Everyone has their own bias towards The Legend of Zelda franchise, and rightfully so. With 15 official games across all of Nintendo’s platforms it’s one of Nintendo’s most popular and best selling franchises. Every fan has their own favourite, and considering the title of this article, yep, Twilight Princess is definitely mine!
This week the universe gifted me with a rare few days off work, and of course what’s a better way to spend your time off than playing one of your favourite games? I busted out that Wii U and set that baby up faster than you can say “Oh Princess, My Princess”. And oh my God, right from the first title screen was I completely sucked back in!
Like most people, Twilight Princess wasn’t the first Zelda game I’d played. I started out with Ocarina of Time and quickly moved onto Majora’s Mask once I’d completed it. While I enjoyed both of those classics, the love for the series didn’t hit me until I played Twilight Princess. I’d even stumbled across it by chance! I’d somehow found a playlist on YouTube of a let’s play of the game. I still remember the moment, after watching the first few minutes (and skipping ahead a few videos to check out the actual game play) that had me searching my local CEX to see if they had a copy because in my head was a constant mantra of “Oh my God, I need to play this game!”
Even now, a few years later and I’m still taken aback and speechless over how utterly beautiful Twilight Princess is! The colour scheme and palette that runs throughout the entire game is gorgeous, blows me away every time! It’s something the creators spent so much time and detail on, making it consistent through the whole game. So many deep shades, mosey greens and browns, combined with a slight pop of colour here and there to really bring the world of Hyrule and the Twilight Realm to life! It’s that muted colour palette that ties everything together coherently in the game, and it’s touches like that that really stand out to me.
Something else I always love when I go back and replay Twilight Princess (which is more than I care to admit, spoilers, it’s a lot), is the game’s soundtrack. Even if it hadn’t been my favourite game in the series, it would still have one of my favourite game soundtracks of all time. Toru Minegishi, Asuka Ota and Koji Kondo did a phenomenal job with the game’s OST! Between the three of them, the official OST is completely jam packed with six hours of beautiful, relaxing and exhilarating tracks. If you’ve never listened to the soundtrack outside of the game I highly recommend it! It’ll bring back a wave of nostalgia and euphoria and you’ll feel lighter than before.
I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about this game, how could I? Especially when there’s a host of exploring and fighting and even an entire village of just cats! Cats that Link can play with, pick up and hold! Like come on, what more could you even want in the middle of a Zelda game, am I right? Again, it’s the tiny details like that, or the side quests of catching golden bugs for a young princess, snowboarding with a yeti, etc, that have me delighted to pick up my old controller and nunchuk again and playing through Twilight Princess again and again.
And if my crazed rambling hasn’t convinced you to go back and play it too, or perhaps play it for the first time, I recommend checking out Eurogamer‘s video ‘Why you should have played Twilight Princess‘ and maybe you too can help keep Hyrule safe and peaceful!
Just perpetually screaming about fictional boys
