The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

[Hero-of-Time]

12 minutes ago, nekunando said:

I think some people need to worry an awful lot less about what others think of certain games! 

Indeed. A recent example on here was drahkon disliking Mario 3D World. Some of the reactions were as if he had insulted someone's mother. 

I've never understood the rage people get into over someone disliking a game they like. Why do they care? Someone else's opinion should have no bearing on the enjoyment you got out of a game. It just comes across as really insecure.

Also, I think it's important to state that an opinion of something can change over time. There's many games I've tried to play and disliked but they revisited them in later years and found I enjoyed and appreciated them. 

I do agree that at the age most of us are at we do know what we want and don't want out of games. However, I still think it's important to step out of your comfort zone from time to time. Like anything in life, it's the only way to expand your horizons. There's so many amazing gaming experiences I would have missed out on had I just stuck to what I know.

[drahkon]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

A recent example on here was drahkon disliking Mario 3D World.

Don't bring that up again.

[Hero-of-Time]

4 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Don't bring that up again.

You insulted a dear friend of mine. I want answers!! 

[Ashley]

28 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I've never understood the rage people get into over someone disliking a game they like. Why do they care? Someone else's opinion should have no bearing on the enjoyment you got out of a game. It just comes across as really insecure.

Especially when they've not even played the game yet but have decided you didn't like it enough

[Ike]

50 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Indeed. A recent example on here was drahkon disliking Mario 3D World. Some of the reactions were as if he had insulted someone's mother. 

The issue wasn't that Drahkon didn't like 3D World, it was the way he posted.

[Happenstance]

4 minutes ago, Ike said:

The issue wasn't that Drahkon didn't like 3D World, it was the way he posted.

He said it was one of the worst 3D platformers ever made, a statement that still shouldn’t really matter and obviously just his opinion.

[Hero-of-Time]

7 minutes ago, Ike said:

The issue wasn't that Drahkon didn't like 3D World, it was the way he posted.

[drahkon]

Oh no, here we go again.

I warned you,  @Hero-of-Time

[Hero-of-Time]

Looks like we need a distraction...

 

[Happenstance]

I’ve only ever completed one Zelda game and that was Breath of the Wild. I’ve enjoyed playing others but never seemed to stick with them. 

[Jonnas]

Nothing wrong with having a hot take, but you gotta know it'll generate blowback.

Like whenever I say that Super Mario World or Halo are overrated garbage. I know people will contest it.

[Happenstance]

Just now, Jonnas said:

Nothing wrong with having a hot take, but you gotta know it'll generate blowback.

Like whenever I say that Super Mario World or Halo are overrated garbage. I know people will contest it.

I loved the NES Mario games but came to Super Mario World really late and could just never get a handle on it. Still to this day it just doesn’t feel right.

[drahkon]

1 minute ago, Jonnas said:

Super Mario World [...] overrated garbage

1 minute ago, Happenstance said:

came to Super Mario World really late and could just never get a handle on it. Still to this day it just doesn’t feel right.

 

[Ike]

2 hours ago, Happenstance said:

I loved the NES Mario games but came to Super Mario World really late and could just never get a handle on it. Still to this day it just doesn’t feel right.

I agree with you on that, the artstyle and music always felt off to me, it doesn't fit with the other games.

[Glen-i]

7 hours ago, Ike said:

I agree with you on that, the artstyle and music always felt off to me, it doesn't fit with the other games.

Is it because the Koopa Troopas suddenly start walking upright?

I had a similar reaction when I first played Mario Galaxy and the Koopa Troopas suddenly went back to being quadrupedal again. But it was the first time we ever saw that in 3D and it felt weird.

[Jonnas]

Dang, didn't expect so many to share my distaste for SMW. It undermines the point I was going for, but it's also kind of heartwarming. I'm glad we could work this issue out 

So, Skyward Sword. I think we all agree Fi needs to be taken down a notch. How do you propose mitigating her advice?

Me, I think speeding up the text would do wonders. If her interruptions were as quick and snappy as Navi's, that's half of the problem gone.

[Dcubed]

20 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

Dang, didn't expect so many to share my distaste for SMW. It undermines the point I was going for, but it's also kind of heartwarming. I'm glad we could work this issue out 

SMW is far too easy.  You have too much air control and the cape basically trivialises most of the game.

The level design is generally really creative and interesting, but outside of a few select levels? It lacks bite.

20 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

So, Skyward Sword. I think we all agree Fi needs to be taken down a notch. How do you propose mitigating her advice?

Me, I think speeding up the text would do wonders. If her interruptions were as quick and snappy as Navi's, that's half of the problem gone.

Make all of her non-cutscene & story/progression related pop up appearances optional.  Also remove the Fi advice icon indicator from the screen after 5 seconds if it the Fi button is not pressed by the player; add in an option on the pause menu to read past Fi messages that the player can choose at their leisure if they later decide that they want the advice after all.

Also, text speed options are a must! At least have an option for fast text; or allow the player to fill out a text box immediately by pressing A.

[Cube]

I also didn't get on with SMW. Then again, I only like Mario 64 and Mario Odyssey out of all of the Mario platform games.

24 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

So, Skyward Sword. I think we all agree Fi needs to be taken down a notch. How do you propose mitigating her advice?

Perhaps a setting to turn off all interruptions, so she only talks when you ask.

[LazyBoy]

I really appreciate @Dcubed's defense of this game, and I glad someone loved it, but I do not relate to so much of what you've said. Maybe I have just forgotten loads of the game, quite frankly it left little impression on me and maybe that's why I don't remember it, but your talk about great level design just does not resonate with me. I recall one mechanic - the time phasing - that was interesting and was probably the highlight of the game, but that's it. Otherwise it was the same Zelda game I had been playing since OoT, but with less overworld, less content, less atmosphere, and a criminally underused gliding function. The wiimote thing didn't really work, but I can't fault them for trying. 

Remind me (and I have a genuinely open mind) - what were the great examples of level design in the game?

[Emerald Emblem]

I was one of those people who skipped out on this game back on Wii, because motion controls hadn't sold me on a game that required actual accurate input when most Wii games just required waggle to do things and Wii Motion plus had it's issues. I will be one of those buying this game and going in virtually blind and fingers crossed enjoying the origins of the Master Sword.

[Ronnie]

3 minutes ago, Emerald Emblem said:

I will be one of those buying this game and going in virtually blind and fingers crossed enjoying the origins of the Master Sword.

Be interesting to see what you think. I had a great time with the game at the time but can't say it sticks out in my mind as much as other Zeldas. 

It's also pretty much the polar opposite of BOTW, regardless how many connections Aonuma drew between the two. It's extremely linear, very story focused, and with much more living/breathing dungeons. Exploration is limited to specific locales you enter into, rather than being more connected and 'go anywhere'.

[MindFreak]

I really appreciated the origin-story in this, how everything came to be what we know now. That was really fascinating and genuinely good stuff. But apart from that the game just didn't stand out, can't remember much of it. I do remember liking each sub-area well enough, and the dungeons were good, but I also felt that something was missing in the game. I'm not going to pick this up again, I simply don't have the need to.

However, I played Twilight Princess HD a couple of years ago and enjoyed that once again. I think it's actually a really interesting Zelda-game but the overworld was a tad on the empty side. In BotW, there were empty spaces as well but you knew that any moment you could find something interesting to investigate - a feeling I never got with Twilight Princess. That's why it works with BotW and not with TP, I think.

[darksnowman]

I came in here expecting everyone to be doing their usual armchair nattering about framerate--Skyward Sword credits was a total slideshow!--only to discover this is the place I can let my hair down and say what I think about 3D World?
Or I'll just talk to @drahkonvia PM about it, then.  

14 hours ago, Happenstance said:

I’ve only ever completed one Zelda game and that was Breath of the Wild. I’ve enjoyed playing others but never seemed to stick with them. 

I've only (ever?) not completed one (main) Zelda and that is Breath of the Wild. I've vowed to myself that I will go back to it and try to persevere a bit more before BotW 2. So how about you do yourself a favour and play A Link to the Past on the SNES app?

Edited February 22, 2021 by darksnowman

[Happenstance]

4 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

I came in here expecting everyone to be doing their usual armchair nattering about framerate--Skyward Sword credits was a total slideshow!--only to discover this is the place I can let my hair down and say what I think about 3D World?
Or I'll just talk to @drahkonvia PM about it, then.  

I've only (ever?) not completed one (main) Zelda and that is Breath of the Wild. I've vowed to myself that I will go back to it and try to persevere a bit more before BotW 2. So how about you do yourself a favour and play A Link to the Past on the SNES app?

I've played it before, just never completed it. My Switch is packed away at the moment anyway.

[Zell]

I think I'll be passing on this. I think enough has been said about the motion control issues, but looking past that I still feel this game has some glaring issues that bring down the overall experience. The game is incessantly padded with fetch quests and often has you revisiting the same areas multiple times rather than re-introducing new ones.

I think there's a good game buried under some questionable design decisions. I know it would never happen, but I would like to see a remake/remaster where they fix some of pacing issues, streamline some of the travel, cut some of the needless repetition and delete Fi. It's a 40 hour game that really only needed to be about 20 hours long.

Looking back, I also feel that the game suffers from the limitations of the Wii hardware. For example the sky in Skyward Sword is basically just a glorified level select and it feels completed disconnected from the rest of the game because of the loading screens. It's definitely a step back from the Great Sea in Wind Waker and even the likes of Hyrule/Termina Field. I imagine with more powerful hardware they could have created a seamless transition from sky to ground.

Will be interesting to see peoples' opinions when this comes out, I'm unsure of how well this game will have aged in the last 10 years. Contemporary reviews were quite glowing if I remember correctly, but I never could myself agree with the perfect scores it received.