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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFt0uhQoOqM&feature=feedlik


I am going to have to look at my hands instead of the screen next time I try to stab!
Ahahahaha. It really takes some time for people to figure out how subtle you can do most motion controls with prety much any wii game. You should see my gf when we are playing mario kart wii. Sometimes I ask her how on earth she would have expected the kart to turn with her holding the wheel at such an angle. Then she looks down and realize what a weird position she has the wheel in.
 

Sinthetic

Member
Ahahahaha. It really takes some time for people to figure out how subtle you can do most motion controls with prety much any wii game. You should see my gf when we are playing mario kart wii. Sometimes I ask her how on earth she would have expected the kart to turn with her holding the wheel at such an angle. Then she looks down and realize what a weird position she has the wheel in.


Hahahahaha! So funny. Reminds me of when my dad used to play SNES and he'd move the controller and his head around with the character on screen! ;P
 

Tom_Cody

Member
One thing I was really surprised by in the ending credits is that a TON of Monolithsoft staff were credited in various fields of the game. It seems the developer provided significant support on the game for everything from game planning, modeling, animation, etc. I wonder if Monolithsoft is going to develop the next Zelda game or a spin-off of sorts, since they actually started up a new Kyoto studio to be "closer to Nintendo"...
This post is relevant to my interests...
 

fernoca

Member
Maybe it was something a la Mario Kart 7, were Nintendo brought Retro Studios to help in the game, because they needed it faster out there.

Before that, people just assumed that Retro's involvement was just because of DK Country Returns "assets".
 

Tom_Cody

Member
I'm just starting out (I just made my first decent from Skyloft last night) and I have a quick question: in general, when do you get the bug catching net? I spent about 3 hours picking over every detail of Skyloft (day and night) trying to find it before making my decent.

Did I miss something, or do I just get it a little further into the game? It just bothers me so much to see bugs and not be able to catch them. I had just assumed that I would be able to get it immediately since that little kid tells you about it as soon as you leave the knight academy.
 

Levyne

Banned
I'm just starting out (I just made my first decent from Skyloft last night) and I have a quick question: in general, when do you get the bug catching net? I spent about 3 hours picking over every detail of Skyloft (day and night) trying to find it before making my decent.

Did I miss something, or do I just get it a little further into the game? It just bothers me so much to see bugs and not be able to catch them. I had just assumed that I would be able to get it immediately since that little kid tells you about it as soon as you leave the knight academy.

Beetle sells it
, you are able to get to his shop after getting the item in Faron Woods
 

duckroll

Member
Okay I guess I'll write up my impressions now. Overall I think it was a pretty great game, but that's to be expected of a major Zelda console release. There are a few problems here and there, but the experience was mostly positive. The motion controls were very good, and since Wii Sports Resort was my favorite Wii game before this, I felt right at home with most of the controls. Zelda games are like a sort of new toy for me to play with each time, and Skyward Sword definitely fit the bill of a fun "toy" to play with.

Pros:
- Probably the best town community in a Zelda game so far. Skyloft felt very well designed and alive. The interactions with the NPCs and the personalities the NPCs themselves had were definitely much more interesting than previous Zelda towns and sidequest characters.

- Pretty good marriage of the exploration/fun/cartoon aspects of Wind Waker with the more challenging dungeons and bosses which Twilight Princess offered. There's a nice sense of open exploration (even though it's a bit limited in scope and content) when you're out in fields or in the sky, but the dungeons themselves feel totally linear and focused. Just the way I like it.

- Love the Disney cartoon vibe in the art design and graphics. Very charming. Cutest Zelda yet. Not much more to say here. Could have done with less blur filters, but I really dig the look of the game.

- Motion controls were great. Lots of fun, and it made some relatively normal combat sequences more engaging than they otherwise would be. I love how they incorporated various elements of Wii Sports Resort into the control scheme of the various items and actions. I also appreciate how they didn't go overboard, and certain parts of the game only had enough waggle to make it fun, but not annoying.


Cons:
- Navigation feels overly padded by lack of quick travel options. Requiring players to return to the sky and fly over empty shit to drop down at another exit just to get between locations is pretty dumb.

- Heavy recycling. Dungeons and bosses are the main reason I play Zelda, and I'm disappointed that they decided to make less dungeons and instead fill the gap with recycling previous areas in "creative" ways. I'm also kinda disappointed in the boss recycling.

- To continue the previous point, it's clear that the team is heavily influenced by the recent DS Zeldas to a certain extent, especially with regards to the overall pacing and the ways it reuses content. This is not a trend which I'm particularly happy with, because ultimately it waters down the actual quality of the content being recycled. A good boss fight starts to get old after the second time, and a not so good boss fight starts to get really annoying by the third time, etc.

- Dowsing isn't really fun. The concept of dowsing sounds fine on paper, where you allow the player to seek out something by following the general direction of a prompt. For some parts of the game, I think it actually turned out out well. But after the first few times of using it, it really starts to outstay its welcome. It turns a lot of the later sidequests into nothing more than a generic fetch quest, where you use dowsing to immediately know where you're supposed to go, and then just follow the signal. I would prefer it if they designed the quests in more interesting ways like with the letter and the beetle. Let the player put things together and figure it out, instead of it just being a fetch quest.


Overall:
- Good game, very entertaining, and the narrative hooks are pretty good. I loved the final dungeon. Could have done with more content and less recycling though. I still prefer Twilight Princess. TP remains my #1 3D Zelda, and Link's Awakening will forever be the best Zelda ever made. :)
 

cajunator

Banned
Okay I guess I'll write up my impressions now. Overall I think it was a pretty great game, but that's to be expected of a major Zelda console release. There are a few problems here and there, but the experience was mostly positive. The motion controls were very good, and since Wii Sports Resort was my favorite Wii game before this, I felt right at home with most of the controls. Zelda games are like a sort of new toy for me to play with each time, and Skyward Sword definitely fit the bill of a fun "toy" to play with.

Pros:
- Probably the best town community in a Zelda game so far. Skyloft felt very well designed and alive. The interactions with the NPCs and the personalities the NPCs themselves had were definitely much more interesting than previous Zelda towns and sidequest characters.

- Pretty good marriage of the exploration/fun/cartoon aspects of Wind Waker with the more challenging dungeons and bosses which Twilight Princess offered. There's a nice sense of open exploration (even though it's a bit limited in scope and content) when you're out in fields or in the sky, but the dungeons themselves feel totally linear and focused. Just the way I like it.

- Love the Disney cartoon vibe in the art design and graphics. Very charming. Cutest Zelda yet. Not much more to say here. Could have done with less blur filters, but I really dig the look of the game.

- Motion controls were great. Lots of fun, and it made some relatively normal combat sequences more engaging than they otherwise would be. I love how they incorporated various elements of Wii Sports Resort into the control scheme of the various items and actions. I also appreciate how they didn't go overboard, and certain parts of the game only had enough waggle to make it fun, but not annoying.


Cons:
- Navigation feels overly padded by lack of quick travel options. Requiring players to return to the sky and fly over empty shit to drop down at another exit just to get between locations is pretty dumb.

- Heavy recycling. Dungeons and bosses are the main reason I play Zelda, and I'm disappointed that they decided to make less dungeons and instead fill the gap with recycling previous areas in "creative" ways. I'm also kinda disappointed in the boss recycling.

- To continue the previous point, it's clear that the team is heavily influenced by the recent DS Zeldas to a certain extend, especially with regards to the overall pacing and the ways it reuses content. This is not a trend which I'm particularly happy with, because ultimately it waters down the actual quality of the content being recycled. A good boss fight starts to get old after the second time, and a not so good boss fight starts to get really annoying by the third time, etc.

- Dowsing isn't really fun. The concept of dowsing sounds fine on paper, where you allow the player to seek out something by following the general direction of a prompt. For some parts of the game, I think it actually turned out out well. But after the first few times of using it, it really starts to outstay its welcome. It turns a lot of the later sidequests into nothing more than a generic fetch quest, where you use dowsing to immediately know where you're supposed to go, and then just follow the signal. I would prefer it if they designed the quests in more interesting ways like with the letter and the bettle. Let the player put things together and figure it out, instead of it just being a fetch quest.


Overall:
- Good game, very entertainment, and the narrative hooks are pretty good. I loved the final dungeon. Could have done with more content and less recycling though. I still prefer Twilight Princess. TP remains my #1 3D Zelda, and Link's Awakening will forever be the best Zelda ever made. :)

This would be very close to my own review of the game, although I haven't finished it. Great review.
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
Beat the final boss but I still have a few lose ends to tie up. Seem to be missing at least one side quest. :/
 
Duckroll, I'd love to hear why you like TP being your favorite 3D Zelda.

Impeccable dungeon and boss design most likely.

I realize I'm not Duck.

I'm much farther now.

I've started on the quest for the last firey thing from within or some such stupid crap. But I got severe motion sickness out of nowhere, a splitting headache, and had to quit.
 
The more I think about it, TP really didn't have great dungeons.

Most boiled down to "Go down this hallway, now go down this other hallway, hey the center hallway openedBOSS FIGHT".
 
I'm kind of iffy on that music part.

Really? I thought it had a phenomenal soundtrack. Midna's theme, Hyrule Field, that piano piece that plays during a somber moment of the game, every boss track was fantastic, most of the dungeon music was very atmospheric particularly Snowpeak and City in the Sky... I mean in the music department it's no Skyward Sword but I'd say it has a better soundtrack than Ocarina or Majora's Mask.
 
Yeah, I've always felt that TP's dungeon design was pretty overrated. The only 3D Zelda with worse is TWW.

EDIT: Music wise TP was okay, but I felt it overly relied on old themes. The only new music from it that really stuck with me were Midna's theme and the field.
 

Midou

Member
Most boiled down to "Go down this hallway, now go down this other hallway, hey the center hallway openedBOSS FIGHT".

Every Zelda game's dungeons are essentially: Go everywhere you can, to obtain key/pull switch to open door you can't, repeat forever.

I loved the mansion dungeon in TP, felt quite fresh based off location and design, along with the sky temple and being in mid-air a lot.

Skyward Sword has really nice dungeons too though, at least after the first couple.
 
The only dungeons that weren't that great to me were 1 and 2. Starting at 3 it hit an upwards stride and flew with it through the end of the game.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
The only dungeons that weren't that great to me were 1 and 2. Starting at 3 it hit an upwards stride and flew with it through the end of the game.

Three and four have both been fun, but I'm still not feeling the dungeons as much as TP. They still feel a bit shorter and simpler.
 
Really? I thought it had a phenomenal soundtrack. Midna's theme, Hyrule Field, that piano piece that plays during a somber moment of the game, every boss track was fantastic, most of the dungeon music was very atmospheric particularly Snowpeak and City in the Sky... I mean in the music department it's no Skyward Sword but I'd say it has a better soundtrack than Ocarina or Majora's Mask.

The only thing I remember City in the Sky's music for is the awful N64-quality synthy samples that popped up every now and then. Same with Hyrule Field (especially at night), the sound quality was so bad that I almost laughed when it sounded like Malon was singing at Lon-Lon Ranch during the night theme. Can't remember Snowpeak at all.
 

duckroll

Member
Duckroll, I'd love to hear why you like TP being your favorite 3D Zelda.

Intense focus on the specific elements I love most about Zelda games, combined with a solid level of quality across the entire game. First and foremost, the majority of the game was dungeons. BIG dungeons filled with puzzles and multiple levels, etc. Then there's the way the tools and sub-weapons were designed into the game, and into the dungeons and bosses. Each dungeon felt totally unique, really meaty, and had a kickass boss encounter. The game keeps building up the tempo with more impressive dungeons and bosses, and ends with a huge bang. The final boss battle is EPIC and has multiple parts which require you to use various things you have learned throughout the game and various tools to overcome the various forms. There was very little obvious filler in the game, and not much backtracking at all.

Ocarina of Time is like a healthy balanced meal with a solid main course. The presentation is a bit lacking, but the meal is tasty and doesn't make you feel guilty after eating it.

Majora's Mask is like an obscure foreign dish which is a little alien, but very interesting in texture and taste, and fulfills a yearning you didn't know you had until you ate it.

Wind Waker is like a salad course which is low on meat but has amazing dressing. While eating it, some parts are amazingly tasty, and the entire dish looks so colorful and varied. When you're done though, you find that you're not really full and something's lacking.

Twilight Princess is like a 500g well-marbled steak grilled by a superb chef to a perfect medium rare. It's full-flavored, pretty fattening, and really thick and filling. When you're done you feel a little sick, but for a steak lover it is perfection.

Skyward Sword is like a DIY BBQ buffet, with some good choice cuts of meat, and a pretty decent salad bar. How good the food tastes partly depends on how well you can cook it, but in the end the experience is still a lot of fun, and there's nothing offensive about the selection available.
 

The Lamp

Member
My guess would be the amount of content + incredible dungeons.

I don't understand why people clamor over TP dungeon design. Outside of one or two spectacles it's really mediocre, linear, straightforward, easy, and utilizes one new special item in the last few rooms to get by and then usually never uses it again.
poor spinner

They were gorgeous and had wonderful art design but were pretty shallow in terms of actual challenge and level design (like I said, except for a couple of spectacles).

I think as far as challenge/design goes, OoT dungeons take the cake for 3D Zeldas, even though the rest of the game was pretty mediocre (overworld/sidequests/etc.)

As you can see, I'm a big fan of open, non-linear dungeon design that has you scratch your head a few times to figure out which rooms to try out and which strategies to utilize. In this aspect, OoT and a couple of MM's dungeons took the floor for me.

Wind Waker gets points for using two characters in two of the last dungeons, which were fantastic co-op ideas, but the design was still overall pretty easy and straightforward.
 
The only thing I remember City in the Sky's music for is the awful N64-quality synthy samples that popped up every now and then. Same with Hyrule Field (especially at night), the sound quality was so bad that I almost laughed when it sounded like Malon was singing at Lon-Lon Ranch during the night theme. Can't remember Snowpeak at all.

well

whatever.
 
I agree with TP's dungeons being among the best in the series (although I think OoT's are as good or better). We got a good mix of dungeon-length puzzles (managing the water at Lakebed), memorable rooms (spinner-track madness at the Arbiter's Grounds), and novel concepts (Snowpeak). It didn't hurt City in the Sky that the double-clawshots were the first improvement on the hookshot since OoT.

I was not as impressed with the other elements of the game. Sidequests were a step back from WW and MM (although the fishing pond was nice), music wasn't quite as memorable as WW or OoT, the map was not nearly compact enough, the tutorial was a pain, and the Twili bug quests weren't much fun. I am much quicker to replay other games in the series - and not just because TP is longer. That said, TP is a fantastic Zelda game, and when I finished it I immediately wanted more of its dungeons, which is not the way I have felt about any Zelda since.
 

MisterHero

Super Member
I'm halfway through Zelda right now, going to start more today. Even halfway through, this is a more complete game than Wind Waker and TP. My impressions so far is that it's on par with Majora's Mask but Ocarina might still be the King*. Mainly because I like playing the Ocarina more than the Harp.

I love that some of the branching dialogue boxes let me make Link respond like Link from the old cartoon

Why the hell did they include Minesweeper though

*my actual ranking is from favorite-to-not-as-favorite 3D Zeldas: OoT, TP, MM, WW
 

Bruiserk

Member
I just beat the dungeon 5 boss.
the octopus thing. That was the most horrendous looking boss in Zelda history. Looked like patrick from spongebob. PLEASE CAN I HAZ A MATURE ZELDA NINTENDO.Why did that boss look so... Kiddy?

the build up to the boss was really cool though.
With the whole ship being destroyed and stuff.
 
I just beat the dungeon 5 boss.
the octopus thing. That was the most horrendous looking boss in Zelda history. Looked like patrick from spongebob. PLEASE CAN I HAZ A MATURE ZELDA NINTENDO.Why did that boss look so... Kiddy?

the build up to the boss was really cool though.
With the whole ship being destroyed and stuff.

PLEASE CAN I HAZ A MATURE ZELDA NINTENDO.

You... you can't say this.
 

Gummb

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about Rayman Legends Wii U.
As far as dungeon design goes, Skyward Sword's are the best. The puzzles are sometimes more environmental (such as bomb rolling), but some of the mechanics are so fresh and unique, I don't see how TP's tired design can compete in most people's eyes. I liked TP a lot, but it was much easier than Skyward Sword, and I feel that most of the dungeons reflected that. My favorites were the water and desert dungeons (with the ice and sky dungeons being very overrated imo). Skyward Sword's best blow those two out of the water.

I also don't understand why most are crying about Nintendo reusing assets when every time they do, they change the game in some meaningful way to build on what you have learned in the past.
 
I just beat the dungeon 5 boss.
the octopus thing. That was the most horrendous looking boss in Zelda history. Looked like patrick from spongebob. PLEASE CAN I HAZ A MATURE ZELDA NINTENDO.Why did that boss look so... Kiddy?

the build up to the boss was really cool though.
With the whole ship being destroyed and stuff.

I liked that boss.
But I like just about any Zelda boss that I can shoot in the eye.

In fact, in my initial comments on the game I think I was too quick to pass over the bosses of dungeons 3, 4, and 5, all of which were fun. The one on (post-6th? dungeon spoiler)
Levias wasn't bad either. I wish there had been more Motion+ tennis.
 
I just beat the dungeon 5 boss.
the octopus thing. That was the most horrendous looking boss in Zelda history. Looked like patrick from spongebob. PLEASE CAN I HAZ A MATURE ZELDA NINTENDO.Why did that boss look so... Kiddy?

the build up to the boss was really cool though.
With the whole ship being destroyed and stuff.

Before the stage where its
dreadlocks become snakes, it kind of looks like a silly rastafarian octopus
but I liked that. It was quirky and inventive.

Also, saying CAN I HAZ A MATURE ZELDA and the word 'kiddy' automatically has me pegging you as someone with horrible opinions, chromaphobia and insecurity around the idea of being caught playing something that may or may not look like a cartoon. Plenty of Zelda bosses have looked cartoony and silly through the ages, it pleases me to know Nintendo won't change their ways just for you. No offence btw, I'm not being 100% serious here.
 
My review of TP dungeons from worst to best.

■ Palace of Twilight: A big letdown when you expect a final awesome dungeon. Felt very rushed and I'm sure some ideas were scrapped due to deadline. (3/10)

■ Hyrule Castle: Also felt rushed in its design. I wouldn't even count it as regular dungeon, but it's on every dungeon list on the net. The courtyard part was dreadful to play through. Best bossfight in the game though. (4/10)

■ Lakebed Temple: Average dungeon. Ok puzzles with the water, and a nice boss fights, otherwise not much to talk about. (5/10)

■ Snowpeak Ruins: Average dungeon. Was too straight-forward for my liking and puzzles lacked any meat to them. Never got the illusion of 'oh it's not a mansion, but an actual dungeon! How refreshing!!'. Cool item. Poor boss fight. (5/10)

■ Forest Temple: Nice intro dungeon. The gale boomerang was awesome. Liked the monkey theme. (6/10)

■ Temple of Time: Filled with nostalgia as I entered. Liked the design and tricky puzzles. Poor boss fight though. (7/10)

■ Goron Mines: Simple but ok puzzles. Using both iron boots and bow throughout the dungeon was really nice. Great boss fight as well. (7/10)

■ City in the Sky: Nice difficulty, but a bit varried opinion on the design. Really cool item, and one of the best boss fights in the game. (8/10)

■ Arbiter's Grounds: Awesome design, awesome atmosphere, awesome item, and awesome boss fight. The only dungeon that incorporated wolf link, no? (10/10)


Overall, I guess it's collectively the best dungeons in a Zelda game. But then again, WW was a poor show, and MM is almost unfair to compare with with only 4 but great dungeons(kinda the antithesis of TP's quantity>quality). But it pretty much 1up'ed OoT dungeon wise. Wished more of the dungeon would have hit the peak of Arbiter's Grounds though.
 

McNum

Member
Ah, fourth dungeon done. That was pretty good. And a good boss, too.

(Dungeon)
It's the water dungeon, but it worked pretty well. Fi still has the ability to state the obvious, but that's getting a little endearing at this point. That chest that looks exactly like the chest all the other boss keys were in might hold the boss key? You don't say? Also, zombie bokoblins. Kind of cure, hard to kill, until you start Fatal Blowing them. The whip is pretty nice, I wonder what it'll be able to do outside the dungeon, though.

(Boss)
That boss put up a fight. Ghirahim sure knows how to pick them. I had no clue on how to open it up and it seemed difficult to dodge its attacks. Until I stopped targeting it and just ran for it when I saw it begin to strike. Whip on, arm off, repeat, hit in chest with Skyward Strikes to avoid getting smacked by the blades. That took way too many hearts to figure out, so the boss is now dea- Legs? Dammit! *Drinks Heart Potion* Round 2 it is, then. It was fun to chop off its arms and legs, then strike the core with those huge swords. Poor Link, though... I must have lost a good 20-25 hearts in that fight. Still had two fairies in reserve, so nothing dangerous yet, but still. Poor Link.

(Item/Upgrade)
And now my own sword does double damage. It is a poor day to be a Bokoblin... Also, if that upgrade is just a third of the power the sword will get, then... Link's going to end up quite badass after the sixth dungeon, isn't he?

So next up...? I have no clue. Saved and quit at the prompt before getting out. Need a break after that boss...
 

Dascu

Member
Serious question... and I don't remember seeing it in any media so...
WHEN DO I GET A FUCKING BOW

5th dungeon, which isn't the last one contrary to what duckroll said (I think he may be drunk). Oh, last weapon? I suppose that's right.
 

klier

Member
I just finished the
Lanayru Mining Facility
. I am enjoying it as much as I enjoyed OoT back in the day, which is saying so many things!

My question is, how far am I in, because I don't want it to end.
 
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