NLU Weekly #17 (January 18, 2007) - Ultimate Battle: Twilight Princess VS. Okami |
 Twilight Princess VS. Okami: Intro Oddly I was inspired to do this while I was reading the IGN Wii mailbag. If you don't know Okami won IGN's Overall Game of the Year award and it seems that both IGNWii's readers and Editors aren't too happy about it. The question and answer in, well, question was full of hyperbole in regards to Twilight Princess, for example, this part of the question: "...I spent my entire winter break absorbed, spending at least eight hours a day in the most beautiful and entertaining video game to date. Okami's stylization and Gears of War's realism are nothing in comparison to the beautifully crafted world of Twilight Princess..." And this part of Matt Casamassina's Answer, just set me off to organize the facts and decide which game I like, better and why: "Matt responds: Thanks for the comments, Pierce. I agree completely and hope I made my position clear in the video and written roundtables. It is an unfortunate possibility that the Game of the Year may not always be the best game, but rather the best game played by the majority of editors. I was expecting Zelda to lose for exactly that reason and I was quite confident that Gears of War would win. The Okami win surprised me and, the more I thought about it, pissed me off. Clearly the editors chose a game that felt new, but the truth of the matter is that Okami's stylized presentation is its only pioneering attribute. It does not deliver a new gameplay experience. Twilight Princess, by comparison, is deeper, more intuitive, better balanced, and ultimately much more entertaining by just about any measure. All of that true, I would have preferred that the editors simply selected Gears of War for its mood and atmosphere..." I know that is their opinion, BUT... Those bold parts in Matt's response are what, like I said, set me off to do this. This guy just lost any credibility he had with me. Defending Twilight Princess's loss by saying Okami does nothing new? What the hell? If he could back that up and tell me how Twilight Princess brings a totally new "Gameplay Experience" to the table and deserves to be the GotY without using "It's a Zelda game", I'd like to see him try. Later he goes on to accuse the other non-Nintendo IGN editors that they bashed Zelda and didn't play it, if he really did play Okami would he have even gone where he did?. In fact before I even get started in detail with this thing, let me say right off the bat Zelda's lack of evolution and lack of a newer/updated gameplay experience are what affected my opinion of the game the most for me. Okay, enough intro, besides that is too much IGN for one dose anyways... So here is how I am going to go about doing the rest of this article, first I have a "Tale of the Tape" graphic, then I am going to post my articles covering both games, followed by IGN and GameSpot's Reviews of both games and then I'm going to take a Retrospective look back at both games and make a finally decision. I'm also going to attempt to be as unbiased as I can, I love the Zelda series, but I am "Gamer" and just love games in general, so nothing is safe. Tale of the Tape  Now Loading Impression Articles Okami Twilight Princess (The Rant) Now Loading Finished Articles Okami Twilight Princess GameSpot/IGN Reviews Okami (GameSpot: 9.0 / IGN: 9.1) Twilight Princess (Wii version) (GameSpot: 8.8 / IGN: 9.5) In Retrospect Now that you have hopefully read all those opinions, here is what I think about both games looking back, followed by my decision, I am not going to cop-out and just say both, so you can expect a choice at the end, but let me get to why I made my final decision. Both games are quite similar... They even seem to based off each other, in Okami you play a Zelda-like game as a wolf, in Twilight Princess you can change in to a Wolf. But unfortunately for Twilight Princess, that is it's biggest new feature, the Wolf changing ability, everything else is tried and true Zelda (not that is really a bad thing). Of course like all Zelda games there are new Dungeons, items, weapons and even characters, but a lot of the game is recycled from the older games. For example, the story and without spoiling the game, boils down to the same Link/Zelda/Ganon thing we have seen since the first game, though the little plot-twist at the end was pretty damn cool. Is there a thing as too much fan-service? I think so... If I have to play tennis with an electric orb in the next Zelda game, I am just going to laugh. But there are many, many, good and great things about Twilight Princess too. The design of the levels and the world is second to none, you won't find better dungeons, puzzles or bug and glitch free gaming anywhere. The game definitely has a large scope, but the game sometimes feels huge just to be that way, when you rather warp around the world, rather than explore it or travel through it, it is just too big. In the end lets not kid ourselves, Zelda is a great game and another masterpiece from Nintendo, it just doesn't seem to pull all the right strings as it used to. As for Okami, what can I say about this game, it does use the Zelda formula and is probably one of the easiest games that I have ever played, but unlike Twilight Princess, which had to live up to its own name, Okami was able to take the Zelda-style-adventure and add a brand new element to it. The Celestial Brush. This tool takes the place of all the items of the Zelda games and makes them interesting by having you draw your effects on the screen. Most of them are simple circles, lines and swirls, but it is intuitive and enjoyable to play with. While the gameplay might not exactly match up with Twilight Princess, it is still fun and the adventure and world are solid. What sets Okami apart from Twilight Princess is the presentation of the game. If the games soft, beautiful water color graphics don't just make you believe in wonder, then the games great characters and storyline will. Unlike Twilight Princess where you know what is going to happen between Zelda/Link/Ganon, in Okami the uniqueness of the storyline and the characters powerful personalities will by end of the game have you wishing that the game didn't have to end. I will admit by the end, the game had me teary eyed, it was that beautiful. Winner In the end it will depend on if you are able to play both these great games. In my opinion Okami was better than Twilight Princess for 2006, I was even contemplating giving Okami my Game of the Year and came pretty darn close to doing it to. You know I really wish that I could give Twilight Princess all the props in the world and pick it... But, I reasonably cannot. Both games had their flaws (Okami's easy fights and TP's too familiar gameplay), but Okami's style, characters and story won me over, while TP's was predicable, except for that one cool twist, like I said (though I want to reiterate, that this is the best Zelda story yet). Winner: Okami. Closing Out Hopefully that all made sense and you can figure out the reason that I picked Okami. If it was too confusing, I apologize. Closing Out, I just wanted to mention what I have been playing in this last week. Basically, I played a crap-load of Gears of War Versus mode online (even getting 2 new achievements) and I also played through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in less than 7 hours, all 200.2% of it. I am probably going to take the time and get Enchanted Arms completed next and follow that up with maybe FFXII or something. Stay logged to Now Loading. Please save Rrrichta! Loading Complete! |
POSTED ON JANUARY 18, 2007 |
