Zelda Impressions
This week I started playing Zelda: Twilight Princess. My initial reaction was that although the graphics are very good, I immediately missed the clarity of HD. Despite that the art design of Zelda is always impeccable and this almost makes up for the lack of resolution and textures.
This aspect of the graphics is one reason why I felt the cell-shaded style of Zelda: Wind Waker worked perfectly for a lower powered system. Instead of relying on the processing power necessary to create bump mapping and more detailed textures, the game simply "draws" the textures as part of the cell shaded art. While not as graphically complex as true textures, the end result is still stunning. In TP the realistic look of the art style almost degrades the graphics quality by its aforementioned lack of high end textures. This is especially evident when playing in the "alternate universe" of the Twilight Realm. When in these areas of the game, the lighting effects are less realistic and instead everything has a sort of eerie glow (similar to the look of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time). This different lighting has the effect of softening the jagged edges of the graphics and is much more visually appealing.
The gameplay in Zelda is also awesome with good variety even in the early stages of the game that I have reached. The free aim mechanic using the Wiimote is a great improvement over the previous method which used a joystick. Swinging the sword using the Wiimote is taking some time to get used to, but I have no aversion to it.
I am still pretty early on in the game, which by all accounts is rather long, so perhaps my impressions will change as I progress.
Comments
Posted by: bob
Posted on: March 9, 2007 12:18 PM
Have you played EQ2, WoW, or any other PC based role-playing game? Fear perhaps?
I curious as to the graphics of Zelda vs. current PC games.
I played a little of Gears with a friend, the gameplay was a little weak but the game mechanics were very well thought-out.
Posted by: Joe Caldwell
Posted on: March 9, 2007 02:50 PM
Bob:
I have not played Everquest, WoW, or Fear. But I do play PC games. Most recently I have been playing Half-Life 2 (which I have yet to finish) and Day of Defeat: Source.
I would put the graphics of Zelda: TP as roughly equal if not better than those of a very good GameCube game (Metroid Prime, Beyond Good & Evil, Resident Evil 4). This is to be expected since it was originally developed for the GC. Also it is unfair to compare Zelda: TP to Gears or current PC games since the Wii only runs at max resolution of 480P (720x480) vs. the 720P (1280x720) of the Xbox360 or whatever resolution your computer can output (in my case I use 1280x1024).
That said, I think that Zelda: TP looks great, and the graphics don't detract from the experience. I was merely making the obvious point that HD graphics look better than non-HD graphics.
Posted by: Dave
Posted on: May 17, 2008 11:23 AM
I love Zelda! whenever I'm away from home I play it here Free Online Games
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Posted on: September 23, 2008 06:08 AM
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