The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Hands-On Preview

If you don’t know what it is, allow me to tell you that it’s the all-new horse battles. This is obviously the newest battle feature to appear in a Zelda game, as Miyamoto and Co. are all extremely pleased with how it’s turning out. Well, their pride is very well-justified, as the whole concept is very immersive and one of the most entertaining concepts to be implemented in a Zelda game to date. The beauty of battling on Epona is how easy it is to do. You simply ride Epona like you would normally, and worry about pressing B for your sword attacks and holding R to defend against any incoming threats.

The beginning of it is opened with a rather sinister view of the giant creature riding the back of some sort of warthog looking beast. You see your female friend attached to the top of his giant staff tied by some rope in a display of sickening mistreatment. Then you see Link with a determined look on his face, and you are off. You immediately begin chase of the creature on Epona, while having to fight and ward off his lizard-like minions. They are all firing arrows at you, so it’s in your best interest to take them down before they hurt you too much. Yes you are pursuing a vile enemy, but you can’t continue to do so unless you eliminate your secondary threats. Most of his minions though, can be taken down with one well-placed swipe of your sword. The pursued beast is a different story though. He is not only pretty tough to just catch up to, but it seems like he takes a good ten or more hits of your blade before the next phase of action takes place. But that doesn’t matter really, as the whole sequence is just plain awesome and fun to play. It never gets boring, and the scenery both around you and in the distance is something to see without a doubt.

The next and final part that I experienced is the phase that has been made famous in previews already written about this game. It’s where you face the beast alone on what seems to be an unnecessarily long stone bridge. The beast emerges from the other end’s tunnel as you finally make your presence known, and then the real battle and excitement begins. In front of you is the long stone bridge. To your sides is what seems to be a dark, bottomless pit for anything to nicely tumble into. The object of this battle is somewhat similar to what jousting is. You both charge at each other, and then just as you are about to meet, you have to quickly dash to the side and attempt to make contact with your sword. The first time I started this battle, I was able to get two hits on him easily, so I thought I had the whole thing in the bag. But somehow after that second hit, I really began to suck at it, and I got nailed by him a good five times afterwards. Anytime he hits you, off you go into the bottomless pit and come back with some heart health missing. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to defeat him and when I got the Game Over screen, I chose to quit. I’m not really upset that I didn’t beat him though, as it will make my victory that much more satisfying when I get the final build of the game. I do apologize for not being able to report on the outcome though, I’m sure you guys would’ve liked to read about it.

So some other things that don’t deal with the demo’s gameplay, let’s talk graphics. Now this demo was the one presented at this year’s E3, so it was a little old, but it didn’t matter. The graphics of the game are still very much incredible. The water looks absolutely stunning on all measures and everything else about your natural environment is simply remarkable. Now just like my best friend noticed when I took him to see someone playing the demo, not all the polygons look as refined as they could be. But that’s very understandable, as that build is practically going to be a year old when the final version actually releases. I’m sure it will promise greatly detailed aspects of everything that you encounter. Now obviously not everything is going to be perfect because Shiggy’s team has said the game will be massive. But that doesn’t matter, because the demo’s presentation was already impressive enough. Anything else may be just enough to give some players a heart attack from the shock and awe of the presentation. Even the game’s characters have great animation and facial expression to drive their emotions. Just how Wind Waker focused on the eyes a good deal to express that, Link and his friends are presented in the same fashion. You can definitely see true human emotion in these characters, and they all move in impressive realistic fashion. It is most certainly going to be just another great aspect of the game for people to enjoy.

Unfortunately that’s all I have left to say, as I wasn’t able to hear much of the music and sounds at all because of the insanely loud music playing behind me. But I trust with full confidence they will turn out just as epic as the game is already turning out to be. I mean come on, a fully orchestrated soundtrack along with already cool sounding effects, what more could we want? So to wrap up this final NFT preview, I have to say this. If you know anything about Zelda, and I mean anything at all, make it your job to get this game come April of next year. This is the final epic franchise game that is coming from Nintendo before the GameCube’s heart monitor hits flatline, and they need all the support we can give them. Plus, with how great the game already is and how legendary it will be because of the delay, how could we choose to do otherwise? Give Nintendo something to be proud of come time for Revolution launch and another new Zelda to be experienced, pick up Twilight Princess.