It’s always baffled me that so many people are vehemently opposed to the idea that someone could like The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I reckon most people feel this way for one of two reasons: a) the motion controls are a bit janky on account of it being a Wii launch title, or b) Zelda games are often judged by the age you were when you first played them, meaning that Twilight Princess was loads of people’s fifth Zelda game, but loads of other people’s first one.
I can acknowledge that the Nunchuk configuration was a bit shite – Link’s Crossbow Training was better, eh? – although the second reason is a bigger point of contention for me. I turned 11 six days before Twilight Princess launched, but I’d already played Oracle of Seasons, Ocarina of Time, The Wind Waker, Majora’s Mask, A Link to the Past & Four Swords, and Minish Cap before that. Twilight Princess wasn’t Baby’s First Zelda Game, and I’d played enough Zelda titles at that point to know whether or not this one was fit to be considered alongside the rest. Aye, I was 11, and a great big eejit of an 11-year-old at that, but I’ve replayed Twilight Princess several times since and if anything, I only liked it more after doing so.
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“Nostalgia!” I hear someone say. If that was the case, then all of the above Zelda games would be in the same boat, but they’re not. I mean, speaking of boats, our own Dave Aubrey wrote about how overrated The Wind Waker was a few months ago, and do you know what? He’s dead right. It’s good, but it’s not that good – take your claims of nostalgia bias and throw them in The Wind Waker’s sea, which I’m not particularly interested in revisiting. Oracle is okay, Ocarina is incredible, Majora’s Mask is the best Zelda game ever made, A Link to the Past & Four Swords are… forgettable, and Minish Cap is – like Twilight Princess – enormously underrated. Is it because it’s Capcom Zelda? Probably, although I’ll die on the hill that Vaati is a million times more compelling than Ganon at his best.
I’m not here to talk about Minish Cap, though – I’ve already done that multiple times. I’m here to argue that Twilight Princess is one of Zelda’s brightest and boldest games. Well, it’s not literally bright, but you know what I mean – it’s brave. It takes ages for it to ramp up the pace, but when Ordon Village is so lovely to explore, who even cares about that? The wolf sections are a bit difficult to adjust to at first, but by the end of the game they’ve become one of Zelda’s best ever gimmicks. The environmental design is still unparalleled, I reckon, to the extent that I still think the forests infested with Dark Fog are more visually distinct than Breath of the Wild’s Malice, and the Twilight Realm itself is stunning in the most weirdly confronting way. Last time I revisited it I was like, okay, this is Anor Londo but way more inspired, plus it came out five years before Dark Souls, so… That’s before we get to Midna, one of the best companions Link ever had, and before we even mention that the story in Twilight Princess trumps approximately 80 percent of the narratives in the entire mainline series. Also, Skull Kid is back. Skull Kid! There’s a reason the only other games he appears in are Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask – Skull Kid doesn’t bother showing up unless the game is a certified banger.
I already wrote about how I can’t wait for people to re-evaluate their view on Twilight Princess once it comes to Switch – which it inevitably will – and, to be honest, I spent a lot of time explaining why I love the game so much in that article, too. I love the music, I love the aesthetic, I love the level design, I love the enemies – look, I love the entire premise of this weird emo Zelda game. I think Nintendo loves it, too, for what it’s worth – when I wrote my ode to Tingle a few months ago, I mentioned how even though Nintendo knew the infamous fairy was hated in the US, it put in a more serious, grounded version of him to make sure he wasn’t completely absent. Also, there are loads of Twilight Princess references in Breath of the Wild – arguably more than any other Zelda game. I mean, the final boss is literally Dark Beast Ganon – guess what the only other game he appeared in was? Twilight Princess, duh!
I love Zelda. I’ve played every single mainline game and I know more about this series than I do about, like, maths, or languages, or science. I wrote a great big 2,000-word breakdown of the Breath of the Wild 2 E3 trailer less than two hours after it came out, for God’s sake – and once that was done, I reversed it and started trying to make a case for why Nintendo definitely wanted us to do that. Zelda is in my top five video game series of all time, and Twilight Princess is in my top five Zelda games – maybe even top three. I resent the idea that people who claim to like this series can dismiss it as bad without even making a decent argument about why that’s the case. I don’t mean you can’t dislike it – I’m sure plenty of people reckon Twilight Princess is rubbish and can articulate why they personally believe that brilliantly. But there are loads of people who just seem to moan about it aimlessly, and when you ask them, “Alright, why’s it bad then?” they’re just like, “Ugh, Twilight Princess is so shit.” I know, bud, I heard you – but why do you think that? I can tell you ten, 20 reasons off the top of my head explaining why this is one of my favourite Zelda games. If you’re going to take the piss out of it, at least come up with something better than “Midna’s boring” (she’s not) or “the controls are bad” (which, sure, in some cases, but that’s the case with loads of legacy Nintendo games lol).
Simply put, Twilight Princess is brilliant. If you agree with me, you’re one of the good ones.
