The Rest -
Much like in Windwaker Link will begin the game in a small village and soon be forced by circumstance out of the village on a mission about which Nintendo is being pretty tight-lipped. This will be an entirely new Link, not a reincarnation of Links from previous games. From his hometown Link will have to travel to Hyrule which will be a gigantic city a great distance away which is why Link will need to ride horseback.

Twilight Princess has obviously forsaken the cel-shaded look of the last game and is bringing the series to its most detailed state ever. The game also seems much more alive with action and life in the environment than previous games with a more elaborate color palette than Windwaker. Control and game play look to be very similar to the earlier games with a few exceptions. Because of the Gamecube’s controller layout, the A button with be pivotal for actions while B will be useful for attacks like before but horseriding will mix up the dynamic of moving about the game world much like the sailing did in Windwaker. Links dependable equine, Epona, will be there to get him around and provide him a safe place to do battle from. Hopefully, Nintendo can get the horseback navigation just right before release since horses are notoriously difficult to control in video games. Twilight Princess’ combat system, although snatched directly from Windwaker, is said to have been tweaked so much that it is like new. And a new host of useful items will be debuting in the game including the “gale boomerang” which, like previous boomerangs, will be able to hit multiple targets but also sends out tornados in its wake.

Also, much like in previous games, Link will enlist the help of various animals like Falcons, monkeys and, of course, his horse Epona. And when Link transfers over to the Twilight world he will make a magical transformation into a wolf, the details of which have not been revealed yet. What is pretty apparent is that Twilight Princess, as the name implies, is a much darker more serious game than Zelda fans are used to with a slight anime influence in the graphical depiction of the characters. The enemies are more ghoulish and vicious looking and the scenery is much darker than before - there’s a scene early in the game in which a child is being held hostage by a ghoulish character in the midst of a battle. More interestingly, the game will be split into two areas, the real world and the twilight world which will be a darker version of the first, similar to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Beyond all of this, one of the most important aspects of a new Legend of Zelda game is fidelity to the atmosphere of the series. It has already been proven that the series can survive massive stylistic changes while still retaining the original quality that has endured throughout with Windwaker's change to cel shaded graphics. With this return to form and upgrade of everything that the series has ever been, GCN has a chance to hand over the torch to the Nintendo Revolution console due next year and go out with a huge bang when this game is released in October.

We’ll keep you posted when more information is available.

Posted: May 25, 2004