I've completed the first dungeon and figured now would be a good point to share my initial thoughts. Actually, after typing this up, maybe I should be posting these as some sort of article on the website! Anyway, for those brave enough to continue reading this post, thank you.
1) The tutorial design and pacing for the first hour or two, up until you first meet Princess Zelda, is pretty atrocious. The game clumsily attempts to guide the player through the basic controls while also moving the story along and, well, the game's beginning fails at both. The first thing I'm told to do is get my horse, Epona. But when I try to walk forward, I'm told, "Hey, you need to get your horse!" Yeah, I know, and my horse isn't in sight. What I didn't notice, maybe due to the subdued graphics or my stupidly not glancing at the map, was that I had to go the other way to the pond, to find Epona. Maybe I'm just dense, but it took me way too long to realize they were trying to tell me, "Hey, there's another path. Go down the path over there." The same kind of crap played out a few more times in that stupid little town: herding cats and failing because I didn't go fishing, fishing but not being close enough to the cat for the cat to actually eat the fish, using the hawk for the beehive target first and then incorrectly thinking I was done with using the hawk, and hitting the targets when being taught to use the slingshot….but failing because apparently the scarecrows are also targets and they don't tell you. Why the hell is the game trying to throw curve balls at the same moment a mechanic is being introduced?! Yeah, I get that everyone has played a Zelda game before and they want to keep things interesting, but it still comes off as a poor design decision. And herding the goats…twice?! Sheesh! It's like the game is trolling the player with a series of pranks before getting to the fun stuff.
2) There's some sloppy execution when you first start as the wolf, too. I probably rammed into that wooden crate in the prison cell five times looking for someplace to dig. I figured I must have the wrong idea, but in reality I was just slightly off. Super frustrating. The sequence leading up to meeting Zelda isn't as bad, but is still a poor showcase of boring corridors that can cause disorientation.
3) Fortunately, once the game gives up on tutorials it becomes so much better! The portion with the wolf where you're exploring the town and the tear-collecting sequence in the forest is surprisingly enjoyable, given how much I hated the similar sequences in Skyward Sword. I think there are a couple of reasons why the twilight realm sequences work better in this game than in Skyward Sword. For one thing, stealth sequences suck. Yeah, I'm showing my bias, but screw stealth in Zelda games and games in general. But Skyward Sword also had a timer which, if depleted, forced you to repeat the last 10 minutes of torture, which was at odds with the exploration objective. Also, I think that exploring the Twilight Realm version first, plus having a different control scheme as the wolf (that is really fun!), makes the "recycling" of the environments feel less egregious. I find that I WANT to explore the bizarre new area in Twilight as a wolf, and then again once the twilight is lifted!
4) I always recalled Twilight Princess as being kind of an ugly game with muted colors and bad character designs. While I think there's some truth to that, I've actually been impressed with the art style and presentation so far. The colors ARE muted, but it sets a nice ambience that goes well with the Twilight Realm and gives an overall sense of a tattered, used, and depressed world just barely getting by. And while I'm still not a fan of many of the character designs in the first town, there are some impressive facial animations that really portray emotions. There's a great moment where both Link and the mayor are being scolded by Illia, and the two guys shrink away a little, wince, and look at each other with mutual understanding. Midna similarly has some really well animated sequences when she's playing mind games with Link in wolf form. Also, the Twilight art style is integrated well: instead of inexplicable magical light pillars that show up after a boss, Minda conjures a portal, and instead of the first boss just shriveling up or going "poof", it disintegrates into black Twilight pixels.
5) Is it me, or is the first dungeon surprisingly meaty? There certainly isn't much hand-holding by the time you reach the first dungeon. Heck, Midna doesn't even give hints on how to proceed or combat enemies (a welcome change from Navi & Fi). I'm not saying the first dungeon is super difficult, it does feel like the team felt comfortable assuming folks had played a prior Zelda game, be it OoT or WW. Majora's Mask has a similar difficulty curve, in my opinion. It makes sense: both MM and TP are the second Zelda games for the N64 and GC, respectively.
6) The waggle in the Wii version sucks. I've not swung my sword SO MANY TIMES, and it feels so much worse after Skyward Sword's excellent controls. Sure, I get widescreen with the Wii version, and the aiming mechanics work pretty well for the slingshot and boomerang, but I suspect the GameCube version is more enjoyable, overall. If Nintendo remakes Twilight Princess for Wii U, they would be wise to include a motionless control scheme as an option, although it would also be interesting to see them retrofit Wii Motion Plus into such a remake. (Then again, I doubt I'll be buying a remake if one is made thanks to this RetroActive.)