[SPOILERS!!] The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[chinchillables]

Man, I forgot all about this game. From what everyone is saying, it's definitely a must by! How is it in comparison to the other Zelda games? Is it pretty traditional, too much platforming, talk to me! LOL

[Goron_3]

Naturally, because you wouldn't have to thrust at all. You would get away with hammering "B" at the right time in every single encounter, like we did since 1998.

 

Huh? EVERY Zelda lets you choose between using thrust's, horizontal slices OR vertical slices. They just never have bad guys which require it, unlike this game.

The controls themselves work fine IF you make over exaggerated movements everytime. The bottom line is if they let you play this using a GC controller no one would ever complain because fundamentally, button inputs are way more accurate and less laggy than motion controls. That said, I'm impressed how they managed to at least half the input lag for the sword swipes, I recently went through TP and the sword controls are just..eugh.

 

Anyway, just completed the game. It's made me view Wind Waker in a whole new light tbh, probably my favourite Zelda game in many ways alongside OoT. This game was a 10/10 in many areas but I won't be going back to it for some time simply because the area's between the dungeons and repeating the same boss's/fetch quest's were nowhere near the standard of the dungeons.

 

As for the final boss, fuck me that was BEAUTIFUL! Who would have thought that Akuma from the Street Fighter series was demise all along? Fucking crazy.

 

Quality game. One of the best I've played in years.

[Burny]

Huh? EVERY Zelda lets you choose between using thrust's, horizontal slices OR vertical slices. They just never have bad guys which require it, unlike this game.

 

And that's the whole point. It didn't matter in previous Zeldas, because all you ever have to do is hit "B". As for "choosing", the direction was somehow based on the direction you moved in when you hit "B". Nothing remotely as comfortable and - due to being essentially button combinations - as fast as directional swipes with the Wiimote, if you actually want to control the direction.

[Goron_3]

And that's the whole point. It didn't matter in previous Zeldas, because all you ever have to do is hit "B". As for "choosing", the direction was somehow based on the direction you moved in when you hit "B". Nothing remotely as comfortable and - due to being essentially button combinations - as fast as directional swipes with the Wiimote, if you actually want to control the direction.

 

But it was faster than the wiimote, that's the point. There is an input lag in SS so the wiimote can know when you actually want to swipe and when you just want to bait someone (like in the Ghirihim) fights. You can actually go and measure the input lag if you want, it's nowhere near as bad as Twilight Princess's but it's not as close the the Wind Waker, which if I remember was barely a frame of a second. My point is, is that in THIS Zelda, playing it with a GC controller would have made sod all diffference as most fights required just vertical/horizontal swipes/thrust, things which can be done on any Zelda since OoT.

 

Anyway, moving on.

 

Ghirihim. What do people think about him? I loved Zant in TP because he completely destroyed his own world and its people, got Zelda to surrender within 30 seconds of introducing himself and almost killed Midna. What does the main Villian on Skyward Sword do? Absolutely nothing. Kidnaps Zelda before dungeon 1 before she is rescued by Impa, doesn't do anything again until after dungeon 3 where you see her is still chasing Impa. You fight him as a boss again but he's still done nothing and it's only at the very end of the game does he actually do ANYTHING noteworthy, which is bring Demise back. I dunno, I was expecting him to do more. Like when the Wood's flooded I thought that would be him but the spirit you meet was all 'Na I got bored innit'.

 

That said. His music was incredible, loved it. His boss fight was utter pants though, just ultimate waggle for the first few stages and then the sword fight was the same previous bad guys.

[EEVILMURRAY]

And one final thing that seemed really strange. Link sets the Master Sword in the pedestal of, what is what will ultimately be, the Temple of Time. But this pedestal is situated in front of the doors that lead to the back where the sword normally resides (which was where Zelda was sleeping). Yes you could easily explain it away by saying the Shekah rebuilding the temple but it does seem like a silly place to put it when the final shots show the icon imagery of the the Sword with the trees only it's 20m off where it normally appears to be.

I just assumed they dug the whole thing up and moved it. Everything makes so much more sense that way.

 

Change of structure. The guy playing that is the real final boss, wow.

My faceoff against Demise was a little like that, except I didn't know you could get a lightning Skyward thingy, since Fi mentioned you couldn't get a normal one I never bothered trying. I just kept fucking him over with my shield.

[Beverage]

Bevereview

 

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was a joy to play and has indeed been a rather special trip, especially with it being the series' 25th Anniversary! But don't get too high on your horses (or loftwing's) as there are flaws which make this game fit into the 'bloody-good-but-could've-been-better' catergory.'

 

This game has an adorable story setting and it presents the story in a heart-warming way (maybe a little clumbsily exagerrated at times, but hey, that is Zelda!), but I just can't help to feel that it can be demonstrated rather cheaply at times. For example, at the end when Ghirahim (who I'm totally in love with, by the way) was doing the ritual on Zelda - couldn't they've made it weird 'n' zainey (like it was and which I love) but in a more exciting way? I mean, the way he kept teleporting seemed like he knew a camera trick was being done on him to make him disappear and re-appear, it looked so editted. Character animations in general seemed quite sloppy at times - which dissatisfies even more during the more serious scenes.

 

Speaking of the devil, who loves Ghirahim? He is SO badass! From his effortless swag, to his cheekily evil giggles, even his feminine side is charming!! Seeing how he serves his master equally to how Fi serves hers - maybe with a lot more noticeable passion - was a little intimidating to say the least. Who do y'all reckon would get serviced out of Ghirahim and Fi? Ghirahim took down quite a few formidable opposers, but I reckon Fi would take it because she's a calculating type and Ghirahim loses his cool far too quickly. Fi also seems quite formidable herslef!

 

The humor within this game strongly appeals to me, I must say. Countless amounts of times I found myself chuckling out bursts of laughter. One thing that irritated me though was when I took on Fledge as a pupil only for him to surpass me - The Legendary Hero - within a matter of weeks. Being optimistic though, you could say that is how great of a teacher the said SShero is! It's just this Link felt somewhat out of shape. Fledge was like a machine and lifting up those barrels with one freaking arm?!.. You see how Links struggles with both of his arms, even while putting his spine into it! Don't evem bother say it's because Fledge was on the green stuff because wii all had our fair share of the fix. What made me chill though was when Link threw that huge Fruit of Life into the Thunder Dragons gob, I was thinking he outdone Fledge's pumpkin toss!!

But in all seriousness, I appreciate the RPG-like formula, but the Hero is really so out of shape it's embarrassing. His stamina is middle-aged. Come on, after a legendary scene, Links would spin around all awesome like he means business, like "I'm heading to so-and-so destination and I shan't even spare a second!" (e.g. like in the Isle of Songs). It would have a powerful affect on me and actually psyche me up, I turn around and dart up the isle all cool, only for him to lose breath and gain a stitch around 2/3 of the way. C'mon it's not a long run! So this hero is drug-reliant to lengthen his stamina. Legendary!

 

More on the RPG-like feature, it actually is a good thing for us gamers that this kid is an unhealthy bastard because it gives rupees even more value this time around. Usually there's no need for having a rupee bag and very little need in there being rupees at all to be honest. Everything thing you desire can be found in grass. Go on, you name it. Hearts? Yep. Arrows? Of course. Bombs? Without a doubt. Rupees?... Now you're just being silly!

Even though it's the same this time around, you actually feel the urge to try your luck at Fun Fun Island, or to lose some steam by slicing the stem thingmabobs at that cool dudes island (something about him is SO awesome - you know the item-check chicks pups? Yeah, him!) and even gambling at Thrill Digger (that thing is a cheating cunt,... seriously) all so you can upgrade all of your items for the hell of it (though they are beneficial - the Flying Beatle was so sloooow) and even to make use of those new genius potions (yah, an unexhaustable badass demeanour. well, at least for three minutes.). Another ingredient which complimentingly fits itself into this recipe of brilliance of giving rupees purpose thus also keeping the RPG-formula necessary, is that in order for you to upgrade an item (I don't repair, it's fuckloads cheaper to get the potion which also gives health and saves the journey) or potion, you'd need bugs or those other ingredients so that's even more exploration and collecting there. Which also means your bug net will be very useful!!

 

Ok now I think I should go more in depth about gameplay. Gameplay is great yet terrible. Like motion+ is really very incredible and I see 'the potential' of the greatness which motion-controlled gaming can provide, .... but Skyward Sword just didn't land the arrow in my eye! Like I see Nintendo's idea with making each strike on an enemy a musical tone (if you notice what I mean?) in an attempt to perhaps make the action seem more fun but, I dunno, it can be quite a flaw even if it is a charm of Zelda/Nintendo. Maybe you guys don't get what I mean..? The tone that comes after you've hit an enemy encourages the player to waggle quickly to keep the combo going until you've pawned the enemy. Moreover, although it's motion+ it still feels like there are limited input commands, which aids the inaccurate motion sensing (because it's like there being a set boundary within the 1:1 motion tracking).

There has been quite a few stunning ideas that would've blown me away but the poor motion controls sadly took away from the overall experience of each stunning idea - ultimately taking away from the overall experience of the entire game in general.

Please forgive the lack of memorized boss names, but The Giant Octopus, the part when its snake-like tentacles are coming at you; magnificent idea but rather than hopping around skillfully to avoid them and slicing WHERE YOU WANT TO SLICE, you instead had to be planted in one spot while waggling your wrist (gesturing as if your doing a fail martial-arts nunchuck demonstration) to beat the tentacles successfully with losing any health. Really disappointing. Fighting say, Ghirahim, wasn't half bad as he seemed to be programmed to take advantage of the available motion input commands, so it felt more natural I suppose. Fighting him at the end was terrible stuff, for starters he was so in beserk-mode he exposed his own weakness (COME ON NINTENDO, CHALLENGE US!!! THE SECOND-TO-LAST FIGHT FFS!!!!) and you're generally just waggling him off the edge to then deliver the final blows three times. The hardest bit was trying to deliver the final blows with the inaccurately, poor motion+!!

 

... Seriously, to give myself a challenge I completed the game with as little waggling as possible. For instance, Demise, you could waggle the shyte out o' him but that'd be too simple so I played trying to overcome the inaccurate controls - meaning being at an fatiguing disadvantage to each boss! So I didn't regret or feel cheap in using the help of the people of Skyloft (potions etc) who I made an oath to save lol.

I think the motion gestures in this game (all Wii games to be honest Wii Music, *coughTheOverlyHypedDISASTERDAYOFCRISIScough* and a few others - Another Code R?) was utterly weak. Like playing the harp was like a mastubation tutorial, you're just basically wanking your wiimote back, back, forth & forth. Why not make the gesture more engaging like, for starters, holding the harp like you really would in real life maybe? Hold the nunchuck as the harp and the wiimote as your hand playing the strings. It would've been even more exciting if YOU yourself manually learned/played songs. So instead of EVERY darn song being the masturbation gesture, make there be rhythms for each songs, like OoT and WW!!

 

 

The difficulty of this game is extremely underwhelming it's unbelievable. Each puzzle was just so uninspiring and at times making me think "Why shall I even bother?..." I like to be brain-fucked. To be struggling for weeks (months, even) on a problem only to finally beat it and feel the glorious victory in my belly. But maybe those problems were so hard for me in previous Zelda's because I was an overly confident kid ("yeah, yeah, I don't need to read" *taps on the 'A' button to skip the useful hints* ), so maybe they weren't genius puzzles either. But SS is just ridiculously simple.

 

Ok, what else 'ave we got? Oh, the dungeons setting! In all honesty Zelda games are usually really kind of based around searching for clues to solve so-and-so mystery etc etc. But sweet Mary Skyward Sword takes it to the next level toward the skward direction which has no pissin' end. You'd be searching for this and searching for that (which are all in different fucking corners of the globe), to find a clue which'd enable you to undergo a spiritual test in turn to lead you to a damn song which is scattered in to three locations.... bloody hell! What got me is when that bitch dragon flooded the entire forest then to confess it was really basically for her enjoyment and then dries the water away right before my eyes after I went through all of that crap!! Oh, and when the windmill thingy somehow manages to coincidentally fall below the fucking clouds?!?!

So basically in an artificial/generic way, the dungeon settings were just done in a time-consuming manner to keep you having to visit each place 3-5 fucking times. I would prefer many new creative dungeons rather than revisiting the same dungeons over and over with some future dungeons being a bloody replica of dungeons you've already done! Unmotivating, BIG time.

But, being the humble gamer that I am, I actually took pleasure in it. It felt like the Zelda team were testing the players' patience and I enjoyed stubbornly taking up that challenge - no matter how grouchy I seem about it

 

Oh no, I'm not finished! Again, I'm in complete love with every aspect of humour within Zelda games, from the clowny image characteristics to the clowny personality characteristics of villagers, enemies, bosses etc etc. But some times I yearn for seriousness, I really do. It'd captivate me even more and by a significant amount. Do bosses have to look SO clumbsy for crying out loud?! I don't mind some sub-bosses and even some bosses with the clumbsy humour and look, but try make SOME more serious, eh!? Demise, the ultimate Demon King is as laughable as he looks - he looks like the rock dude from Fantastic Four *facepalm*. Characters like Ghirahim is perfect. Someone like Zant, I preferred how he was before he was unmasked and exposed that those weren't even his powers, then you saw the clownly pathetic weak personality of the pawn. Actually, during the boss fight he just lost respect from me as he seemed so... clowny. But to stick closely to the point I'm trying to make; a well-balanced mixture of humour and seriousness would work like magic.

Look at The Imprisoned. Another neat idea but oh lord it looked so clumbsy. Sealing it was awesome though! And the Groosenator was pure genius!

 

If I could jump a few steps back onto the terrible character animations, does anybody know why the hell Fi feels the urge to do ballet like she's on Dancing With The Stars and why she ski's on the water as if she's on Dancing on Ice any time there is a message for me from the goddess? It's so annoying.

Scenes like this and like when that hilarious Scrapper robot appears just seems like a cheap WiiWare game. Surely the quality of it all can raise a little!?

 

Back onto the simple difficulty. Although I wouldn't use hints even if I was stuck to tears, there's far too many unavoidable and avoidable hints within this easy game. For instance, any time you needed the help of Scrapper, it'd be fantastic if Fi didn't automatically communicate with him telepathically to call him for the task - thus solving the puzzle for you. Quite frankly, their relationship made me jealous. Why not allow us to call him 'when WE think we have to' and perhaps mapping him to either the left or right directional button, as if memory recalls both them buttons were vacant.

 

The game IS a good game but I'd like to see Nintendo tend to the following:

 

*Improved/more accurate motion sensing and to utilize it in outstanding intuitive and inventive ways for the ultimate gaming satisfaction. Don't get me wrong, the motion controls are suprisingly good, you have to angle your attack and follow a defensive rhythm of the enemy, but maybe it would be even more exciting if we could also defend ourselves with our shield/nunchuck with 1:1 motion tracking too, for an even more strategic duel! Using your wiimote to mimic the sword when stabbing it in the ground or machine was just magical!!

 

*Humor and Seriousness - Maintain the Zelda (and Nintendo) charm, but don't be afraid to add a huge dose of seriousness. Magnificent voice acting as opposed to weird orgasming moans would be totally brill! More badass characters (or less clumbsy looking bosses) to enhance the feeling of the 'serious' atmosphere which we sense. I understand why Demise/The Imprisoned looked like they did, but I'd prefer the SERIOUS version of those exact models, if y'all follow mii?

 

*A powered-up difficulty setting - That's right, increase that shit! Also make more genius-like puzzles. This is a 'strategy' game for puke sakes.

 

*Dungeon setting - Less generic. Prevention of putting the gamers on pointless and random wild groose chases as a cheap method to extending the length of the freaking game. CREATIVITY is needed! But I do applaud the 'actaul' dungeons to a reasonable extent as they were amazing.

 

*Visuals - Next Zelda needs to look jaw-dropping. I'd personally prefer a more serious looking Zelda, be that a cross between mangarish/realisticish. But I think which ever style they decide to experiment with, I hope it's more on the serious side. :awesome:

 

*Evolve - The game has evolved more times than Poket Monsters but briefly put, I'd like voice acting at least optional with of course even greater cut-scenes to keep you engaged and also to beautifully highlight the compelling story!

 

So I think that's an enormous load removed from my broad shoulders and with that I'd like to reward The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword a Bevereview score of 6/10. Don't be upset, I'm not easily pleased and I still rate it higher than average. Just that it has plenty of room for improvement (please note that the remaining 4 marks is of value that's unfathomable )

 

Will you guys play SS several times over & over (100% or speedrun) like you did/are OoT or WW or any of them other ones like the Minish Cap or whatever? Will I?.. Maybe not. I may do the last Ghirahim/Demise part a few times though lol. : peace:

[EEVILMURRAY]

I'm not sure how you wank, but I certainly don't wave mine from left to right.

 

You could hold the controls like you would a harp if you really wanted to. Like Robin Williams pretended to use the bow, unnecessary but if it's your cup o' tea - go for it...

[FalcoLombardi]

How do I get that Boss Challenge? I'd like to get a special shield.

[Magnus]

Talk to the Thunder Dragon.

[FalcoLombardi]

I guess I'm not that far yet.

[Shorty]

Well it's a boss run of 8 battles (including 2x Ghirahim), so if you haven't done 8 boss battles yet, you're not far enough

[RedShell]

Finally finished the game today!

44 hours on the clock, pretty much everything collected, apart from a couple of hearts and the Hylian Shield. But I made a copy of my save file to finish getting that stuff, and have hero mode enabled on my original file.

 

Very much enjoyed it, I just wish that I'd have played this continually from start to finish, rather than having a massive break in the middle of it (MK 7 ), as that kind of ruined the flow of the game/story a little bit.

 

Surprisingly, I actually had quite a lot of trouble with the controls at times too. Now I'm not sure if this is down do a dodgy Wii Remote Plus or the game itself, but there were a few occasions where the cursor would just drift to the left or right non stop! I'd re-centre with down on the D-Pad, but straight away it would slowly drift to the side again...

Became a real pain in the ass when using the bow/dowsing/etc...

Most of the time I'd have to take the batteries out of my Wii Remote to trigger the M+ start-up configuration again, which would normally fix the problem.

But yeah, doing so obviously marred the experience somewhat. It's fine in Wii Sports Resort or Go Vacation, but when you're engrossed in a game like Zelda and have to pee around with that... not so cool.

However when the controls were working correctly... wow! Mind blowing stuff.

Loved the tactical aspect when fighting some of the smarter enemies/bosses, and the subtle effects that you could achieve using items, like adding curve when rolling bombs.

Just such a shame M+ isn't 100%* consistent.

 

*I think percentages will always remind me of Fi now.

 

Another thing that surprised me, was enjoying the final battle against Ghirahim more than Demise. While the last fight was incredibly epic, it just wasn't as much fun to play because it lacked the variety of the preceding fight. That was probably my favourite boss of the game actually, the next one being Koloktos. Least enjoyable was definitely The Imprisoned, ugh... I hated that bloody thing.

 

Biggest annoyance of the game though by far, was this:

 

 

Every... single... time!

I simply cannot believe that this was intentionally designed that way, it has to be an oversight by the developers.

It got to the point that I would actually avoid picking stuff up so I wouldn't need to watch that pointless scene again! Or I'd use the Beetle to collect certain things.

 

Anyway, that and the occasional control issues still didn't stop this from being a truly phenomenal game, it was an amazing experience.

(I realise this post is mainly negative, but that's only because I can't be arsed regurgitating all the praise that has already been written. And I mean It's pretty clear what this game does right.)

 

 

So, next up for me on Wii is Xenoblade. Going to be interesting going into that after something as special as Skyward Sword, hope I'll still be able to enjoy it.

[Magnus]

Every... single... time!

I simply cannot believe that this was intentionally designed that way, it has to be an oversight by the developers.

Twilight Princess did the same thing with rupees, so I doubt it was an oversight. Nintendo just thinks we're all idiots.

 

The trick is to play through the game in as few sessions as possible. If you only play an hour at a time, then yeah, you're going to get those messages constantly.

 

Of course, that still doesn't help when you find junk in chests...

[Jav_NE]

Just finished!!! Clocked in at about 55 hours. I got everything apart from two heart pieces i need to get the last heart. Ah well, i may try and find them at some point. I suspect one of them is from the digging game. I lost patience with that one.

 

I absolutely loved this game though. I would place it in my fondest of Zeldas with OOT and MM. I couldn't say if it is better or not, as it is a completely new experience. Motion controls are brilliant for a start in my opinion, so that alone makes it uncomparable to the others. I never had a problem with my swings. Only stabs were sometimes iffy, noticeably in the final Ghirahim fight, which was a bit annoying, but it was a rare occurence.

 

Speaking of which, i loved the final battles! Demise was awesome, i really enjoyed the technical aspect of it, having to block right and swing correctly and swiftly at the right time. Brilliance. He wasn't too easy either, i finally had to use my heart potion ++ which i had been carrying around for half the game!!! I thought the other potions were a bit unnecessary. I only bought the heart one once, and the stamina one for Fledge, that was it.

 

I'm glad the upgrading was quite straightforward too. I hate RPGs and upgrading and all that malarcky, so i was worried about that, but it was fine. I quite enjoyed getting better shields and maxing out my items.

 

It definitely gets a 10 from me, and i will probably give the Hero Mode a try some months later. I started it and got a bit frustrated by how slow the games starts with the wing ceremony etc, though it was nice to see all the stuff with Zelda again from the beginning. I thought they cut down on the talking in Hero Mode, but it seems not, so i'll definitely wait a while before i play it again.

 

Favourite areas - the volcano and the desert

 

Favourite boss - pretty much all of them! apart from the Impronised. That was lame, 3 times over lame.

 

Favourite enemies - Stalfos skeletons, especially the bigger ones and the pirate ones. I liked the Lizalfos' too. Basically, i loved using the sword properly and breaking through their defences.

 

Hardest boss - Demise and Koloktos

 

Favourite characters - Zelda, Fi, Groose and Item Check girl!

 

Favourite new items - Beetle, Clawshot

 

Favourite mini-game - Fun Fun Island

 

Worst mini-game - Bomb digging one, urgh

 

Biggest let-down - playing the harp. As others have said, they should have tried to make a way to let you actually play it and learn the songs for real.

 

Least favourite part - collecting the Hero Song. Felt tacked on and i didn't care much for collecting missions, like the tadtones bit. I enjoyed it in the end, but like others have said, i just didn't see the need for it.

 

The thundercloud was also a pain in the ass. It takes ages to fly over there and its just lifeless and horrible. Only the Levias fight and the bug catching game are good moments there.

 

As for the ending, it was nicely done. I just wish we couldv'e had more Link-Zelda stuff. It seems like it was divided in two, Link saying bye to Fi, and Zelda saying bye to Impa. What about Zelda and Link reuniting?! I was expecting a long drawn out scene of them possibly going to kiss, they could at least have hugged! Plus, in the beginning before Zelda drops to the surface, she says she has something she has been meaning to talk with Link about. What was that then?! I presume Link will live with Zelda on the surface and be happy together though, as friends or as more we'll never know.

[Captain Falcon]

I'm glad the upgrading was quite straightforward too. I hate RPGs and upgrading and all that malarcky, so i was worried about that, but it was fine. I quite enjoyed getting better shields and maxing out my items.

 

I thought this was a missed trick.

 

Most of the upgrades, are handy but far from "essential" and you wouldn't miss them if they weren't there. The only ones of note are the shield ones and that's because the shields break so easily if you don't shield bash every attack. After I lost my first shield incredibly quickly too I might add, I didn't bother getting another next until I could get the metal one and only then it was right before heading into the second temple. After that was destroyed in my first encounter with a lizalfos, I just carried on playing without until I could get a the fully upgraded sacred shield.

 

Favourite new items - Beetle, Clawshot

 

The Beetle whilst new was really just a revamped boomerang - aside from control, it wasn't doing anything that hasn't been doing for ages (the gale boomerang can pick up bombs). And the clawshot wasn't new either. The Whip was just the Grappling Hook from Wind Waker. Gust Bellows being half the Gust Jar from Minish Cap, and consequently holding only half the potential. The Mogma Mitts were also stolen from that too. Off the top of my head, right now, I can't think of any genuinely new item in the game.

 

It's just a good job they made the best of those that featured.

 

Biggest let-down - playing the harp. As others have said, they should have tried to make a way to let you actually play it and learn the songs for real.

 

The thundercloud was also a pain in the ass. It takes ages to fly over there and its just lifeless and horrible. Only the Levias fight and the bug catching game are good moments there.

 

I thought the thunderhead was the biggest let down. It's on your map but you can't see inside it and you collect the stone maps, learn the balled and you finally open a path into it.

 

And what awaits you inside? Utter dissapointment at facing another chunky sky section with sod all in it - it's even more sparse that the already barren normal sky. It also looks dull thanks to the storm. And on top of that, it doesn't even get it's own theme.

 

And I can't believe they keep dragging you back there time after time. At least having to return to skyloft in the beginning gave you a chance to check the market for new stuff. But now you have to fly for so much longer for a pointless Wii Remote waving session to learn a new song or get directions. As good as the places are, the exploration was pretty linear and it was fairly obvious where everything was that you didn't need to go out of your way for directions.

 

Ball dropped!

[Ronnie]

44 hours in and finished. That must be the longest ever Zelda game surely?

 

Outstanding game. A joy to play from start to finish

 

Visuals, controls, gameplay, level design, story, tone, sidequests... perfect. No wonder EDGE and Famitsu gave perfect scores. Masterpiece.

[Magnus]

The Beetle whilst new was really just a revamped boomerang - aside from control, it wasn't doing anything that hasn't been doing for ages (the gale boomerang can pick up bombs). And the clawshot wasn't new either. The Whip was just the Grappling Hook from Wind Waker. Gust Bellows being half the Gust Jar from Minish Cap, and consequently holding only half the potential. The Mogma Mitts were also stolen from that too. Off the top of my head, right now, I can't think of any genuinely new item in the game.

Flying around and collecting rupees with the beetle reminded me of the seagulls in The Wind Waker.

 

And now that you mention it, the whip was very similar to the grappling hook. I was too busy thinking about the whip in Spirit Tracks to notice.

[Captain Falcon]

Flying around and collecting rupees with the beetle reminded me of the seagulls in The Wind Waker.

 

And now that you mention it, the whip was very similar to the grappling hook. I was too busy thinking about the whip in Spirit Tracks to notice.

 

I'd completely forgotten about the seagull stuff when you plonk a pear on your head so yeah, good spot.

 

I've not played ST so I'm not familiar with its items - PH was all the touch screen Zelda I could stomach for one generation. It was improved over the grappling hook but that's only because the grappling hook was so under utilized with the hookshot taking prominance away from the boat.

 

I dare say they could have scrapped the grapple hook and just had the hookshot but probably didn't want to give it to you so early in the game. Having both the Deku Leaf and Sail though was just a waste of an item slot - that should have been one and the same.

 

But like I say, it's not a problem because most of the items were used really well - it's just that we shouldn't be under the illusion we were doing much that we haven't done before.

Edited December 29, 2011 by Captain Falcon

[Ronnie]

I dare say they could have scrapped the grapple hook and just had the hookshot but probably didn't want to give it to you so early in the game.

 

Having both the Deku Leaf and Sail though was just a waste of an item slot - that should have been one and the same.

 

I can't disagree more with both those comments.

 

We've had the hookshot in countless Zeldas, it was great to see them try something new with the grappling hook and what you could do with it. It added to Wind Waker's charm.

 

As for the sail and the leaf being the same object, I don't see why, and even if it would have made things easier to equip and use, that's nitpicking for the sake of it.

[Captain Falcon]

I can't disagree more with both those comments.

 

We've had the hookshot in countless Zeldas, it was great to see them try something new with the grappling hook and what you could do with it. It added to Wind Waker's charm.

 

As for the sail and the leaf being the same object, I don't see why, and even if it would have made things easier to equip and use, that's nitpicking for the sake of it.

 

Well they could have gave the Hookshot a rest and just used the grapple hook. The point I was making is that differences between the two seem to stem from a need to break up the game and not necessarily the object itself.

 

The Grapple hook is a hook on a rope and the HookShot is a hook on a chain - that could easily have been one item and they could have given us something new to play with. Yes the hookshot pulls you in but they could have added a feature so you manually retracted the hook combining both items in one. Items that are fundamentally the same but have different uses for the sake just smacks of poor design to me.

 

In this game, once you had the bow, did you ever use the Slingshot except for the time you are forced to? I didn't. There is no need for both. It's just redundant. More so when the game has an upgrade system - perhaps you upgrade the slingshot to the point it starts to take on bow like characteristics before becoming the full thing. Why couldn't you only get the slingshot as standard but if you can prove your worth with it in a shooting contest minigame, some guy gives you the bow to replace it instead of rupees/peace of heart thinking you can put it to good use.

 

It would be like if the goddess sword and the mastersword were two different swords forcing you to carry both because the Mastersword, whilst stronger and longer, couldn't do skyward strikes. If someone presented that design idea to you, would you really not tell them to think about how to combine them to save wasting the players time?

 

Some might see that as nitpicking but I don't.

[Magnus]

In this game, once you had the bow, did you ever use the Slingshot except for the time you are forced to? I didn't. There is no need for both.

Didn't Twilight Princess do the same thing? I was expecting the bow to replace the slingshot and for the final item slot to be taken up by a more interesting item, but I guess that was expecting too much.

 

I always hated the sail in The Wind Waker and how you had to go into the menu to equip it every time you used the boat. So annoying. I really liked how Skyward Sword relegated some of the more minor items to context-sensitive button presses.

[Beverage]

@Captain Falcon in all respects I think it's a little unfair to be so judgemental towards the inhabitedness of the sky life. When you think about it logically, the Goddess used her remaining power to hide the Triforce securely in that chunk of earth, and raising the said piece of land skyward to safeguard the power and the people (including both the container of her reincarnation and the chosen tool).

 

So bearing this in mind, you can't really expect it to be like some kind of parallel earth. The atmosphere up there was believable, a few extra pieces of land sucked up there following Skyloft.

In the Thunder Cloud had even more reason to be less populated - desserted, even. The Isle of Songs was another sacred location (only meant for the Courageous One... Bug Boy was just stupid, not brave! ) not to mention the dragon which was lurking around in there (causing the storm?... Quite Legendary indeed ).

 

So I think in those regards the atmosphere was spot on. It's different from the likes of say The Wind Waker, where 'on an flooded earth' there's many islands to discover etc.

[Grazza]

I don't even know why the Slingshot is in Zeldas with (only) Adult Link in them. Why not just give him the bow? It made sense in Ocarina of Time, as it was feasible that Young Link couldn't use the bow (even though WW's Link could...), but doesn't make much sense for Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword.

 

Let's not forget the Slingshot wasn't put into Twilight Princess until the last minute. When development shifted to Wii, they added it as an early item to get players used to the controls.

 

So, I much agree with @Captain Falcon about that. I can't agree about the items in Wind Waker though. Yeah, I must admit I noticed some duplicity between the Hookshot and Grappling Hook at the time, but at the end of the day, one's flexible and one's not.

 

As for the Deku Leaf and Sail... well, yes, they could have been combined, but I think it felt natural to leave the Sail on the boat, whilst you climbed up somewhere and used the Deku Leaf for gliding. Also, it used the magic meter, which might not have fitted the Sail as well.

[Captain Falcon]

Didn't Twilight Princess do the same thing? I was expecting the bow to replace the slingshot and for the final item slot to be taken up by a more interesting item, but I guess that was expecting too much.

 

I originally wrote in my post about TP also being guilty of it but it seems I must have deleted when moving my sentences around. But then TP holds the crown for the wasting of items.

 

Sky stuff

 

You make a good point and so it does stand to reason that the sky would be pretty empty - I'm not going to dispute that. Unfortunately, it makes me question why they would pick that place to begin with. If the sky was small, it would feel cheap because we know we should be able to fly over all the world below. Therefore it has to be big. But we also know that for the story to work, nothing can penatrates the coulds that can be seen. Therefore, it also has to be empty. And that's a problem that WW shared. They picked a location and devised a story that meant they couldn't really do anything with said location to make it interesting enough to warrant spending as much time as you do there.

 

The thundercloud was a chance to mix things up. I forget but was the thundercloud always there? That's the impression I got - that it was always there hiding the Isle of Songs and that Levias could pass through it if he wanted but no one else could. Consequently, they could have had anything inside without it affecting the beliefs of the people since they never knew what was inside. We could have had a mountain top that pierced the clouds or a giant tower (like the Tower of Salvation from Tales of Symphonia) that reached passed through both the top and bottom of the cloud barrier. Anything that that hinted that there was a world below.

 

That's just two really simple things but really, they were free to do anything they wanted in that section and ultimately, they didn't so much play it safe as play it boring.

 

 

As for the Deku Leaf and Sail... well, yes, they could have been combined, but I think it felt natural to leave the Sail on the boat, whilst you climbed up somewhere and used the Deku Leaf for gliding. Also, it used the magic meter, which might not have fitted the Sail as well.

 

In that instance, it wouldn't need to consume magic. Anytime you had to use the leaf, there was normally magic hidden nearby in the grass to avoid having you searching for it so it felt a little arbitrary that it required it in the first place since there was no other way around it without annoying the player.

Edited December 29, 2011 by Captain Falcon

[Diageo]

I'm pretty sure one of the instructors said the thundercloud "appeared", meaning it wasn't always there.