Amir0x said:
Fascinating perspective. You know, jarosh, you have a really workmanlike way of describing the faults and good points (your description of your problem with the motion+ battle controls was the most pointed and concise dissection of the concept yet) of a game that would make you probably the exception to the bad reviewer rule. I would never wish such a career on anyone, especially someone with actual talent, but I just thought you should know that!
Of your pros/cons, the thing that frightens me is the linearity part. From what people were saying prior to release, there is a lot of returning with tools to areas to discover new secrets and remembering new paths in dungeons, but this sounds just restrictively linear. Which is a shame, because that really is the biggest problem with Zelda today. You can keep the Zelda formula without forcing the player down your arbitrary path. But I've loved the Zelda's anyway despite this problem, so I'm sure I'll still like it. It just might not be quite as revelatory as I thought.
Also, +10 for Orchestrated Music listed twice. Fuck yeah dude.
Of your complaints, the one that matters least to me is story. I don't care about those in games, not really. As long as Zelda games remain lighthearted and occasionally throw you a sweet bone (like at the end of Wind Waker, in the Ganon battle when he describes why he is the way he is), I'll be satisfied on that end.
Anyway, great write up. Thanks.
thanks for the praise! i'm not sure i deserve it though! haha.
i'm gonna respond to some of the things you mentioned and then go into some more general impressions... as usual, spoiler-free.
about the linearity: the reason why this sticks out so much probably has to do with three things:
1) the incessant handholding, guiding and frequent re-iteration of obvious concepts by fi, often immediately after another character just explained the same thing in great detail. frequently this is about your next task. example: some character: "maybe there's something interesting on top of that tree!", fi appears: "master! blah blah blah! i have analyzed the situation! blah blah blah! i have determined the following things blah blah blah i can now say with 85% probabality that your next task is up on that tree! blah blah blah! this tree is very dangerous! are you sure you are ready? blah blah blah! wait! i sense that there's something very evil and dangerous behind this giant boss door! i am 90% sure it is a boss. bosses are very dangerous! are you ready to fight this boss? blah blah blah."... where was i? oh yeah:
2) dowsing. this mechanic is often forced on you in an obnoxious way. but it is unnecessary 90% of the time. we used to just explore in previous zelda games. remember? if you rely on dowsing, a big chunk of the exploration will be taken away from you. my advice: ignore it. it will be forced on you over and over. fi will remind you, the dowsing symbol will flash on screen and an alert sound will go off and won't stop until you go into dowsing mode and then cancel.
3) the fractured and isolated nature of the pre-dungeon segments. yes, some of them are more open and quite big even (in fact, sometimes these areas are more elaborate and longer than the actual dungeon!), but i certainly wouldn't call any of what you're doing in them "free exploration". the forest, for example, felt too boxy and small to me. it isn't so much the size of the maps, but the design of them. you always move from point a to point b. sure, sometimes you have to find a handful of things and they're scattered around a somewhat bigger area. and, lo and behold, those are definitely the coolest parts during those segments. once again though, as soon as something ISN'T just "point a to point b" you will get lots of WINK WINK NUDGE NUDGE hints and the game will, well, "strongly encourage" you to use dowsing. i can't say there's a lot in this game that fits my definition of "exploration".
one more thing about fi: sure, we could just ignore her and not care about her. navi was annoying too, and we managed. the problem with fi is twofold: not only are we coming from twilight princess, which had midna, an interesting character with actual depth, shrouded in mystery, who also played an important role in the game and even took part in the gameplay occasionally, but fi is also TREATED and implented like midna, not like navi. she clearly is supposed to be the new midna and she just interrupts the game at every opportunity. but she hardly has anything interesting to say and has no gameplay relevance. in fact, she frequently re-iterates stuff you already know instead, usually in a much too long-winded fashion.
god, i sound so negative. i know! you guys probably think i HATE the game or something. but i like it! a lot! really! i just wouldn't say it's a big step forward for the franchise or anything. maybe in a few ways, but in some imporant ones it isn't. it might be a minor step back instead. still, it's a good game. maybe great even. but i'll have to finish it first to say for sure. so here are some more positive notes:
- the third dungeon is really the first great dungeon. loved it. lots of interesting ideas and puzzles.
- there's lots of interesting content and puzzles in the pre-dungeon areas.
- difficulty: skyward sword is definitely harder than both twilight princess and oot. i never died in tp, but have died several times in ss already. (as a rule, i never use potions or fairies though.)
- without spoiling anything: most of the new items are TONS of fun and definitely get plenty of use outside of the dungeons! big plus.
- motion controls SHINE with pretty much everything that isn't sword fighting. again, not gonna spoil anything, but the items that use motion plus are all great fun to use and usually work flawlessly.
- about the music: while some of the dungeon themes are very repetitive and annoying (almost) everything outside of the dungeons is amazing and skyloft and the different sky themes are all fantastic.
- i find those later trials (won't mention them by name) that some reviewers have complained about quite an interesting and enjoyable change of pace and have had no problems with them.
- i dig the musical instrument even though it can be a bit finnicky. maybe i just like the tunes that now sound so much better and more elaborate than in any previous zelda game
- most of the boss fights are great and quite unique mechanically, just don't expect them to be super hard (they're DEFINITELY harder than the ones in tp though).
