Zelda Quest 1: Twilight Princess

After thoroughly enjoying both Link's Awakening and Breath of the Wild, my thirst for Zelda was not quenched at this point in time.  One game I really wanted to fire up was Twilight Princess HD, a game that I had yet to finish on Wii U and hadn't beaten since it released in 2006 (and even then, I was racing my buddy to see who could complete the game first).  So it quickly became a prime target for my next Zelda adventure.  At this point, my wife took a keen interest and the official Zelda Quest was birthed.

One thing that was so cool about this game is the duality between the twilight realm and the normal realm.  Playing as wolf link seemed much less cumbersome this time around and I loved the dark, gritty tones of this game (though I think Majora nails it better).  And I can honestly see why fans think this is a top tier Zelda game.  Then again, it's got a ton of OoT references and has the realistic and dark undertones so naturally a lot of people will enjoy it.  Plus you could finally unfreeze Zora's Domain (though not in the way people wanted).

Let me start by saying that this game has some amazing dungeons.  I love the Snowpeak Ruins.  It feels so awesome exploring a snow covered mansion and it's such a fresh take on a dungeon.  Even City in the Sky is so much fun with the double Clawshots, even though there are some annoyances with it.  Plus there are some unique and fun items in this iteration.  I like the spinner and the ball & chain is really cool (but essentially a Megaton Hammer on a chain) but reinventing the iron boots to work on magnetized tracks was awesome and made me think of them in a new light.  There's a lot of good stuff here!

I loved the fact that you could challenge the Hero of Time to learn new moves as well and there were so many OoT callbacks in this while still maintaining its own identity.  Seeing how the events of OoT played out after the credits was awesome too.  In fact, the storyline with Midna and Zelda as well as the Twilight Realm vs the Normal realm while still numerous side plots like Ilia or King Bulblin was great.  Plus the final boss was EPIC.  This was definitely a great Zelda to play for both the gameplay and the story.

However, the collectables and minigames were kind of weird.  I wasn't a fan of having 5 Heart Pieces to a container and catching golden bugs was alright.  Sumo wrestling with Gorons was hilarious though even if you have to cheat with Iron Boots.  The Cave of Ordeals and the new Wolf version were also more boring than anything and the fact that you have to do the wolf version four times sucks.  Plus the world map being segmented the way it was is kind of annoying, especially with how open and free form Wind Waker was.

All in all, Twilight Princess was a blast and a lot more fun than I remember it being.  It has an interesting story and I love the soundtrack to it too (Midna's Lament is definitely one for the Youtube playlist).  The wife loved the duality between light and darkness, the storyline and wolf link and easily put this near the top of her list (though I predict nothing will dethrone BotW).

At the end of it, I had completed the game 100%.  All 45 Heart Pieces, all 10 Bugs, every upgrade, both caves of ordeal done, etc.

OVERALL RANKINGS:

1. Zelda: Breath of the Wild

2. Zelda: Twilight Princess HD

2/ Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

WIFE'S RANKING:

1. Zelda: Breath of the Wild

2. Zelda: Twilight Princess HD