The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

[Scratch]

Nooooo I've reached the end of the game minus the final battle with everything collected (I think) except I'm missing three heart pieces. Unfortunately I'm terrible at remembering which ones I've gotten (even if I now look at a list). IT'S THE BLUE COINS FROM SUPER MARIO SUNSHIN ALL OVER AGAIN! 

So my choices are to pretty much check every darn location from a checklist, or just finish the game and move on, maybe come back and get them later. Think I'll go with the latter lol.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to me in gaming, from now on I'm gonna research stuff like this and print out a checklist to tick off lol, even if I only use the checklist AFTER finding one of the items in game and to get the last few on the list.

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Sckewi

[Ike]

2 hours ago, Sckewi said:

Nooooo I've reached the end of the game minus the final battle with everything collected (I think) except I'm missing three heart pieces. Unfortunately I'm terrible at remembering which ones I've gotten (even if I now look at a list). IT'S THE BLUE COINS FROM SUPER MARIO SUNSHIN ALL OVER AGAIN! 

So my choices are to pretty much check every darn location from a checklist, or just finish the game and move on, maybe come back and get them later. Think I'll go with the latter lol.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to me in gaming, from now on I'm gonna research stuff like this and print out a checklist to tick off lol, even if I only use the checklist AFTER finding one of the items in game and to get the last few on the list.

 

Doesn’t the fortune teller show you where they are?

[Scratch]

Ohhh I'll have to try that, thanks!

[darksnowman]

6 hours ago, Ike said:

Doesn’t the fortune teller show you where they are?

If correct, this is a great shout!  

5 hours ago, Sckewi said:

Ohhh I'll have to try that, thanks!

Let us know if it works out--might be useful for someone else to know.

[Ike]

It was 10 years ago, but I'm sure I remember using it.

[Scratch]

Sorry y'all, I tried each option a couple of times, but the Fortune Teller never gave me any information or clues as to the whereabouts of Heart Pieces. Was worth a try though!

Edited August 8, 2021 by Sckewi

[darksnowman]

25 minutes ago, Sckewi said:

Sorry y'all, I tried each option a couple of times, but the Fortune Teller never gave me any information or clues as to the whereabouts of Heart Pieces. Was worth a try though!

Well, that's a bummer.  Come on, Lord @Ike, what's your next protip? Dowsing, Goddess blocks? 

Edited August 8, 2021 by darksnowman
the @ shout outs

[Jonnas]

I remember there was a tricky one in Faron Woods. There was a bombable wall there that I had just completely forgotten, and somehow missed on my revisits.

For a more concrete method... I can only recommend that you open a guide/FAQ, and then check only the Heart Piece locations that you have no memory of.

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Ike said:

It was 10 years ago, but I'm sure I remember using it.

You're mixing up this fortune teller with the one from Twilight Princess. That one shows where Heart Pieces are, Skyward Sword's shows you where to find each of the treasures.

[Ike]

21 minutes ago, darksnowman said:

Well, that's a bummer.  Come on, Lord @Ike, what's your next protip? Dowsing, Goddess blocks? 

You can burn down certain bushes using the lantern to find secrets, but it's a secret to everyone.

4 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

You're mixing up this fortune teller with the one from Twilight Princess. That one shows where Heart Pieces are, Skyward Sword's shows you where to find each of the treasures.

Yeah, I must be. Dunno why TP had it but not Skyward Sword.

[Glen-i]

Oh, BTW, @Sckewi. Word of warning.

Assuming you've done all of the dungeons and gotten the heart containers from them, getting all the heart pieces will only take you to 18 hearts.

To get to 20, you need to carry the two Life Medals in the game. Whether you want to give up 2 pouch spaces for that is up to you.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Glen-i

[Scratch]

Thanks for your help everybody. Using a list I managed to figure out which ones it was and get them. If anyone's curious, the last three were:

Spoiler

- Gorko's drawing on wall thing

- The mine-cart mini-game where you have to get under 1:05

- One near the Fire Sanctury where you have to dig near a Gossip Stone

 

Edited August 9, 2021 by Sckewi

[Dcubed]

Ahh crud! Wrong thread!

Edited August 10, 2021 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

I can’t deal with this Joycon wireless interference anymore!!! It’s driving me insane and is making the game near unplayable!!

God I can’t wait for Switch 2; please, for fucks’ sake! Fix this shit Nintendo!!!

Edited September 7, 2021 by Dcubed

[Sheikah]

I can’t deal with this Joycon wireless interference anymore!!! It’s driving me insane and is making the game near unplayable!!

God I can’t wait for Switch 2; please, for fucks’ sake! Fix this shit Nintendo!!!

Please understand

 

[Hero-of-Time]

This year, while the rest of the world was getting excited for a new Zelda game in TOTK, I done my best to avoid the hype and also avoid the game. BOTW was a disappointment to me and not what I wanted from a Zelda game. With TOTK being more of the same, I decided to give the game a pass and instead start a Zelda game that was sitting on my backlog.

I never got on with Skyward Sword on the Wii. I found the game to be a bit of a drag, the controls were bothersome and the lack of voice acting to be very annoying. I tried playing the game back in 2021 but never got around to completing my play through due to becoming ill at the time. However, I was enjoying it before I took bad and I was hoping that I would feel the same about the Switch version as I did about the start of my 2021 playthrough. 

I had an absolute blast playing through the game. Most of it felt like a brand new experience to me as I had not played through the game fully since it’s initial release on the Wii. Back then I didn’t really bother with the side missions or looking for heart pieces, which was a very rare thing for me not to do in a Zelda game, but this time around I enjoyed the game so much that I spent ages farming things like rupees, bugs and items in order to do everything the game had to offer. I think the development done a fantastic job with converting the motion controls into the analogue sticks. However, I wasn’t keen on the camera control though. Having to hold a button and then use the stick to rotate the camera never really clicked with me and so I just defaulted to Ocarina of Time style of hitting a single button to centre the camera back on Link. 

Playing through the game again I can totally see what Dcubed was saying in this thread. The games dungeon and world design are fantastic. Each of the areas aren’t some massive, empty open world but more like expansions to the dungeons that inhabit these areas. It’s a direction I think the Zelda team should have expanded on instead of going full open world like they did with BOTW. Going through each of these areas and dungeons made me really appreciate the work that goes into designing well thought of puzzles in the old Zelda games. Again, I much prefer this approach over what they have gone with in BOTW and TOTK. I admire the creativity and ideas that people have come up with in those games in how they go about solving puzzles but with the older games, especially here, I found a much greater sense of satisfaction knowing that there is only one way to solve a puzzle. Sure, it’s far more restrictive but the “eureka!” moment I got from solving the puzzles in this game never really happened to me in BOTW due to the solutions being so flexible.

Zelda games have always had a touch of Metroid in them. You see a place that you can’t get to, find an item later on and then go back and use said item to reach a new area. I think in Skyward Sword this has been turned up to 11 and I really liked it. I think because there are only 3 main areas to explore, the developers went all in to flesh out each of them. It means that even though you do revisit all of these areas multiple times, there is usually something new to explore when you do go back to them. The team seem to get a lot of mileage out of using the same areas and it never really felt old to me.

One of my criticisms back in 2011 was how the game had certain cutscenes that lacked impact due to the lack of voice acting. Given how rough the acting is in BOTW, I think this was actually a blessing in disguise and it didn’t really bother me this time around. I do find it strange the Nintendo lean a lot of Monolith Soft when it comes to helping out with various games but clearly don’t ask for help with it comes to narratives and voice direction. Anyway, I did enjoy the story as a whole and the usage of classic Zelda tunes helped make certain scenes more emotional and epic. 

 

The game was already a looker on the Wii and it looks great in HD. There were lots of scenes and moments where I captured a quick screenshot due to them looking beautiful and the art direction will be up there as timeless, just like Wind Waker. One of my favourite designs in the game is Impa. In general, I think she is a pretty well designed character in most of the Zelda games but this one has got to be one of my favourites. 

A lot of the negatives that the game received over the years from gamers, myself included, didn’t really bother me this time around. The empty space in the sky is not really that different to the waters in Wind Waker or the empty fields in Ocarina of Time. In fact, I think you spend less time flying around in the sky than you do crossing back and forth in the overworld in Hyrule. The tadpole quest didn’t bother me this time around either and I actually enjoyed what the developers done with that area, as well as the other areas, to give the game a little more padding. The areas were the same but were all slightly remixed in a fun way. I think some of my positivity towards the tadpole event was probably due to not having to use the motion controls to swim. I think my only negative in my experience with the game this time around was the stamina bar. There really is no need for this to be in the game at all. It adds nothing to the experience and only hinders the player. Oh, and maybe the design of Tentalus. That thing still reminds me of when Boo is dressed up in Monsters Inc.

With time, people’s tastes do change in a variety of things and it’s why I think it’s always important to revisit games you may not have liked when you originally played them. You may find that you have a completely different perspective and end up enjoying the game more. Who knows, maybe in a few years time I will actually enjoy games like Star Fox Zero or Breath of the Wild. 

TLDR: Breath of the Wild made me appreciate Skyward Sword a whole lot more.

Spoiler

 

 

 

[drahkon]

Ah yes, another one of Julius' trademark long posts about a game WAIT A MINUTE!

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Who knows, maybe in a few years time I will actually enjoy games like [...] Breath of the Wild. 

We both know that's not going to happen

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I never got on with Skyward Sword on the Wii. I found the game to be a bit of a drag, the controls were bothersome and the lack of voice acting to be very annoying.

Same here. For me it was mostly the motion controls. Absolutely despised them.

Your post kinda makes me want to give this another try but I have no means to play it.

Edited November 6, 2023 by drahkon

[EEVILMURRAY]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I think because there are only 3 main areas to explore, the developers went all in to flesh out each of them. It means that even though you do revisit all of these areas multiple times, there is usually something new to explore when you do go back to them. The team seem to get a lot of mileage out of using the same areas and it never really felt old to me.

The tadpole quest didn’t bother me this time around either and I actually enjoyed what the developers done with that area, as well as the other areas, to give the game a little more padding. The areas were the same but were all slightly remixed in a fun way. I think some of my positivity towards the tadpole event was probably due to not having to use the motion controls to swim.

Wrong mo'fo'. The constant returning to the same piddly-ass 3 areas made this game worse for me. In a series which gives you diverse lands to traverse, having to return to the same place with a few tweaks grated so much. The fun of exploration was sucked out because there simply wasn't anything new to explore. Main big exception was when they flooded the forest area, which could've been a new environment all by itself. It was simply lazy. And repeating The Imprisoned bit several times. Bollocks to that shit.

It's been awhile since I played it (I was at uni at the time, so about... 17 years O_o), but was the tadpole quest where you were swimming like a zora making the tunes? I didn't find that one all that bad. Had to redo a couple, but it was something new.

One thing I hated about the motion controls was the sword placement, it was a nice touch that you needed to slash in a certain direction to hit the enemy, but if your sword was the wrong side, you try to whip to the other side but you strike the shield/whatever. I don't think the developers wanted you to slowly arc your sword around every time, which you pretty much had to do to beat Ghirahim later on.

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, drahkon said:

Your post kinda makes me want to give this another try but I have no means to play it.

Shame. It's certainly worth another look if it was only the controls that you had issues with.

1 hour ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

Wrong mo'fo'. The constant returning to the same piddly-ass 3 areas made this game worse for me. In a series which gives you diverse lands to traverse, having to return to the same place with a few tweaks grated so much. The fun of exploration was sucked out because there simply wasn't anything new to explore. Main big exception was when they flooded the forest area, which could've been a new environment all by itself. It was simply lazy. And repeating The Imprisoned bit several times. Bollocks to that shit.

Yeah, it's strange how this stuff never really bothered me this time around, especially The Imprisoned, which I despised when playing it on the Wii.

[EEVILMURRAY]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Yeah, it's strange how this stuff never really bothered me this time around, especially The Imprisoned, which I despised when playing it on the Wii.

You've been worn down by the industry to accept mediocrity!

This is a sad day...  

[drahkon]

10 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

You've been worn down by the industry to accept mediocrity!

This is a sad day...  

Oh, then maybe he will enjoy BotW now...

[EEVILMURRAY]

15 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Oh, then maybe he will enjoy BotW now...

I must be optimistic he still has a grain of good taste within him. However... Maybe he will turn down the path of darkness and find that borefest fun...

 

This day is getting darker by the day, on top of the usual daytime brightness change.

[Hero-of-Time]

1 hour ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

This day is getting darker by the day, on top of the usual daytime brightness change.

I'm currently playing Baten Kaitos and think it's pretty meh. Certainly not half as good as I remember.

[EEVILMURRAY]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'm currently playing Baten Kaitos and think it's pretty meh. Certainly not half as good as I remember.

I know the feeling. Storywise it feels new, but some of the battle mechanics I don't recall being as grating, namely number of enemy attacks and how using opposing defence cards cancel each other out

[Dcubed]

Ahh, how it warms my heart to see @Hero-of-Time finally see the light about Skyward Sword! You do have some good taste in games after all

SS’ level design really is second to none, glad to see you recognise its brilliance.  I really love how they manage to recontextualise the areas you go back to, and take advantage of/play off of the knowledge you’ve built up about each area over the course of the game.  And yeah, SS is probably the most Metroid-esc of all the Zeldas… something that only works to its benefit.

The little changes they made to the HD version do really help to improve the pacing as well, Tantalus really did a great job with it overall.

Now we just need to get you to come to your senses about Star Fox Zero