Woods of Mystery

It’s fair to say that Twilight Princess has had its fair share of hype. It has proven to be the most anticipated Zelda title since the mighty Ocarina of Time, and with good reason. To the delight of many fans, it retains the graphical style of the Ocarina/Majora era and improves upon this basic style with various aesthetical enhancements such as an improved frame rate and more realistic lighting and particle effects.

Now that’s all well and good, but ask pretty much any Zelda player which aspect matters to them most and the answer remains consistent. “Gameplay!” they cry at the tops of their voices. But, before delving right into this arguably dominant factor head first, I’m going to talk about the music.

“Music?” you say. “But how can you talk about music that you haven’t even heard yet?” Well, in answer to this, I can’t. But I can speculate…

It has already been stated that some, if not all, areas of the game will have fully orchestrated music. While it remains to be seen how effective this is in conjunction with the visuals, I find it difficult to imagine it being anything other than a boon to the game. The music has always been consistently high in terms of quality in Zelda games and composer Koji Kondo is one of the most respected in his field.

It seems likely that at least a small amount of past tunes will appear as they have done before or perhaps in remixed form. However a lot rests on the success of the completely new music, unique to Twilight Princess. It is this that will truly give the game its own character and charm and set it aside from previous instalments.

Next up is longevity. Just how long will the game take to complete? Official statements have confirmed that the game will take around 100 hours to complete (side quests included.) This makes it easily the longest Zelda game ever, dwarfing even Ocarina of Time, and what is more one of the longest games of all time. Length is not the only dramatic increase either; it has been said that almost everything, right down to enemies and characters, has increased in size. Forget the Hyrule Field you saw in Ocarina of Time, this one really will be epic!

Temples will be as prominent as ever in Twilight Princess. It has been confirmed that there will be more temples than Ocarina of Time and that the themes will take a break from the ‘Forest’, ‘Fire’, ‘Water’, etc. ones of old. Instead, it has been hinted that some will be based around animals (such as the one inhabited by monkeys shown in one of the game trailers.) Whilst this will likely prove a refreshing change, I must admit I was quite a fan of the more ‘elemental’ approaches set by other games in the series. Then again, if they are short on ideas, it makes little sense to regurgitate what has already gone before.

Ok, so the temples are the meat and potatoes by the looks of it. That’s to be expected and is more than ok by me. I love the combination of puzzles, battles and exploration they offer. But what else will be on offer? Well, you can expect the usual periods of free exploration, non-linear gameplay (that word again), and of course the ever-popular side quests.

One returning side quest we know of is the fishing one, seen in other games like Ocarina of Time and Link’s Awakening. I for one am looking forward to this, albeit not quite as much as beating up some bad guys.

So then, to the thorny issue of gameplay. “Can Twilight Princess really match up to Ocarina of Time?” seems to be the question passing through a lot of lips at present. My answer, whilst irritatingly predictable, is the only one I can give right now: “Wait and see…” Until we have the completed game, I don’t think anyone can say for sure.

To a large extent, we already know what to expect from the various trailers, screenshots, interviews, etc. However, it is all in the execution. Nintendo needs everything to be ‘just so’ to have any hope of ousting Ocarina out of many fans’ No. 1 spots.

The good news is, the signs are looking promising. First in line are the frequent delays; although they are frustrating to fans and creators alike they are done for a reason – to improve the game. Ask yourself this: “Would I rather have a great game now or an exceptional game later?” If, like me, you favour the latter then you will no doubt see the reward for your patience in the finished product.