[quote name='The Crotch']Beat the game tonight, but I left a big chunk of the castle un-explored. 43 Poes, all bugs, 6/7 howling stones, 20" (21"?) Hyrulean Bass, 2-2 in Rollgoal, magic armour, Cave of Ordeals completed, seventeen heart containers found, and a shit-ton of grotto(e)s spelunked. 49:43, but about three of those hours were spent on pause with me busy elsewhere. I predicted the ending about 40 hours in.[/quote]
Beat it last week. 7/7 howling stones, same number of Poes, wasn't going to get the Magic Armor but had extra rupees (gosh,
there's a surprise).
I didn't feel like going for all the bugs or the Poes, and I wanted to do the Cave of Ordeals, but it wouldn't let me proceed at the time so I never went back.
[quote name='The Crotch']
Complaints: Not enough serious enemies until the last three-four dungeons (No Dinolfos until Temple of Time? Huh?).
[/quote]
I agree with this, although even then, I rarely felt a challenge in battle. I was severely disappointed even with the harder battles. You have all this cool stuff that you can't use! If I want to use the Ball and Chain, let me. If I want to aim a bomb arrow at someone's head, it should not bounce off if they have no armor. You have to use one or two of the special attacks, especially with the Stalfos, and they cheat. Z-targeting also sucked.
[quote name='The Crotch']
Wolf ridiculously under-powered by the end.
[/quote]
Wolf (and other things) ridiculously underused by the end. Hyrule Castle seems to be a collection of things that the game forgot about. How cool would it have been to have Wolf powerups or weapons or outfits. Now
there's something I would have searched treasure chests or collected bugs for.
[quote name='The Crotch']
Constant reminders as to what rupee you just picked up.
[/quote]
HATE this. Please, please, please...next time, no rupees. Most of the stuff is given to you anyway. I literally hated opening chests and getting 20 or 10 rupees. And at first I liked that rupees over your limit were put back in a chest, but then I quickly grew to
dislike it. The map doesn't distinguish chests you've opened versus chests you haven't, so I felt
zero incentive to go through areas and clean out the chests. The best I could hope for was a Piece of Heart or two, but realistically I knew it would be a bunch of

ing rupees.
[quote name='The Crotch']
Horseback combat improved vastly over Ocarina. Boar-riding is damn good.
[/quote]
I'll agree with this. The Wiimote's abilities make just about everything with the horse so much easier. Ditto for archery. Almost ditto for chainshot, but I found the targeting reticule much touchier for chainshot than anything else.
Oocoo's addition was long overdue.
I don't like Ooccoo. I still don't understand why we just can't save where and when we want to. Only Zelda could think up something this tortured in order to inexplicably keep a 10+ year old design decision.
And a floating head with wings is just...disturbing.
What did I like? I really liked the Forest Temple and Snowpeak Ruins, with the Desert Temple not far behind. They all had an 'organic' feel -- they felt like real places, and they didn't feel like a bunch of artificially set-up challenges. I could see Yeto and Yeta living in the Snowpeak Ruins, I could see the areas as disused places being overrun with monsters, and I felt like this is the Zelda I miss and like most.
I felt like the Zora Temple and the Temple of Time and the Castle in the Sky (er, that's City in the Sky) were completely artificial. I liked the
settings, especially Laputa (er, that's City in the Sky) but the dungeons felt like they were designed, as opposed to feeling like yeah, this place could be found just like this. The places serve no purpose -- what exactly do the Zora
do with their temple -- and are filled with entirely too convenient ivy walls, chainshot holds, and things that seem to serve no purpose other than to irritate adventurers.
I liked Midna. The Zelda use of sounds and grunts works for her, and I really liked her various sounds when she'd be riding the Wolf. I also liked Yeto and Yeta. Those three are basically the only characters in the game. Maybe Zant, too, when he's wearing his hat.
I liked the City in the Sky's boss battle. Best boss battle in the game. Awesome from start to finish.
What did I hate? I hate that there is (nearly all the time) exactly one way to do things. The game does not reward innovation, creative thought, or exploration. You do it the way the game wants you to do it.
Dungeons/temples now mostly have one path to the exit, scripted so that you must do things in order in order to proceed. In past Zeldas, I used to like that you could find the Boss door without having the key -- and wondering where the heck it was. In Twilight Princess, I think there are only a couple of times where you actually have a
choice where to go, and most of those choices resolve into non-choices very quickly.
The story. Ugh. What a mess. Zant and Midna and the Twili have great character design, and the cutscenes are generally good, but it's like a bad subtitle of an incomprehensible anime. I can't tell if something was lost in translation, or was never there to begin with.
I hate the Forest Sprite, or whoever that is. Following an irritating guy back and forth through a confusing set of areas while creepy dolls take potshots at you is not fun. Having to do it twice is even less fun.
I hate the minigames. I didn't bother with fishing, or the Star game. The Star game is an example of poor design, poor gameplay, and poor production values. Minigames should be fun. They should be so fun that it's actually difficult to stop playing them and get back to the main quest.
I did try snowboarding and the dragon fruit collecting a few times. I was trying to get the feel of how a Wii snowboarding game would work. (Missed opportunity -- should have used the Wiimote, not the chuck!) And I wanted to like the dragon, but just didn't and thought it was cheap. Again, a broken minigame is not fun.
My biggest disappointment is that Zelda falls so short of what it could be. The great graphics and immersive control are wonderful, but the vague plot, limited characters, and total lack of even trying to suspend disbelief really hurt. The farther you get in Zelda, the smaller and more limited it feels. I understand that they don't want to make it hugely complicated, but there's nothing worth buying, very little worth owning, no interesting treasures or quests, and nobody worth talking to. You get no choices that affect the outcome, little choice of where to go and what to do, and little to show for it when you're done, except for a Piece of Heart and a new piece of equipment that you'll be lucky to use again.
There are so many things that could add so much to Zelda, without comprimising its Zelda-ness. Would Zelda be killed by a New Game+? Collectible items? An actual
use for rupees? Multiple endings?