TP

[A Black Falcon]

So, I played TP again yesterday... for 5 1/2 hours. Along with last Thursday, I made progress again in the game for the first time since, my save file said, January 2007. :)

... so yeah, I actually managed to finish the second dungeon (Goron Mines), which is where I'd quit... I'm now about to enter the third one, the underwater temple.

So what do I think?

Really, it's the same question as with Phantom Hourglass and Oracles: How much should you count a really stupid story and bad characterizations against a game with amazing gameplay, design, graphics, music and art? While I'm playing, I quickly forget about those bad parts... just like with those other games. And the good parts are so, so good...

But still, the question of why even the best games games don't have stories and characterizations to match their great gameplay is a valid one, I think. Even if the gameplay certainly matters more.

[Dark Jaguar]

I liked the story and characters.

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, the story and characters were pretty good, aside from parts of the ending.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, the story and characters were pretty good, aside from parts of the ending.

Agreed, except for everything. :p

Well, not Midna, for the most part, but everything else.

[A Black Falcon]

Hmm, is this the most recent TP thread? Guess so... (should we rename this the "Zelda forum" or something?)

I'd just like to say, I played some more of the game in November and December 2008, then picked it up again a few weeks ago. I've made a lot of progress... just finished the Temple of Time, have to find the temple in the sky now. Wow, is it good... questionable difficulty for sure, nowhere near as hard as OoT or parts of MM, but really cool... a lot like WW in that regard, just not quite THAT ridiculously easy. I mean, I have died sometimes in this game... particularly earlier on, but more recently too. I played four or five hours of the game on Thursday, and died several times. Not at the boss (I beat Armored Gohma in one try, even without a fairy, and despite losing like half of my health before I figured out how to stop the red beam, or knock down Gohma... really, really cool fight, but not too hard. The end part where Gohma gets up as a little eye thing was funny, though. ), but when wandering around. The game just doesn't really punish you for it at all. But I've said that before... and I've also complained about the story. And it deserves the complaints... though at least it looks amazingly good compared to that thing PH calls a story. Now that's bad. TP's is just very disappointing and a major missed opportunity, while not actually completely horrible. And the gameplay... the gameplay is really good. The graphics are just fantastic, art design is brilliant, the music is great... the presentation here is just about as good as it gets for a Zelda game. It really does feel like OoT, again, just easier and with a bigger world and weaker plot. But despite that, it's a great game for sure. I should have finished this game two years ago, really... oh well. I'm playing it now. And this time, I really think I'm going to stick with it to the end... I'm not all that far away now, I think. And it's great fun. FINALLY got the whistle to call Epona from anywhere... I was wondering if I was ever going to get that. Wolf mode is awesome, and warping fantastic, but sometimes it is best to use the horse, and having to use that special grass for it was too much of a hassle to make it worth it. I also found the hidden village, got really frustrated in the "find all 20 cats" minigame there (gave up having found 19 of them... :(), beat the whole Temple of Time (and the temple before it last week), etc. Decent temple... having to lead around that statue was annoying at times, but not as annoying as I feared it might be, when I figured out while going up that I was going to have to do something like that on the way down. The Big Key was hidden pretty cleverly, too... :)

As for the plot points, cliche and not too thrilling, but this game is great for gameplay, not plot, that's for sure.

[lazyfatbum]

I thought it was a good story.

I have a hard time trying to work it in to the whole time line mostly because...I dunno where it goes in the timeline! Is it actually after the events of WW? It would make more sense that it would be directly before WW. In TP he's the Hero of Time with the Triforce on his hand, so...

In order:
MC
OoT
MM
Oralces
TP
LttP
LA
4Swords
WW
PH
The Legend of Zelda
AoL