Gameplay in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD is largely unchanged from that in the original title, '. As in all previous The Legend of Zelda games, players control the series' main protagonist, a young swordsman named Link. In combat, Link primarily uses a sword and shield, bow and arrows, boomerang, and bombs. Similar to ', many of the gameplay tweaks present in Twilight Princess HD involve its support for the Wii U GamePad. The controller's touchscreen displays a map of the current area and Link's inventory, allowing the player to quickly switch items. Projectiles can be aimed using the GamePad's motion controls; the game can be played solely on the controller via Off-TV Play. The player can swap between Link's human and wolf forms faster by pressing a button on the touchscreen. The Wii U Pro Controller is also supported. Scanning the Wolf Link Amiibo figurine transports the player character to a Wii U-exclusive challenge dungeon called the "Cave of Shadows" and can carry data over to '. Other Zelda-related Amiibo figurines have distinct functions: Link and Toon Link replenish arrows, Zelda and Sheik restore Link's health, and Ganondorf causes Link to take twice as much damage. In the Cave of Shadows, Link fights waves of enemies while restricted to his wolf form. Comparable to the optional "Cave of Ordeals" present in the original release, opportunities to recover health during the trial are sparse. The player unlocks portions of the Cave of Shadows while advancing in the game. "Hero Mode", a higher difficulty setting first introduced in ', returns in Twilight Princess HD. Activating the Ganondorf Amiibo while in Hero Mode quadruples the amount of damage Link normally takes when hit.
Development
After the release of The Wind Waker HD, which was developed internally at Nintendo, the Zelda team decided it would pursue a remaster of Twilight Princess. At the time, the developers at Nintendo were preoccupied with, so an external development studio, Tantalus Media, was approached to work on Twilight Princess HD. According to Eiji Aonuma, who directed the original release and produced Twilight Princess HD, ensuring the remaster would take advantage of the GamePad was a point of focus early in the title's development. The control scheme used in the GameCube version was adapted for the remaster due to similarities between the button layouts of the two consoles' controllers. Aonuma considered underwater gameplay in the remaster significantly improved. Other enhancements include speeding up a handful of cutscenes that seemed prolonged by modern standards and reducing repetitive gameplay elements, such as collecting Tears of Light while in the Twilight Realm. A commitment to "preserving the feel of the original" inspired several design decisions, such as keeping the frame rate at 30 frames per second. Tomomi Sano, the assistant director of the Wii U version, noted the degree of refinement the graphics would receive required much consideration: "When we created more precise models of objects to go with the higher resolution, we found that everything was too clear and we lost that soft and delicate atmosphere that you get in particular at twilight or with the light in a forest."
Release
Information about an HD remaster of Twilight Princess was leaked online after the Wii U eShop was datamined for upcoming digital releases. Twilight Princess HD was announced during a Nintendo Direct presentation on November 12, 2015. The game was released in North America and Europe on March 4, 2016; in Australia on March 5, 2016; and in Japan on March 10, 2016. Certain bundles of the game include a Wolf Link Amiibo figurine. A CD containing 20 musical selections from the game was available as a GameStop preorder bonus in North America, and was included with the limited-edition bundle in other regions. A three-disc original soundtrack consisting of 108 pieces from the game was released in Japan in July 2016. In the first week of Twilight Princess HDs release, the remaster was the second best-selling game in the United Kingdom and the best-selling game released for a single platform in the country. The title was also the second best-selling game in Japan during its debut week, where 52,282 copies were sold. By comparison, 30,264 copies of The Wind Waker HD were sold in its first week in Japan. Twilight Princess HDs sales dropped 84% in its second week in the U.K., making it the ninth best-selling game in the country. In the United States, it was the third best-selling game sold in brick-and-mortar retailers throughout March 2016, according to market-research firm The NPD Group.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD sold 52,282 copies during its first week of release in Japan, which placed it at second place in the video game sales charts. The following week, it came in at number 9 on the charts, selling an additional 7,705 copies.
