Twilight Princess: Behind the Legend – Part 1
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a game all Nintendo fans have been following religiously since it was unveiled in 2004. For some of us it has been the air we breathe, even the seemingly final hours to our own apocalypse as we waited in anticipation. For others it has been the title that should have been, rather than the anime styled, treasure hunting Wind Waker.
Whatever Twilight Princess was for you, its tale has been one full of surprises, disappointments and rioting fans and as the imminent release approaches, November 19th in America and December 7th in Australia, we will take a look back at the legend behind Twilight Princess.
Read Part 1 inside!
t began like a raging fire over a drought stricken forest. After the controversial Wind Waker, Zelda fans were anticipating the next instalment in their beloved series. Many held onto the fading hope that Links next adventure would return him to the Kingdom of Hyrule in full blown Ocarina of Time glory while others had likened onto the new visual style and eagerly waited for a continuation to Wind Waker. It was at the Entertainment Expo, or E3, in 2004 that Nintendo would drop their bombshell, one that foresaw a reaction like none other. Reggie Fils-Aime, now President of Nintendo America took the stage and announced his dream, which involved some ass kicking, and a notepad of names. The lights dimmed, silence befell the crowd of onlookers and a new legend was born.
The first revealing of Twilight Princess for the Nintendo Gamecube, at the time dubbed simply Working Title, was welcomed by screams, sequels and a record number of fainting spells that had L.A hospitals booked up for weeks. The trailer was a minute long and saw our hero Link emerge from what appeared to be Hyrule Castle, wielding a sword and shield, galloping over miles of terrain toward an army of Moblins. It set the tone for the new Zelda and the realisation of a dream every Nintendo fan had since the Space World event in 2000. To the excited cries of hundreds of people, Shigeru Miyamoto took the stage, also wielding a sword and shield. In his short but definitive speech the legendary game developer Miyamoto said that this adventure would be unlike any other where Link would look different and act different.
n the wake of the Entertainment Expo nothing could stop the fans from commencing their unleashment of lies, rumours and downright gaming criminal offences. Most notably was the mocked up picture that supposably revealed the name for the new Zelda, Reigns of Sorrow. What threw most people off was the fact that the poster that held the title was in English, despite the fact Shigeru Miyamoto was standing before a hundred Japanese-speaking people. Another one, while not on the same level as the fake title, was a certain member of the Gamefaqs community that said he had played near final builds of the game and was in contact with very spoilerish and insider information. It was probably not in his best interest to condone a group of pictures that were said to be straight out of the new Zelda, which were later proven fake by the very person that created them.
After a stressful period of waiting, President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata gave us a very thought provoking speech at the Game Developers Conference in 2005, topping it off with an extended trailer of the new Zelda. This trailer would become quite infamous as it closed with a Wolf howling to a moon, one that some thought looked remarkable like the angry moon in Majoras Mask (or so they said). That was hardly the tip of the rumour iceberg. Hundred of Nintendo fans started to throw around ideas that Link would transform into a wolf, while others made a connection between the full moon and the wolf, suggesting Link would turn into a full blown werewolf. Only one party was correct, the other completely ignorant of the fact a werewolf typically stands on two legs and is double the height of a human.
ometime before April and that lovely little holiday that turns even the hardest of us into gullible fools, Electronic Gaming Monthly, or EGM, had a little joke of their own at the expense of Nintendo fans. They reported that a remake of The Wind Waker, fully remastered in the beauty of the new Zelda game, would be bundled with the game for a holiday release. Internet message boards were flooded by countless topics of excited and ecstatic fans, completely unaware that EGM were having their way with the gaming community. Careful onlookers paid close attention to the issue of the magazine as well as the poorly photo-shopped screen said to be taken straight out of the game, soon realising it was not as good as it seemed. EGM writers must have been laughing their arses off for months on end as the April Fools joke still managed to resurface even after it had been beaten around the bush.
Another year had passed and a new E3 was upon us. This was the year of Zelda, despite a much-anticipated showing of the Xbox 360. So what did Nintendo deliver us? A new, 2 minute trailer that finally showed off the truth behind the Wolf, a second form of Link whenever he entered the Twilight Realm. The Twilight Realm originally began as a black and white realm that was consuming Hyrule but would later change to become the hazy, dieing world we have seen in more recent trailers. A new character was introduced, the Twilight dwelling Midna, a black imp that would ride Wolf Link around in the twilight and exist outside in the “”strictest definition of existing””.
his did not end Nintendos onslaught of new information. The game was at last branded a title, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. While at the time many gamers were unsure of the girly sounding title it would soon grow on everyone and begin more heated arguments over the identity of the so called Princess. Then there was the massive demo, broken up into three segments that highlighted the key aspects to the new Zelda. The starting village, the first dungeon and a chase across the Hyrule plains were featured as playable demos and only hinted at the enormous scope of the game. When E3 came to a close Zelda fans were set for the approaching Holiday release but in the months to come disaster would spell on their beloved game.
And thus was the doomsday of all Nintendo fans hotly anticipating the new Legend. Camp Hyrule came in the month of August and was centred around Twilight Princess, the main page featuring the iconic howling wolf at the massive moon. But this Camp Hyrule was not to end in happiness but rather with an announcement that almost killed the internet and saw more gamers turning their back on a developer than ever before. Twilight Princess had been delayed, pushed back until after the next Fiscal year, some six months away.
his is where trouble arose. Message boards were flooded by people convinced that the game would come out in April. No thanks to a misunderstanding between Reggie and interviewers it would have seemed that even Nintendo themselves had confirmed an April release. So for months on end forum goers had to endure endless topics about the incorrect release date. Relief from these persistent rumours came when April arrived and soon passed, without a single whisper from Nintendo about Twilight Princess. In fact Nintendo was so quiet we passed by many gaming events as well as the next Game Developers Conference without a glimmer of new information. The great drought was an endless and boring for Zelda fans as it is now for gamers awaiting the worldwide release of the then, Revolution.
During this time of deep solitude a new Aprils Fool joke emerged, this time from well-known speed runner, TSA. It would have seemed a few weeks before April the 1st that TSA had been lucky enough to interview Nintendo about the new Zelda adventure, revealing new details that we had been drooling for. The joke was on us however as the interview was quickly proven to be a sham, made up to amuse a bored fan at the expense of all us gullible fools.
