History VideoGame / TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess

* FourElementEnsemble: The dungeons where Link finds the four pieces of the Mirror of Twilight.
** Fire: The Arbiter's Grounds, which is lit with lamps and torches. The boss Stallord has a fiery BreathWeapon.
** Water: Snowpeak Ruins, which is filled with ice.
** Earth: The Temple of Time, which is located in a grove and is filled with smooth stone surfaces and statues.
** Air: The City in the Sky, which is suspended in the clouds and is filled with air geysers and flying enemies.

The game would later receive [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess2016 a 70-chapter manga adaptation by Akira Himekawa]], which ran from February 2016 to January 2022.

* ThreesomeSubtext: The game has it between Link, Zelda and Midna. Unlike in most games, there isn't much of an emotional connection between Link and Zelda, but in the game's finale they both stand united out of their mutual strong feelings toward Midna.

* AlienBlood: Morpheel produces purplish blood when its eye is attacked. Also, [[spoiler:Dark Beast Ganon drips glowing white blood from his old abdominal wound.]]

* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: After ''The Wind Waker'''s disappointing sales on the West, it was decided that the next game would cater to Western gamers. The result was the ''Zelda'' game with the most realistic art style in the series, in addition to having a more serious and epic tone, being one of the darkest installments (tied with ''Majora's Mask'' in many fans' eyes), and having a higher age rating than previous games. Much of the game's official art also had Link looking more serious and aggressive.

-->'''Midna''': Have you forgotten? When Light-dwellers enter the Twilight, they turn into spirits.\\

** In the Palace of Twilight, backtracking to the first two sections would seem impossible without the Sols that activated platforms, and there's a tall room in the central section that involves several elevator platform rides, only some of which will carry you up. Returning to these areas activates new floating platforms that will let you go through the rooms in the first section, and skip the series of elevators in the last section.
** Like ''Wind Waker HD'' before it, the HD version of this game brings a few:

* CardiovascularLove: The reunion of a yeti couple after a quick bout of possession results in a huge mass of hearts shooting out of their loving embrace. Since this is a Zelda game, the hearts are actually the series' long-standing [[HeartsAreHealth recovery items]], plus a health-boosting HeartContainer.

* DeathMountain: In addition to the classic Death Mountain area, which is once again filled with lava in its caves, the game also has Snowpeak. It is a snowy highland where you fight the same sort of wolves alongside skeletal ice-people and encounter friendly yetis.

* {{Irony}}: After all the fragments of the Fused Shadow are retrieved, Link is turned into a wolf for a fourth time and trapped in the form after Zant forcefully places a shadow crystal into Link's forehead. Zant's intention is to render Link powerless forever, but once the latter finds the Master Sword, the crystal pops out and Midna keeps it, letting Link turn between wolf and human at will. Midna lampshades this backfire before the battle with Zant.

* TheLostWoods: Faron Woods, which is very peaceful and serene until the dark forces of the Twilight Realm corrupt it. There's also the Sacred Grove, where you follow a Skull Kid from ''Ocarina of Time'' to find [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement the Master Sword]] in a clearing similar to the one in ''A Link to the Past'', and also very reminiscent of (and structurally identical to) the Temple of Time in ''Ocarina of Time'', for good reason. Last but not least, there's the Forest Temple, which is more organic than its ''Ocarina of Time'' counterpart.

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Snowpeak, which also features water so cold that it freezes Link and makes him respawn with lost health (and if he's wearing the Zora Armor, which is vulnerable to ice, [[OneHitKill it kills him instantly]]). However, the two Yetis you meet are peaceful allies who cook you food and race you down the mountain on snowboards made of ice.

** Technically, more like All There In The Supplemental Material. The official strategy guide and the trading card deck each provide considerable additional information about not only Link and Zelda, but almost every significant supporting character.

* GiantSpider: Many Skulltulas, both infants and adults, are found in the Temple of Time, with the boss being the biggest of the lot of course -- Armogohma is MASSIVE. And then, when you defeat the giant spider, its body disintegrates and its large, central eye becomes ''another'' spider, surrounded by hundreds of tiny little spiders... and they swarm chaotically around the room...

** Link's jaw drops when he sees Armogohma's [[spoiler:wimpy second form.]]

* KarlMarxHatesYourGuts: The shops have varying selections, but everything that is sold has the same price regardless of where you buy it... with three exceptions: the Gorons who set up shop in Castle Town, who sell Red Potion, Lantern Oil, and Arrows at a 10-Rupee markup from the standard (they call it "regional pricing"); the other shop before it becomes a branch of Malo Mart, which sells a good selection of things, but at a higher price than even the last wallet upgrade can hold; and Malo Market Castle Town, which has the same selection at ''half'' the standard price. However, you drop some serious Rupees making these discounts ''available''...
* KarmicTwistEnding: The Snowpeak Ruins arc has one for Yeta. She found a shard of the Mirror of Twilight and admired its beauty and her own reflected in it, but bad things started to happen and she took ill. When she feels well enough to take Link to the room so he can take away the shard, [[spoiler: she gets drawn to it again with vanity and its magic transforms her into a monster. After she is defeated, her husband Yeto tells her that their love for each other is more important and that true beauty is in each other's eyes.]]

*** Only 12 Tears of Light must be collected in Twilight segments, as opposed to the original 16.

* AquaticMook: The game features neither River Zoras nor Octoroks (the latter's absence is a major omission, as it was present in all prior games(, but has Toadpolis who behave in the exact same manner.

* ArtShiftedSequel: Among 3D games, the game follows up ''The Wind Waker'' (which employed cel-shaded visuals) by opting to use a more realitic art style.

** For the most part, the wolf form takes more damage, can't block, and enemies that are knocked down can't be attacked directly. But new abilities are available in this form, and on the rare occasions you find a suitable enemy, few things are more cathartic than literally ripping their throats or souls out.
** The Magic Armor. It looks amazing, but it'll drain your wallet away to nothing in no time. After that, it truly becomes a ''dead-weight'', leaving you vulnerable in battle until you take it off. You have to keep stock of maximizing your rupees with the Giant wallet and wear it ONLY in difficult battles as there's no point into wearing it in puzzles with no enemies. Places like four Darknuts in [[BrutalBonusLevel the Cave of Ordeals]] would be best worn there. Downplayed in the HD remake, where the max rupee count for each wallet has been increased, in addition to the new Colossal Wallet that can hold 9,999 rupees, ensuring that you can actually make decent use of it for long periods of time.

* BanishingRitual: [[spoiler: Ganondorf was originally supposed to be executed by the sages, but he survived and started attacking them. In a last-minute maneuver, they resorted to banishing him to the Twilight Realm, where he found Zant.]]

** For the first time in the series, Link actually has a required key item stolen from him. [[spoiler: Just when you collected the 3rd Fused Shadow and return to the grotto, a cutscene happens where Zant easily defeats you and Midna from behind and steals the 3 pieces.]]
** [[spoiler: Zant is the first major antagonist in the series to give up a heart container once defeated. All other antagonist bosses before Zant never gave a heart container.]]

* PapaWolf:

* RoaringRampageOfRescue: Link does this repeatedly - first to save the children kidnapped from his home village, then later to save [[spoiler:the dying Midna]], then later still to save [[spoiler:the possessed Zelda]].

* SecretUndergroundPassage: After completing Lakebed Temple Link uses a series of secret passages leading from Hyrule Castle Town into Hyrule Castle itself.

* SequentialBoss:
** The game does this for every boss except the second, in some cases even tricking you (and Link) into thinking the battle is over. In the majority of cases, the first phase is about merely weakening th boss's defenses with the item you found in the dungeon, while in the second phase you use that item in conjunction with the sword to incapacitate the boss and deal actual damage.
** Played for laughs with Armogohma, whose second form is merely its eyeball on a tiny spider body, which runs ''away'' from you and dies very easily (all while a sillier version of the first phase's boss music plays).

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Wolf Link is ''not'' welcome most places. Even assuming that people aren't scared of normal wolves, Link's green fur, the triforce markings on his head, and rough hairstyle makes Talo call him out as a monster and everyone in Kakariko run and hide indoors, Rusl will flat out attack him and being Wolf Form in Hyrule Castle town results in being surrounded by guards (though they'll never hurt you, Zant's takeover apparently only left the cowards). The only normal people who want anything to do with Wolf Link is CloudCuckooLander Agatha, a NatureLover living in Faron woods, Gorons who probably don't have anything to fear from Wolves, and [[AnimalTalk other animals]].
** Unlike past [[ExpositionFairy companions]], Link is at first immensely distrustful of Midna, having been grabbed by something that looks similar to her and transformed into an entirely different creature. He starts growling at her both when she first approaches him and when she breaks him free and jumps on top of him to use him as a mount, snarking and mocking his predicament all the while. It's not until after the first dungeon that he seems to start adjusting to her presence, and not until [[spoiler: she almost dies]] that he starts to consider her a genuine friend.
** On the way to the second dungeon, Link has to contend with hostile Gorons who want to keep him off their mountain [[spoiler: because a Fused Shadow has turned their chieftain into a monster]]. Gorons are literal living boulders and can roll into Link at the speed of a car, it doesn't matter how many times it's attempted, he can't muscle past them until he goes to find out how Mayor Bo did it (by cheating with the iron boots). Even after getting the boots, Link has to challenge their elder to a Sumo match to get into the dungeon, and even with the boots it's still entirely possible to lose to the absolutely ancient and obviously atrophied-with-age Goron.

* HeartbeatSoundtrack: The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d3YQHS6eFY music]] that accompanies each encounter with the Shadow Beasts.

* BigBad: [[EvilOverlord King Zant]] is the leader of the Twili who desires to conquer Hyrule as well, [[spoiler:[[DiscOneFinalBoss though]] he is actually working for Ganondorf, who has returned and wants to take over Hyrule for real.]]

** To stop Zant, who has somehow gotten a power boost, you'll need the Mirror of Twilight, which the Sages used to banish people directly to the Twilight Realm. It is soon revealed that this was done with Ganondorf after his execution failed.

* HijackedByGanon: This game names the trope when Zant turns out to have been given his powers by Ganondorf, with Midna even making a smart-ass remark about how that should have been obvious immediately after the revelation was made. There is some foreshadowing of this when you first meet Zant where he mentions his "God" while deriding the Fused Shadows, but the game makes Zant look like the BigBad until Ganon's role is revealed.

--->'''Zant:''' How dare you?! Are you implying my power is... our old magic? Now THAT is a joke! This is power is granted to me by [[HijackedByGanon my god]]! It is the magic of the King of Twilight, and you WILL respect it!

--->'''Sages''': His name is...[[HijackedByGanon Ganondorf]].

The game would later receive [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa a 70-chapter manga adaptation by Akira Himekawa]], which ran from February 2016 to January 2022.

* MoodWhiplash: After the foreboding buildup to, and menacing and gruesome fight with, the Twilit Bloat to restore light to Lake Hylia, and the subsequent Light Spirit scene with Lanayru quickly turning into a history lesson featuring extremely unsettling and/or creepy imagery (see the Nightmare Fuel section for more details), you walk back outside the spring to Lake Hylia and get one of the most peaceful songs in the game.

In 2016, the game received [[Manga/TheLegendOfZeldaAkiraHimekawa a manga adaptation by Akira Himekawa]].

* {{Troperiffic}}: The game was made to play the tropes of the series to the letter, since they knew that they were going to change things up for the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword next game]].

''The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess'' is the thirteenth game in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series, released in 2006. Both a launch title for the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} and the final first-party release for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube, the game later received with a remastered version a decade later on the UsefulNotes/WiiU.

* HarmlessFreezing: When Link reaches Zora's Domain while it's frozen, he and Midna can see an absolute ''plethora'' of Zoras frozen beneath the water; and none are harmed by the freezing itself, being instead popsicles who'll return to normal when the waters' temperature lowers. This does ''not'' apply to Link himself when using the Zora armor: If he falls under cold water or is hit by a Freezard's ice breath, it'll be a OneHitKill for him.

The dual-console release of ''Twilight Princess'' is something of a coincidence. Originally developed solely for UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube, its development cycle took so long that the Wii was preparing to launch by the time it was done. Therefore, the game was somewhat hastily ported to the Wii's launch line-up, with the addition of motion controls for the sword and bow so that a swing of the Wii Remote would swing Link's sword. While this was great advertising, Nintendo hit a SpannerInTheWorks when they remembered that Link is left-handed, unlike a good 90% of the human race. Their fix was to flip the ''entire game'' left-to-right so that Link would hold his sword in the same hand as most players. Ironically, the Wii Remote was the only controller in the UsefulNotes/ConsoleWars that was fully ambidextrous up until the release of Kinect and [=PlayStation=] Move. [[HistoryRepeats History repeated itself]] nearly a decade later with the release of ''Breath of the Wild'' on the Switch, which again took so long to develop that it was released as a launch title for the system following the one it was developed for.[[note]]although this time with much better control porting.[[/note]] As such, ''Twilight Princess'' can be seen as something of the start of a series tradition in this regard.

* NeckSlap: At the end of the game, [[spoiler:Zant apparently becomes disillusioned with Ganon, knowing that he's not a god after all, and snaps his ''own'' neck [[CantLiveWithoutYou killing both himself and Ganon]]]].

* BoomHeadshot: This trope is optionally self-inflicted. There is a section at the Snowpeak Ruins dungeon that contains cannons. If you load one with a cannonball and one of your bombs and position Link in front of the blast, he will die instantly, regardless oh how many hearts you have at the time.

* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The game features one of these twice in the game: the same location appears as the training level for Link's wolf form, as well as later, after the third dungeon. While not a huge area, it's still absurdly spacious, and seems to double as a prison of some kind. Said area is apparently inside Hyrule Castle, and clearly above ground level.

* BagOfHolding: Comes standard with the hero garb, being able to carry a wallet, a fish journal, a bottle, a slingshot, a lantern, a wooden sword, and a big lantern ''before meeting Midna for the first time''. Afterwards, Midna is shown to have access to a {{hammerspace}} where she keeps Link's sword and shield while he's in wolf form, so she's likely holding onto all of his items for him.

* BarbarianTribe: Bulblins seem to operate in this fashion. They live in a crude encampment in the desert, but venture out into the world for raping and pillaging. They tame wild boars, and are ruled by the gargantuan Lord Bulblin (who, as the biggest of the Bulblins, is also LargeAndInCharge).

** During the final battle, [[spoiler:Ganondorf possesses Zelda's corpse and uses her magic against you, which includes holy light. When you [[TennisBoss send it back at him]], Zelda is dead and a holy being, but Ganondorf is demonic, so only he gets hurt. Also, this only weakens him. It takes magic from Midna to actually drive him out of Zelda.]]