Lately I've been getting back into Twilight Princess. I really ought to beat this game - it's only been 15 years, after all!

Currently, I'm near the end of the Forest Temple, the first dungeon. Maybe I'll share more thoughts as I progress - or maybe I won't. Who knows.

still one of my favorite 3D zeldas

I'm going to kick myself for this, but: I've never actually beaten that game. Or skyward sword for that matter.

same, actually. I’ve made it through very few Zelda games in general, though

@Nite I've beaten most of the older Zelda games. However, I never got far into Twilight Princess, despite owning a physical copy of it! I haven't played Skyward Sword or Breath of the Wild, but I'd love to give those a try someday.

@Fireball3k Yeah, TP has been a lot of fun! Which Zeldas have you finished?

Tonight I finished the second dungeon, Goron Mines. That dungeon has quite an interesting mechanic - I got some serious Super Mario Galaxy vibes (even if Twilight Princess technically came first)!

The first dungeon was fun as well - I liked the nod to the Ocarina of Time Forest Temple.

Coming in, I had a pretty good idea of what happens in the story up through the end of the first dungeon, but now I only have a vague idea of what happens later in the game. Of course, Twilight Princess is a very popular game that was released 15 years ago, so I'm well aware of some of the more significant events that occur later in the game, but I'm still relatively unspoiled.

I know it sounds funny, but it feels good to sit down and play a video game again. It's been ages since I've been able to play a game for an hour or two at a time. Usually I've been too busy making games, or getting paid to program stuff in real life!

I think I beat Link Between Worlds and Ocarina of Time. I played both of them through on the 3DS. I've made it about halfway through Link's Awakening and the original NES game, I think. To be frank, I'm way better at Mario and Fire Emblem than I am at Zelda, so I haven't played it quite as much.

Is Goron Mines the dungeon that's built inside of and around a volcano? I think that may have been as far as I've gotten in Twilight Princess, but I haven't played the game since I had it on my Wii when I was in college. I saw a copy of the Wii U remaster for sale at a game shop in Louisville the other day for about $60 used, so I'm either going to emulate this game or wait for it and Wind Waker HD to come out on the Switch.

@Fireball3k Link's Awakening is good stuff - I highly recommend that you finish it!

Yeah, Goron Mines is built around Death Mountain, so the dungeon boasts an abundant supply of lava and electrifiable ore.

Maybe I should check out the HD remake of Twilight Princess someday. Also, it seems there are some fanmade HD texture patches for the GameCube version.

I just finished the Lakebed Temple, the third dungeon. Twilight Princess certainly gives you a lot to do - I've already put in 20 hours of playtime. The leadup to the third dungeon felt especially long, although the pacing remains strong and it didn't feel like needless padding. Warping the volcanic rock to melt the ice in Zora's Domain looked really cool, and the wagon escort mission was a lot of fun.

I finally saw the cutscene after you become human again in Lake Hylia. This is one of the moments I knew about coming in, although I didn't know precisely when it is. It was indeed intense, though Majora's Mask still offers the highest-octane Zelda nightmare fuel!

I'm not sure how I feel about injecting amnesia into the story - this oft-abused trope has tremendous bad potential! I have a feeling TP handles it more gracefully than most games, movies, and TV shows that go in this direction, though.

The first two chapters are highly linear by the standards of Zelda games. I'm not necessarily opposed to linear games, but Twilight Princess takes a while to give you a chance to explore a large area and do optional minigames and sidequests.

The Lakebed Temple is basically the declawed remix of the Ocarina of Time Water Temple. The OoT version got its reputation for a reason! However, the TP incarnation is actually pretty straightforward. I knew TP reintroduced Bomb Arrows, though I didn't realize they were an integral part of finishing this dungeon. It's fun to see TP take something that was basically an Easter egg in Link's Awakening and build a dungeon around this mechanic.

I'm still playing through Twilight Princess. Yesterday I finished the sixth dungeon and snagged my 15th Heart Container, so I'm getting close to the end.

The Arbiter's Grounds dungeon was an interesting take on the OoT Spirit Temple while borrowing some other concepts from OoT - the four ghosts from the Forest Temple and the assortment of creepy undead things/unspecific bad vibes of the Shadow Temple. The Spinner was a really cool and original idea, and the Stallord boss was awesome.

The Snowpeak Ruins might've been my favorite dungeon so far. There's a fascinating blend of domesticity and danger, and replacing hearts with the yeti's never-ending soup bowl was fun. I like how part of the dungeon is outdoors, and you can watch the weather grow more intense as you get closer to the end. The music is less ambient - it sounds more like traditional 2-D Zelda dungeon music. Also, the yetis were really cute. Curiously, it's the first dungeon in the game that isn't based on one of the OoT dungeons.

The Temple of Time has a great atmosphere and an ingenious concept - climbing a tower and then taking a statue back down to the very beginning of the level. It reminds me of some of the puzzles in Spirit Tracks. The Darknut mini-boss was quite nifty as well.

It's odd that the later dungeons are no longer than the first couple of dungeons in the game - in most Zelda games, the dungeons get progressively longer and harder. Similarly, the buildup to the dungeons gets shorter and shorter - a lot happens in the story before you can tackle each of the first three dungeons, while you can start the sixth dungeon as soon as you finish the fifth dungeon.

I'll hold off on critiquing the plot until I beat the game...

[2/13 Edit: Added something inconsequential about the fifth dungeon that I left out of the original post]

I am now in possession of a priceless, powerful artifact. Its misuse is rumored to cause problems, including insanity. It's possible that I might need it to save the world, though.

I certainly could go and use it to reach the final dungeon. But I won't. It's the perfect time to go sledding with snowmen, roam the fields looking for bugs to give to a crazy little girl, and spend some much-needed time fishing. Yep, it's the perfect time to catch up on remaining sidequests.

The City in the Sky was a neat concept for a dungeon, even if it could be annoying at times (especially when figuring out how to pull the last switch to turn on the last fan). The dungeon boss was quite an experience, even if it proved to be on the easy side (I got hit a grand total of one time while battling it!). Also, I'm glad that the game provides additional evidence that chickens rule the world.

Unlike the past few dungeons, the seventh dungeon had a long lead-up complete with curing your girlfriend's amnesia and rebuilding ancient cannons. I'd almost forgotten that there had to be a Trading Game!

Finally, the Hidden Village was lots of fun. It was high time that I played it, considering I might've referenced it in a couple of my old games!

Today I finally completed The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It only took me 15 years!

The Palace of Twilight was cool but surprisingly short - I wasn't expecting to be able to finish the final regular dungeon in a little over an hour.

Hyrule Castle was fun with all the Darknuts and Boomerang shenanigans. The Big Key sequence was kind of corny though - it's a bit of a letdown when another group of characters randomly shows up to neutralize what would've been an interesting (and far from insurmountable) challenge. Also, it's odd that most of the castle is skippable unless you're trying to open all the chests (and at this point, the chests are usually just Rupees, which the game has been feeding you like candy).

The final boss battles were awesome - especially the last two phases.

The ending was pretty good. The final scene with Midna was a bit confusing - part of me wonders if it's intentionally ambiguous just to leave open the possibility of a sequel, however unlikely that might be! (It's also possible that the translation was a bit iffy here.)

Either way, it was a fun adventure. Maybe I'll write a final review - even if Twilight Princess reviews have been done to death, I can still inflict another one upon the Internet!