The Lord of Zelda: Fellowship of Twilight
I bought the Wii port (cause obviously the Gamecube version has to be the original, it was the one where Link was left-handed) back in 2006 or 2007 when I bought my own Wii. As I recall this was an answer for all of those who complained that Wind Waker was to cutesy, to colourful, not like the Spaceworld 2000 demo gamers had been promised so obviously Nintendo listened and decided to give the most dark, most gritty zelda-game ever. I mean, when I played the remake I was struck by how dark the story was. I actually think this is the one game in the series where most people die during the course of the game. Maybe not as surrealistically dark as Majora's Mask, but it's up there. Also, which the Swedish gaming magazine I read pointed out back in the day, this feels like they copied the Lord of the Rings.
I mean, this is pretty much a Balrog
Story overall is that Link, a shepard in a forest province gets sucked in to this Twilight realm that has taken over most of Hyrule while trying to save some children who was kidnapped by... Moblins? Boboklins? Whatever, they look like goblins anyway. Inside the twilight the goddesses power awakens and he is turned into the sacred beast, a wolf. He's taken to Hyrule Castle where he breaks out with the help of an imp named Midna. They meet Princess Zelda and are told that Hyrule was attacked by Zant, a Twili who turned his people into some dark monstrosities. You set out restoring the light to the different provinces and gathers the fused shadows that Midna wants for some reason. After saving the three main areas Zant appears and puts a permanent wolf curse on Link while Midna gets blasted by light, which will kill her. Link takes Midna to Zelda where Zelda infuses Midna with the powers of the goddesses. Somehow this makes Zelda disappear. To free Link's curse you head to the Lost Woods and get the Master Sword and now Midna points you to the Gerudo desert where you can get the Mirror of Twilight which transport you to the Twilight realm where you can confront Zant. Of course the mirror is broken and you are told that behind Zant probably is Ganondorf as a failed execution forced the sages to throw him into the Twilight Realm. Oh and he killed one of them as well. With the sword they thrust into his torso. So you enlist the help of a resistance group in Castle town which are looking into ominous signs around Hyrule and the Mirror shards are corrupting its surrounding area. Like the ring from Lord of the Rings. You get the shards and then you enter the Twilight Palace, defeat Zant and Midna straight up tears him apart with the Fused Shadows we got back. You travel back to Hyrule to confront Ganondorf at Hyrule Castle. After rescuing Zelda Midna teleports you away to Hyruel Field while she keeps Ganondorf occupied... for 10 seconds. Ganondorf appears on horseback and starts to charge at you so Link and Zelda climbs Epona and charge forward. And the trick is to keep Z-targeting long enough so that Zelda can fire a light arrow at him and you slash him. After some hits it's mano el mano as you whirl around Ganondorf, avoiding his attacks until you get in a hit. After some fighting you stab him in his bleeding wound and here I can't really follow what happens. Somehow the triforce of power leaves him and Zant appears and seems to break his own neck which kills Ganondorf? Of course, Ganondorf still stands up in his armour even though he is dead. Everything is back to normal and Midna is freed from her curse and returns to the Twilight Realm while destroying the mirror to ensure that they can't harm each other again.
Shelob... and I hate spiders.
The story works for the most part, except, the time. Is it the original Ganondorf? Then, how long did Zant rule the Twilight realm before attacking Hyrule and of course, how long was Hyrule under Zants control? Also it is implied that Zant broke the Mirror, so how did they get all around the world in that case? Small things like that. When it comes to the dark and gritty parts of the story we have Ganondorf that is supposed to be straight up executed but kills his executioner, Midna tearing Zant to pieces and what I didn't mention a pretty graphic retelling of how the Twilight beast attacked Kakariko village and slaughtered the item shop owner and, like 20 others as well. Children gets kidnapped... but for some reason they just end up at Kakoriko village. I gotta say, this story feels epic in all the way. Also fighting against the bosses help as well. Just take fight against the dragon where you fly high above the ground with your clawshot to avoid the dragon fire and get behind him to jump on to his back and attack him while he falls down to the platform below. Really, the only fight that doesn't feel epic is the one against Zant, because he feels so pathetic. Which is interesting cause when he is introduced you feel a menace as he has his helmet on and wields this dark magic that curses people and kills them. Then when he take it of he just feels pathetic as previously stated. Must have been Ganondorf that left him to rule in Hyrule Castle.
They even crammed in Smaug even though Bilbo wouldn't come out for several years after the original game
Overall it is a good game, but this is only the second time I played through the game. It's on equal ground as Skyward Sword and that has only been released once. Music is... well it's good music and it feels melancholic that fits the twilight theme, but most of it is the same music that appeared in earlier Zelda-games. Also, the dungeons are varied. You have your typical forest, fire and water temple, then the spirit temple and ice temple... but the ice temple is actually a yeti house on top of a mountain which just happens to be infested with ice monsters. Then we have the temple of Time... which I wonder what it does in the Lost Woods since in Ocarina it was in Castle Town, but then again in Link to the Past the Master Sword was placed in the Lost Woods. Then we have a sky temple and twilight palace before Hyrule Castle. I like these dungeons. Varied, different hazards that really uses the environment. So overall I like it, why doesn't it feel more fun? It could be that the colours of the game is pretty boring. It's dark, and brown. And it doesn't help that the twilight realms have a colour filter that makes it even darker. It's almost sucks the joy out of me. And half the game has these. Could also be the obvious railroading as they push me forward to each area and I must do those since I turn into a wolf and not until I saved the area light spirit I get turned back. Really, not until I can turn into a wolf at will the game starts to get "fun" since I can explore freely and try to do side quests. Like finding the 60 poe's souls (which is more of a pain than collecting the 100 skulltulas since in this game there is no instant day to night item or song compared to every other 3d Zelda-game meaning I have to wait for long times until night when they decides to appear). Or find the heart pieces. Which you need 5 for each container. The reason for that is obviously as the overworld is huge and they needed to fill it with prizes. Which still has the problem that it is empty. Then we have rupees all over, but nothing to buy for it. Cause I'm always full. Great for the end game with the super armour that uses rupees to power it. Making the harder parts a breeze (for example 2-3 Iron Knuckles at once. So this time they gave us stamps to collect. I missed 8 of them, but it works. Less money in circulation I guess.
Overall, good game, but maybe it's only worth playing every 10th year. I at least found out I don't remember much of the puzzles so I had my small snags in some temples. Probably a great reason to replay it, but still. Of course it could be due to the wii set up which necessitates a TV compared to the Wii U where I can watch the gamepad. The gamepad is THE invention of this console generation cause I can play the game when I want. I notice it with my PS3, I got loads of games for that, RPG 60 hours long or more... but I can't play them since the TV is everyones. Which leaves me with either the 3DS or Wii U (for most games, Splatoon is an exception). Maybe the grittiness killed it.
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