Skyward Sword review thread [Newest Reviews - Cubed3 10/10, GC: A, AusGamers: 7/10]
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UltimateIke
Member
Seik said:Can't wait!!! I need some Zelda action in my veins. It's been too long!
Can someone Linkify mah Zero please? ^^
amtentori said:
In terms of the sword tutorial, I think this really ties into the story aspect of it. Link almost always starts off as a newbie Swordsmen that has to go through some training to be able to learn the basics. That's probably Nintendo's way of starting every game as an entirely new adventure where you start from nothing then slowly transform into this Hero. BUT I really like the idea of having the option to skip the tutorial in the future eventhough it not such a big deal, imo.
Hell, it would be pretty cool to start a 3D Zelda game where Link already has his sword and shield in hand, giving off the idea that he has done this before.
Slurpy2k20
Member
Anth0ny said:
Have you even played SS? It's pretty much the same thing, and literally takes seconds. Is it even worth bitching about? How dare Nintendo waste seconds of your life clarifying a core gameplay mechanic in their videogame! Dear God! How patronizing and insulting! Definitely an outrage, I suggest we start a petition right now!
Seriously, some of you have an incredible lack of perspective, and are utterly unable to put yourselves in the shoes of someone who may not have the Zelda/gaming experience you have. At best it will help many people out, at worst it will take a few seconds at a single moment in massively long game to show you something you may already know. The horror.
Paradoxal_Utopia said:
Look, all I'm saying is I grew up with OOT, and I turned out fine. For me, an ideal intro is throwing you right into the game and letting you learn everything through PLAYING THE GAME, instead of talking heads telling you exactly how to do every little thing. OOT and MM are the former. TP is the latter, and from what I'm hearing, SS's start is slow as hell also.
Watch this and understand.
Except for the fact that even the most well-crafted SD experience looks like a shitstain on a modern-day TV, even with component cables. It's reached the point where part of my mind tries not to become too attached to Wii games, knowing that if they already suffer this badly on an HDTV, it's only going to get worse. I hope Dolphin continues to streamline, or WiiU has an upscaler, because right now Nintendo's doing nothing to future-proof their games, which is almost criminal with gems like DKCR.cajunator said:
About Uncharted 3, I love it about as much as U2. I think it's best to view them as though they both released at the same time, to compensate for the fact that in 2009, U2 had the lightyears-ahead-of-everything-else feel that RE4 had on release. Even maxed-out Crysis doesn't have U2's level of visual dynamism and weight. But both are immaculately engineered games brimming with personality and charm. I keep replaying about half of U3's 20+ chapters (
young Drake, chateau, Yemen, shipyard, cruise ship, airplane, desert, caravan, etc
So I was able to snatch a copy from work today and I've been playing it ever since I've gotten off non-stop. I just finished
and
.
Just some impressions.
Dungeons: TSA's critique of the first two dungeons is mostly valid, but they're still better than any other two intro dungeon in 3D Zelda games. The third dungeon, and desert are of the game are fucking AMAZING, like best 3D Zelda dungeon ever material. Boss of third dungeon was disappointing, but first two dungeons had fantastic boss fights.
Controls: The controls are fantastic, except when you have to balance on a fucking rope. It was dumb in Uncharted, and it's dumb here. I don't get the problem with rolling bombs, it feels perfectly natural here. The controls however in generally really do work and I barely have to calibrate them.
Intro: Yes there is a tutorial, but guess what? It's optional! Before you land in the Sealed Grounds, it takes about a solid 30 minutes to get shit together unless you just run around not knowing wtf you're doing.
Characters: This is one point I vehemently disagree on TSA. All of the NPCs are far more charming than any of the NPCs in Wind Waker or Twilight Princess...and I fucking loved the NPCs in Wind Waker. Everyone of them have funny personality quirks and what's better is that Skyloft is actually a living breathing place. There doesn't seem to be any emotional attachments here
but then again, neither was there in any other Zelda game aside from Majora's Mask.
The major characters
are all awesome and some of the best since Ocarina of Time.
Overworld: Sky overworld isn't really a little version of the Great Sea...it's just a more condensed one. There's mainly the same base stuff. You have your more useless islands, and then you have islands with people and a small community on it or a mini-game. The game never forces you to explore it however all you really need to do is go from point A to point B.
Land overworld is fantastic and huge. Sometimes the land overworld is an even better dungeon than the actual dungeon itself. Also the desert was fucking amazing seriously. For the first time since A Link to the Past ever piece of land has some importance to it, no more wide open areas of nothing.
Pacing: Some of the backtracking in the game is lame, like when you're forced to go back for Kikwi. Some are awesome like
. I haven't really experienced the game enough to really give a solid value on this but the pacing here is definitely superior to most Zelda games. There hasn't been this solid pacing in a Zelda game since Link's Awakening.
Lanaryu Mines
beat the Imprisoned
Just some impressions.
Dungeons: TSA's critique of the first two dungeons is mostly valid, but they're still better than any other two intro dungeon in 3D Zelda games. The third dungeon, and desert are of the game are fucking AMAZING, like best 3D Zelda dungeon ever material. Boss of third dungeon was disappointing, but first two dungeons had fantastic boss fights.
Controls: The controls are fantastic, except when you have to balance on a fucking rope. It was dumb in Uncharted, and it's dumb here. I don't get the problem with rolling bombs, it feels perfectly natural here. The controls however in generally really do work and I barely have to calibrate them.
Intro: Yes there is a tutorial, but guess what? It's optional! Before you land in the Sealed Grounds, it takes about a solid 30 minutes to get shit together unless you just run around not knowing wtf you're doing.
Characters: This is one point I vehemently disagree on TSA. All of the NPCs are far more charming than any of the NPCs in Wind Waker or Twilight Princess...and I fucking loved the NPCs in Wind Waker. Everyone of them have funny personality quirks and what's better is that Skyloft is actually a living breathing place. There doesn't seem to be any emotional attachments here
except for Groose
The major characters
including Groose
Overworld: Sky overworld isn't really a little version of the Great Sea...it's just a more condensed one. There's mainly the same base stuff. You have your more useless islands, and then you have islands with people and a small community on it or a mini-game. The game never forces you to explore it however all you really need to do is go from point A to point B.
Land overworld is fantastic and huge. Sometimes the land overworld is an even better dungeon than the actual dungeon itself. Also the desert was fucking amazing seriously. For the first time since A Link to the Past ever piece of land has some importance to it, no more wide open areas of nothing.
Pacing: Some of the backtracking in the game is lame, like when you're forced to go back for Kikwi. Some are awesome like
getting the keys to the Earth Temple
BY2K said:
Navi and kepora gaebora were traumatic gaming experiences
They actually soured the entire experience of Ocarina of Time for me
why couldnt OoT be more like Quake and just let you choose your key bindings and play from there? Miyamoto could learn a lot from John Carmack.
would you like to hear what i said again?
Yes<
No
I just got my component cables and play the demo today and thought it looked fantastic even after playing Uncharted 3. The graphics won't blow me away of course, but I'm not expecting them to. The unique artstyle is good enough to look good despite being sub-HD.Ydahs said:
cajunator said:
I agree in someways. I heard all this talk of Naughty Dog pushing the limits of the PS3 with all this new tech. But at the end of the day, while technical feats like the water in UC3 are impressive, it doesn't really add all that much to the gameplay IMO. Atmosphere should come from a great artstyle and charming music more than anything. Gameplay should come before everything, at its painfully obvious that the technical set pieces were a priority over fun and non frustrating gunplay. Its a design principle that only Nintendo, Bungie, and a few others understand.
About 10 hours I've really been playing non-stop with some breaks, lol.Ydahs said:
There's not much I can say about it other than the
climax at the Temple of Time was pretty neat
Impa telling me off for not getting to Zelda before she did
But the story at the point I am there really isn't anything to it. A lot of mysterious shit going on but no major reveals or nothing.
Also Ghirahim >>> Zant, Vaati, etc.
Yeah, but is kinda related to his complain about how OOT "was", versus how he thinks Skyward Sword is. When impressions point to SS been similar (some forced things, some not so much)..and the usual thing of been constantly reminded at first about stuff.BY2K said:
Hahaha, yeah. ..and spamming A and pressing 'Yes' to read everything again.Uchip said:
This is how Skyward Sword's intro (w/ tutorials) works:
First you wake up in bed as Link, go outside.
Second one of the instructors yells at you to Z target him and come up to where he's at.
...You can optionally get a cat from top of the building, but you don't have to. This is the main tutorial of the controls of the game
Third you go to meet Zelda, she pushes you off the ledge and you have no bird so she saves you.
Fourth you meet Groose and it turns out he captures your bird, so you have to go look for it.
Fifth get a sword from the sword instructor.
...You can optionally slash some logs.
Sixth you go into a cave to find your bird, and release it from it's entrapment.
Seventh you get a forced flying tutorial with Zelda that only lasts for like a minute
Eighth you do flying ceremony, competing with Groose and his shitty friends to get the bird statue.
Ninth
, and
Tenth you wake up in bed at night, get called to the
Eleventh you wake up in bed in the morning, get your tunic and a shield.
All can be done successfully in the span of 20 to 30 minutes and maybe even less.
After that the world is free reign
First you wake up in bed as Link, go outside.
Second one of the instructors yells at you to Z target him and come up to where he's at.
...You can optionally get a cat from top of the building, but you don't have to. This is the main tutorial of the controls of the game
Third you go to meet Zelda, she pushes you off the ledge and you have no bird so she saves you.
Fourth you meet Groose and it turns out he captures your bird, so you have to go look for it.
Fifth get a sword from the sword instructor.
...You can optionally slash some logs.
Sixth you go into a cave to find your bird, and release it from it's entrapment.
Seventh you get a forced flying tutorial with Zelda that only lasts for like a minute
Eighth you do flying ceremony, competing with Groose and his shitty friends to get the bird statue.
Ninth
you have a nite on the town with Zelda
she gets captured.
Goddess statue and take up the Goddess Sword.
All can be done successfully in the span of 20 to 30 minutes and maybe even less.
After that the world is free reign
U3 is incredibly atmospheric. The ship graveyard with the sunlight slanting through the clouds while rain pours and the waves rock the wrecks back and forth is haunting in its isolation and humbling in how vulnerable you feel against the ocean. The visuals serve the immersion in U3, absolutely.Lingitiz said:
Also, many of U3's effects drive the gameplay. In the shipyard and cruise ship levels, the entire ocean is a procedurally generated physics engine. All of the cargo sliding around on the ship is doing so in reaction to the rocking of the ship, and the ship in turn is rocking in accordance with the waves. So in combat in the shipyard, the many multi-level platforms are bobbing back and forth as you leap to and fro, the waves rushing through, the cover constantly changing, and you're free to exploit the changing slopes and sea level as you see fit -- if you're fleet-footed enough, that is.
Those three chapters ("Rough Seas," "Cruisin' for a Bruisin'" and "Sink or Swim") are exhilirating to replay, imo. The entire background is moving independently and affecting the stage; the entire stage is moving and affecting the platforms and props; and all the characters stagger about in response, so you're fighting gravity and momentum as much as you're fighting each other. It's not just a technical marvel. It's impressive from a gameplay and level design standpoint, too.
Slurpy2k20
Member
Big One said:
Yet from the comments here you'd think there was 5 hrs of tutorials.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
104 deaths...snesfreak said:
Well, they're almost finished. They have this, Ganon's Tower and the final boss to go.
highspeeddub
Member
butter_stick said:
What about LoZ and AoL on the NES? They weren't particularly patronising, were they? Your opinion is not very well informed.