Top 5 Legend of Zelda Games: #4

4. Twilight Princess

Twilight Princess for me is the game that feels the most like Ocarina of Time, strangely more so than even Majora’s Mask, a sequel with the same incarnation of Link as the protagonist and very similar visual style.
This is in many ways a very good thing and in ways a bad thing. From the off, the game is intensely reminiscent of OOT, with this Link living in a secluded forest town in a tree with a ladder up to the entrance. Ordon Village brings to mind the Shire just as Kokiri Forest did for me, a green haven nestled far away from the troubles of the world but with just as much ultimately at stake because against the threat at hand, nowhere is really safe.

The homes of the Gorons and Zoras make a welcome return to this game along with Epona, your trusty steed.
I agree with the sentiment I’ve seen voiced a lot that there doesn’t feel like there’s much reason to explore the game’s world, given that large expanses of it are totally bare save for a handful of enemies.
The callbacks to Ocarina of Time were something that definitely left me with mixed feelings, some of them hitting the mark and others leaving me feeling like they were a little bit needlessly recycled. An example of one that completely hit was seeing Ganondorf’s silhouette on the back of his horse with flames rising up behind him. I’m getting chills even thinking about that moment.

The new addition to this game that was the most excellent for me was Midna. Midna is great, her attitude and chemistry with Link were second to none in terms of companion characters in Zelda. The way she playfully talked about how the world looked nicer in twilight anyway never fails to make me smirk, and any time she gave Link a hard time or jokingly mocked his failed attempts at things but in the end having a real genuine concern for him added a cool new dimension to proceedings.

The sections of the game where Link is transformed into a wolf were absolutely inspired in my opinion. I can totally see where people are coming from when they say they didn’t like those sections, that they found the gameplay boring. For me it hit the mark perfectly, those sections feeling just restrictive enough and just long enough to make you start to yearn to be back in human form, a feeling that I’m sure was intentional on the part of the devs, helping you into Link’s shoes (or paws) even more than usual.

It feels like I’m going to use this sentence a lot but the music in this game is as always superb. It’s perhaps the game in the series with the least memorable main theme but the eerie sounds of the twilight realm make up for that in spades. The vaguely digital sounding music when enemies trapped you and edged closer to you really enhanced the sense of dread in a noticeable way.

In the end I was left with quite a few little niggling complaints about the game but overall it was an epic grand adventure, one I was very happy to have gone on.

I know you have bugs…/10