The Shrine

http://wii.ign.com/articles/744/744044p1.html

This is a very good article, or rather half an article written up by IGN's Matt Casamassina. I'm going to summarize the points that have been covered so far.


How it compares to Zelda games of the past:

He suggests that it blows them all away. That the game feels very epic: bigger, deeper, and prettier than anything released in the past. He comments on how Ocarina of Time is still seen as the best game to ever be released by fans and crititcs alike (it is the game that most often ranks as #1 on a fan or critic chart). Twilight Princess is a worthy title to push past Ocarina of Time.


Game Length:

Nintendo themselves has stated that the game will take players at least 50 hours to complete. Matt says this is a conservative estimate, usually when a company says something like "Final Fantasy 8/7 will take over 70 hours to complete" it means that seasoned gamers can halve that time. This is not the case with Zelda. Matt, by last night was 10 hours into the game, and with the knowledge of how the game progresses, he admits that he feels he has barely scratched the surface. matt also commented that in the first village, there is hours of side quests and interactions with other characters alone which can be completed.

Nintendo Wii vs. Gamecube version:

Matt notes that the controls for the Wii version have improved dramatically since the game was last displayed. He noted that before the controls were different, but not necessarilly better. Now, it is quite clear that the Wii version is vastly superior to the Gamecube one in controls, and it is also quite clear that the graphics of the Wii version are improved over the Gamecube one as well. Essentially, the game stopped being Gamecube primarilly, and became focussed on Wii. In his words: "If you have the means to buy Twilight Princess for Wii and you still get it for GameCube, you are a fool. And I state that without meaning to suggest that the GCN iteration is flawed - it isn't. It's an amazing swan song for Nintendo's older system." Essentially, the Gamecube one now seems like a scaled down version of a Wii game.


Controls:

He states that the controls are very customizable, but that the default mode does seem to be the best. The Wii version works remarkably well, and that many of the sub-weapons, such as the boomerang and bow, work much better than they ever had in the past (and we all remember how cool Wind Waker's Boomerang was). he also mentioned that people worried about their hands getting tired were being foolish, that no one experienced any of that, and that he had played the game 10 hours. The sword slashing using the wii remote works extraordinarily well, he said.


Beginning of the game:

Without revealing any important spoilers, he explains what the early setting is like. Essentially for the first hour, the game is locked into a set-story sequence. The game begins in a province distant from Hyrule in a small Hamlet outside of the main village. There is a half-hour long video on Youtube which shows a lot of this area (though it is from a year ago). The horse is received very early on, the world is so large that the horse will be required to move around; the videos show that this is hardly an action free field either. Anyways, the player will gain access to the first real village soon, and there is a lot to do there, apparently, hours worth of stuff. The village is also a human village (in Ocarina of time there were only two human towns, Hyrule Castle Town and Kakariko village, four other villages represented four other races: Gerudo, Zora, Goron, Elf) which points that there are probably a few of these, though that remains to be seen.


The Setting:

The game is said to start off very cheerfully, but that the people just are not yet aware of the darkness that has already began to arrive. The trailers of the game already indicated that the game will be a darker, and more mythical/faery tale feeling game than the previous ones.


Side Quests:

It seems, like all the trend in all Zelda games, that this one will have significantly more side quests than the previous.

Jez Parish's impressions: http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3154917

I cannot wait for this game. Oh man.

"I want to conclude this set impressions with a bit about the GameCube version. No, NOA didn't show it to us. Likely, they're not going to show it to anyone until it releases in December. But ever since the announcement of the Wii version, there has been the debate over which version of Zelda is going to control better. My friends, the debate is over: Wii Zelda is the real deal. I've played the game long enough to come to the conclusion that I don't want to use a traditional controller to play Twilight Princess. I'm hooked on the Wii controls. I want more of what Nintendo has given me. I can say, with confidence, that you must play Zelda on the Wii to get the full experience. Not to take anything away from the GameCube version, but once you guys get your hands on the Wii version, there's no going back."

-Steven Rodriguez, PGC director.


"Imagine Ocarina of Time, but polished and expanded and refined and generally perfected: that's what Twilight Princess feels like so far."

-Parish


It seems like everyone who has played it is quite overwhelmed with how good it is. I really can hardly wait to play it myself. I guess I will soon have Final Fantasy 12 to tide me over, I haven't had a chance to start it yet, but I will probably get that chance today.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/744/744044p4.html

Alright, Matt has updated his impressions with three more pages. So further summary:

The beginning:

He describes that the game is not about saving Princess Zelda, at least in the beginning. It seems that someone wants something with another young woman who lives in the town, by the name of Ilia, who is daughter of the mayor, and Link's supposed love interest. Link actually lives far away from Hyrule in the Ordona province, and he has rarely travelled far beyond its borders. I guess it can be said that he doesn't know a lot about Hyrule at this point in time. There is an evil that is creeping over the world....

The Twilight Realm:

In this realm is met the character we have all seen before, Midna, who is some sort of Cat Woman who rides Link around. Link transforms into a wold when he enters the Twilight Realm (much cooler than the bunny he transformed into in an older Zelda game). The wolf learns various moves, and even though Link loses the ability to use weapons, he gains a lot of abilities; Matt was quick to note that Link is much much faster and more manueverable within the Twilight Realm. He also notes that the Twilight realm has a lot of very stunning scenes. Lastly he notes that there is no comparison to other games, such as Metroid Prime Echoes, which have (dark worlds), this is how it is done to beautiful excellence. The wolf has the ability to dig, and has senses which allow it to see trapped spirits and such for various purposes.

Difficulty:

Matt noted that many of the editors who were playing the game were getting game overs. It has been suggested int he past that this Zelda game will offer a greater challenge than earlier ones. This, I feel, is a very good thing, because aside from Zelda 2, parts of Ocarina, Majora's Mask, and Master Quest, I haven't felt challenged much by the series. The early parts of the game, at least, are at least as challenging as the game Majora's Mask according to Matt and others.


Freedom:

It has been noted that Link has been expanded upon. For example, in previous Zelda games you had to stop moving in order to use your sword. In this game, you can run, use your sword to slash things and not lose any momentum in running. With the Wii Remote, the game has a feeling of freedom which is comparable to the first time Mario 64 was played, says Matt. He also notes that riding the horse, pulling out the slingshot aiming and firing becomes very fast and easy with the Wii Remote; much more fast and easy than was ever before possible. The boomerang is an upgraded version of the Wind Waker one, which allows you to lock onto many different targets and release (ala Xena Warrior Princess's 'round killing thing').

Size of the World:

Massive, much much larger than Ocarina of Time with much much more to do. He describes that Hylian Field makes a return, and is MUCH larger than the Ocarina of Time version; but that there are also many many other places (which he is not allowed to describe) which are also very very large, and with tons of stuff to do. 10 hours in, and he feels he has barely scratched the surface of what is achievable in this game. There was one area, a forest, which he describes can take a couple of hours to navigate through on route to the forest temple (we have seen some clips of it in videos). The monkeys, from older Zelda games (remember Kiki?) make a return as well. Lastly, you can save anywhere, but in dungeons this will cause the player to go back to the beginning, though there are some save points throughout.

After 7 years of development, it seems that this game was WELL worth the wait.