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

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.
If it's your first
Lanayru
run then you've still got a way to go.

I haven't beaten it yet and I've played for hours more still.
 
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.

In total play-time, you've got a ways to go. You're less than halfway through the game.
 

ASIS

Member
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.


Yeah this pretty much sums it up. Each of the games have had something that pleases a certain crowd, I don't think any Zelda can please everyone (unless it's called OOT), but reading your impressions no wonder you liked TP best. That game was such a beast.
 
This game really reminds me of SM64 and other N64 platformers. I mean this in a good way and also in a way that I can see why people who don't like that style of game probably has issues with this game. The area layout(not counting the dungeons) feels very similar. You've got your main hub world and explorable area and then you got a couple areas you can hop to from there. It also requires you to go through the same area multiple times to access and obtain different things but most of the time new gameplay elements are introduced.
 
Question about a minigame. Putting spoilers because you unlock the mini game late in the game.
Where the hell is this last bug?!?!?!? I'm doing the caught 10 bugs thing but for the life of me can't find the primantis!! Done this 5 times and can't find it :| . help!!!
 

Absol

Member
Question about a minigame. Putting spoilers because you unlock the mini game late in the game.
Where the hell is this last bug?!?!?!? I'm doing the caught 10 bugs thing but for the life of me can't find the primantis!! Done this 5 times and can't find it :| . help!!!


iirc go to the top and break some pots
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Question about a minigame. Putting spoilers because you unlock the mini game late in the game.
Where the hell is this last bug?!?!?!? I'm doing the caught 10 bugs thing but for the life of me can't find the primantis!! Done this 5 times and can't find it :| . help!!!
On the 'roof', there's a grouping of three pots. Destroy them and the mantis comes out.
 

Ermac

Proudly debt free. If you need a couple bucks, just ask.
Is it worth it to buy a Wii Remote Plus over the Wii Motion Plus?

I need one for Skyward Sword, does the dongle add a lot of weight / make the controller more unwieldy?
 

Red

Member
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.

OoT and MM had a few standout tracks, but I remember them being mostly ambient. TP was different in that regard, but I think it's inferior to Spirit Tracks, Wind Waker, and Skyward Sword. It's not bad, but a lot of the good songs are reused from past games. I agree its boss themes were fantastic, and I love its variation on Hyrule field. The main theme was okay. It just never really stuck with me, and seemed a lot more flat than other entries. I hated everything in the twilight realm. Hated the twilight enemy encounter music, if you can even call it "music."

SS's music is soaring and joyous. I can't say that TP's soundtrack was bad, I just wouldn't use it as a point when emphasizing what the game got right.

I've been saying this since it was released: Twilight Princess is the peak of what traditional OoT-style Zelda can be. There's no beating it. There's little reason to try. Anything else in that vein will feel derivative and lacking, the only improvements can be visual. It is so packed with size and content that the two words that come to mind when I think of it are "more bigger."
 

Electric Brain

Neo Member
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.

Really nice thoughts and interesting spin.

I'm not a huge TP lover, myself, which felt like they were trying to perfect Ocarina, rather than make TP it's own thing. For some reason, I can't remember a lot of it, except for the boring start. I really liked the fishing, though.

But you're entitled to like it as much as you did. I just wanted to say, though, that after Skyward Sword, I have a feeling TP is gng to be so weird to play, what with the motion controls being so limited.

I think Skyward Sword is hugely enjoyable, and that it takes all the bst bits from many previous zeldas and mostly successfully blends them together. For example, it has the style and whimsy of WW, the modelling and storytelling sensibilities of TP, a hub world like MM, a more straight forward dungeon sequence like ocarina, and a lot of 'feel' like ALTTP. The game world also feels a lot like Mario 64 and the like.

In that way, there's so much to love about Skyward Sword. I think it feels like it's way shorter and/or lighter because the progression has a much more obvious pattern. I'm trying to Recall what TP was like, but I'm finding it difficult. I do remember enjoying it once the world opened up and I was free to explore, but I hated having the restriction with the twilit, which seemed to last such along time. Maybe it was because it was so long ago.
 
So like aside from the shop and a certain potion is there any way to cure the shield gauge? The shield gets too damaged too quickly for my liking and its annoying having to backtrack. Its making me think of seeing if there is a infinate shield stamina ocarina code.

Is it worth it to buy a Wii Remote Plus over the Wii Motion Plus?

I need one for Skyward Sword, does the dongle add a lot of weight / make the controller more unwieldy?
Probably not the right person to ask (MotionPlus only here as I didn't like the Gold Remote Plus due having white buttons [stike]and missed the Sainsburys deal[/s])

Wii MotionPlus is light and the controller still feels fine though I have to admit I'm not finding the controls easy which makes me wonder if there is something different about it (as in centre of mass etc).

I heard Wii Remote Plus is actuallly lighter than a normal remote (smaller rumble?).
 
So like aside from the shop and a certain potion is there any way to cure the shield gauge? The shield gets too damaged too quickly for my liking and its annoying having to backtrack. Its making me think of seeing if there is a infinate shield stamina ocarina code.

I think the third shield you can buy slowly repairs itself, but I never used that one. Shields are only useful against a few enemy types. My advice is to keep it in your bag until then.

Of course, the best thing you can do is obtain the "really sturdy shield" available to you toward the end of the game.
 

Alchemy

Member
well i mean, the collect five pieces is just a whatever

an excuse to be doing some cool shit

youre not doing it because you actually want to collect five pieces, theyre just an excuse to have you do video gamey things

kind of like stars in the mario games, theyre just there to signify the end of a level really, youre playing it to see whats on the journey to them, rather than just for the destination

The stars in Mario games signify beating a test of skills the game expects you to have at the time you're playing the level. Star coins are additional tests of your skills to not only find hidden objects but in many cases make use of game mechanics to get to difficult to reach areas.

The pre-dungeon fetch quests have not been that outside of the
two power generators in the pre-dungeon 3
. They're mostly forced navigation, and it isn't very enjoyable. I'd rather be allowed to jump down to what seems like my death only to land on the head of a flying goomba and pop back up to get a Star coin and land on a moving platform.

Running around in a circle to get to the five dirt holes with pieces in them isn't exactly gameplay. You're not required to hunt anything because its fairly straight forward, and there have been basically zero thought required to advance. Its physical padding. It isn't that you've slowed down because you're trying to figure out something, you just keep running forward.

this isnt the only game where ive not understood the complaint, it happens with heaps of them. wind waker, dead space, bioshock, metroid, everyone bitches about the fetch quests you have to do but to me its like, who gives a shit theyre just a nominal excuse to have some gameplay go on

Wind Waker was also heavily criticized for the shit triforce piece hunting part, and rightfully so. And if you're talking about the 'collect the Big Daddy pieces' part of Bioshock oddly enough that is also the worst part of Bioshock. Crazy. The issue here is that those games didn't inject those periodically throughout the entire fucking experience. There is an obvious patter of pre-dungeon padding followed by a dungeon, and its really ruined the pacing of the game.

its not like an mmo where you are literally walking to a place in a straight line navigating no terrain, picking up some crap off the ground, and then walking back. theyre just macguffins to get the ball rolling with the gameplay. what you have to do to get the key here is no less fun than what you do inside dungeons for me

How the hell can something that is used frequently throughout the game be something to get the ball rolling with gameplay? I can see maybe a 20 minute tutorial doing that, but after that there is no need for that shit.

And the collect sections are exactly like WoW collection quests. You don't run in straight line, they scatter the items around in a certain area that usually involves some amount of terrain navigation to get to or move around in. Exactly the same as the pre-dungeon 2 area! Hell, right clicking on an interactable gadget is exactly the same as spamming A to dig at holes. The only difference is WoW has enough experience to give you all the rewards for interacting with an object once instead of forcing multiple interactions of a repetitive nature, and that terrain navigation is quicker in WoW because of mounts and no annoying stamina bar.

Which brings up, why the hell did it take so long to in dungeon 3 to
blow away certain patches of sand? The dungeon was cool and I enjoyed it a lot, but the pacing felt a bit thrown off when I had to stand in front of a pile of sand for 10 seconds, when they could have just done a quick little cutscene to blow all the sand off and let me go on my way.
 
So like aside from the shop and a certain potion is there any way to cure the shield gauge? The shield gets too damaged too quickly for my liking and its annoying having to backtrack. Its making me think of seeing if there is a infinate shield stamina ocarina code.


Probably not the right person to ask (MotionPlus only here as I didn't like the Gold Remote Plus due having white buttons [stike]and missed the Sainsburys deal[/s])

Wii MotionPlus is light and the controller still feels fine though I have to admit I'm not finding the controls easy which makes me wonder if there is something different about it (as in centre of mass etc).

I heard Wii Remote Plus is actuallly lighter than a normal remote (smaller rumble?).

Just deal with it until you can get better shields. A much better option should be available from the gear shop soon. Save up your rupees.
 
Just had to say this.

Skyward Sword is the single prettiest game I've ever played.

I've played many more that are technically in a league way above it, but none that have this level of visual consistency. Nothing seems out of place, damn near every texture looks painted, and that filter seals it.

Until the framerate dropped like a rock I hadn't felt even a slight bit of motion sickness either.
 
Can you catch fish with your bug net? I tried a bunch of times, and it didn't seem to work.

Have patience, it takes 5-7 minutes. You have to stay in 1 spot, and slooowly move your net back and forth with a perfectly consistent tempo. If it doesn't work, try again from another spot. Catching a fish enables you to unlock one of the coolest secrets in the game.
 

Electric Brain

Neo Member
The stars in Mario games signify beating a test of skills the game expects you to have at the time you're playing the level. Star coins are additional tests of your skills to not only find hidden objects but in many cases make use of game mechanics to get to difficult to reach areas.

The pre-dungeon fetch quests have not been that outside of the
two power generators in the pre-dungeon 3
. They're mostly forced navigation, and it isn't very enjoyable. I'd rather be allowed to jump down to what seems like my death only to land on the head of a flying goomba and pop back up to get a Star coin and land on a moving platform.

Running around in a circle to get to the five dirt holes with pieces in them isn't exactly gameplay. You're not required to hunt anything because its fairly straight forward, and there have been basically zero thought required to advance. Its physical padding. It isn't that you've slowed down because you're trying to figure out something, you just keep running forward.



Wind Waker was also heavily criticized for the shit triforce piece hunting part, and rightfully so. And if you're talking about the 'collect the Big Daddy pieces' part of Bioshock oddly enough that is also the worst part of Bioshock. Crazy. The issue here is that those games didn't inject those periodically throughout the entire fucking experience. There is an obvious patter of pre-dungeon padding followed by a dungeon, and its really ruined the pacing of the game.



How the hell can something that is used frequently throughout the game be something to get the ball rolling with gameplay? I can see maybe a 20 minute tutorial doing that, but after that there is no need for that shit.

And the collect sections are exactly like WoW collection quests. You don't run in straight line, they scatter the items around in a certain area that usually involves some amount of terrain navigation to get to or move around in. Exactly the same as the pre-dungeon 2 area! Hell, right clicking on an interactable gadget is exactly the same as spamming A to dig at holes. The only difference is WoW has enough experience to give you all the rewards for interacting with an object once instead of forcing multiple interactions of a repetitive nature, and that terrain navigation is quicker in WoW because of mounts and no annoying stamina bar.

Which brings up, why the hell did it take so long to in dungeon 3 to
blow away certain patches of sand? The dungeon was cool and I enjoyed it a lot, but the pacing felt a bit thrown off when I had to stand in front of a pile of sand for 10 seconds, when they could have just done a quick little cutscene to blow all the sand off and let me go on my way.

You have valid points. I do agree with liking to explore and discover on my own rather than forced to. I guess it's a taste thing. I just prefer to do it on my own. But I do see it as Nintendo's way of injecting a constant pacing - I imagine doing it the more traditional way, people would complain about getting lost and it being empty and nothing to do. I do like how they have attempted it this way, to stop being in the same formula.

And about your last thoughts about using a 'cutscene' in place of actually doing it yourself - that's kinda silly. If you feel that playing a small bit of interactivity is a chore, maybe movies are more your thing. The whole point is to do stuff yourself. I get your point, but it's along the lines of 'I don,t want to aim my bow and hit a target, it should just give me a cutscenes and move on'. There's obviously a line for where you draw interactivity and cutscene (like you don't want to have to turn door handles to open them), but I don't think your example crossed it.
 

Alchemy

Member
And about your last thoughts about using a 'cutscene' in place of actually doing it yourself - that's kinda silly. If you feel that playing a small bit of interactivity is a chore, maybe movies are more your thing. The whole point is to do stuff yourself. I get your point, but it's along the lines of 'I don,t want to aim my bow and hit a target, it should just give me a cutscenes and move on'. There's obviously a line for where you draw interactivity and cutscene (like you don't want to have to turn door handles to open them), but I don't think your example crossed it.

Its less about interactivity and more about speed. It just felt unnecessarily slow, I guess another solution is just make sure the
sand piles are blown away at a faster rate so you don't have to stand there motionless for 10 seconds
. The cutscene just felt like a natural extension of what they already do when something important happens, play a little chime and show the important thing happen and move on with it.

Hell, its even comparable to the
dig gloves, because technically when you hit the A button you lose control of Link and it behaves like a cinematic.
Just a really quick one that doesn't adjust the games camera.
 
Have patience, it takes 5-7 minutes. You have to stay in 1 spot, and slooowly move your net back and forth with a perfectly consistent tempo. If it doesn't work, try again from another spot. Catching a fish enables you to unlock one of the coolest secrets in the game.

Wha? What are some good spots to try this?
 

Anth0ny

Member
Hell, its even comparable to the
dig gloves, because technically when you hit the A button you lose control of Link and it behaves like a cinematic.
Just a really quick one that doesn't adjust the games camera.

I'm honestly surprised we weren't forced to
make a digging motion with the wiimote and nunchuk.

It's like the things they incorporated motion control into were pulled randomly from a hat.
 

McNum

Member
I have a quick question about Fi.

Is she ever wrong? Since all of her statements are said with a 80-95% probability, she should be wrong at least 1 in 20 times. So, do we see her get it wrong at some point in the game? A yes or no will do.
 

Anth0ny

Member
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.

I agree with this.

The thing about Twilight Princess though... for me, it was like being forced to eat tons of steak, when I wanted a little more variety. Like you said for a steak (dungeons/puzzles) lover, it's great. But for someone who wanted even a little bit of something else (interesting NPCs, sidequests, not-fetch quests, not-an overly long intro, not-wolf link... you get the picture), it definitely felt lacking by the end.

Still a fun game, though. But easily the weakest of the 3D Zeldas.
 

ASIS

Member
Have patience, it takes 5-7 minutes. You have to stay in 1 spot, and slooowly move your net back and forth with a perfectly consistent tempo. If it doesn't work, try again from another spot. Catching a fish enables you to unlock one of the coolest secrets in the game.

That's... wait what?

BRB guys going to try this myself.
 

Alchemy

Member
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.

I would just add: you're also forced to eat some salad between the steak, and I hate salad.
 
My review of TP dungeons from worst to best.

snip
Ok this got me in the mood to revisit all dungeons from the main 3D Zeldas.


Wind Waker

■ Forsaken Fortress: Uhh is this even a full dungeon? Way too short and boring. The boss was cool, that's it. (2/10)

■ Ganon's Tower: Ok for a final dungeon I guess. I liked the split sections which resembled mini-dungeons of the previous dungeons of the game. However they were pretty much just one rather easy room each. Cool boss fights. (4/10)

■ Wind Temple: A rather bland dungeon. Both puzzles, the visuals and the music was rather lacking. Boring bossfight. (4/10)

■ Forbidden Woods: Average dungeon. Somewhat short and nothing special in particular about. Nice atmosphere and both the mini and big bosses were visual treats. (5/10)

■ Tower of the Gods: Average dungeon. Puzzles and difficulty was nice, but the overal design was rather bland. (5/10)

■ Earth Temple: Pretty cool dungeon. Liked the atmosphere (damn those floor masters). And the puzzles with Medli(sp?) and the mirror shield were very cool. Odd boss fight. (7/10)

■ Dragon Roost Cavern: Really nice for a intro dungeon. Very cool that it changed from the lava design to outside of a mountain throughout. Cool item and bossfight. (7/10)


Majora's Mask (note I haven't played MM since beating it at release)

■ Great Bay Temple: Confusing temple! Rather boring in design. Ok bossfight. (5/10)

■ Woodfall Temple: Nice first temple. Had an awesome 'dense' atmosphere. Short but good. Cool bossfight. (6/10)

■ Snowhead Temple: Pretty cool dungeon. Liked the vertical trick of the dungeon. Goron parts were fun. Cool bossfight. (7/10)

■ Stone Tower Temple: Such an awesome temple. Loved the atmosphere and design of the dungeon. Giant's Mask was awesome and so was the boss fights. (10/10)


Ocarina of Time (note I haven't played OoT since beating it again a few years after release)

■ Dodongo's Cavern: Average dungeon. Short and not much going for it in the puzzle department. Average bossfight. (4/10)

■ Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly: Average dungeon. Liked the puzzles except escorting the Zora. Visually it was too much of the same damn pink. Boring bossfight. (5/10)

■ Fire Temple: Ok dungeon. Visually it was rather bland. But ok puzzles. Cool item and bossfight. (6/10)

■ Water Temple: Ok dungeon. Was stuck for a looong time, very confusing design. Boring item, but cool mini-boss and boss fight. (6/10)

■ Inside Ganon's Castle: Best end dungeon in the series. Split sections actually had some meat to them. Really awesome bossfights (7/10)

■ Inside the Deku Tree: Short but cool dungeon. Simple and easy puzzles, but interesting design nevertheless. Great atmosphere. Great boss. (7/10)

■ Spirit Temple: Cool dungeon. Nice idea with using time travel as key in puzzles. Great atmosphere and nice bossfight. (7/10)

■ Shadow Temple: Great dungeon. Really unique atmosphere and a lot of cool rooms (9/10)

■ Forest Temple: Awesome dungeon. Such a great atmosphere, especially the music added a lot to it. Simple puzzles, but some very memorable rooms (twisting corridor!). Awesome bossfight (10/10)
 

Mato

Member
This game is so amazing. Currently playing the first dungeon. So much beauty and so many novelties. This is the prettiest, most engrossing digital playground ever. That painterly look fits Zelda perfectly.
 

Joei

Member
This game is so amazing. Currently playing the first dungeon. So much beauty and so many novelties. This is the prettiest, most engrossing digital playground ever. That painterly look fits Zelda perfectly.

I'm at the same spot you are. So far, the game reminds me so much of a 2d Zeld, LttP specifically, in that they really try to fit a lot of material into every area. There's not a lot of empty space in the overworld like in the other 3d Zeldas and the dungeon so far has been pretty neat.
 
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