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Friday, February 19, 2016

The Additions to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Featuring amiibo and better textures! Yay?

One of the first things we learned about how The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD would be different than its 2006 release was that it would feature less Tears of Light to collect in certain areas. That means that, at first news, the HD remaster would actually have less content than before. I didn't have any problem with how many Tears of Light there were to collect! Just because some were hard to find doesn't mean there's necessarily a quantity issue.

I could've published an article just on that a month ago berating the development of the HD remaster. It's developed by the Australian Tantalus Media and not Grezzo, the company that's done the 3DS remakes for the two The Legend of Zelda series Nintendo 64 games. Tantalus has been behind such games like SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger, Pony Friends, Funky Barn, Men in Black II: Alien Escape, and Pony Friends 2. There's nothing wrong with shovelware contract work in theory. After all, someone's gotta develop it, and if it pays well and you can feed your family, then what's the issue?

Agent J Men in Black II Alien Escape Nintendo GameCube Will Smith
The hell? Is THAT supposed to be Agent J? What did they do to you?
Taken from Tantalus's own website, Men in Black II: Alien Escape on the Nintendo GameCube.

It pays well for Tantalus, but do these games play well for customers? According to game reviewers... no.

That'd be an easy story: Nintendo trusts remaster of beloved game in beloved franchise to bottom-tier developer, with Reggie Fils-Aime stating that Tantalus “has a great record with ports.” Said developer proceeds to gut the actual game by cutting content.

Nice narrative, right? But it's, on the whole, not true. And that became apparent as we waited a little longer for more news. Now we know there are things like Hero Mode unlockable from the start, which doubles the damage from enemies and makes hearts a scarcity. There's also the Ghost Lantern to make Poe-hunting easier. (I didn't think it was hard...)

There's also a new dungeon unlockable with the Wolf Link/Midna amiibo (remember: The game has a bundle you can buy when it's released in March 4, 2016 where you can buy it with the amiibo) that is basically another floor-by-floor fight dungeon where you gotta play as Wolf Link, similar to the Cave of Ordeals. But it's called the Cave of Shadows!


The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Wii U Gamepad real-time weapon change
Genji: Days of the Blade revolutionised real-time weapon change ten years ago, when Twilight Princess first came out!

The game also has real-time weapon change. I dunno why that's a big deal. I'd rather pause the game and take my time picking my weapon than leave myself open while touching the bottom screen.

If the Wolf Link amiibo wasn't enough, you can lamely use your other Zelda-related amiibo to restore arrows, hearts, or use Ganondorf to make enemies do even more damage to you! PLUS, there's collectible Miiverse stamps!

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Wii U GameCube Wii graphics textures comparison side-by-side resolution
Nintendo Life provided a ten-minute comparison video between the three different versions of Twilight Princess here.

The most obvious part of an HD remaster is that the graphics are improved, and you shouldn't really expect anything else. That actually wasn't obvious at first glance — but if you look above, you can see the textures are more detailed. The models and movements are pretty much the same. Since Nintendo fans always claim that gameplay is much more important than graphics, then theoretically Nintendo fans should be the least receptive to things like HD remasters, right?

I still have the GameCube version of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, though I haven't played it in an extremely long time. I even gave it to a friend afterwards, but now got it back. It's really long...and pretty exhausting to play through more than once. (I still don't think removing the Tears of Light would do anything for that, though.) I can see that the GameCube and Wii U versions of The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess have visual differences. I just don't think they're important or worth buying the game again, and the additions (and subtraction) I've mentioned in this article aren't anywhere near a good argument to buy the game again. 

But if it's your first time, go ahead. That said, if you're new to this series entirely, pick up The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD on the Wii U first.


If you disagree with Ludwig's value judgments, let him know in the comments. If you think there's more than meets his graphically-inept eyes, let him know that too. He wants to hear if you agree, too. He's happy he (finally?) got to incorporate Men in Black in an article.


This game is a relatively quick remaster — a bit different than whatever the heck might happen to the Resident Evil 2 re-release (remake?).
For Zelda games after this, you need to pay extra for some of these free included features. 

12 comments :

  1. in comparison to windwaker HD, this really seems like they just removed the wii blur effect and upgraded some textures..... I probably will not be buying this game, too little has changed for it to be a full price game....also its graphical style really hasnt aged well (comparing to windwaker) ill get windwaker as soon as I manage to find a physical copy...


    also whats with ilia's infinite duckface .-.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always found the character/face designs in Twilight Princess to be grotesque... but Skyward Sword moved the goalposts for what grotesque is actually considered.

      Would you still be interested in just the Wolf Link/Midna amiibo? :o

      You make a great point about the graphical style compared to Wind Waker, and it's what I was saying 10 years ago back when it was the cool thing to bash "Celda" and say the series is too "kiddy". I said Wind Waker's style would withstand the test of time and the Spaceworld demo thing (what we had before Twilight Princess in terms of GameCube-era "realistic graphics") would not.

      Delete
    2. Actually I might get the amiibo, even though not the game, I mean it would look really goood next to my other amiibo lol

      and to be honest I think windwaker and Zelda Wii U will be the ones to age the best, as it follows a more artistic style to a realistic... and im still wondering what went into their heads when they designed ilia.... she has probably the most grotesque face in the game .-.

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    3. ...Yeah, I just looked at Ilia HD some more. Awful. That's supposed to be Link's non-Midna love interest?

      Delete
    4. twilight link has weird taste in women .-. and honestly she looked like that in the original too, but it wasnt visible because of the blurry wii graphics... they could ve fixed her face in the new one tbh... missed opportunity much lol

      Delete
    5. I'm not here to judge Link's taste in women. :p

      If I do that, he might write an article about my taste of women and we'd have a silly blogging war.

      Delete
    6. Ilia gives hope for womenfolk who still haven't found the one that despite their looks, someone will still find them attractive.

      Delete
    7. ...Well I'm not gonna sit here and try to tear that down, either, because then I'll kinda look like an asshole.

      ...Unjustifiably so, which is different than usual.

      Delete
    8. Hey not everyone is born looking beautiful enough or has access to cosmetic surgery.

      Delete
    9. I dont think cosmetic surgery existed during to twilight era :P cause with all the rupees link has she could probably afford it XD

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    10. Oh. I didn't mention this in the article, but you can get a supersized 9,999 RUPEE WALLET exclusive to Twilight Princess HD!

      Delete

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