The Bad (SPOILERS)
- Awful finish. People have debated TP’s biggest flaw for DECADES, but I think this is it: the game really stumbles across the finish line. Its final two dungeons – the two worlds’ respective palaces which have been heavily built up – are arguably its worst. There is NO ****ing excuse for that. You cannot fumble the ball at the 10 yard line; not when you’re a Zelda game on like a five year development cycle. The Palace of Twilight is one of the few parts of this game that are a chore to get through, and Hyrule Castle is notably lacking in atmosphere and presence befitting its stature, especially as a final dungeon (Wind Waker’s version destroys this one). It finishes with four consecutive boss fights – three are garbage and the last is meh, redeemed largely by the fact that you can use the fishing rod to win (and I DID). The final 15% of the game just feels rushed, which is never a good sign. Debate all you want about its other flaws, but if TP had built up to a great ending like OoT, it would be far more beloved. Please note that I’m not referring to the actual ending, which is wonderful as soon as Ganon removes his ugly mug from the screen (another testament to Midna’s strength as a character). That brings me to my next gripe..
- Ganondorf. He should have never been mentioned, let alone revealed as the master villain. The game should have revolved exclusively around Midna, Zant, and a brewing war between Zelda’s world and Midna’s. Zant should have invaded, created a sealed stronghold in Hyrule Castle (that Link/Midna would have needed the Twilight Mirror to breach), and used the time Link spent finding the mirror pieces to build a strong Twilight army ready to invade the world of Hyrule. By doing this, he’d also be transforming Hyrule Castle into a grotesque Twilight hybrid, similar to what Ganon did in OoT. This creates a more epic climax, more incentive to finish the game, and hopefully turns two bad dungeons into one good one. And we didn’t even need Ganon. He seems so shoehorned in this game; I can’t believe he was a part of the original storyline. Honestly, I bet he was included at the end to satiate fanboys who wanted this to be OoT2. And I’m sorry for going all fanfiction on you guys with my own end scenario, but what we got with Ganon was so bad, that even something from the mind of a stupid fanboy would have been better. I loved the guy in OoT, but Ganon totally ruined the end of this game.
- Combat should have been harder, or at least better scaled. I actually don’t think the beginning is that easy since you only have 3 hearts and some Twilight enemies can whittle that down quickly. The problem is that Link soon beefs up and the enemies don’t. Even more complicated armored enemies still hit for pillow damage. Near the end of the game, enemies – even grunts – should be going 2+ hearts of damage per hit. I’m not sure if TP has ANY single attacks that damage for more than two hearts. I can’t even remember if the Darknuts hit that hard. I came closer to dying in the beginning than I did during the entire Cave of Ordeals. Learn to scale damage and difficulty, Nintendo.
- The final light tears quest (Lanayru province) was way too long and frustrating. The first two are brief and confined to small areas, so they’re no big deal, but this one is huge and takes forever. This is probably the game’s biggest pace killer.
- As the game’s biggest collectibles, the 60 Poe souls should have been better implemented. There’s freakin’ 60 of em, so restricting their appearance to night is so unnecessary. Why force players to just wait around? I understand that OoT had 100 Skulltulas (most of which only appeared at night), but OoT also allowed you to transition between day and night at will. In TP, your only option is to just kill time before resuming the hunt. As a big collector, this annoyed me. Also, they should have followed OoT’s example by marking off completed Poe areas on the map. No reason not to, right?