Please Convince me to finish Zelda: Twilight Princess
I'm about 10 hours in, and it still hasn't gripped me. I've ran into a couple confusing "where do I go now" moments that just smack of bad level design and direction, and those bumps in the road have turned me off from playing. I couldn't even tell you the basic gist of the story, even that hasn't clicked yet. I know there's a good game in there, but it sure is making me work for it. I almost tossed it on my "to trade in for Rock Band" pile but I couldn't bring myself to it. I thought maybe a year apart from it would do the trick, but no dice. I spun up the disc and started back tracking all over the place unable to find where to go, mindlessly digging doggy holes in frustration.
So where do I turn in my Gamer Badge? I need some motivation. Please tell me it becomes fun at the 15 hour mark.
Dude. If you ain't getting it after 10 hours, cut your losses and send the game to me. Karla wants to finish it ... again
Yeah, it's scary. I'm staring into the abyss right now, and it's staring into me, which I think is kind of a dick move on the abyss's part. - Nyles
I too have yet to finish the game. I've always been a huge Zelda fan but I think I've outgrown the series. This one just seems really childish, dumbed down, and just not challenging. I'm also tired of reading hours and hours of subtitles and don't feel compelled to finish the second half of the game. *starts to hand gamer badge over*
Eagerly awaiting GTA IV
What Certis said. I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish, but if you haven't enjoyed from hour 0 to hour 10, I doubt you'll like the rest.
Xbox Live: StaatsM
I haven't finished the game either. I know I was really close to the end but I could not push myself for those last few hours. It's quite a long game and I made myself hunt every little hidden thing in the game up to that point and I think that got me bored of the whole thing.
I still plan to finish it *someday* though.
XBL/PSN Gamertag: KillTrash
How far in are you? The first 4-5 hours is typical tutorial-as-gameplay stuff which isn't brilliant fun, but once you're past that, it's almost overloaded with classic, top-notch Zelda dungeon gameplay. My only complaint by the end of it was that it seemed like fan service -- the complaints about the overworld questing in Wind Waker have been addressed by adding almost too much dungeon play, and instead of the creative reinvention of the classic Zelda story that we saw in the Wind Waker, it looks and feels like an Ocarina remake.
If you are getting stuck though, remember: there's no shame in looking up a walkthrough. I remember getting stuck at one point where I needed to use an ability that it just didn't occur to me to use, and without looking it up, I'm not sure I'd have ever worked it out.
Xbox Live: pneuman
My 10 hours may not be a good indicator, those might have been idle hours along the way. I'm at the point where I'm near a bunch of geysers, after I just finished howling a song to a (girl?) wolf atop a cliff. And that black ghost monkey thing on my back never gives me hints when I need them most. I usually end up at some dead end of a path, or running in circles hoping something sticks out. Might be time to consult a dummy faq
I do dig the combat and controls, that is spot on.
XBL: Swat R2 PSN: swatr2
Wow... sniff... I thought *I* was the only one!
xbox LIVE: NatsuMatto
I thought it was pretty mediocre too. Don't bother.
The man wears a bucket of KFC on his head. I wouldn't expect anything less. - Pred
I spent the first 10 hours or more with Twilight Princess in complete ecstasy. Everything just felt so polished and tight, and I was really digging on the new character, Minda.
Then something just happened where everything fell flat. I suddenly found myself bored and started noticing lots of cracks in the surface. Empty environments, bland textures, text dialogue, silly bleeps and bloops that took the place of normal voices. It's as if the weight on Nintendo's archaic design choices and console limitations suddenly dropped on me like a ton of bricks.
It was fun while it lasted, but I didn't have the stamina to push through it.
Oh well.
If we have to convince you to play a game that you still don't like after ten hours, just give it up. Seriously. After that amount of time not liking it, you're not going to like it any more after another ten.
Xbox Live: dhelor (though I don't actually HAVE an Xbox)
"Dhelor + intarwebs = Great ideas." - wordsmythe
"Do I what I do: hate everyone." - Quintin_Stone
Whoops, my bad -- didn't see that you said you were 10 hours in, even though it was the first thing you mentioned. Everyone's right on the money though -- if you're not enjoying it yet, I doubt you ever will.
Xbox Live: pneuman
This is not a thinly veiled attempt to stir up any negative feelings towards the game. I really do want to like it. I want YOU to tell me why YOU liked it. I want to know if you experienced any holy crap, this game is so freaking great, it has etched itself into the headboard of my gaming history moments. I've played many games past 10 hours where they just started to click, and loved them. Some of them just take a little more tender love and care, with a pinch of faith.
XBL: Swat R2 PSN: swatr2
For me, it didn't have any moments like that at all. The story was vaguely interesting in a couple of places, but it's all pretty predictable, and even in terms of the gameplay there's not a lot you haven't seen before.
The game's strength is that it has a lot of dungeons, and they're all quite well designed, so there's hour after hour after hour of polished, classic Zelda gameplay on offer. I did find the start to be slow, but by the 10 hour mark I was loving every minute of it, even if it's not as inventive and cleverly self-referential as The Wind Waker was. If you're not feeling it by now, I don't think there's anything coming in the next 30-40 hours that'll change your mind.
Xbox Live: pneuman
I don't think I even made it that far. I beat the first dungeon last fall and then put it away. Like others, I just wasn't feeling it. I know I wasn't really giving it a fair chance by not pushing far past the extended tutorial opening, but really, Nintendo, if you're going to make a game that trades so heavily on nostalgia, you should at least give me a button to push to tell you that I know this all already and let me skip to the good part.
Xbox Live: fourdswisschees
ICO: 4dSwissCheese
I think I enjoyed it more not having played Ocarina, because from what everyone has said it copied a lot of the same ideas.
So why did I like it? I dunno. The Wii controls were good, I thought the level design was actually pretty damn good (didn't get stuck much), the weapons and items were well implemented, and the art style just appealed to me. The plot was meh, but I wasn't expecting Bioshock. The only holy crap moment was probably the sky dungeon which I thought was fantastic, but that's later on in the game.
I did beat the game, and though I thought it was about 10 hours too long (Took me 40 hours, collecting all the heart pieces) I still thought it was a high quality action-rpg experience that I don't regret and would play again over a myriad of other games out there.
I'd suggest trying it a bit longer and just using gamefaqs or whatever when you get stuck - there is no shame in that. If you still aren't digging on it without the whole frustration aspect hampering you, it's not going to do anything for you. I find that by looking up the answer to a couple of questions here and there, it's just an easier way to learn how the devs want you to solve puzzles than banging your head against the wall time and time again.
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
When you finish Twilight Princess, your penis gains two inches. Seriously. That should convince you.
I completely love the game. So much that I got everything. Every heart piece, every secret area, every fish. Every treasure chest. You know how you open a chest with 20 rupees inside and you already have too many rupees so it puts the 20 rupees back in the chest and leaves them there? I dumped my rupees and went back to old dungeons to get those.
Oddly enough, I have yet to finish Phantom Hourglass. I love the snot out of that game, too, but it makes me left hand fall asleep. Actually, every handheld Zelda makes my left hand fall asleep, no matter how I hold the system and no matter what system it's played on. No other handheld game does it, though.
Anyway, I love Twilight Princess, but it's not revolutionary. It's standard, awesome Zelda. There are some new things, such as the wolf thing, and the spinny disc thing you ride along tracks in the walls. Trying to jump from track to track around a giant room to reach the next area is awesome! And the Yeti house! You make soup, and then you get a massive ball and chain that you swing around to kill everything forever! And two clawshots! You can fly around like clumsy Spiderman! And Ooccoo nightmares! Why is the Ooccoo baby just a head with wings!? How does it pee!?
I usually just shriek like a banshee and start ripping off all of my clothes, but I was never very good at math.
My brother bought me the original Zelda for GBA for my b-day a few years back, and the difference between the original and the modern games is pretty stark. First of all, the game is hard. I blew through the latest DS game with hardly a second thought to any of the puzzles or enemies, and was thoroughly bored throughout. The original, on the other hand, constantly challenged both my dexterity and cranial capacity. What's more, it was actually fun to be playing a Zelda game again. What Zelda needs isn't a reinvention. It needs a return to its roots.
Occasionally
I get the urge to write out
a stupid haiku
I'm not sure I'd want to go all the way back, but I'd definitely like to play another Zelda game that's more like A Link to the Past. Hell, every game should be more like A Link to the Past.
Xbox Live: pneuman
I'll come over and play it for you. We live in the same city.
Elysium wrote:
Danjo wrote:
Twilight Princess is a good game, and I spent a ton of time getting every little item and heartpiece. However, I wouldn't consider it as highly as some people. I enjoy Zelda games, and the original The Legend of Zelda is an absolute classic, but even Ocarina of Time bored me a bit more than I would have liked.
Dual-wielded hookshots.... 'nuff said.
Quote:
But dhelor brings up a good point. If you don't like it after ten hours, chances are you won't ever like it. And that's okay. The great thing about the Zelda series - and most of the Nintendo franchises - is that each game is its own creature, and you will like some and not like others. 10 hours is already more than I would have given a game - gaming supposed to be fun, not a job; if I'm not interested in the first five minutes, I don't keep playing.
I tried to like Twilight Princess, but after fiddling with the controls for about five minutes or so, I had no real interest in playing it (definitely watched Sleipnir play it though - not going to pass up a chance to stare at Hot Link for 20+ hours
). But when I popped in Phantom Hourglass, I fell in love. You can't wrench that game from my meathooks with a crowbar, and I'm purposely doing every last damn miniquest just so the experience doesn't have to end.
"Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you, Kat. You." - Haakon7
My Website v. 3.0
Play Phantom Hourglass. It has the feel of Link to the Past, with all the temples and sidequests (and a shovel! My god, the shovel!). But it also pulls a little from the original Legend of Zelda (especially with the enemies - Ropes that bumrush you, Like Likes that steal your shield, etc.) and Wind Waker, with that indescribable feeling of wonder and loneliness you experience once you first got the boat and started to sail around the empty ocean. Plus, Phantom Hourglass is a lot easier than Twilight Princess, and relies more on puzzle solving than fetch quests. You might dig it.
"Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you, Kat. You." - Haakon7
My Website v. 3.0
Where you are swat, it hasn't picked up yet. TP seemed to take forever to get going. It is also somewhat unforgiving of memory lapses due to non-playing (i.e. "Where the hell am I supposed to be going again?")
That said, I really didn't think it was a great game. It was a good game, and it was very Zelda. There just wasn't that "pop" moment.
Did you play and/or finish Ocarina? As Dysplastic pointed out, it is very similar, just with a longer setup and a little bit more slogging. If you liked Ocarina, then this game will click.
Not really. I think of Twilight Princess as 'distilled essence of Zelda'; they took all the stuff that people liked from the other versions, carved away everything that people didn't like, and then boiled it down into a reduction that fit into the Gamecube's limited memory. If you like prior Zeldas, you'll probably like it a lot, but if you don't care for it at 10 hours, you're probably not going to. There aren't any wild special surprises in store. There's some fun bits and some fairly memorable dungeons, but fundamentally it's not really 'new', it's the same old stuff. (I thought Wind Waker was much better.)
Now, if you want a game that starts a little slow, but opens up and becomes freaking wonderful after 10 hours, check out Okami on the PS2, or on the Wii when it ships. That one fits what you're asking for perfectly. But Zelda? Naw, it's not really going to get any better.
Groves giveth, and Gates taketh away.
Swat if you are really thinking of getting rid of it sell it to me. I've been looking for a used copy for awhile and lost out many ebay auctions.
Actually I think Okami is even slower than Twilight Princess. I played the first 6 hours of TP on the gamecube and I'm about 10 hours in on Okami. So I'm kind of in the same boat Swat is. Okami looks and plays well but it just seems to be missing something to me. I know I will finish it eventually but it definitely feels like I am trying to make myself like it as this point. Also knowing I have about 20-30 hours left in Okami really puts a damper on it.
That central temple, with its timed stealth sections, was a crime against nature, but apart from that I'd definitely agree -- I had a great time with Phantom Hourglass, and I thought its use of the DS was very clever.
Xbox Live: pneuman
I played Okami for about an hour or so and had real trouble getting over the annoying, high-pitched speech in the game. Does that make me a bad person? Does the amount of annoying chatter fall off after a few hours?
Xbox Live: pneuman
No the annoying chatter keeps up from what I've played. It is a bit of a turn off that they decided to go that way for the "voices". I'd almost prefer just plain text instead of the animal crossing type jibberish they speak.
I fell in to the same type of funk with Twilight as well. I started it up and played for about 6-8 hours and it just didn't grip me. Then I came back to it on a rainy day and played another 12 hours straight. I totally got hooked and had several "one more dungeon" moments where I had to convince myself to get to bed. So, it is possible that it may suck you into the awesomeness that Hyrule has available if you keep plugging away. I recommend taking a short break for a say or two, and then come back to the game with a fresh perspective.
And remember... dual hookshots.. they are calling.
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