After being forced out of Zelda’s body, Ganon reincorporates and turns into a pig-lion dark beast. He’s got three basic moves: running a ring around the throne room and eventually teleporting, charging at Link, or trying to drop on Link. When he materializes after teleporting, or during his charge, Link has a chance to hit his forehead with an arrow, which causes him to roll onto his side and give Link some free shots at the scar on his chest. Eventually he catches wise to how Link’s fighting and teleports away the second before an arrow would hit him, and Midna suggests matching him beast for beast. Link turns into the wolf and can grapple a charging Ganon and toss him aside – a throwback to doing the same with Gorons, or the sumo wrestling. After enough hits, Ganon falls.
With Ganon down, the gift Zelda gave Midna to heal her returns to Zelda, and she wakes up. They express the understanding they gained while Zelda’s spirit was inside Midna, but are rudely interrupted when Ganon starts preparing for the next phase of the battle. Midna summons the Fused Shadow, teleports Link and Zelda outside before they can stop her, and turns into the gigantic twilight beast to fight Ganon herself. Link and Zelda materialize in Hyrule Field and can only watch as Hyrule Castle fscking explodes, and when the dust settles, Ganon is sitting on his black stallion holding Midna’s helmet. He crushes the helmet and summons phantom riders to come after Link and Zelda. [1] Zelda calls on the light spirits, who teleport Link and Zelda away before they’re run over and give Zelda light arrows to fight Ganon.
Link and Zelda return to the field on Epona, leading to a chase fight where Zelda shoots Ganon with the arrows and then Link takes advantage of the stun to move in for sword attacks. After enough of this, Ganon’s horse falls, but he gets up to challenge Link one last time. He summons a barrier around the two of them for a final sword fight, Chosen Hero vs. Dark Lord. Mortal Drawing doesn’t work very well against him (maybe it does and I just couldn’t get the timing right, but either way, I wasn’t able to use it), but the Back Slice does okay. Eventually, Link will knock Ganon down and have a chance to land an Ending Blow.
Ganon screams as Link plunges the Master Sword into his chest, but is still able to get back up, still defiant. However, his defeat causes the Triforce of Power to abandon him, leaving him just a mortal man. A mortal man run through by a sword. Ganon sees a vision of Zant, who tilts his head to the side breaking his neck, and Ganon dies. The light spirits appear again, with a silhouette that resembles Midna’s, and Link runs to check it out. He finds a cloaked woman kneeling, and the woman – Midna, restored to her true Twili form – turns to look at him and smiles. And just in case there’s any doubt it’s Midna, she speaks with the familiar voice and irreverent tone, “What? Say something! Am I so beautiful that you’ve no more words left?”
The credits roll with the expected scenes of life going on in Hyrule now that the threat has passed. Highlights include a big line of people in Hyrule Castle Town doing the Malo Mart dance, Rutela still watching over her son, hearts floating over the yetis’ home, Telma’s group investigating the area around the Temple of Time, and of course the Ordon Village homecoming and reunions. There’s a mid-credits scene in the Mirror Chamber as Midna returns to her world. Zelda says the Mirror was left so that they could meet. As Midna’s leaving, she crystalizes a tear and sends it into the Mirror, causing it to crack, and once she’s gone, the Mirror shatters. The final scenes of the game echo the beginning: Fado runs up to Link’s house, calling for him; over by the road, Ilia watches as Link rides off on Epona.
Twilight Princess has got a great supporting cast, headlined of course by Midna, the best advisor companion yet, and a wide variety of memorable supporting players. The dungeons and bosses are all among the best in the series. It’s definitely in the top tier of Zelda games for me, along with A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, and Majora’s Mask.
[1] When it became apparent I was going to need to split this post from the Hyrule Castle post, this was where I thought I should leave off.
