The Wind Waker remains one of the best-selling and best-reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda series, but it has nonetheless always had its detractors in the form of Zelda purists who were hoping for a darker, more realistic looking game in the vein of past Zelda games. Evidently, these sentiments didn't fall on deaf years, as in 2006, Nintendo released the next installment in the 20+-year-old series, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a return to form after Wind Waker's drastic design changes. Basically, the reception to this decision was almost the exact opposite of Wind Waker's; those salivating for a darker Zelda adventure were more than satisfied with the results while Wind Waker fans hoping for more of a direct follow-up to that game were disappointed. Then there are people like me, who are on the fence.

For the most part, I like the art style of Twilight Princess a lot, but there are a few nagging flaws that keep me from appreciating it as much as Wind Waker's toon-shading, which I'll get over with first for the sake of ending on a positive note. For starters, the game looks murky. To a certain degree, this is intentional since there are quite a few sequences in the game that draw their entertainment value from the player not being quite sure what's going on or what to do. But it's definitely overplayed, and combined with the relatively underpowered hardware the game had to work with, this makes for some blurry and rather ugly effects, something Wind Waker largely avoided. Furthermore, the game's graphics demand more than what the hardware can deliver. No doubt Wind Waker was no walk in the park to design, but in that game, Nintendo set more reasonable expectations on themselves than they do here in Twilight Princess. Much like the murky look, this makes for blurry elements in the design, almost as if the game's designers weren't always sure of themselves as far as how the art style should really look. All in all, while these are really only minor misgivings, they still keep the game's art direction from being as good as it could have been.

That being said, it is doubtlessly well-made artwork that retains the charm and timeless look of the Zelda games. Even if it lacks the crisp, rich colors of Wind Waker, the art direction in Twilight Princess does borrow some elements from its predecessor, making for plenty of colorful, whimsical design elements and a certain degree of charm that remains even during the game's darkest spectacles. Another win for Twilight Princess is in its cinematics, which are by far the best in any of the Zelda games. The gritty look helps make these cinematics atmospheric and thoroughly engrossing, only made better by the engaging storyline. One other aspect where Twilight Princess is a stylistic improvement over Wind Waker is its technical prowess. While vastly inferior to what competing games and consoles have to offer, Twilight Princess is a cut above its predecessor with flawless lighting and crisp (if occassionally blurry) textures.

Even if it's not quite as good as it's predecessor's near-perfect artwork, Twilight Princess is easy to qualify as a great-looking video game, presenting whimsical colors despite the game's dark tone, extremely well-done cinematics complemented by a compelling story, and reasonably competent, if somewhat flawed, technical polish.