Thursday, February 23, 2017

Let's Update Twilight Princess HD

With remakes and remasters Nintendo usually tries to improve the games in various aspects. However, there still might be some things that they could and should have done to really create the ultimate version of the game. That's certainly the case with Twilight Princess HD, where an update could have been a solution. It's unlikely that at this point Nintendo would release one, but the point of the "Let's Update" series is to think about, how the games can be improved by feasible means. All of this is meant hypothetical.


Controls and Interface
  • All menus are navigable with Analog Stick or D-Pad on the GamePad
  • Classic horse control option
  • 1st person camera control option
  • New Wiimote and Nunchuk controls

The controls of Twilight Princess HD combine the motion aiming of the Wii version with the more comfortable joypad controls of the GameCube version, which is certainly nice. However, some of the advantages of the original controls were lost with the HD version.

It's noticeable, how there's no separate camera control option for 1st person mode. If you like the normal camera controls with the right analog stick to be inverted in some way, it might be a problem in 1st person. In fact you can't get the camera controls to work like they were on the GameCube, but a simple option would fix that.

The new horse controls are also far from an improvement. The steering is terrible and the horse gets stuck everywhere. While we cannot expect them to add the new Breath of the Wild horse AI, in the very least they should offer the option to have the horse controls like they used to be, because that was already much better.

Not necessary, but still nice to have would be a third control scheme that supports the use of Wiimote and Nunchuk, so you can play the game like on the Wii, if you really want to. And that way the HD version really offer everything from before.


Bomb Bag Bug Fixed

In case you didn't know, there's actually a bug in the HD version of the game, where you might not get one of the three Bomb Bags. Apparently this can be triggered by getting the Bomb Bag from the sunken Goron last, so make sure to visit him before doing anything at the Rapid Rides! Of course an update of the game would ideally fix this bug.


Ghost Lantern


If there's ever going to be a vote for the most useless item in the Zelda series, the Ghost Lantern certainly would be one of the strongest contenders. The fact that Nintendo just added this item with the HD version doesn't make it any better. But it would have been so easy to make this item really useful.

As one of two new abilities of this item, you can now swing the Lantern to reveal Poes during the day. Whenever you're at a location, where a Poe would be in the proximity during the night, swinging the lantern by pressing the button again will make it appear right away, so you don't have to wait for the next nightfall. Experienced players, who already know all the positions, can use this for their advantage. But also new players could use this, if they spot a Poe during the night, but can't make it in time.

As soon as you have collected all 60 Poes, the Lantern will start glowing everywhere. So, it will basically become a lantern that works without oil as an upgrade. You can't light torches with it, however, because we don't want the Oil Lantern to become redundant. Both lanterns will also shine in a different light.


Ordon Gear


In all versions of Twilight Princess some gear found early in the game gets lost lost later on. You can't get the Wooden Sword back, the Ordon Clothes will be replaced by the Hero's Clothes and the Ordon Shield can't be replaced, if it ever burns up. Since Breath of the Wild will put some big emphasis on equipping Link in many different ways, it might be nice to have some more options in Twilight Princess HD, too.

So, with this update there will be one additional slot for shields, armor and swords each on the Collection screen. Both the Wooden Sword and the Ordon Shield will become purchasable in Sera's Sundries in Ordon Village after beating the Forest Temple. You can now have both the Ordon and the Wooden Shield in your inventory and you can replace them at any time, in case they burn up. You will also be able to wear the Ordon Clothes at any time. If it wasn't for the Ganondorf amiibo, they could have made it so that in the Ordon Clothes you receive double damage for a challenge, but this way they would simply give you a different look for Link, whenever you want one.

At least the Wooden Sword could offer a challenge. Next to the lower damage it will also burn up, if you hit fire enemies like the Torch Slugs or Fire Keese.


Twilit Challenge


This would be the same thing as the Boss Challenge in Ocarina of Time 3D or the Lightning Round in Skyward Sword, probably closer to the latter. It simply would be a feature, where you can replay all the bosses in the game. In fact Twilight Princess is the only 3D Zelda game, where you can't replay any of the bosses (except for the final ones) on any means. And since the bosses here can be quite epic and fun, that's a shame. So, let's just add a boss battle mode!

It doesn't need any reward, it could just be for the records. The only question is, where you would put it in the game. I would suggest Link's bed, if he had one... Knowing Nintendo, they would probably tie it to some Ganon amiibo, but let's not go there. It potentially could also be done by Madame Fanadi, who's a character that can be fully ignored otherwise. I've actually didn't visit her a single time on my last playthrough.

In addition this "Twilit Challenge" mode would let you play the Shadow Insect hunts again, similar to how you could replay all Silent Realms in the Lightning Round. It would start with obtaining the Vessel of Light, which now holds the full 16 Tears of Light again. So, in this mode you can still find the four Shadow Insects that got removed in each Twilight area. This way the Shadow Insect hunts still remain shortened for those, who don't like these quests, while the people, who did enjoy them, can still play the full package in this new game mode.

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