The legend of Zelda is one of the most famous and arguably greatest game series of all time, and Twilight Princess is one of my personal favourite games of all time. While initially successful, the game has afterwards received some backlash for different reasons;mainly because some people think it's this game that first started to formulate the series, but I'm trying to make an honest review of what I thought when I first played through the game. Let's begin.


Graphics:  Twilight Princess contains one of the best graphics that have ever been on Nintendo game in my opinion.  When I first entered the Hyrule fields in the light world I could barely contain my excitement. Everything seemed so rich in detail and organic, that I just wanted to wander round and see what all there is to find. Every enemy and character seems realistic and colorful, without entering the dreaded Uncanny valley. Some people have expressed some complaint about them, especially when compared to the more cartoony graphics of the previous entry in the series: The wind waker, but I really have to disagree. I still can't think of a game that looks as visually pleasing as this one; even when compared to some Hyper-realistic shooters that would later show up on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Sound: Legend of Zelda has always been renowned of their sound and music, and Twilight Princess is no exception. Every single dungeon and house has a perfect match in it's music and overall feeling. Still I can't quite give the game full points, mainly because it has so large shoes to fill. While music is aesthetically excellent, it just isn't quite as memorable as that of Ocarina of Time's (which I think has the greatest soundtrack all time alongside Super metroid and FF7) or even Wind wakers.

Addictiveness: It's top notch. I can play this game over and over and it always feels as great. Even after completing the main story I can still collect Pieces of heart, and Poe souls, and even they don't feel like I'm just trying to get the mandatory 100 %, like is often the case. Again I can't give it a complete 10 just because there are even more addicting games such as Pokémon. This is damn near perfection, but I like to give the game a 10 if I really think there is absolutely nothing that can top it. 

Story: It's rather good. There's not very much moments that really keep you awake thinking at night, but the characters are likable and interesting. While the game is rather straightforward as Zelda games often are I really was interested in how things would turn out, and the game even managed to give some surprises and plot twists. There are some legitimately interesting cut scenes and back story, but I don't think anyone truly plays this game because they want to know the story. Still I think that there's quite a beautiful balance between storytelling and game play, so that you're always interested about the place both in terms of game play and story.

Depth: In a usual Zelda manner there's quite a lot to do. Between dungeons you're playing side quests or searching town in hope of Pieces of heart, bottles, rupees, new attacks etc. One thing I have to make a slight complaint about is that, there's not as much reward in completing side quests as you would hope. There's of course pieces of heart which always bring slight pleasure upon finding, but for example there's collecting bugs which mostly just gives you more rupees. Outside the ultimate armor there's not really anything that's too expensive to buy, so you may wish for some meatier surprises. Of course there are also tutorials that teach you new moves that can be used in battles, but mostly you know that the best battle equipment comes from the dungeons. Perhaps if there were some elemental upgrades that could be incorporated in your armor and weaponry so you could gain some slight tactical advantages they'd feel actually useful but who knows. There would then probably be complaints that they don't fit in the Zelda universe, or that they're really unnecessary RPG-elements, and I could even agree depending on how they would be implemented. Anyway it's not really anything that feels like an actual flaw but just something I thought.

Difficulty: The game is really quite easy. I think I only died few times on my first play through and even then it was mostly because of some bosses, whose strategies I knew for the second battle. Some may wish that there was more challenge but I don't know. Maybe I'm just too soft core for video games but I didn't really think that the game needed to be more challenging. If I want to keep on dying I'll play Super meat boy or classic Nintendo games from NES era. 

Overall: I think every gamer has that one game which defines what they want video games to be, and I think this just may be it for me. Like I said in the beginning, there are a lot of complaints that this game plays just like Ocarina of Time with revamped graphics and dungeons and on some level I may agree, but I really don't care. This game is just so much fun to play that to me it feels like the same as complaining that Jimi Hendrix's All along the watchtower is just a cover of Bob Dylans original. So yeah, I definitely recommend it to anyone.