Archives for the Month of June 2007 on media addict
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Last night I finally beat Zelda: Twilight Princess. Since starting the game in February it has taken me over 40 hours to finish the game and I by no means have 100% completion. This is the third Zelda game that I have beaten and while not my favorite it is definitely up there. I absolutely loved Ocarina of Time and I liked Wind Waker a lot as well.
Twilight Princess is in some ways a cross between the two (the style and story arc of Ocarina and the scale of Wind Waker). This game took everything great about Ocarina and reproduced it on a grand scale; bigger map, more items, new swordplay mechanics, and bigger boss fights. If I have any gripe about Twilight Princess it's that the pacing between dungeons, especially later in the game is somewhat lacking. Earlier in the game you are required to do more side quests and exploration between dungeons. Later, you more or less go straight from one dungeon to the next. In Ocarina, in between some of the dungeons were mini-dungeons which did not have keys or maps or compasses, like the large dungeons, but by completing them you obtained some necessary item or skill. I think Twilight Princess is so cinematic in nature it would have benefited from more plot oriented mini-dungeons and a couple less full-sized dungeons.
That said I think the best parts of Twilight Princess are that it creates an enormous living world with a huge amount of content to explore; this was also one of my favorite aspects of Wind Waker. I know a lot of people got tired of all the sailing in that game, but I liked how it created one seamless world where you could get on your boat and sail to an island and go exploring. Twilight Princess achieves a similar affect on land, I especially love the perspective you get when on one of the high bridges (like the one over Lake Hylia).
The swordplay afforded by the wiimote is also an enormous addition to that game. This new gameplay combined with the hidden skills that can be learned add dimensions to every fight, especially those with the heavily armored knights that you encounter later in the game. The boss fights are also some of the best of any Zelda game. The bosses aren't just big, they are huge and the methods required to defeat them are very creative. This is a great game with a great story that anyone who can should play.
Overlord Demo
After trying the Overlord demo I have to say I was underwhelmed. The concept was intriguing (a Pikmin-esque game in a Fable-esque setting). That said it wasn't executed very well. Graphically it looked fairly mediocre; it looked a lot like the last-gen game Fable. It was also very linear in its level design. I think this game would have worked better if instead of requiring your minions to do tasks like moving objects and the like (similar to Pikmin), they should have created a more open game world like in Zelda and give you different game regions to explore and wreak havoc using your minions in a generic strategic way. As the game stands, you walk on a set path encountering set obstacles and enemies along the way. Pretty boring.