There was tons of that in Twilight Princess and who knows. Skyward Sword may very well use the same engine. The banding isn't too frequent, but when it's there, it's right in your face.
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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword |OT| Home of Punkin' Chunkin' Champion 2011
- Thread starter Amir0x
- Start date
Nex Superne
Member
Part of the reason why GAF impressions are really no better nor more intelligent than the average game review. No critical acumen and an absurd penchant for hyperbole make for a heady mixture.
Yer just asking for a world of hurt for your eyes if you are used to gaming Wii games on Dolphin than the real thing, gotta mix it up more often
Garcia
Member
Reached the first dungeon and I'm 7 hours into the game. Massive, beautiful, packed with stupid and irrelevant things to do that keep you occupied all the time (collecting stuff).
I just wanted to say how heavily inspired by ICO and SotC this game feels. The fact that there are benches and places to sit down every now and then just proves that the attention to detail that went into the creation of this Zelda goes far beyond that of previous releases.
The forest is just fantastic. Cutting grass never felt so good!
I just wanted to say how heavily inspired by ICO and SotC this game feels. The fact that there are benches and places to sit down every now and then just proves that the attention to detail that went into the creation of this Zelda goes far beyond that of previous releases.
The forest is just fantastic. Cutting grass never felt so good!
I have a 47" LCD, the weird lines in dark areas I see look horrible. I also had what looked like that nasty effect that you see in 240p youtube videos appear all around link as I turned on a vine at one point.
Aside from that, I adjust to the visuals pretty quickly. The animations are nice and I like the art design. The jaggies can stand out in certain scenes but it generally looks good to me.
Aside from that, I adjust to the visuals pretty quickly. The animations are nice and I like the art design. The jaggies can stand out in certain scenes but it generally looks good to me.
I have. And know what's funny? The banding isn't there on Dolphin.
Going from Dolphin -> Wii, I not only have to deal with lower resolution, but the colors and way, way worse, and the banding is awful. I really wasn't prepared for that. I can set Dolphin to render in the Wii's native resolution, and even then it blows the Wii version away.
Those too.
Maybe the Wii's component output is just really, really bad.
Garcia
Member
Was wondering about those lines as well. I get them from time to time, specially in dark areas but I try not to mind them that much. Let's just not forget this is a Wii game.
I just reached the first dungeon and I'm 7 hours into the game. Massive, beautiful, packed with stupid and irrelevant things to do that keep you occupied all the time (collecting stuff).
I just wanted to say how heavily inspired by ICO and SotC this game feels. The fact that there are benches and places to sit down every now and then just proves that the attention to detail that went into the creation of this Zelda goes far beyond that of previous releases.
The forest is just fantastic. Cutting grass never felt so good!
I just realized I never mentioned how much I love sitting down and see the camera pan automatically towards a beautiful vista (like a dungeon in the distance, or the large tree in Faron Woods). It doesn't happen often but, man, when it does...
Laughing Banana
Weeping Pickle
Huh, seeing your posts in the Skyrim or Skyward Sword thread I thought you hated this game? It sure is a surprise to see you here.
Anyway, 42 hours in, and now in the
Skykeep
Song of the Hero
- A boss that must be fought while flying on your bird! *check*
- Collecting stuff... while swimming! *check* (oh my!)
- Collecting stuff....while moving around in stealth!... *check*
- Collecting stuff... while swimming! *check* (oh my!)
- Collecting stuff....while moving around in stealth!... *check*
And once it's over, you are forced back to yet another
Silent Realm
...and once it's over, you need to scour Skyloft to look for something! (this is pretty easy if you pay attention, however)
This is going to be aggravating for a good number of people, I bet.
Garcia
Member
Interesting. Will check on that.
You forgot:
-Termina Field
-Deku Palace
-Stone Tower Temple
-Great Bay Temple
and more. Majora's Mask soundtrack was fantastic.
Sorry, that was my the MM fanboy in me.
The reason why OOT and SS aren't comparable is because (like Twilight Princess) although it has higher highs, SS also has lower lows. Lower than even, dare I say, Twilight Princess. From 20+ hours of gameplay so far, I can't say Skyward Sword feels very balanced. There are some downright bad ideas and implementations in this game. Can't say the same for OOT.
It's not just the component, I have them on my CRT via RGB as well.
MidnightCowboy
Member
Just finished the 2nd dungeon, the game just keeps getting better. I have very few complaints, and all of them are minor. It's already my GOTY and I've barely scratched the surface.
[spoilers about a later part of the game]
Your first point is actually pretty awesome. I hated the second one, and mildly liked the third
(despite the linearity and the camera panning a bit too much)
Going back and forth in between Wii and Dolphin (with Dolphin set to the Wii's native resolution), and it's not even close.
I don't know if it's the Wii's component output or what, but the game makes it look like I'm watching a poorly encoded YouTube video. The color depth seems like it's lower than 16-bit, since there's so much banding. It's like watching a Final Fantasy VII FMV, at best. I really don't understand it...I don't remember any other games looking this bad.
I don't know if it's the Wii's component output or what, but the game makes it look like I'm watching a poorly encoded YouTube video. The color depth seems like it's lower than 16-bit, since there's so much banding. It's like watching a Final Fantasy VII FMV, at best. I really don't understand it...I don't remember any other games looking this bad.
It's the color depth. Lots of Wii games suffer from dithering because of limited color depth. Of course, it's not a problem on Dolphin.
ShockingAlberto
Member
Worst thing I've notices is sometimes stuff in the second temple looks like it's been mosaic censored when seen through steam/distance.
Is it all Wii games, or just certain ones? I'm wondering if it's a limitation of the output, or if it's a compromise the developers had to make for this specific game. I'm just wondering because I don't seem to remember SMG2 having this issue.
Cheesemeister
Member
The road to the third dungeon was clever.
With all the sand and creatures and stuff to look for the "3 things"....and no dowsing. :O! Achievement unlocked!!
15 hours so far, just arrived to Dungeon #3:
-Really liked Dungeon #2
-Boss was really cool and different when it comes to Zelda games
-Game looks darn great on my CRT, but..
-..since it's always widescreen and my TV is 4:3, it's relatively small; so maybe that's why I don't notice problems.
-Really liked those "little characters" on the road to Dungeon #3.
-Haven't gone back to Skyloft in quite some time; so planning to go there to see what's going on with the other characters as I haven't seen them in a while.
-No problems with calibration and swordplay to report. Though there are not many light sources and I played relatively close to the TV
Most of the locked saves are because of the online aspects.
With all the sand and creatures and stuff to look for the "3 things"....and no dowsing. :O! Achievement unlocked!!
15 hours so far, just arrived to Dungeon #3:
-Really liked Dungeon #2
-Boss was really cool and different when it comes to Zelda games
-Game looks darn great on my CRT, but..
-..since it's always widescreen and my TV is 4:3, it's relatively small; so maybe that's why I don't notice problems.
-Really liked those "little characters" on the road to Dungeon #3.
-Haven't gone back to Skyloft in quite some time; so planning to go there to see what's going on with the other characters as I haven't seen them in a while.
-No problems with calibration and swordplay to report. Though there are not many light sources and I played relatively close to the TV
Mine says you can Move, Copy, Erase it. 1 Block.
Most of the locked saves are because of the online aspects.
Epic Tales of Penis
Banned
Wrong thread
I don't know which system update I'm on honestly I thought I had the latest one, but when I put the disc in it does say System Update or whatever. If you have Gecko OS, just boot it from there and it works fine.
So I've been just been checking out some stuff with the wireframe setting in Dolphin and I'm fairly sure that SS has no LOD scaling. For reference I'm sure TP did the same thing.
Interactables like grass or enemies get culled after a certain distance but they dont have low poly meshes swapped in and the world mesh is just one giant model.
It's nice being able to see things from really far away and not have obvious pop in but it means that close up detail is always going to be sacrificed (hello Faron wood trees).
It explains why the sky overworld is as barren as it is though and why all the islands in it are so simplistic (compared to Skyloft).
I wonder why they did that.
Interactables like grass or enemies get culled after a certain distance but they dont have low poly meshes swapped in and the world mesh is just one giant model.
It's nice being able to see things from really far away and not have obvious pop in but it means that close up detail is always going to be sacrificed (hello Faron wood trees).
It explains why the sky overworld is as barren as it is though and why all the islands in it are so simplistic (compared to Skyloft).
I wonder why they did that.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
Towards the end of the game...
Triforce song hunting.
Up yours Water Dragon...
Up yours Water Dragon...
gaming_noob
Member
Just spent over an hour - on top of my 23 min first play last night - and just found my bird. Really took the time to appreciate the town. Loving it so far - I have not read any thing about this game...is there a night/day cycle?
That fucking clue threw me off too, it's always in the place you should think to look first and not overthink shit
Not sure if all of them, but it's noticeable in many (sometimes the art style might help hiding it a bit). It's due to the games rendering at a lower color depth because of the limited framebuffer (a problem Dolphin doesn't have).
It's unbelievable how much detail is lost while playing on the Wii. The brush stroke DOF effect I have seen in some Dolphin screenshots can pretty mindblowing sometimes.
Nah, I liked it. I also liked the first part a lot,
even though I called how you were supposed to fight it as soon as Nintendo showed the sky whale for the first time
Pretty sure the save is not locked, someone posted (or offered to do it) a post-completion save some time ago.
Try resting on any bed that you can find.
GrotesqueBeauty
Banned
I haven't gotten to the second temple yet, but in the first I had multiple occasions where the camera would be in some dark corner of a room and it literally would look like a badly compressed streaming video with big blocky artifacts and grids and lines running across certain areas of color. I think it's half the limitations of the hardware and half the filter they're using, which looks great at certain distances but occasionally falls apart close up. in general I think the game looks fine, and even has some pretty stunning moments, but when the occasional issue rears its head, man it's ugly.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Okay, I'm about five hours in. First, a disclaimer: Link to the Past is my favorite Zelda game. I consider it the flawless action adventure game. But, I'm not married to certain tropes like what many consider a traditional overworld.
So, dat intro. You know what; it's not as long as TP (but TP's length may depend on where you feel the actual gameplay really starts), but still reasonably long. I think it's the most charming and involving of all the 3D Zelda games though. At the very least it ties TWW for charm - maybe that says a lot considering it has to carry itself for longer than TWW's intro does. And there's no Forsaken Fortress before you become a "complete Link" and start adventuring.
What gets me is the quality of the humor and writing. It's so much better than even TWW. It's on par with the great stuff you usually see in an Intelligent Systems game, like Paper Mario or on the dramatic side, Fire Emblem. I feel the intro is also more enjoyable and significant since Skyloft is not a disposable tutorial area you suffer through only to have no meaningful reason to return to. It is also an intro to the hub of the game. That's not padding or fluff.
I'm finding the swordplay absolutely rock solid period. It hasn't goofed up on me one time so far. Wiimote calibration is interesting - I tested this by first sitting out of sight of the sensor bar, and guess what: yes, without the bar to allow the system to auto-calibrate in pointer mode, the pointer calibration drifts easily and you have to tap down to reset it. But here's the thing. The way they've got this set up... it's an air mouse. That is what this thing really is. It is NOT supposed to be an IR screen pointer, period. Using it correctly involves treating it like a mouse that you lift up and re-center when playing an FPS.
I think that's an interesting solution to the problem and it seems to free up the game design to not fret constantly over whether the player is clearly pointing at the sensor bar.
As for the rest of the game, I'm obviously early but all my impressions are positive so far. Here's my single real crit: yes, Fi talks a lot. Yes, Fi pops up to tell you the obvious a lot. Like most modern Nintendo console (not portable) games, the game is idiot proofed to an extreme degree. And you know what? Fuck it. I don't care. Yes, there should be an option to turn off context hints just like pro interface mode. But I am not going to let this be a significant bitch about the game and whine about how incompetent Nintendo is. Not going to let it ruin such an epic experience for myself.
Another comment, on the side; the game really does feel very fresh in all the small details. From the controls, the stamina system, Link's MUCH more tactile interaction with the environments. And you know what it makes me compare it to? Games like Uncharted, and finding them failing in comparison. This is clarifying something that's bugged me for a while. Much of the moaning (in gaming generally, not GAF centric) over how "old and moldly" Zelda is, is wrong headed. Every knob that bitches about it being past its time, wants it to be an RPG - a western RPG specifically. Everyone wants it to be Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3.
But that's not what it is. It's an arcade action adventure. The problem is that Zelda's mechanics have not been kept up to date, with arcade action adventure games. My impression of SS so far is that it rams home Zelda is supposed to be exciting to lay in an arcade sense, coupled with adventure and puzzles. Link to the Past is a GOOD top down, 2d hack and slash action game as well as an "rpg". Skyward Sword schools other contemporary, on rails, corridor action adventure games, with their totally scripted "platforming" and climbing and puzzles. This game is actually a blast to play. Not just navigate to the next quest giver with stiff controls and rudimentary interaction. This is what Zelda is good at being. Not "evolving" by imitating western RPGs.
*cough* I'll go play more now.
So, dat intro. You know what; it's not as long as TP (but TP's length may depend on where you feel the actual gameplay really starts), but still reasonably long. I think it's the most charming and involving of all the 3D Zelda games though. At the very least it ties TWW for charm - maybe that says a lot considering it has to carry itself for longer than TWW's intro does. And there's no Forsaken Fortress before you become a "complete Link" and start adventuring.
What gets me is the quality of the humor and writing. It's so much better than even TWW. It's on par with the great stuff you usually see in an Intelligent Systems game, like Paper Mario or on the dramatic side, Fire Emblem. I feel the intro is also more enjoyable and significant since Skyloft is not a disposable tutorial area you suffer through only to have no meaningful reason to return to. It is also an intro to the hub of the game. That's not padding or fluff.
I'm finding the swordplay absolutely rock solid period. It hasn't goofed up on me one time so far. Wiimote calibration is interesting - I tested this by first sitting out of sight of the sensor bar, and guess what: yes, without the bar to allow the system to auto-calibrate in pointer mode, the pointer calibration drifts easily and you have to tap down to reset it. But here's the thing. The way they've got this set up... it's an air mouse. That is what this thing really is. It is NOT supposed to be an IR screen pointer, period. Using it correctly involves treating it like a mouse that you lift up and re-center when playing an FPS.
I think that's an interesting solution to the problem and it seems to free up the game design to not fret constantly over whether the player is clearly pointing at the sensor bar.
As for the rest of the game, I'm obviously early but all my impressions are positive so far. Here's my single real crit: yes, Fi talks a lot. Yes, Fi pops up to tell you the obvious a lot. Like most modern Nintendo console (not portable) games, the game is idiot proofed to an extreme degree. And you know what? Fuck it. I don't care. Yes, there should be an option to turn off context hints just like pro interface mode. But I am not going to let this be a significant bitch about the game and whine about how incompetent Nintendo is. Not going to let it ruin such an epic experience for myself.
Another comment, on the side; the game really does feel very fresh in all the small details. From the controls, the stamina system, Link's MUCH more tactile interaction with the environments. And you know what it makes me compare it to? Games like Uncharted, and finding them failing in comparison. This is clarifying something that's bugged me for a while. Much of the moaning (in gaming generally, not GAF centric) over how "old and moldly" Zelda is, is wrong headed. Every knob that bitches about it being past its time, wants it to be an RPG - a western RPG specifically. Everyone wants it to be Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3.
But that's not what it is. It's an arcade action adventure. The problem is that Zelda's mechanics have not been kept up to date, with arcade action adventure games. My impression of SS so far is that it rams home Zelda is supposed to be exciting to lay in an arcade sense, coupled with adventure and puzzles. Link to the Past is a GOOD top down, 2d hack and slash action game as well as an "rpg". Skyward Sword schools other contemporary, on rails, corridor action adventure games, with their totally scripted "platforming" and climbing and puzzles. This game is actually a blast to play. Not just navigate to the next quest giver with stiff controls and rudimentary interaction. This is what Zelda is good at being. Not "evolving" by imitating western RPGs.
*cough* I'll go play more now.
Joe Shlabotnik
Banned
I have heard several times that Best Buy does not really have a reserve system, persay. You're basically just telling them that you plan to buy the game there.
Not in real time. You can sleep on any bed you find and choose to wake up on either day or night.
Nocturnowl
Member
Fetchquest Faron is the moniker she should go by, on a side note I love the designs for the three dragons.
hate to quote myself but anyone!? please! doing my nut
gaming_noob
Member
Thank you for the answer guys. This night/day cycle is fine, that way I won't feel rushed.
brandonh83
Banned
Really loving Eldin Volcano and the pre-dungeon stuff here. This level design is what I've been missing for a long time. Getting around is quick and fluid and despite some of the linearity I'm not getting the sense that it lacks any exploration or discovery. The bomb throwing/rolling could have been implemented better but I'm over it.
As Ami said Wind Waker has better animations, but at least Link doesn't look like a Furby.
As Ami said Wind Waker has better animations, but at least Link doesn't look like a Furby.
I wish I could hug this post. Especially the parts about the beginning not being padding, the air mouse and not letting the handholding ruin a great game for you.
Tilt the top of the wiimote down and move it forward, do it as soon as you can and you'll reach for a greater distance.
It's a good design choice, makes a lot more sense in the game's context than your usual real time cycle.
DeathbyVolcano
Banned
The negative reviews for this game are fucking baffling. This is my favorite 3D Zelda game since Majora's Mask.
Based on everything I've played so far (about to head to the last temple), my ratings of the series:
MM > SS > Oracle games > TP > OoT > LA > WW > ALttP > MC > FSA > Zelda 1 > PH > Zelda II
This game is giving me everything I've wanted in a Zelda game in a long long time. Beautiful music and art design, a sky theme, and what feels like 6 HUGE dungeons (each time you go back to the surface). The areas on the surface feel like dungeons themselves, and I never feel bored or feel like I'm just doing same-old same-old Zelda stuff. I constantly feel invested.
The haters are fucking crazy.
Based on everything I've played so far (about to head to the last temple), my ratings of the series:
MM > SS > Oracle games > TP > OoT > LA > WW > ALttP > MC > FSA > Zelda 1 > PH > Zelda II
This game is giving me everything I've wanted in a Zelda game in a long long time. Beautiful music and art design, a sky theme, and what feels like 6 HUGE dungeons (each time you go back to the surface). The areas on the surface feel like dungeons themselves, and I never feel bored or feel like I'm just doing same-old same-old Zelda stuff. I constantly feel invested.
The haters are fucking crazy.
IceDoesntHelp
Banned
The pre-fifth dungeon stuff is phenomenal.
The most fun I've had with a Zelda game since Wind Waker.
The minecart segments are to brief, as is the boat driving.
Hobbestetrician
Member
Well I can't say for sure on Skyward Sword but I think the only saves that aren't transferable are those tied to some sort of online (Mario Kart Wii, Smash). Everything else is transferable from my experience (I did move everything over to another Wii previously).