Next to the probably awesome stamp collecting there have been other reveals about Twilight Princess HD today, since we now officially reached the preview phase. Let's briefly talk about them.
Going through my suggestions from last month, you can cross out many things there already. Wii controls won't be supported, but I probably wouldn't have used them anyway, so I don't really mind. And the mirrored world is still in the game...
Mirrored Hero Mode
So, there really is a way to play the mirrored Wii world in this version, which is good, but they combined it with Hero Mode, which is bad. It's akin to the Master Quest mode in Ocarina of Time 3D, just without any actual Master Quest features. It mirrors the world, you take double damage and there are no hearts to find.
Now, I was actually looking forward to playing the GameCube world again, because that's how I love and remember the world of Twilight Princess. But I also wanted to play Hero Mode, because the game is too easy... Why can't I do both?
They should have made a "Mirror Mode", which is something you chose at the start, like a 2nd Quest. And in addition there should have been a Hero Mode like in The Wind Waker HD, which you can toggle on and off at any time.
I wonder, if it still can be toggled. It probably won't, because it would be weird, if you could flip the entire game world at any time...
Ghost Lantern
From what it seems, this is another disappointment. If I understood this new item correctly, it only tells you that there are still Poes around in the area. You still have to wait until it's night to actually capture them.
Most useless additional item ever! I personally already know, where all the Poes are, so I have no use for an item telling me. I just want Poe collecting to be more efficient. They should have added checkmarks to the map, like Ocarina of Time had for the Gold Skulltulas. If you killed all golden spiders in an area, it added an Skulltula icon to the map. They could have done the same here with Poes. And the Poe Lantern should have been a way to make them appear during day, because waiting for nightfall takes way too long in this game. Or at least add a way to alter the day of time.
Sometimes I just can't understand Nintendo's game design decisions and I still hope that there's more to this thing... I haven't seen any preview yet that actually showcases this item.
Item Inventory
No fifth bottle, too bad. If you look at the item menu, there are 21 slots, one more than in the original. But that slot is probably used by the Ghost Lantern, because the bottles are visually connected and there are still only four of them. I guess, the open slot below the bottles will be used for the Horse Call and the Ghost Lantern will be among the normal items, probably right next to the Hawkeye.
It could be the other way around, but I suppose that both the Horse Call and the Ooccoo will be items, which you don't have to equip anymore to use them. Just tap them in the menu.
Cave of Ordeals 2
Yeah, this is a pure clone. It even has the exact same layout - talk about lazy! But it's apparently not an actual place in the game, it's more like a minigame, which starts, as soon as you scan the Wolf Link amiibo. And the whole point seems to aim for highscores, which are stored on the amiibo and even take the Ganondorf amiibo into consideration. So, for the most impressive results, you need that one as well. Combat will be quite boring though, because all you will do are wolf combos all the time.
But if it wasn't for the larger wallet, I would say that this is one of the better amiibo usages I've seen so far. Without amiibo you wouldn't miss anything essential and the whole thing revolves around the figurine, where you keep using it for highscores. However, thanks to the reward of the bigger wallet, completionists are now forced to buy the amiibo, if they want everything in the game. So, they should have made this a pure extra.
Going through my suggestions from last month, you can cross out many things there already. Wii controls won't be supported, but I probably wouldn't have used them anyway, so I don't really mind. And the mirrored world is still in the game...
Mirrored Hero Mode
So, there really is a way to play the mirrored Wii world in this version, which is good, but they combined it with Hero Mode, which is bad. It's akin to the Master Quest mode in Ocarina of Time 3D, just without any actual Master Quest features. It mirrors the world, you take double damage and there are no hearts to find.
Now, I was actually looking forward to playing the GameCube world again, because that's how I love and remember the world of Twilight Princess. But I also wanted to play Hero Mode, because the game is too easy... Why can't I do both?
They should have made a "Mirror Mode", which is something you chose at the start, like a 2nd Quest. And in addition there should have been a Hero Mode like in The Wind Waker HD, which you can toggle on and off at any time.
I wonder, if it still can be toggled. It probably won't, because it would be weird, if you could flip the entire game world at any time...
Ghost Lantern
From what it seems, this is another disappointment. If I understood this new item correctly, it only tells you that there are still Poes around in the area. You still have to wait until it's night to actually capture them.
Most useless additional item ever! I personally already know, where all the Poes are, so I have no use for an item telling me. I just want Poe collecting to be more efficient. They should have added checkmarks to the map, like Ocarina of Time had for the Gold Skulltulas. If you killed all golden spiders in an area, it added an Skulltula icon to the map. They could have done the same here with Poes. And the Poe Lantern should have been a way to make them appear during day, because waiting for nightfall takes way too long in this game. Or at least add a way to alter the day of time.
Sometimes I just can't understand Nintendo's game design decisions and I still hope that there's more to this thing... I haven't seen any preview yet that actually showcases this item.
Item Inventory
No fifth bottle, too bad. If you look at the item menu, there are 21 slots, one more than in the original. But that slot is probably used by the Ghost Lantern, because the bottles are visually connected and there are still only four of them. I guess, the open slot below the bottles will be used for the Horse Call and the Ghost Lantern will be among the normal items, probably right next to the Hawkeye.
It could be the other way around, but I suppose that both the Horse Call and the Ooccoo will be items, which you don't have to equip anymore to use them. Just tap them in the menu.
Cave of Ordeals 2
Yeah, this is a pure clone. It even has the exact same layout - talk about lazy! But it's apparently not an actual place in the game, it's more like a minigame, which starts, as soon as you scan the Wolf Link amiibo. And the whole point seems to aim for highscores, which are stored on the amiibo and even take the Ganondorf amiibo into consideration. So, for the most impressive results, you need that one as well. Combat will be quite boring though, because all you will do are wolf combos all the time.
But if it wasn't for the larger wallet, I would say that this is one of the better amiibo usages I've seen so far. Without amiibo you wouldn't miss anything essential and the whole thing revolves around the figurine, where you keep using it for highscores. However, thanks to the reward of the bigger wallet, completionists are now forced to buy the amiibo, if they want everything in the game. So, they should have made this a pure extra.
1 comment:
I always enjoyed not having an item to alter day to night in Twilight Princess. Since night is shorter than day, I always plan my ghost hunting sessions to make the best use of nighttime.
I absolutely adore the post-Master Sword, pre-Arbiter's Grounds part of the game, because it allows me to get a lot of heart pieces, bugs and poe souls thanks to the insta-warping mechanism, and not worry about having to move the main quest forward.
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