'Too formulaic'? That problem occurs with every Zelda game, this isn't a unique issue with TP.
The music is also quite bland for the most part. I don't remember any of the boss themes, Wow, really? O_o I loved the music in this game, particularly the boss themes.
'Too formulaic'? That problem occurs with every Zelda game, this isn't a unique issue with TP. @catmuto I'd still agree with the reviewer that it's more of a problem with this game than it is with the others (save, maybe, for Skyward Sword).
@BlueMadness: It never makes sense to me when someone complains that "(Specific) Zelda game was formulaic" but seems to conveniently forget that every Zelda game goes by basically the same formula.
Even Skyward, which actually shares 1st place with TP as my favorite Zelda game to date (what one doesn't do so well, the other did much better), was pretty much following the formula of previous Zelda games.
@catmuto: I don't disagree with you that the rest of the Zelda series has suffered a lot from the fact that they keep reusing the Altt P formula and that they need to deviate from that more in the future, but it is an especially notable problem with TP because it's very specifically trying to ape Oo T's implementation of the formula, which means it was lacking in innovation like say Majora's Mask or Wind Waker which, for all their faults, were more interesting games to me.
This review is now Hilarious In Hindsight, in light of all the complaints about the newest Zelda being "too different" from the others before it.
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Solid Game, but too formulaic.
Twilight Princess is a relatively solid Zelda title that is unfortunately held back by the fact it was trying too hard to be a couple of things and didn't especially succeed at any of them.
It was trying to go for a darker, more "mature" aesthetic; this isn't a bad idea in and of itself and honestly the concept art for the game looks cool, but in-game the horrific abuse of bloom and the fact everything looks like it was painted with mud make the game much uglier than it should be. team ico nintendo is not.
The storyline is difficult to really get into. Midna is a good character but I found it very difficult to really care about anyone else. Zant is a generic villain at first but has a cool design and a menacing presence. While the idea of subverting that by showing him to be completely insane has merit it wasn't really built up to in a satisfying way, making it very jarring and honestly making him look like a clown.
Adding to that, while I don't mind Ganondorf being in the game as much anymore, he definitely feels shoehorned in order to make this a more "traditional" zelda experience. had Zant been allowed to be his own villain i feel the game would have had a much stronger identity.
While the game is "dark", it doesn't really succeed much in being memorably scary or foreboding. Majora's Mask is frankly a much more disturbing, memorable game in terms of its plot and atmosphere.
The music is also quite bland for the most part. I don't remember any of the boss themes, and most of the good music is just arrangements of the main theme. they should have gone with an orchestra like they planned.
Gameplay-wise, my biggest complaint besides the easy difficulty is the wolf-form. It feels like a gimmick that wasn't finished, that Nintendo thought the cool-factor would be enough, but it wears thin not long into the game. You have a much more limited pool of abilities and attacks, and you spend most of it in a tedious fetch quest for bugs. it's really boring. they should have fleshed out the wolf form a lot more than they did.
With these caveats aside it is still a fun, polished game. Even with my dislike for the visuals i would probably consider it more enjoyable than Ocarina of Time.