Jeff forever say it just wasn't different enough for his tastes and others maybe agreed with him after the fact. I've heard Dan say he just likes Zelda and has a bit more patience for these games, I feel like I fall in that boat too. However would like to hear from some of you, what it was about this Zelda that made you enjoy it or dislike it.

I only played through Twilight Princess once, but my recollection of it is kind of similar to what Dan spoke of in the Quick Look (although I like it less than he does). The dungeons and bosses are in large part great, but all the content outside of the dungeons is fairly boring and uninspired. It was one of the worst-paced games of its generation. Like there is probably a good twenty to twenty-five hour video game in there, but then you remember it's a game you could easily spend over fifty hours on.

It is by no means a bad game, but it would probably be outside my ten favorite Zeldas.

I feel like I enjoyed this game way more than Jeff did, but that's because I actively sought out the GameCube version at the time. It ended up being a more traditional Zelda experience, but it was probably also a more enjoyable one without having to struggle with motion controls.
I art style didn't bother me at the time. I loved Wind Waker and I loved how it looked, but Twilight Princess never felt like a return to form. It just felt like they we're trying something different just like they did with WW. I'll admit that I've never thought of Ocarina of Time to be "dark" in any way. Looking at it now though, I can see what Jeff means when he calls it a regression. It still doesn't bother me.

The wolf sections. They are pretty boring.

I also never understood how people "struggled" with the motion controls in that game. I thought they were fine.

I like that jaunty little tune that starts whenever you get a boss into "now lay into the weak point with your sword!" mode.

I really disliked this game when it came out. The art in many aspects, the whole wolf part, how damn long it took to get going.

I've started it at least three times on the Wii and never finished due to the spotty motion controls and overall length. The pacing in that game is so strange - if I recall correctly there's a covered wagon chase about halfway through that I could never get to waggle correctly.

I think the world overall is pretty bland but I really like a lot of the interior and enemy design. Dan is right - the dungeons in that game are terrific. Also, you can pick up and hold cats. That's cool.

I'd really like to go back to it but I don't have a Wii U - not sure if it's worth the price of entry.

I like the fact that it has been the only 3D Zelda game I've personally ever played, on the Wii with motion controls no less. I enjoyed most of my time with it (to my recollection) though I believe I never actually finished it despite playing it for well over 30 or even 40 hours.

Mostly it's interesting for me to hear and read both the differing and like-minded narratives people have concerning the release of this game and Wind Waker, and how personal and communal history varies even on this small scale of video games from not more than a decade ago.

How easily your wallet fills up, and how you can't really keep track of unopened chests outside of dungeons as a result of this unless you actively make notes for yourself.

Poe's souls, there's too many of them. These are mainly completionist problems.

Castle Town has too many loading/transition areas for how small it is. Don't know if this was changed or improved on for the HD version.

There's not enough teleport points available for how many specific areas there are.

How Zant as a cool new bad guy was never realized, and Ganondorf being the actual bad guy seemed like the safe route to fall back on.

I actually played it last year on Wii, before they announced this HD thing.

I think it starts out slow, the first few temples are kinda meh. But as you get into it you find some amazing dungeons, and the quirky world really is quite unique. They could have done more, but I liked it.

Too many words. (Trust me, that's funny)

In all seriousness, I liked TP well enough, but it wasn't much more than a prettied up version of Ocarina. I played on Gamecube, so perhaps the waggle was supposed to be the new feature, and I missed out.

I found TP to be better than Wind Waker.

Yup, unpopular opinion.

Well guess what, I totally agree

Best Zelda since MM

I only played it once back in 2007, but I remember at the time I felt Twilight Princess was a pretty damn good game, albeit with some noticeable issues. I played on Wii and really liked the Wii remote aiming aspect of it a whole lot at the time, and the waggle replacing a button for the sword press didn't bother me except in the maybe 2 or so times per Zelda game where you need very specific sword timing and waggle just precise enough for that (I'm mostly referring to the inevitable gannon lightning ball bounce fight at the end). But overall I thought the wii mote aiming more than made up for that. It blew me away that I was able to pull up my bow and line up a shot incredibly fast and still be very accurate.

I remember feeling the dungeons were overall mostly great, save for the first 2 or 3 dungeons which felt a bit stale or as if they coulda been straight out of Ocarina. So it wasn't until I started getting some newer items and not just the standard stuff I really started to think they were great. The wolf sequences in the first few hours were also very tedious, so the beginning of the game really wasn't the best. And the last few hours became a little too much of a straight up dungeon fest. I recall basically going through 3 dungeons back to back to back with very little to do in between to finish the game, it struck me almost as if they heard complaints about Wind Waker and Majora's Mask not having enough dungeons and said "oh, we'll give you more dungeons alright... (evil cackle)" If I had to choose I'd say the dungeons are probably my favorite aspect of a Zelda game, and they were so good in this game that I ended up liking Twilight Princess a bit more than Wind Waker or Majora's Mask, but still I wished they'd had a little something to do in between those final dungeons, just to change the pace. It meant the last stretch lacked some of the Zelda charm and starts to feel like a straight up puzzle game.

The overworld was too large and as a result felt rather empty. The major town also felt too large given how little there was to do. It didn't have that feeling I have come to traditionally associate with Zelda games where I expect there's probably a fun little secret or something tucked into every nook and cranny. But again the dungeons were great and that made up for a lot. As @cav829says in a comment up above, after I finished I felt like there were about a really great 25ish hour game sandwiched in between a tedious/stale first 10 hours and perhaps a somewhat bare bones final 5 hours.

I love Midna. Her art design, general attitude and her story arc are all rather pleasing to me.

Lack of characterization in pretty much everyone except Midna. There's no reason to care about the story

I remember it being very brown.

Here's what my memories of Twilight Princess are:

I played the Game Cube version it played fine. I felt that the combat was a slight downgrade from Wind Waker. It was also the muddiest, jaggiest looking game I seen that gen tied with Shadow of the Colossus.

It long overstayed it welcome. It's the only Zelda game I play I didn't go full completion on. Mainly because at some point I just wanted the game to be over.

Midna was ok, I guess.

Other than that its the Zelda game that left the least impression on me. I have forgotten that it existed multiple times. It's a perfectly fine Zelda game though. If you want to play the Zelda game with the most Zelda its the one you should get.

Dislikes

• Muddy earth tone palette and textures (HD version addresses a lot of my issues there)
• Motion controls
• Link is right handed (silly I know)
• the layout of the World Map
• Side quest /collectible bloat, too big even for a Zelda.
• Super slow start, incredibly long tutorial section
• Zelda was a series prior to TP that felt like each mainline iteration introduced revolutionary changes to the genre that was far ahead of its' peers, TP felt like it was the first deliberately comparatively unambitious Zelda in this regard. I had gotten spoiled basically, so TP felt disappointingly normal for a series I expected to be extraordinary every time. Unfair expectation in retrospect, but that was the bar Zelda set.

Likes

• Still a Zelda ass Zelda game, hard to not have fun with these mechanically
• Interesting plot for a Zelda game
• a couple neat allusions to other games which was fun for timeline theorists before that was made publicly canon
• It's still Zelda.

It's been something like 8 years since I last played TP, and a lot of it blurs together in a way that makes me want to get this HD version and actually finish it. But what I do remember involves a lot of filler and a lot of boring side stuff to get to the dungeons.

I liked it just fine, though I didn't finish it. I got to either the Snowpeak Ruins, or City in the Sky, I can't remember. Dang... I should get the HD version, but I am just not a big fan of the Wii U console honestly. Actually, it's two things I dislike, which is that it's under powered (which in and of itself is less of the issue), which means third party support is sparse, and I can't utilize my 5.1 Dolby Digital home theater system with the console, and that is just a turn off to me. It's hard for me to want to buy any games on it for those reasons, mainly the Dolby thing. I didn't have a Wii when the original came out, and my brother, a huge fan of Zelda, wanted to have it already, so we got the GameCube version. Although the time I spent playing Twilight Princess I enjoyed more than Skyward Sword, I would have liked to see Skyward Sword as the updated game. I'm curious, did they do anything with the Twilight Princess music? I don't think they did from what I hear. It makes me wonder why they didn't put the extra work in similar to Wind Waker. I liked the music in Twilight Princess, and visuals were fine too, but still. I guess they really want to focus on the new Zelda.

My biggest problem is that it's basically a rehash of Ocarina of Time, which is itself a rehash of Link to the Past.

Except Twilight Princess has the least developed light world/dark world dichotomy of any of those games. It's mostly a bunch of one time only Twilight Realm missions in wolf form, they're only like ten minutes long each, and that's it. It pretends to have songs you play (by way of wolf howling) but they're only useable at a small handful of stone markers in the game and otherwise serve no purpose. Majora's Mask had three different transformations, and any one of them has more interesting abilities than the wolf form in Twilight Princess. Twilight Princess had a sad trend of introducing items that have no practical use outside of the dungeon they are obtained in: the Spinner let you skateboard on walls but needs a specific rail that you almost never encounter outside of its dungeon, and the Dominion Rod lets you command statues to move around but also sees little use outside of its dungeon.

I like the antagonists in Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Skyward Sword. Some are Ganondorf, some are not, but either way, they're a fresh new villain. I do not like the way the antagonists are handled in Twilight Princess whatsoever; it's lazy.

Midna is alright, the dungeons are actually pretty good, and I had no problem with the motion controls, but big picture, Twilight Princess feels like they just rushed out a really safe, by-the-numbers Zelda as a reaction to the perception that some fans were turned away from the series due to Wind Waker's change in art style. Its primary new feature, the wolf form, is just underdeveloped and not very fun to use. Twilight Princess is easily the most skippable console Zelda.

So as far as development history goes as I understand it Twilight Princess was a reaction from Nintendo for Wind Waker but not quite in the way that most people believe. Wind Waker didn't hit Nintendo's sales targets despite having their most successful pre-order campaign. Wind Waker sold half what Ocarina did so the team was basically tasked with capturing Ocarina's lightning in a bottle a second time. Wolf link was something that Aonuma came up with in a dream and something he hoped would not make the game a straight rehash of Ocarina.

Twilight Princess by design is one of the most derivative sequels in the franchise, however it is also such a big game that it forced the team out of their standard item and dungeon design. It took me 70 hours to finish on Wii. The motion controls were not really that big of a deal they mostly worked, the two big exceptions to this are the fishing rod at the beginning of the game and the shield bash move which was poorly implemented. As others mentioned aiming with the Wii Remote felt quite good and worked very well on horseback. I also liked the later fishing minigame which has totally different controls than the other fishing rod.

But yeah the first few dungeons and the stuff in between are a little bit of a slog and the "realistic" art style looked dated when the game released. There is some nice art design here and there but it is a mixed bag. For me Twilight Princess is not as good as the sky high reviews of it's day but not as bad as the later backlash made it out to be. It's a good Zelda game with some strong design even if it is a bit too familiar and some bad pacing especially near the beginning.

@kasaioni: It's a moot point to criticize Twilight Princess falling back to Ganon as the antagonist. It happens after defeating Zant's Twilight Realm dungeon and beating him in a boss battle.

@bisonhero: Ocarina of Time was the first foray into 3D for the Zelda series. This alone brought with it tons of new mechanics to differentiate it from a Link to the Past.

I don't know exactly what it is about this series, but I pretty much love every single game. The only game I genuinely didn't like was Phantom Hourlgass, and that's only because I absolutely despised the asinine stylist only controls (I didn't even try to play Spirit Tracks for the same reason). Even with games like Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, which are generally considered "bad" entries in the series, I would say I like them better than 90% of video games.

As to the specific strengths and weakness of Twilight Princess, I'd say the dungeon design is the main highlight. It's got some of the best dungeons in the entire series. The bosses are also great in a visual design and spectacle sort of way, though the actual fight mechanics aren't as good as other games in the series.

I also consider Midna to be hands down the best companion character in the series, though to be fair King of Red Lions is the only one that really challenges that title. Fi was devoid of character and weirdly robotic, Tatl, Ezlo, and Ciela are alright but not too memorable, and what must really be said about Navi? Still, Midna provides the typical companion role of giving advice and pointing you towards your next objective, but she also has a fun and semi-combative personality to go along with a great backstory and central role in the main plot.

Twilight Princess, at least versions that use traditional controls, has the best sword gameplay in the series. You get a whole bunch of different moves over the course of the game that give a whole bunch of different options in the combat. The game could stand to give you more reasons to use these moves, but even though you aren't forced to make use of everything, it still has the deepest swordplay in the series. The story is pretty good too. It doesn't have the lore implications of Skyward Sword or the deep and engaging characters of Majora's Mask, but it's compelling enough to keep you going.

As for the negatives, some of the wolf segments last far too long and can be pretty tedious. The game's design is also very derivative of Ocarina of Time in a lot of ways, which isn't inherently bad, but it does make it probably the least original installment in a series that has long been criticized for being too adherent to a rigid formula. The pacing is also pretty inconsistent.

Not unpopular, people seem to forget when it came out TP was considered a return to form in a lot of ways, much longer than Wind Waker and no more sailing. I feel bad for people who only know the Wii version, I bought the Gamecube version Day 1 and it was fantastic...like a more fleshed out Ocarina. I like Wind Waker a lot but the pretty visuals mask that there's less Zelda in it than TP. The dungeons and items are also better in TP...which I think most people won't argue with.

I liked the art style in the sense that it felt appropriate for a "dark" Zelda game. I remember liking Midna well enough, and I don't recall outright hating the wolf stuff or motion controls. That said, this was probably the Zelda game I played the least. I remember trying to go back to it some time ago to give it another play through and giving up after the first couple hours of tedious intro stuff. I am looking forward to the HD remake though.

I beat the game twice on the Wii. My opinion on the game remained unchanged.

The dungeons and bosses are both fantastic, but the rest of the game is kind of forgettable.

The pacing is poor - especially at the beginning. The filler content (padding) between dungeons is boring, it relies too heavily on Wolf Link. The art style is underwhelming. Hyrule is empty and boring, there's no point to explore it whatsoever. The Zant twist was really disappointing. All this coming after Wind Waker came out, which is fucking amazing, was incredibly disappointing.

It's just not a memorable Legend of Zelda game. This is even more true coming from someone who ended up playing Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, A Link to the Past, Skyward Sword and A Link Between Worlds all after playing Twilight Princess. I was seriously debating picking this up and giving it another chance, but for $90 CAD I'm going to pass.

@neurogia: And then credits rol-, nope Ganon. And also Zant has to finish Ganon off by snapping his own neck or something.

I love the Zelda series and played a ton of OoT, MM, WW and the handheld games. I played through twilight princess once and never again played it. Jeff was correct when he said the game was the series at its wheel spinningest. Truthfully, I hardly remember anything about the game except that it reminded me of the earlier games that I was enjoying more. I kept doing Zelda like things in that game until it basically just... ended.

I loved fishing with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck in Twilight Princess.

I only played the Gamecube version. My first Zelda was Links Awakening, followed by Link to the Past, OoT, MM, WW, and then the game in question.

Twilight Princess is my favorite Zelda by far. Where Wind Waker's combat system felt like a half-step, TP feels like they finished that step. It's the only game in the whole franchise that has had enjoyable combat, as far as I'm concerned. The horse combat was thrilling, and while it was a bit stiff, I wasn't ever bothered by it. I suppose maybe that would be more of a bother if you felt compelled to do everything in the game, but I don't do that in Zelda, so I was unaffected. The dungeons are faaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic, and super memorable, as are most of the boss fights.

The look of the game is...tremendous. It's exactly what I want Zelda to look like. The art direction is heavily reminiscent of the 64 games, which I loved the look of. The wolf stuff wasn't great, but I don't think it was bad. The combat was fairly shallow, but you didn't spend too much time as a wolf, so I think that the depth of that mode made sense for the amount of time you spent in it.

Outstanding game. I guess I can see how some found it tiresome to "go back to the well" after MM and WW, but I disliked both of those games quite a bit, so this was a welcome reprieve. I'd be perfectly happy if every Zelda game ever made followed the 'formula'. I don't play every Zelda, so I don't experience that weariness from saturation others do.

What needs looking into...

- Link and Zelda never have sex. I like not even on the back of a unicorn or nothing...lame.

- Neither, Link nor Zelda are ever seen nude in a bathtub or in a space ship in lingerie...lame

- As near as I can tell, no Hyrule towns, villages, or cities have working brothels or strip clubs...lame.

- It is weird that despite the fact that Link uses a sword there is never any arterial spray or soaking with blood...lame.

- As near as I can tell, there have been over twenty games on various systems, they are all Rated-E or Rated-T...lame.

- It appears that every game in the main Zelda series has consisted of three principal areas: an overworld; areas of interaction with other characters (caves, cities towns) in which the player gains special items or advice; and dungeons, areas of labyrinthine layout, usually underground. It is all very rote and dull...lame.

- Players really have little control over how Link, let alone Zelda, looks. If I wanted a dark skinned female Link I'm out of luck...lame.

- RPGs are misnamed, they are not supposed to be mere role playing games, but rather role making games. Since, the player have no control over making a character, the Zelda games are rather shitty role playing games...lame.

- All the fans of the game have read this and are is some cases seething...because gamers often have no sense of humor...lame.

it's about ten hours longer than it needs to be

My biggest grievance is the real lack of personality. Both in writing and design, both the world and the characters in it feel really bland. Compared to MM and WW before it, which were full of interesting, memorable characters and situations, TP just feels like "fantasy world, also there are bad guys".

Beyond Midna and like, the Yettis, there isn't much going on. They don't even quite use what they do have. Remember how there was a band of adventurers you meet in that game, and they barely do anything of note? Compared to WW, where you get to spend so much time with other characters like Medli and Makar, who you get to team up for entire dungeons with. I just have a hard time REMEMBERING anything in TP. Nothing pops.

Also, there are mandatory fishing missions, which I consider unforgivable.

I remember enjoying it quite a bit, but I don't remember why. I guess it's just an ultimately forgettable, totally passable Zelda game. It was way better than Skytard Sword anyway. Man, I hated that one.

Its good but too long. I also skipped a tutorial bit or forgot the tutorial bit that taught you how to slay those 3 shadow beasts so when I came across them later in the game (probably months after I first played it) I rage quit because I couldn't beat them.

I like how its darker but the music is really depressing to listen to.

Honestly there's nothing I'd say I like about this game. That's not to say I dislike every aspect, I just thought when it wasn't bad it was just average. Everything about Wolf Link sucks, a lot of the dungeons are tedious, and I don't like Midna at all. The combat could have been really cool with all of the secret skills if the enemies weren't all brain dead easy, there's never a reason to go beyond the basic moveset established in Ocarina of Time so the extra moves just make an already easy game even easier. Just a really bland and forgettable experience overall with bits of tedium sprinkled throughout.

Like

• The set of dungeons ranks among the best in the series, possibly the best
• It feels a lot better to play with refined controls (something I felt Wind Waker didn't evolve enough)
• It's a lengthy adventure. Yes the beginning's too slow and the tears of light is uninteresting padding but they aren't difficult to get through. After being disappointed in the content of Wind Waker and MInish Cap I was happy with a more meat-and-potatoes approach.
• Like the look and tone of the Twilight stuff
• The art direction is a little safe, but I do like the more realistic look of the environments

Dislike

• Most of the combat is too easy. Yeah, it's been a long time since Zelda games were challenging in this regard, but there's something extra deflating about seeing bosses with big, epic intros, only to have them be total pushovers. Yeah you can go out of you're way to handicap somewhat, but the enemy AI is still pretty braindead
• Character designs: for a "realistic" Zelda game most of the characters look pretty stylized still, and don't look very good (including derpy Link). Clashes with the most realistic environment imo.
• Story starts mildly interesting, then resorts to usual "nah, Ganon did it" conventions halfway through
• MIDI sound quality doesn't sound great, doesn't do justice to the quality of the compositions
• Most towns and NPCs are lifeless and forgettable
• Even though I prefer it over Majora or WW, it does feel less inspired than those games.

I never beat it either so looking forward to playing this version.

Up to about 3/4 of the way through though, I liked:

-Characters
-Music
-Dungeons
-Art Style

And I disliked:

-Empty hyrule field
-Terrible pacing in the first half
-All of the wolf stuff.
-Story seems like it'll be unique but then is just the same old.

I picked it up having never played it upon it's initial release. Did the same with Wind Waker HD and now that's in my top 5 Zelda games. Currently I'm only 3 hours into TP and I have mixed feelings. The core Zelda gameplay that Ocarina defined so well is present and still strong. I like the art style and the slightly off-kilter tone, especially the music.

I must say though, pacing-wise the start of TP is kind of a mess. I think they were going for a cross between portraying a day in the life of Link in his village, and going through the "obtain sword and shield before establishing main conflict" thing that Ocarina did so well. In the end it feels like an uneasy compromise of the two. Slighly aimless feeling aside, I'm enjoying my time with it and I've got my green tunic on now, so I assume things are about to pick up from here!

I am playing this HD version having never played a previous iteration of this title. As of today, I have reached the lakebed temple.

The dungeons have been the best part of the game so far. @counterclockwork87, definitely , when you play as Link, it feels like Ocarina of Time 2. Given the fact that this game was a reply to a segment of the fanbase who hated Wind Waker --it makes sense. The ability to fight while riding Epona is a fun enhancement. In addition, there is a healthy amount of humor in this game (sumo wrestling!)

I'm pleased with the upgrades to the models. The motion aiming is also great with the Wii U controller. Referring to the map on the screen is a great idea, but I find that the maps themselves are pretty bare and uninteresting. There have been disorienting moments when I'm riding Epona and referencing the map on the controller, leading to use the on screen map.

Looking forward to finishing this game.

I like that the Dungeons are some of the best of the series. On the other hand I hate how they went with a safe/boring artstyle and story because quite a few idiots bitched about Wind Waker looking too cartoony.

On the whole, it was a very by-the-numbers entry in the series at a time when I was getting tired of the Zelda formula. For me at least, it was perfectly fine with no egregious flaws, but I just needed to step back from the series for a while. After skipping Skyward Sword, I'm cautiously optimistic about Breath of the Wild. But yeah, Twilight Princess was definitely a case of bad timing for me.

I remember enjoying it fine, its also the last one I played.

I just found it boring, and hated all of the wolf segments. I eventually finished it, but I was really pushing myself. It was the only Zelda game that I just didn't care about anything in it, and was relieved to be done.

Disliked it so much, that I didn't even think about giving Skyward Sword a chance, and I'm not really interested in Breath of the Wild either. I can honestly say that I hated Twilight Princess, and the only enjoyment I had with it was seeing the credits.

That fucking stupid top, man. I remember getting that thing, and thinking that the animation was dumb looking.

Just noticed that this is the same thread from before the HD re-release, so I guess I'll give a bit of an update

From 9 months ago:

Since then, I bought and played the HD remake. I didn't get very far, honestly. I eventually just gave up on it and sold it along with a bunch of my Wii U games not named Splatoon. I can't really point out one specific factor that turned me off of it. Obviously, the motion controls weren't really a factor this time around. I've never had a big problem with the art style... I think, maybe, it's the pacing that killed it for me. It feels like the game spends too much time building up towards letting you 'really' play that I felt worn out by the time it wanted to let me loose.

In contrast, I've spent a decent amount of time on the Wind Waker HD release and despite a lot of time being spent roaming around the open sea, I never once felt like the game dragged on longer than it needed to. For better or worse, I feel like the game threw 3 dungeons at me in WW in the time it took TP to introduce it's first. Maybe that's harsh, but it's the only thing that comes to mind.

The first third of the game is pretty lackluster and boring. The back 2/3 are almost as good as any 3D Zelda game. I always wish I could just start after the first 3 dungeons.