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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword |OT| Home of Punkin' Chunkin' Champion 2011

Reversed

Member
I just met with the
Sheikah
Stone. Video hints, really? :( It ruins the mood.

The game on the Wii has horrendously low color depth, for some reason.

Does component video solve this? It's what I'm using.

Then ignore it, good grief. lol

I wanted it to tell me hints, like Gossip stones do in OoT. :(
 

The Lamp

Member
I just met with the
Sheikah
Stone. Video hints, really? :( It ruins the mood.

Then ignore it, good grief. lol


The lack of urgency is definitely a huge flaw in the game's narrative.

I honestly don't really know why I'm doing anything I'm doing. This is my confusion with the plot since the beginning up until the end of the fourth dungeon.

she gets eaten by some demon whale, I come to the surface, turns out she's okay....? Phew. And someone is protecting her! Phew. So why am I running after her? Oh yeah, because I have to and because it's part of the "goddess' plan" that I don't know anything about. Zelda runs around everywhere, I chase. I chase until she escapes in a time portal and now I really don't know what the point of me doing anything down here is anyway! Or I guess I do, it's "part of the goddess' plan" but there's no natural urgency or desire to be a part of it.
Hopefully the rest of this is explained as I near the end of the game. I feel like I'm in the dark about everything going on :C
 

thomasmahler

Moon Studios
Oh my god, I loved parts of this game, but this is driving me insane right now... I thought I'm almost at the end and the fetch quests just keep coming and coming.

First I need to learn the
spin attack
, there's a boss and boom, find yet another 3 dragons... Okay, I'm going to the Faron Woods just to
BEAT THE SAME BOSS FOR A THIRD TIME. I HATE THIS GUY.

Okay, after I did that, I'm in the woods now.
Everythings flooded
, that's a neat touch to make the backtracking more interesting. I meet the dragon, he doesn't 'just' want to teach me the song, so he
hid like three dozen little notes
in the entire Faron Woods area and to complete the quest I have to find every last one of them. It's not like this is THE SAME SHIT I've been doing in the
Spirit Realm anyway, right?

Are they kidding me? So far, the game feels like 20 hours of original content stretched to 45-50 hours. 20 hours of Zelda content would've been just fine. The
Spirit Realms
, the stupid
Boat Rides where you have to go through 3 different things
, the fetch quests all the time... I already know I will never ever play this Zelda again and I'm insanely annoyed by this.

Right now, this feels like Banjo Kazooie,
finding every single shitty note in the forest
, but this time they FORCE you to get that shit just to complete the game. The swimming controls are terribly unprecise and I have 0 motivation going through that right now, yet I know if I don't finish it now I probably won't finish it at all.

This sucks, Nintendo. This sucks big time. A Link to the Past can be played through in a few hours and it's an awesome game. You don't need to stretch your content, nobody wants a 70 hour Zelda experience. They've been repeating so many scenarios that I've already been through that I feel burned out.

And why the fuck was that never mentioned in reviews? Tedious backtracking and padding that's worse than in Wind Waker? Seriously, this is fucking worse than collecting the Triforce pieces in Wind Waker. The other dungeons (after the first 2) were really enjoyable, the entire middle of the game is really good, but damn... this is no fun at all.
 

Pachinko

Member
Whatever you call it, you are on the exact same terrain every single time, and more often than not you are just trying to collect some arbitrary amount of random bullshit. For me, that got old real fast.

You basically just described every zelda game ever made. Perhaps it's not the franchise for you ? Or perhaps you are like a friend of mine and have just grown sick of this play style? Currently he's obsessed with skyrim and watched me play a bit of zelda commenting that he probably wouldn't bother to come back to the series again until they basically make zelda 1 with 3D graphics. That is , no hub area, no fetch quests , just nonstop dungeons and fighting. So basically it's never going to happen.


_____________________

In other news- I finally got around to finishing off the 4th dungeon, each one gets better than the previous one , I do kind of wish there wasn't as much padding prior to the dungeon though. By my rough estimates based on game clock there was about an extra hour worth of stuff to do prior to the dungeon compared to the first 3 areas. The boss fight in the 4th area was also pretty cool once I figured it all out. I'm Just really enjoying this game, once I got past that initial learning curve (I had to play through about 6 hours) I managed to ignore my initial disgust and frustration. I also found a funny easter egg, I'll just say that everyone should go into beetles shop without buying anything 3 or 4 times in a row for a small laugh.
 

Garcia

Member
Could you spoiler
Hero Mode
please? :/... It's as if in the Super Mario Galaxy 2 thread everyone started to openly brag about the
Green stars re-run
when it got released.
 

fernoca

Member
Then ignore it, good grief. lol
Yeah. I actually forgot it was there, until just a few moments ago that I was breaking my head looking for an item in a sidequest and was like "well, what the hell..let's just watch part of it..to get an idea". And..it was cool. It's basically having a full guide inside the game; so no biggie. I see it just as an extra. Heck, companies sell PDF guides for $15-$20; and Nintendo included one inside for free...made of videos. :p


EDIT:
Oh! And I found the item, but can't complete the quest since I suck...at arriving to where the item is located. :p
 

Trurl

Banned
"That sword is the only reason you still alive."

Really, Nintendo?

Not a terribly fun fight. Very inconsistent. I spin when he dashes towards me, and it works half the time. When he teleports to me and has his overhead guard ready, I swing horizontally and he still blocks me 50% of the time.

Are you talking about the first dungeon? The easy (if cheap) technique I found in fighting him was to position my sword as if I were to do one kind of strike, wait for him to prepare for that strike, and then quickly slash in some other way.
 

KarmaCow

Member
Just found a shiekah stone that said, (slight post 6th dungeon spoilers)
"The dragon lives at the peak of the volcano, but you're no where near the peak!"

Do you want to hear that again?

I said "No" of course.

And then it says, "Rumour has it you're some kind of genius that remembers everything the first time."

No wonder Fi repeats everything right after it's been said.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Oh my god, I loved parts of this game, but this is driving me insane right now... I thought I'm almost at the end and the fetch quests just keep coming and coming.

First I need to learn the
spin attack
, there's a boss and boom, find yet another 3 dragons... Okay, I'm going to the Faron Woods just to
BEAT THE SAME BOSS FOR A THIRD TIME. I HATE THIS GUY.

Okay, after I did that, I'm in the woods now.
Everythings flooded
, that's a neat touch to make the backtracking more interesting. I meet the dragon, he doesn't 'just' want to teach me the song, so he
hid like three dozen little notes
in the entire Faron Woods area and to complete the quest I have to find every last one of them. It's not like this is THE SAME SHIT I've been doing in the
Spirit Realm anyway, right?

Are they kidding me? So far, the game feels like 20 hours of original content stretched to 45-50 hours. 20 hours of Zelda content would've been just fine. The
Spirit Realms
, the stupid
Boat Rides where you have to go through 3 different things
, the fetch quests all the time... I already know I will never ever play this Zelda again and I'm insanely annoyed by this.

Right now, this feels like Banjo Kazooie,
finding every single shitty note in the forest
, but this time they FORCE you to get that shit just to complete the game. The swimming controls are terribly unprecise and I have 0 motivation going through that right now, yet I know if I don't finish it now I probably won't finish it at all.

This sucks, Nintendo. This sucks big time. A Link to the Past can be played through in a few hours and it's an awesome game. You don't need to stretch your content, nobody wants a 70 hour Zelda experience. They've been repeating so many scenarios that I've already been through that I feel burned out.

And why the fuck was that never mentioned in reviews? Tedious backtracking and padding that's worse than in Wind Waker? Seriously, this is fucking worse than collecting the Triforce pieces in Wind Waker. The other dungeons (after the first 2) were really enjoyable, the entire middle of the game is really good, but damn... this is no fun at all.

The
Faron Musical Note bs
was the exact moment I realized the game wasn't going to be redeemed by the end. People complained about the Wind Waker triforce quest, but compared to the near endless fetch questing/padding in this title, that is like the most joyful breeze of a little segment ever implemented into gaming.

I know people are going to respond "But wait, Amir0x, I loved
going back to fetch water through a dungeon with virtually no changes! I love revisiting Faron Woods for the eighteenth time to do shit that is the antithesis of what makes good Zelda games, like collecting notes as if I'm in a fucking RARE game!
" And I understand. Some people have a tolerance for this shit.

But to me, there's no question. This has the worst amount of bloat and padding that has ever graced a Zelda game. This game could literally be cut almost in half and suffer virtually nothing for it but be immeasurably improved. I was in AWE at some of the busy work the game makes you do. No puzzles during these segments, no real compelling combat... literally fawning over areas you've already been, occasionally with slight variation in the environment or enemy difficulty, to COLLECT 18 pieces of SHIT like I've been dropped back into the N64 era. And they keep repeating the mechanic! Over and over and over and over! It's some of the most uncharacteristically lazy gameplay design Nintendo has ever partaken in during the Zelda franchise. I've never seen anything like it before.

I keep ruminating on the game now that I've beat it, and I really am sour on it compared to any other 3D Zelda game.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea of more dense areas, and they are used to great effect the first time you visit these places and very rarely during certain parts when you're revisiting them, but they are virtually crippled by the end with the padding and backtracking to pointless areas you've been thirteen times. I LOVE the dungeons themselves (most of them, dungeon 1 and 2 definitely feel like weak starter packs though), which even though they're linear feel very well utilized and have a right difficulty curve. And I LOVE the orchestrated music, when it's being used, it makes the experience feel so much more lush.

But I will definitely never be complaining about the Wind Waker triforce hunt again. I'm going to laugh and be all "it's ok, it's not really bad, I've experienced Skyward Sword."
 

Joei

Member
I'm near the beginning with the
race on your skyloft
and I must say this is quite possibly the worst thing I've ever experienced in gaming.
The bird is stuck in the clouds and he won't fly out. I've "charged" a few times and he kind of flys up then goes back into the clouds.
I've been doing this for 15 minutes titling my controller everyway imaginable and can't figure out what to do. What the hell.
 

cajunator

Banned
All y'all's negativity is depressing.

Here's my honest opinion:

The controls take some getting used to. I don't notice them anymore.
The graphics are a bit odd. Not anything too obtrusive to bother.
The bosses of the 1st, 4th and 5th temples are awesome.
Lanayru is awesome. Ancient Ciscern is awesome. Sandship is awesome.
The Silent Realms are an exciting, fresh take on a decent idea.
The combat is REFRESHING! TWW and TP were too easy, and that made them significantly worse games overall.

I would LOVE to go back and play it now. I have my family's TG ritual today, but after that, Zelda for the next 3 days straight! Looking forward to it.

Damn dude. SPOILERS.
 

Red

Member
I'm near the beginning with the race on your skyloft and I must say this is quite possibly the worst thing I've ever experienced in gaming. The bird is stuck in the clouds and he won't fly out. I've "charged" a few times and he kind of flys up then goes back into the clouds. I've been doing this for 15 minutes titling my controller everyway imaginable and can't figure out how to fly him out. What the hell.
I don't understand what you're saying. You are always in the clouds.
 
I'm near the beginning with the
race on your skyloft
and I must say this is quite possibly the worst thing I've ever experienced in gaming.
The bird is stuck in the clouds and he won't fly out. I've "charged" a few times and he kind of flys up then goes back into the clouds.
I've been doing this for 15 minutes titling my controller everyway imaginable and can't figure out what to do. What the hell.
You move the wiimote up and down to flap the loftwing's wings. This'll lift it higher into the air.
 
I'm near the beginning with the
race on your skyloft
and I must say this is quite possibly the worst thing I've ever experienced in gaming.
The bird is stuck in the clouds and he won't fly out. I've "charged" a few times and he kind of flys up then goes back into the clouds.
I've been doing this for 15 minutes titling my controller everyway imaginable and can't figure out what to do. What the hell.


Shake it like a Polaroid picture.
 

mibm

aka funkky
The one thing that I kept thinking about while playing was that your bird flies way too slow.

I think the speed when you fly through those speed portals should be the default speed.
I don't know why they couldn't have added a dash function to the loftwings.

As for the dungeons, I could have done without the
song of hero fetch quest, I was ready to finish the game at that point and it just bogged everything down
 

jonno394

Member
Finished it. Loved it. Now depressed as I don't have a Zelda game to play. Damn you nintendo.

Final Bosses spoilers

I really liked the character design of Demise plus the whole design of the last battle was just epic with the lightning striking. Looked amazing.

That being said, he wasn't hard at all, I died first time as I just kept shield blocking and trying to strike him without realizing you could get the lightning power and bring the figh to him!

I actually think the hardest part of that final sequence was running and fighting from the top of the sealed grounds to the bottom. Used two potions on the way down to the bottom. Ghirahim boss battle was entertaining and was great seeing he was actually the "weapon" of demise.

All in all, my this is by far my GOTY and that feeling of finishing a Zelda game and having an empty hole there is stronger than ever.
 

Ragus

Banned
Saying that SS has something more boring and tedious than Wind Wakers' Triforce Quest is starting to worry me. It was the reason why I have never completed WW ;_;.

Is it so bad? So far, after 4 dungeons, I simply love this game. I don't want to be disappointed with the end-game.
 

Trurl

Banned
You move the wiimote up and down to flap the loftwing's wings. This'll lift it higher into the air.

That's how I did it at first, but I've found it works best to tilt it up and down quickly rather than moving the whole Wiimote.

I like this game a lot so far, but it amazes me that these controls are supposed to make it more accessible to casuals. Figuring out the proper way to use the motion controls requires experimentation beyond the in game instructions and some techniques that are necessary to work around the game's flaws (centering the first person camera to calibrate the controller) seem like the would be difficult concepts for non-nerds to grasp.

My 5 year-old nephew wants Skyward Sword after watching me play it and having a few goes at swinging Link's sword, but I think I'm going to advise his parents against getting it for him.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Saying that SS has something more boring and tedious than Wind Wakers' Triforce Quest is starting to worry me. It was the reason why I have never completed WW ;_;.

Is it so bad? So far, after 4 dungeons, I simply love this game. I don't want to be disappointed with the end-game.

The answer is going to keep being 'for some people yes, for others no.'

For my part, the answer is that by the end of the game I literally could not understand how people could not feel half of the game was excessive padding, but others would say they enjoyed these parts as they 'changed up' the gameplay. I think it changed it into something that sucks fucking ass, but that's just me :p
 

Joei

Member
Don't mean to sound dickish but, this being a Wii game, shouldn't that have been the first thing you tried?

lol, you would think, but I haven't played my Wii since last year. And only played yesterday for a few minutes when I started it up.

gosh maybe Nintendo does need 19 hour tutorials and 40 hours of handholding

Naw, I rushed through the tutorial on how to fly yesterday and had to quit. It didn't need handholding, just better directions. I will say this beginning is pretty slow though. I have to put the game down again soon and am still waiting to get to my first dungeon. :/
 

Lingitiz

Member
Saying that SS has something more boring and tedious than Wind Wakers' Triforce Quest is starting to worry me. It was the reason why I have never completed WW ;_;.

Is it so bad? So far, after 4 dungeons, I simply love this game. I don't want to be disappointed with the end-game.

I'm not finished yet but I was slightly annoyed by some backtracking and fetch quest stuff, but overall they're fine.
 

AniHawk

Member
Not a terribly fun fight. Very inconsistent. I spin when he dashes towards me, and it works half the time. When he teleports to me and has his overhead guard ready, I swing horizontally and he still blocks me 50% of the time.

[first boss spoilers]
i liked the ghirahim fight, although i never fought him without a shield. the second half wasn't as interesting because you basically take him down with just the shield bash, but the way it's used in the first half is pretty interesting- distracting him so he can't see how you're about to swing the sword. and there's definitely an 'oh shit' moment if/when he takes your sword from you.
 

AniHawk

Member
The answer is going to keep being 'for some people yes, for others no.'

For my part, the answer is that by the end of the game I literally could not understand how people could not feel half of the game was excessive padding, but others would say they enjoyed these parts as they 'changed up' the gameplay. I think it changed it into something that sucks fucking ass, but that's just me :p

i'm about 17.5 hours in, through the fourth temple, and i'm just taking it easy, doing sidequests and stuff. i didn't mind the
tear hunting, which we've known about forever, since it did treat that area differently, and i wasn't thrilled with revisiting the first dungeon, but we knew that was going to happen thanks to some interview from a few months ago. i don't think it's a wholly bad idea, but revisiting dungeons probably would be a better idea for an extended sidequest.

i don't know exactly what awaits me in the final fetch quest, but so far everything's been at a pretty consistent level. the only shitty part so far was everything through the first dungeon, probably because i hadn't figured out i didn't need to use dowsing, and fi was still appearing all over the place.
 

wrowa

Member
Saying that SS has something more boring and tedious than Wind Wakers' Triforce Quest is starting to worry me. It was the reason why I have never completed WW ;_;.

Is it so bad? So far, after 4 dungeons, I simply love this game. I don't want to be disappointed with the end-game.

I don't think that there is anything in the game you'll find more borng and tedious than Wind Wakers's triforce quest if you have already beaten 4 dungeons and are in love with the game.

I actually can't relate with most of the criticisms regarding the "fetch quests". With a few exceptions even the endgame content offers -new- content, even if it sometimes involves visiting some older areas again (which is something I can't blame the game for, because the areas obviously have been designed to be used more than just once -- they are the most densed, and content-packed area of any 3D Zelda period).

I really love visiting older areas to find completely new, unvisited areas inside of them tbh. I really appreciate what Nintendo tried to pull of with the area design.
 

jarosh

Member
The answer is going to keep being 'for some people yes, for others no.'

For my part, the answer is that by the end of the game I literally could not understand how people could not feel half of the game was excessive padding, but others would say they enjoyed these parts as they 'changed up' the gameplay. I think it changed it into something that sucks fucking ass, but that's just me :p
the worst part isn't even the padding itself and all the other issues (hand-holding etc.), it's that they're found in a game which in many other areas is the most polished entry in the franchise and has some of the best and most unique content (dungeons, bosses, items). that's what makes it so frustrating.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Out of the NPC's, I really loved the personalities here. I particularly loved the item hold shop girl, who just
slowly gradually begins to fall in love with you after being so despondent in the early parts of the game. That was so amusing and well done with the animations and such.

I loved the
item shop proper owner, the weird guy with the cheeks who buys treasures at night. He is bipolar or something lol

But Groose really is the one who shines the most. I was afraid that it'd be typical shallow anime fluff, and it OCCASIONALLY is, but it's mostly a really simplistic yet effective story of character growth that doesn't really knock you out with excessive dialogue. It's pretty well done.

jarosh said:
the worst part isn't even the padding itself and all the other issues (hand-holding etc.), it's that they're found in a game which in many other areas is the most polished entry in the franchise and has some of the best and most unique content (dungeons, bosses, items). that's what makes it so frustrating.

To me that's what compounds the frustration, but I definitely think I was more annoyed at doing the parts themselves. I don't mind revisiting areas, in fact I advocate for it, but there is bad backtracking and good backtracking and this game very frequently opts for the padding version of it.
 

MrDenny

Member
The nunchuck controls are a hit and miss for me.
I can never roll into a tree, It always climbs up it.
I never use my shield since it doesn't come out when I need it to.
The dive jumping is just a pain to do correctly.
Is anyone else having trouble with the nunchuck controls?
Any tips? I think it might be my nunchuck.
 

AniHawk

Member
But Groose really is the one who shines the most. I was afraid that it'd be typical shallow anime fluff, and it OCCASIONALLY is, but it's mostly a really simplistic yet effective story of character growth that doesn't really knock you out with excessive dialogue. It's pretty well done.

the scene where groose follows link to the surface may be the only time i've laughed out loud while playing a zelda game

it just comes out of fucking nowhere.
 

wrowa

Member
the worst part isn't even the padding itself and all the other issues (hand-holding etc.), it's that they're found in a game which in many other areas is the most polished entry in the franchise and has some of the best and most unique content (dungeons, bosses, items). that's what makes it so frustrating.

Funny how opinions differ. I love pretty much everything about Skyward, but I think bosses and items are pretty much its weakpoints and while the dungeons have great designs, they are imo too simple and short compared to most other dungeons in the series.
 
the scene where groose follows link to the surface may be the only time i've laughed out loud while playing a zelda game

it just comes out of fucking nowhere.

There's some funny foreshadowing to that part.

If you keep visiting Groose in his room, throughout his crying funk he starts to mention "Yeah I see you flying in and out of town, like you're going to find her," and "I've seen those pillars of light. I bet they're Zelda calling for me!" and how he has to do something. I think (not sure) that if you even go into his room right before he follows you, he's not there.


Also, "This place needs a name. A name fitting for this rugged, adventurous wilderness. From now on, we'll call it... Grooseland."

That and how he's freaking out over Gorko (which makes sense, actually) while he's just wandering around with a map, oblivious to the two of them.
 

Amir0x

Banned
the scene where groose follows link to the surface may be the only time i've laughed out loud while playing a zelda game

it just comes out of fucking nowhere.

It's very well done. I actually thought the game had got most out of the character early on, but they implemented him into the story quite well.

Funny how opinions differ. I love pretty much everything about Skyward, but I think bosses and items are pretty much its weakpoints and while the dungeons have great designs, they are imo too simple and short compared to most other dungeons in the series.

To me I keep saying but dungeons need to be re-evaluated for this game. Because I think it's clear many of the pre-dungeon areas might as well be dungeons, as you often do just as much puzzling before them as in them. To me it's all part of a grand singular dungeon vision that just happens to include areas outside.
 

Caelus

Member
Funny how opinions differ. I love pretty much everything about Skyward, but I think bosses and items are pretty much its weakpoints and while the dungeons have great designs, they are imo too simple and short compared to most other dungeons in the series.

Really? I thought the bosses and items were awesome, well, moreso how you use the items than the items themselves.
 

AniHawk

Member
There's some funny foreshadowing to that part.

If you keep visiting Groose in his room, throughout his crying funk he starts to mention "Yeah I see you flying in and out of town, like you're going to find her," and "I've seen those pillars of light. I bet they're Zelda calling for me!" and how he has to do something. I think (not sure) that if you even go into his room right before he follows you, he's not there.


Also, "This place needs a name. A name fitting for this rugged, adventurous wilderness. From now on, we'll call it... Grooseland."

yeah, i remember him saying that, but i never thought he would actually do it.

also, i love his theme in its many forms.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
Hm, not that impressed with the fourth dungeon. It's an amazing theme, but it didn't take me long at all to finish it.

Where are the four/five/six level dungeons where you enter and go "how the fuck am I going to finish this?!"
 
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