D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
I'm super excited
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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword |OT| Home of Punkin' Chunkin' Champion 2011
- Thread starter Amir0x
- Start date
THIS. Doesn't help either that I did a recent playthrough of TP before SS.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Friend and I visit gamestop today. Store has a dozen CE editions on display behind the counter on one of the shelves. I ask if they're for sale. Guy responds "They're for pre-orders". I ask why they have them on their display shelf. Guy responds "So people learn to pre-order".
Worthplaying Review = 8.5/10
TL;DR = Good overall experience. Motion controls rock when spot-on, annoying when calibration is off. Dungeon design is excellent.
TL;DR = Good overall experience. Motion controls rock when spot-on, annoying when calibration is off. Dungeon design is excellent.
WorthPlaying said:
WorthPlaying said:
WorthPlaying said:
Haha, that's a pretty good answer.
I'm not ready to call it a mediocre game, because it's so damn charming, but I definitely don't know if I rank this above Spirit Tracks yet (which I liked, though didn't love), so that's definitely a huge reduction in expectations. It's got so many flaws i'm almost sad. It says almost that there's a wearing off of the talent at Team Zelda, because there's no way they could go through this and say that so many of these decisions were OK. At least I can't imagine it. This stuff would not be given a pass if it were any other developer, so I can't start doing it now for Nintendo. It's a shame, because there's like 4 real changes that could have been implemented which would have almost immediately changed this from "decent-to-pretty good" to "amazing."
God I hope the fetch questing doesn't get as bad as you say later, but so far you were so on point with your impressions I fear for the end game
PowderedToast
Junior Member
up to fourth dungeon, fucking love it. makes me so happy that we can still get a game with this kind of aesthetic and of this quality. it fills me with joy i tells ya.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
What messes with my brain is the A button being used to let go while you're hanging. I fell down into lava/pits countless times because of this.
butter_stick
Banned
I'm not sure I find the game "charming" to be honest. I don't think there's enough characters I'm coming in to contact with. I don't tend to visit Skyloft that much so it feels like quite a lonely game at times.
When it's good it's good, I just think the structure kinda works against it in some ways.
When it's good it's good, I just think the structure kinda works against it in some ways.
MasterShotgun
brazen editing lynx
Hit him with your Slingshot while he has a rock over his read. He'll drop the rock which kills him instantly.
Is there a reason why some of you didn't pre-order? Or is it that you just didn't realize you'd want the bundle until you realized it would actually be rare? Because that's kind of how it was with me and the MGS HD LE. Just thought I'd pick it up down the line, but when I realized how limited the quantity was, I shuffled to find a copy.
Anyways, I'm loving this game so much, that I'm at work and I can think of nothing else but how I want to go home and play some more!
Anyways, I'm loving this game so much, that I'm at work and I can think of nothing else but how I want to go home and play some more!
I think there is a really charming effect the game has in general... the art style perfectly compliments the Zelda universe in general. The animations are beautiful and really a joy to watch. The music is generally awesome, except in many dungeons oddly enough. It's a combination of factors that really work to make one be, well, charmed by the proceedings. It's hard not to be. It feels very light, fluffy, "airy." It's a good thing to me. I don't need super serious Zelda.
I just wish Nintendo didn't think gamers were retards.
GreenCyder
Member
In comparison how did you feel about WW's aesthetic? Especially in regards to... covering up it's flaws?
They only did it because they visit GAF and just know.
I'll have to go play again now that i'm home. I need to eat first and play some and i'll report back.
Well Wind Waker's aesthetic is, to me, on a playing field all its own. It OWNED the Zelda aesthetic, its animation (particularly facial) is unmatched to this day in the franchise and it actually married the serious and light hearted in a near perfect harmony at the end. It was quite elegant, really. I think in regards to 'covering up its flaws', I think Wind Waker would have been near the perfect Zelda if they simply made it more difficult and added back in those two or so dungeons that they didn't have time to patch in. That's to me all that was missing (oh, and make it so you don't have to constantly change wind direction to change ship travel direction). Wind Waker, even back when it came out, instantly disarmed me with its brilliant artistic direction and stellar list of improvements to the Ocarina of Time gameplay formula, which to this day represents the best "mixture" of old and new. I still vastly prefer its combat to what we have in Skyward Sword and TP introduced some new problems, so WW is the right chord.
Skyward Sword has the best bosses in the franchise, however, and some of the music is top tier. And its art direction is a good compromise between the two classes of Zelda styles, but I prefer Wind Waker's.
The more subtle animation in character movements is definitely better in Skyward Sword, but I still think facial animation wise Wind Waker is king.
Anasui Kishibe
Banned
some of the negative comments here are fucking disheartening
EmCeeGramr
Member
Spend more time in Skyloft. The characters seem to constantly have new stuff to say every time you advance in the main game, and there's some great moments.
The sudden, hidden, character shift
Beedle
I just wish people would understand, this isn't a BAD game. It's a Zelda game, so it's good. There are just Zelda expectations with a Zelda game. It's just... there were expectations that this installation would bring a lot of changes that the Zelda franchise needed for years. Nintendo certainly implied in interviews and trailers that there would be a certain level of changes that maybe brought the Zelda formula to modern standards. But I think really, there are problems here that have plagued the franchise for years but were somehow enhanced and made even worse. So in this way, I think some of us who are playing it and expected one thing based on their comments simply are shocked that this is the package. Some of the problems are just like "WHY", because I don't understand the need for half of these problems. They've invented these problems. Nintendo creates them when they have a brilliant base underneath for no reason. They're afraid to just let people experience it freely without their "loving" guiding hands.
I pull back fast enough to fall for this (no pun intended), but I also very often confuse B with A or other buttons. I want to sheath my sword and instead I pull out the bug net. Argh. Hopefully, that WiiU tab will end most of this since I don't want to have a hud on my screen.
well, it's not that the game falls apart. the good parts get better and the bad parts just stay bad and for a short time they actually get worse. it's just a constant up and down, but the highs get higher. it's a shame too, because for the most part it's always the same few things that keep dragging the whole game down. and it just gets increasingly frustrating to realize how AMAZING this could have been and how it's held back by a few stupid design decisions that pollute the whole experience.I'm not ready to call it a mediocre game, because it's so damn charming, but I definitely don't know if I rank this above Spirit Tracks yet (which I liked, though didn't love), so that's definitely a huge reduction in expectations. It's got so many flaws i'm almost sad. It says almost that there's a wearing off of the talent at Team Zelda, because there's no way they could go through this and say that so many of these decisions were OK. At least I can't imagine it. This stuff would not be given a pass if it were any other developer, so I can't start doing it now for Nintendo. It's a shame, because there's like 4 real changes that could have been implemented which would have almost immediately changed this from "decent-to-pretty good" to "amazing."
God I hope the fetch questing doesn't get as bad as you say later, but so far you were so on point with your impressions I fear for the end game
i'm surpised that you liked spirit tracks though. i LOATHED that game, more so than phantom hourglass even, which i already disliked.
The Main Event
Member
I'm still trying to figure out the complaints about the slow start.
This is why I'm glad I avoid the press, interviews, etc. for the most part, and just take the games on their own merits. Had I listened to GAF when Minish Cap came out, I probably would've been predisposed to hate it (I ended up loving it). I feel awkward already that going into Majora's Mask for the first time, I feel this pressure to like it since so many people here consider it the "best of the series", or that I will just hate Twilight Princess. I had a lot of problems with Wind Waker, even though it's become the darling of GAF and gaming hipsters who hated on it when it was first released.
I'll be curious to see what I think of Skyward Sword, though. I'm really enjoying Spirit Tracks right now.
Zelda since Wind Waker is 90% awesome and 10% Imagine Party Babiez. We all still bought the game day one and most of us are hours into it, but some of the decisions are in my opinion Ubisoft shovelware bad at times. Most of the game, the vast majority is still very awesome.
The problem is Nintendo wants to make 7-9 million people sort of happy and half of them are idiots. It's hard to be happy with "only" 4-5 million in sales when Wii Sports Resort/Nintendogs/etc. sell 10/20/30 million copies by catering children and also the mentally ill.
ShockingAlberto
Member
You guys get crazy fucked up with your hyperbole.
smokeymicpot
Beat EviLore at pool.
Game is great so far looks good on my tv. Not even really at the first dungeon yet.
Agreed.
I "liked" Spirit Tracks - that is to say, it's a low tier Zelda game but a decent game taken on its own merits, simply because its dungeon design was vastly superior to Phantom Hourglass. That's what separated it for me. Better puzzles, better difficulty, better bosses. Its train travel sucked ass, though (even worse than trace-a-line boat travel), but because of how I weigh what is important in Zelda titles, it remained something I can overlook compared to what was relatively positive about the game.
For me, Zelda is about
1. Puzzles
2. Dungeon Design (layout, complexity, difficulty)
3. Bosses/Combat
Everything else falls somewhere below these priorities, things like story and overworld method of travel are just relatively unimportant compared to how these things are nailed. To me, Spirit Tracks did a fairly good job at some of these things, so it is better than PH which did an awful job at puzzle design, difficulty and dungeon design, imo.
People here are complaining a lot about the hand-holding, but that doesn't seem to be an issue anywhere else I read about complaints. I don't think there's a lot of hand-holding, and seemingly I'm up to the part of the game where the hand-holding grows less, so I guess that's not an issue for me.
lazybones18
Banned
Got an email from Amazon saying my bundle has finally been shipped!
Too bad I won't have a lot of time playing it on Tuesday
Too bad I won't have a lot of time playing it on Tuesday
SWEET JESUS THIS
It has been fucking me over for the entire 20+ hours of gameplay.
Also,
Tap B= use item
Hold B= bring up menu
really sucks. + should bring up the god damn menu.
Then play on because, at least in my opinion, Skyward Sword is unparalleled in these three aspects . Well, with combat YMMV, but everything else you consider the important aspects of a Zelda game is brought to new levels here.
I'm enjoying the game and really want to keep playing, even though I've already put in 15 hours, but two things are really bothering me about the game so far:
1. The incessant fetch quests.
I hate that Nintendo felt the need to pad its game out like this. Don't hide your best content (dungeons) behind hours upon hours of running around collecting inane objects which don't even make sense within the context of the world. The whole thing feels like busy-work, which it is, and disconnects you from the story while killing any sense of pacing. Nintendo really needs to wake up in this regard. Make a 20-hour Zelda instead of a 30-hour Zelda, but make it the best-paced, most exciting Zelda you can. Sheesh.
2. The slow-crawling text boxes which pop up every five minutes to partonisingly over-explain and repeat things to you.
I mean, I've picked up a fucking gold skull five times already - I know what they are... so why is the game stopping to tell me about it every ten minutes? And Fi should just shut up. She carries on about the same things which don't actually need so much explanation, but the game doesn't even bother to maintain any sort of quest log which would have streamlined the whole experience and obviated the need for that blue pain-in-the-ass to show up and chitter-chatter for half an hour. For example, at one point I was told, as a matter of fact, to "go and see Gondo" for more information. At this point in the game, I had no fucking idea who Gondo was or where he would be. So, thinking I must have missed some clue in the quest-giver's speech, I spoke to them again and they offered me nothing. Fi was similarly useless when asked to give a hint. A simple quest log would have been really useful here and lessened the need for me to google 'Who is Gondo?'
Oh, and finally, Nintendo should learn from other developers by integrating seamless tutorials, i.e. ones which let you run around and actually interact with the game while things are being explained. Don't make me stop, read text about how to do a roll, and then unfreeze me so I can give it a try. Let characters speak while I am moving around and let me attempt the tutorial IF I WANT TO and on-the-fly.
P.S. - totally unrelated to the rest of my post, but the Skyward Sword theme tune ("Ballad of the Goddess"?) is absolutely amazing.
1. The incessant fetch quests.
I hate that Nintendo felt the need to pad its game out like this. Don't hide your best content (dungeons) behind hours upon hours of running around collecting inane objects which don't even make sense within the context of the world. The whole thing feels like busy-work, which it is, and disconnects you from the story while killing any sense of pacing. Nintendo really needs to wake up in this regard. Make a 20-hour Zelda instead of a 30-hour Zelda, but make it the best-paced, most exciting Zelda you can. Sheesh.
2. The slow-crawling text boxes which pop up every five minutes to partonisingly over-explain and repeat things to you.
I mean, I've picked up a fucking gold skull five times already - I know what they are... so why is the game stopping to tell me about it every ten minutes? And Fi should just shut up. She carries on about the same things which don't actually need so much explanation, but the game doesn't even bother to maintain any sort of quest log which would have streamlined the whole experience and obviated the need for that blue pain-in-the-ass to show up and chitter-chatter for half an hour. For example, at one point I was told, as a matter of fact, to "go and see Gondo" for more information. At this point in the game, I had no fucking idea who Gondo was or where he would be. So, thinking I must have missed some clue in the quest-giver's speech, I spoke to them again and they offered me nothing. Fi was similarly useless when asked to give a hint. A simple quest log would have been really useful here and lessened the need for me to google 'Who is Gondo?'
Oh, and finally, Nintendo should learn from other developers by integrating seamless tutorials, i.e. ones which let you run around and actually interact with the game while things are being explained. Don't make me stop, read text about how to do a roll, and then unfreeze me so I can give it a try. Let characters speak while I am moving around and let me attempt the tutorial IF I WANT TO and on-the-fly.
P.S. - totally unrelated to the rest of my post, but the Skyward Sword theme tune ("Ballad of the Goddess"?) is absolutely amazing.
The fact that it's a modified Zelda's Lullaby backwards is mindblowing.
By the 7th dungeon, I could say with confidence that Skyward Sword is probably the best Zelda game when it comes to these three things.
But that's literally all it does better than the other Zelda games. Stuff like NPCs, overworld, pacing, music, sidequests, difficulty... other Zeldas have done them better.
PunjabiPlaya
Member
Something important I learned yesterday while playing, don't have any thing in front of you while sitting and playing. I had a glass of water on the table in front of me and yeah, that shit basically exploded when I hit it full force with my wiimote. Biggest tragedy is that I dented my glorious golden wiimote... Q_Q
butter_stick
Banned
I've got 30 or so gratitude crystals, so I like messing around there. I feel like I've ran out of things to do (or rather I'm not sure what else to do), so I've stopped going so much. I miss it a bit.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Alright, annoyingly stuck in Lanayru:
Got the beetle upgrade, crossed over the slabs of stone you bomb down, now I've got a clearing with birds carrying boulders to my right and an expanse of uncrossable quicksand with rolling electric dudes on my left. Right is walled in, can't run over the sand on the left, cant find anywhere useful to drop bombs
Electivirus
Member
There's hand-holding? I swear I haven't noticed any. Though, I wouldn't particularly mind it in any case.
If it's the place I'm thinking, then bomb the electric snail guys, and use their shells to cross the quicksand
ShockingAlberto
Member
These mogmas are my favorite new race so far.
I wish I could take the scissors to about ten hours of this game and just cut them out of the experience. Seriously, Nintendo need to learn that, sometimes, too much is just too much. If you want to pack your game full of content, great, but make it either (a) really meaningful and engaging in the context of the game's story, or (b) make it optional fluff.
After the third dungeon there comes a point where Nintendo basically ask you to seek out mystical doodads for no reason, then ask you to locate another doodad, then go to a new location with a new ability where someone asks you to fetch a random doodad, and by that point I saved and quit because I really just wanted to play the next dungeon.