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[Spoiler-Free] Zelda: Skyward Sword

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This is why I gave my Loftwing a backstory. I called him Euflamm. As he was a red Loftwing, he was often picked on by the other loftwings for being different.

 

Then one foggy Christmas eve, Santa came to say "Euflamm with your hide so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

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Just had a 3 hour play session, and beat the 6th temple.

I was surprised I got the thing to do, that gets you into the temple, right first time. When you had to go get the big vessel from the Water Dragon. Loved the taking it and the robot thing up the mountain taking out all the Mobblins with the bow and arrow along the way.

Got stuck for a while in the temple in that room with all the water plants, couldn't figure out how to get one to the door to open it, then I just thought I'll stab it for fun and was very surprised that was how it was done.

Really had the boss sorted. It took me three attempts but I really had a hold on the motion controls and hitting his hand in that first set of the battle. The arrows he throws are easily avoided by constant side stepping. Just lots of jumping and striking with all my arm swinging at any possible moment.

 

 

Really am loving this game so far, Well worth the wait.

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And I'm done. Man what a great game, not quite a 10/10 but on par with TP for a 9.5. It just has to many niggles that I know on repeat playthroughs will piss me off.

 

Loads of easter eggs and the story was really enjoyable with great characters. Really good to have a kind of origin story for the Master Sword. Good stuff. Fantastic ending aswell.

 

Three of the dungeons are so so but the rest are great and only one boss sucked the rest are incredible. TP has the edge when it comes to dungeons.

 

EDIT -

 

The credits are really good.

Edited by bryanee

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Just finished the second dungeon (taking my time and not rushing) and loved it. The first one was a bit meh, as usual I guess, but the second is fantastic, albeit a tad simple. Fantastic boss and great cutscene afterwards. There are so many little details in this game that just make you smile. Like how you collect bombs, after 25 years, such a simple, new way of doing it is great.

 

I really wish Phi had more personality though, or at least a little backstory. Maybe it'll come up later.

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Finally reached the 4th dungeon last night, damn there was a lot more to do to get there than I had expected but I loved every moment of it.

 

Plus I may have made it longer by getting side tracked as when I finally found some Dusk Relics I was able to do a fair bit of upgrading and then had to find one or two other items to complete some. I now have the 3rd shield maxed out, upgraded the slingshot and maxed out the beetle :D

 

Also did a bit of, going back to the sky and warping back down in order to get to 3 different goddess cubes after I had been able to climb the tree in the middle of the woods. There should be an option to warp to a bird statue from another bird statue in the same area so you.

 

 

Really enjoyed the Trial, of course felt very much lifted from TP a bit but the addition of those gaurdians and lack of sword was tense. Luckily I was able to get all the items without have any direct confrontation with a gaurdian though it was tense at the final item. Couldn't find it and time was running out. Found it (on teh viewing platform) just after the gaurdians awoke.

 

Also getting the sacred water, I knew where to go without so it was another warp to sky and back down... again you should be able to warp between ground statues. But was surprised when there was a door "relocked" and had to look for a key again. Nice way to deal with a backtrack section I thought by not leaving it open from your first time there. Then needing to get water at a certain part of the pond was the first time I really needed the dowsing ability.

 

 

Looking forward to tackling the 4th dungeon later today

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So far, I'm still trying to figure out where the suggestion that the dungeons are ones you wouldn't necessarily recognise and instead feel part of the overworld came from. If anything, they're far more obvious than the ones in Twilight Princess! I don't care either way, just find it strange.

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I think they meant that getting to the dungeon felt like a dungeon in itself, which it does.

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Yeah, this Zelda couldn't be more text book zelda if it tried. I thought it was supposed to be different, I just don't see it. (though I am only at the desert so very early on)

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I agree with Diageo - to me, this definitely feels different to old Zeldas, especially where the dungeon-esque overworld is concerned.

 

Now I'm past the sixth dungeon, it feels like the end may be in sight, but I may be wrong... I'm definitely getting sick of all these fetch quests I'm being sent on, though - they're really preventing me from getting fully immersed in the game world, as they're frequent reminders that 'this is a game'. A needlessly padded game at that. Nevertheless, it still looks like Skyward Sword is going to settle at number three on my favourite 3D Zeldas list, after OOT and MM.

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The areas surrounding dungeons so far are completely different from what I remember of other Zelda games. Although "completely different" really means they're like intertwined dungeons you've got to traverse, partly by solving puzzles, rather than being plains or corridors you simply run through from the entrance to the exit.

 

All dungeons up to and including the 5th are substantially more streamlined, too. I can't remember having to find more than two or three small keys in any of them. There is another extremely subtle difference: Dungeons seem to have less rooms which are individually loaded, but consist of areas, which can include several rooms that don't have to be loaded individually.

 

The staircase at the beginning seems to be the same area as that one room, which you can reach through a hole in the wall. The central circular room is also in the same area as the room, which leads to the boss. The mini-boss room is also part of that area.

 

The deck of the ship is the same area as one of the rooms, where you have to deactivate the electric switch. You can reach the deck through a window or fly there with the beetle.

 

 

Edit: Although technically speaking, this is just a case of more intelligently intertwined "rooms/areas", that appear to be a bit more organic than just having a door masking a loading screen between each and every room. Some puzzles are based on it though. In some instances the game requires you to activate something outside of the room you're currently in.

Edited by Burny

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I agree with Diageo - to me, this definitely feels different to old Zeldas, especially where the dungeon-esque overworld is concerned.

 

Now I'm past the sixth dungeon, it feels like the end may be in sight, but I may be wrong... I'm definitely getting sick of all these fetch quests I'm being sent on, though - they're really preventing me from getting fully immersed in the game world, as they're frequent reminders that 'this is a game'. A needlessly padded game at that. Nevertheless, it still looks like Skyward Sword is going to settle at number three on my favourite 3D Zeldas list, after OOT and MM.

 

The padding gets worse (kinda).

 

I don't get why they didnt bother developing the story instead of the fetch quests :/

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Enjoying this game a little more now. Currently in the 3rd dungeon.

 

Waaay more fun than the Poltergust 3000!

 

Edited by Dog-amoto

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agree with whats being said about the fetching.. that brings the game down a notch also, one of the dungeons is weak.

the pirate ship. the boss is ace tho..

 

its still a 9/10 in my book and my 3rd fave zelda behind oot and ww, still a great achievment. the characters and storytelling are incredible. it just falls a little short. i dont know why that happened cus majoras mask was perfect and it only had 4 dungeons..

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Had a blast with the third dungeon. The stuff I said about this game being bland I now take back.

 

But I still hate motion control. Hope something better comes along next gen like...I don't know...a button...

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I love motion control.

I was bashing the 4th dungeon boss and thinking, this would be nowhere near as awesome without these controls!

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Just finished the 4th dungeon last night, really enjoyed teh dungeon and the boss was awesome. Love the new item too, nice twist on an old fav.

 

Funny thing was the first puzzle that required you to use the "dungeons sacred order" or whatever it was to open a door. I didn't even see the stone tablet with the clue on it. When I got to the door that was locked it was the first I heard of this "order"... yet somehow managed to get it right first time, haha.

 

Then after that I worked out the clue when I saw the tablet later :heh:

 

The boss was awesome, I was getting giving it loads with the motion controls using the new item... funny thing though...

 

I wasn't expecting a 2nd phase to the boss and wasn't being very carefull during the first took loads of damage and needed a fairy in a bottle. When I "beat" him I thought, haha, got ya. Then he goes into a 2nd phase and I only had 4 or 5 hearts left :heh:

 

Lucky I figured you'd get hearts from the pillars but I still found myself running short. Think I ended the fight with 2 hearts :heh:

 

Loved how you could use the bosses own swords aggainst him. At first I thought you were meant to grab them with the whip and throw them at him so kept trying to whip the swords (leading to me getting hit more). Then I happened to walk over one and got the "pick up" prompt.... *facepalm*

 

 

One thing I loving about all the bosses so far is they are not following the old regular "hit them 3 times" model to beat them. Not knowing how much damage is needed anymore helps make the fights more tense I think.

 

Also just some thoughts after getting the 1st flame.

 

Ah so the Goddess Sword is gonna become the Master Sword? Kinda makes this part of the game very much echo Wind Wake even more in that in WW you had to re-power the Master Sword. Here I guess you are forging the Master Sword and creating it for the first time.

 

I was expecting given Fi's appearance that by the end of the game she would become the Master Sword.

 

Also a little confused how Link seemed to have the Triforce of Courage now? That to me suggests Ganondorf will be in this game which I was expecting there's no way he could be? Seeing as this is being based as the very first Zelda and Link, hell the land isn't even called Hyrule yet. It was made clear previously that OOT was the first time a Zelda and Link encountered Ganondorf.

 

I guess we'll see as I move on

 

 

I gone and found the game for the next trial and saved and finished up there, will tackle that and hopefully the next dungeon this evening.

 

Was disappointed though by the lack of new side quests after finishing the 4th dungeon. Guess I got too used to Xenoblade I'm just expecting every game now to have lots of side quests :heh:

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I went back to play Twilight Princess for a bit yesterday. In comparison, one thing stands out that Skyward Sword made decidedly worse: Text speed. :heh: It's insanely fast in Twilight Princess and painfully slow in Skyward Sword. It's even worse with Fi, where the text can't be sped up. Sure, characters in Skyward Sword practically act out what they're saying, but in that case, they could've directly gone for voice acting. The slow text speed negates all the advantages of having "text bubbles" in the first place.

 

 

One more thing that was immediately noticeable, is the much faster pointer in Twilight Princess. To be honest though, I prefer Skyward Swords pointer implementation by far. In TP, the pointer acts as fast as the Wii menu's pointer, but with a queer split second delay. When aiming, that means it's far more twitchy and harder to hold still. Plus, it is limited by the sensor bar, as the Wiimote's IR sensor loses contact to the sensor bar's IR-lights, when it's tilted too far in any direction. My ideal implementation would probably be a combination of the gyro-aiming for turning and centering the pointer, as it is used in Skyward Sword and a slower IR-pointer for general pointing. So far though, Skyward Sword's implementation feels a lot better to me, once you are used to it's slower speed. Analogue stick-aiming doesn't even come close to either implementation imo.

 

 

It also showed why I prefer Skyward Sword's world so much to Twilight Princess' one. The main town/village in Skyward Sword may have a fraction of Twilight Princess' NPCs, but they're all unique and have a personality as well as their own little story and tasks. It really makes Skyward Sword's one lightly populated town feel "full", compared to Twilight Princess' several more densely populated places, which felt downright "barren" to me. In addition to that, the "connected overworld" in Twilight Princess was just a combination of empty plains and tube-like connection areas with nothing to do in. Skyward Sword's areas below the clouds are decidedly less spacious in every sense, but they aren't just flat, but intertwined in interesting ways.

 

 

One last thing: Nintendo should never go back to a control setup without sprinting up walls. Climbing up a wall in Twilight Princess without this, is the equivalent of reading a lengthy conversation in Skyward Sword - just far more annoying. :heh:

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Just finished the 4th dungeon last night, really enjoyed teh dungeon and the boss was awesome. Love the new item too, nice twist on an old fav.

 

Funny thing was the first puzzle that required you to use the "dungeons sacred order" or whatever it was to open a door. I didn't even see the stone tablet with the clue on it. When I got to the door that was locked it was the first I heard of this "order"... yet somehow managed to get it right first time, haha.

 

I did that dungeon yesterday and did the same thing, was surprised when it opened :laughing

 

Great boss as well, great how you killed it. Surprised how agile Link was carry it though :laughing:

 

Silent Realms are like a mix of the one from Twilight Realm with the Light Spirits and Phantom Hourglass and the Temple of the Ocean King. Wasn't expecting the reward to be the clawshot though.

 

So went off to collect the ring for Fun Fun island since I couldn't work out how to get to it, and I thought the clawshot would help. then I realised I didn't need it X_X

 

 

 

Is it me or is there not many Heart Pieces out "in the wild", or have I just not found them?

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Is it me or is there not many Heart Pieces out "in the wild", or have I just not found them?

 

It's certainly not just you. After all, you start with six hearts instead of three, it takes the usual four heart-pieces to gain a heart and having the last two hearts is seemingly bound to equipment.

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Funny thing was the first puzzle that required you to use the "dungeons sacred order" or whatever it was to open a door. I didn't even see the stone tablet with the clue on it. When I got to the door that was locked it was the first I heard of this "order"... yet somehow managed to get it right first time, haha.

 

I did the same.

 

I just randomly tried the Sonic the Hedgehog level select code.

 

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Mine never turned up, so I just bought the non-bundle version today and used the MotionPlus I got with Wii Sports Resort.

 

I really like the controls at the moment! "Intuitive" is a word that's overused when it comes to motion controls, but I think it's a good way to describe the sword movement, at least. It was a very good idea to stick to 8-way directions. I'm not saying I want it to stay, or that I'll like it for other things, but it seems to suit this game well enough so far.

 

The music is also very nice. OK, I couldn't hum any of it yet (apart from the theme tune), but it is a pleasure to hear the real instruments. There are also a few touches here and there from Wind Waker, so already I think they've "remembered" a few things they seemed to forget in Twilight Princess.

 

My only negative opinion so far is related to the graphics. I don't know if it's the low processing power of the Wii, the lack of HD or something else, but it just looks a bit too "soft" for me. Not a huge deal, but I don't think it's going to go down as one of the best Zelda styles.

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I did the same.

 

I just randomly tried the Sonic the Hedgehog level select code.

 

I just randomly guessed right, don't know why I did, I didn't even put much thought into it :heh:

 

Mine never turned up, so I just bought the non-bundle version today and used the MotionPlus I got with Wii Sports Resort.

 

 

 

 

I really like the controls at the moment! "Intuitive" is a word that's overused when it comes to motion controls, but I think it's a good way to describe the sword movement, at least. It was a very good idea to stick to 8-way directions. I'm not saying I want it to stay, or that I'll like it for other things, but it seems to suit this game well enough so far.

 

The music is also very nice. OK, I couldn't hum any of it yet (apart from the theme tune), but it is a pleasure to hear the real instruments. There are also a few touches here and there from Wind Waker, so already I think they've "remembered" a few things they seemed to forget in Twilight Princess.

 

My only negative opinion so far is related to the graphics. I don't know if it's the low processing power of the Wii, the lack of HD or something else, but it just looks a bit too "soft" for me. Not a huge deal, but I don't think it's going to go down as one of the best Zelda styles.

 

I thought the same with the graphics at first, especially with distant objects, but then I think what Nintendo were going for was a kinda of oil painting like feel.

 

I don't think it was due to low power given what we've seen Xenoblade pull off so I'm personally marking it down as an artistic choice to try make the game look like a painting.

 

 

Righty what I am doing typing? Baby is asleep, check.

 

.... off to find the 5th dungeon I go so :D

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