the Lanayru Desert is amazing. Literally, what a saving grace. While Eldin is a bit eh and Faron is extremely introductory, every single part of Lanayru is amazing. Even the tear fetch quest there was well done - extremely tense, too. And the Sand Sea! And the dungeons! And the mini dungeons before the dungeons!
- The Motion Controls aren't as bad as many reviews and fans made it out to be. They work very well most of the time but the unresponsiveness that happens in some areas at times pisses me off. But overall I liked the controls and what they offered, didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the game.
- Game starts off pretty bad, the Skyloft beginning is OK but everything from that to the first dungeon was pretty boring. I'm glad the game picked up from there though.
- Game went from ok to really good with Eldin Volcano, then from the 4th dungeon on it was pretty amazing until
The stupid tadtones and the stealth section. The tadtones aren't that bad but it definitely felt like unnecessary padding that obstructed the game's flow, the stealth section wasn't as good as the one in Wind Waker. The Wind Waker started off with it which made more sense since Link was just a kid who wasn't much of a warrior yet, here it was near the end and felt like more unnecessary padding. Those two should have been more like Lanayru Gorge, which felt like a mini dungeon and was definitely the best out of the 3
- The Silent Realm was fine for what it was, but didn't exactly fit in to the game for me.
- Skyloft is a fun town with tons to do, I love it. Upgrading was done nicely and made collecting stuff worthwhile.
- Dowsing was OK but not very well implemented, thank god you can ignore it a lot of the time.
- Fi is my least favorite out of the guide people, the last two 3D Zeldas had the best ones with Midna and King Of The Red Lions. So that was pretty disappointing for me.
- Good story with great characters.
- Probably the best boss fights out of any Zelda.
- The art style was great, I still would have liked it more if they used the cell shading from Wind Waker to the art style. But that's more of a wish than a complaint.
- I'm pretty bummed that there isn't any real overworld, cause the places you land in are pretty much parts of the dungeon. And the sky was sadly empty, a missed opportunity in my opinion.
- The soundtrack is phenomenal, I could see myself listening to a lot of it on youtube. Hell I'm doing so right now.
I have a couple of more things to say but I need to write my review for it first. It won't be on metacritic so don't sweat me on it. Ninetndo has been 5 for 5 for me when it comes to 3D Zeldas, I'm more than satisfied with it.
This was because of the "formulatic and linear" design choice, it allowed them to go absolutely crazy in TP. In SS, they tried to make more puzzles outside the dungeons so the pace completely changed.
I think you're right that the SS's dungeons were smaller because they came on on top of dungeon-like maps, and whether to save time or to manage pace Nintendo felt TP-sized dungeons were inappropriate. However, I don't think "linear" is a word anyone ought to apply to TP in contradistinction to SS. SS is every bit as restricted in terms of the order you do things, and "dungeon-like" maps didn't make the areas themselves less linear on the initial pass.
I never found Zant interesting. I thought he was generically menacing until he took his mask off, and then I thought his craziness was squandered by how easy he was to defeat, and how powerless he actually turned out to be.
I never found Zant interesting. I thought he was generically menacing until he took his mask off, and then I thought his craziness was squandered by how easy he was to defeat, and how powerless he actually turned out to be.
Unless he is randomly tacked on to the end of a game that completely ignores his existence for a majority of the game. I actually thought it was cool that Zant was there simply because he wasn't Ganon. Curse you Nintendo.
I expected a lot more out of the sky. I imagined huge chunks of land with ruins scattered about, and islands with small colonies of adventurers, but instead, we got a bunch of useless rocks.
It really makes me mad that the only aspect of the game that is truly open has nothing to reward the player for exploring.
being an evil version of Fi was not meant to be a slow build but one of those "Oh...all that shit makes sense" moments. The progressive hardening of his skin, the single-minded goal, the fact that he was basically one step ahead of you wherever you went. Just like Fi was cold and emotionless, but operated mainly in the realm of calculations, so was Ghirahim, but about raising his master. In every way Fi was personality-less, Ghirahim was flamboyant. The goddess probably kept her personality in check to avoid that weird compulsion for sadism that living swords apparently have.
Unless he is randomly tacked on to the end of a game that completely ignores his existence for a majority of the game. I actually thought it was cool that Zant was there simply because he wasn't Ganon. Curse you Nintendo.
Oh, I don't disagree that Ganon's appearance in TP could have been better handled (although I do think the game foreshadowed a power behind Zant plenty early). My point is that Wind Waker Ganon was the most effective villain in series history, and even there a large part of his impact on the player came from having an established position in the Zelda lore. It's not that Nintendo writes so well for Ganon - it's that player already has powerful associations with the character, and those do a lot of the dramatic work.
WrathOfOtaibah:
I'm not sure what potential you saw in Demise. He was the ultimate evil, and he looked like Akuma. That was the end of his characterization. He had potential roughly the same way any villain has potential before you start, you know, writing the character.
Ghirahim = Ganondorfs anorexic emo loving gay distant cousin? It's a unique choice of enemy but for some reason, in this particular Zelda universe it seems to work rather well, to me at least. I think he's great and definitely has the most personality out of any Zelda antagonist in the history of the series.
The third boss is just lol. I got through without a single hit on me, he was easier than some of the basic enemies. The tears stuff is kind of interesting and annoying at the same time.
I am spoiler tagging it all cause I talk about the entire game.
Items have almost no use in combat. Remember in TP where you have these bird things that have shields and you have to time your hookshot to take down the shield and then hit it with arrows. Or use the ball and chain to break enemies armor. None of that here. Certain enemies have a weakness to bombs and of course arrows but those are basic Zelda combat rules, there is no interesting use for items in combat.
Swimming controls, who thought that would be a good idea. Analog sticks are better for movement, period. It works great for the beetle though since that is an item and part of the trick of it is getting it to fly properly.
I agree with everything you said except these 2, there are
flying enemies you use a whip against, can pull horns from others, use leaf blower on bomb fish too
so I would say it is about as much as in TP, though the lack of ball-and-chain type item is a bit disappointing.
I find swimming and flying controls are about the same, and work really well when you're getting around, just suck when you need to be fast or accurate.
from most of the angles, it works. but if i try to go from the left, link will glitch out and his sword will end up on the other end. this hasn't occurred until today.
i've recalibrated it in all the ways i know: i've placed it face down, i've pushed down on the dpad, i've reset the whole controller and nothing seems to work. would a thunderstorm cause interference, perhaps?
DO NOT READ UNLESS COMPLETED DUNGEON 6, and an hour or so after that.
So some serious bombshells that I want to make sure I understand fully. Zelda is reincarnated as the Goddess Hylia, who predestined and basically used Link to be the hero to forge and wield the Master Sword and eventually rescue Zelda. Except I'm confused. Didn't Zelda say that the Goddess Hylia (that's a new character to the series) created the Triforce? It was well known Zelda mythology that Din, Nayru, and Farore created Hyrule and the Triforce though. Where does the Goddess Hylia fit into all of this? A little light shed here would be most helpful.
EDIT: Also, how do I
get Karane and Pipit together? I already handed the letter to the hand in the toilet so now Cawlain is spooked.
One of the things I wanted to post earlier but was afraid of spoilers, was about the insects...did you know that you can kill them? And, like the enemies, it shows their tiny ghosts, like Pikmin!!
Huh? I come here and now I see that Ghirahim is a disappointing character? WTF?! I didn't like him at all in the beginning, hell even when the credits rolled.. I actually don't think I like him at all. But he was a solid character with a solid foundation and a solid conclusion. Good character development too.
I don't like the flamboyant character that much (nothing against gays, don't even go there), but what they did was still nothing to be disappointed in.
DO NOT READ UNLESS COMPLETED DUNGEON 6, and an hour or so after that.
So some serious bombshells that I want to make sure I understand fully. Zelda is reincarnated as the Goddess Hylia, who predestined and basically used Link to be the hero to forge and wield the Master Sword and eventually rescue Zelda. Except I'm confused. Didn't Zelda say that the Goddess Hylia (that's a new character to the series) created the Triforce? It was well known Zelda mythology that Din, Nayru, and Farore created Hyrule and the Triforce though. Where does the Goddess Hylia fit into all of this? A little light shed here would be most helpful.
EDIT: Also, how do I
get Karane and Pipit together? I already handed the letter to the hand in the toilet so now Cawlain is spooked.
Nope, Hylia already says she doesn't know why the triforce is there, she's only dealing with the circumstances, but doesn't know WTF made the gods create the triforce in the first place
Huh? I come here and now I see that Ghirahim is a disappointing character? WTF?! I didn't like him at all in the beginning, hell even when the credits rolled.. I actually don't think I like him at all. But he was a solid character with a solid foundation and a solid conclusion. Good character development too.
I don't like the flamboyant character that much (nothing against gays, don't even go there), but what they did was still nothing to be disappointed in.
Nope, Hylia already says she doesn't know why the triforce is there, she's only dealing with the circumstances, but doesn't know WTF made the gods create the triforce in the first place
I think it's easy to underestimate how extensive each of the overworld sections are. You have
at least three areas
that are as big as Hyrule Field in OoT that you can interact with in real time, along with the enormous sky area. Without
the multiple objectives that lay within each area,
you might run into the TP problem, in that it seems like a lot of wasted space. Problem is,
they ran out of ideas, or something to that effect, so they ended up putting in pointless fetch quests.
There were really only a few things that took away from the experience for me. Combat seemed a bit dodgy at time, and ran into an "uncanny valley" problem - it can be difficult to handle the sword given the lack of weight feedback from the controller. For example, I could be failing to make broad strokes and not even know it, given how light the controller is. This at times jarred me out of the experience of the game. In my mind, this demonstrates the current limitations of motion control technology, in many ways similar to the limitations of 3D displays. It also made figuring out how to fight enemies a whole lot more difficult, since concentration was split in many more directions than is usually the case with a traditional controller scheme.
One thing that is a personal preference, and I know not shared by everyone, is that
I hate Hate HATED the stealth missions. Stealth missions are not fun to me, they're a whole lot of work for very little satisfaction. That's generally why I don't play stealth games. I know that there have been stealth sections in previous Zelda games, but none of them made the game better in my estimation. Same with the "lose all your items" mission - it's just annoying to have to do all of that, though it wasn't particularly onerous in Skyward Sword.
I was also not a huge fan of the way the parrying system was implemented in this game. The nunchuk's accelerometer, for lack of a better term, sucks. This wouldn't have been so bad if shield life had not been depleted for mistimed parries. What's more,
it made no sense whatsoever that a wooden shield would block explosive projectiles or freakin' lasers in Dungeon 3. I understand that it's video game logic, but that shouldn't mean that a basic enemy should be able to kill an otherwise competent player as a result.
On a similar note, I also did not like that
there were no dungeon-item shields. While it may have made rupees more useful, that also introduced the need for farming, which reminds me again that I'm playing a video game.
I also thought there should have been more health fairies, especially with how difficult they could be to catch.
Fi didn't bother me so much. The percentage quoting helped reinforce that she was supposed to be a "silly computer" in part. I especially liked the references to "95% certain," which those of us who have suffered through a statistics course know, is as certain as a person can be about anything. Her hints didn't bother me because most of the time, I had figured out the puzzle before it got to that point. The other times, it was a welcome respite, because I was getting sick and tired of the game frustrating me.
That was another thing - being 40+ hours long, the game became a bit fatiguing after a while, especially given the game's structure. Especially in
the last dungeon, by the time I had to fight the miniboss Stalfos again, I didn't want to have anything to do with them. The addition of the Cursed Bokoblins was just annoying.
Honestly, yes, I think it is time for Zelda to have voice acting. Link can stay silent but the rest of the characters need to speak at least for the cutscenes.
Honestly, yes, I think it is time for Zelda to have voice acting. Link can stay silent but the rest of the characters need to speak at least for the cutscenes.
I think it's the strongest case for Zelda really needing to go back to a more basic form of story telling. I got way more thrills and motivation just reading the text in ALttP.
, save, go in through the mini dungeon thingy and put the nodestone in to power it up. Fi tells me to go outside, but first I notice one of the doors is blocked off by electric fence, I remove the nodestone and go through a door, I don't remember which, which brings me outside right in the middle of the mouth. Game then proceeds to glitch. Sound effects still go, but music is off, wiimote won't respond at all, and when I pull out batteries, still doesn't work. When I reset the game, still doesn't work. WTF
I don't mind when it isn't there, but it could certainly help. It depends on if Nintendo would put effort into finding good voice actors. Mario Sunshine and Metroid Other M are nightmarish.
Metric needs to be Soul Reaver. or Just get Simon Templeman and Michael Bell.
also, if Link had to be voiced, Josh Keaton is great but might be too "excuse me, princess" snarky sounding.
I'll be in the minority on this, but I don't think the absence of VA was one of SS's problems. VAs aren't going to make a dull story any more engaging, and they might make it quite a lot slower.
Since I just beat the game, I'll throw my impressions on the mound too. Like Twilight Princess, I feel like I won't appreciate everything this game does until after it soaks in for a while. Anyway, here we go:
+ The opening hour or so is by far my favorite introduction in the whole series. It's funny, moving, and incredibly inviting. The world feels so familiar right off the bat with a wonderful cast of characters that breath life into the world around them. The music compliments these moments are serves as an excellent emotional backdrop too.
+ Beautifully-crafted art design. I'd stare off into so many environments just to take in the colorful, vivid scenery. Skyloft in particular is soaked in color and life.
+ Using a sword in a Zelda game has never felt this great, and even reflecting a blow with the shield is satisfying. All of the items old and new are just fun to interact with. I also think the other various motion-controls, such as flying and swimming, benefit from the extra interactivity WiiMotion Plus gives them.
+ The story felt quite hands-on thanks to a tight community of characters surrounding Link to drive forward that feeling of motivation. Most everyone Link meets is warm and helpful, and that helped propel me forward.
+ There's a lot of puzzle-solving in this game, in and outside of dungeons. I like that getting from A to B requires puzzle-solving and clearing out all sorts of bad buys.
+ Fantastic epilogue
+ Groose
- I wish there was more catchy music. There are quite a few great songs that stick around after listening to them, but the dungeon themes don't really get that.
- I'm indifferent towards Fi. She really doesn't give me a reason to like or dislike her, and that kinda sucks coming off of The King of Red Lions and Midna.
It wasn't until the end that I appreciated the character, but Scrapper was trying his best to make Fi stand out more.
It's her characterization and all, but she helps way too much too....
- The Sky is a such a great concept, but man did it need more places to explore to give it that true overworld feel. Skyloft is great, The Lumpy Pumpkin is great, and the Bamboo place is pretty neat, but why is that it? A missed opportunity for sure.
- I so wanted
to have more control over the harp's notes
, like the Ocarina or Wind Waker of previous games. Playing music is one aspect that drew me to this series, and I felt like it took too much of a backseat this time.
- Weird backtracking and content stretching throughout the game. Each trip did usually open up some more fun places to explore,
and I actually liked the Silent Realm
, but sometimes a certain job felt like a fetch quest just to keep me playing longer.
That tadpole-gathering seemed especially unnecessary.
-
Rasta Squid
Overall, it's a great game and I already feel like playing again. It sometimes feels like there should be more content, but what's there to enjoy is really, really good.
being an evil version of Fi was not meant to be a slow build but one of those "Oh...all that shit makes sense" moments. The progressive hardening of his skin, the single-minded goal, the fact that he was basically one step ahead of you wherever you went. Just like Fi was cold and emotionless, but operated mainly in the realm of calculations, so was Ghirahim, but about raising his master. In every way Fi was personality-less, Ghirahim was flamboyant. The goddess probably kept her personality in check to avoid that weird compulsion for sadism that living swords apparently have.
I'll be in the minority on this, but I don't think the absence of VA was one of SS's problems. VAs aren't going to make a dull story any more engaging, and they might make it quite a lot slower.
I'm glad they didn't make it overpowered as they have in the past. Hookshot puzzles were bcoming as redundant as torch/block puzzles in Zelda games. This was a pleasant change, they just do what's advertised, no more.
Honestly, yes, I think it is time for Zelda to have voice acting. Link can stay silent but the rest of the characters need to speak at least for the cutscenes.
I agree. You know you need VA when Zelda characters stop uttering basic grunts and start uttering some Japanese phrases. I swear I heard Zelda say "Mou" once or twice when she was annoyed with Groose.
Wind Waker Ganon not only received the best character development of the entire series, but also the best visual design. Look at that awesome freaking art. LOOK AT IT
Wind Waker Ganon not only received the best character development of the entire series, but also the best visual design. Look at that awesome freaking art. LOOK AT IT
I'm glad they didn't make it overpowered as they have in the past. Hookshot puzzles were bcoming as redundant as torch/block puzzles in Zelda games. This was a pleasant change, they just do what's advertised, no more.
The only game that utilized the hook/clawshot as a puzzle was TP. What it's doing in this game is just the same as OoT and WW: providing a means to accessing new areas.
The only game that utilized the hook/clawshot as a puzzle was TP. What it's doing in this game is just the same as OoT and WW: providing a means to accessing new areas.
They only got creative with it in the last third of the game, before that it was the same item as before (not that I'm complaining, I prefer it to be an item rather than god).
I should have been clearer. My understanding is that the call for voice acting is primarily (though not exclusively) about story presentation. I may be in the minority, but I don't think presentation is the problem. I think a dull story is the problem, and voice acting wouldn't help.
I'm not sure what potential you saw in Demise. He was the ultimate evil, and he looked like Akuma. That was the end of his characterization. He had potential roughly the same way any villain has potential before you start, you know, writing the character.
Demon lord, essence of all that is evil, inverted triforce(like the inverted cross), out to bring mass destruction to the whole world. Comes out at the end, tells you to go totally have some fun first, maybe get laid since Zelda is technically dead or something then come back when you're ready.
It wasn't bad like I made it out to be, and yes I do know he was the Imprisoned. I guess I wanted more like Ganondorf taking over and the world turning to shit like in OOT. Its more of a personal thing then actual hate, so its just me wishing it was more like this than that, you know?
DO NOT READ UNLESS COMPLETED DUNGEON 6, and an hour or so after that.
So some serious bombshells that I want to make sure I understand fully. Zelda is reincarnated as the Goddess Hylia, who predestined and basically used Link to be the hero to forge and wield the Master Sword and eventually rescue Zelda. Except I'm confused. Didn't Zelda say that the Goddess Hylia (that's a new character to the series) created the Triforce? It was well known Zelda mythology that Din, Nayru, and Farore created Hyrule and the Triforce though. Where does the Goddess Hylia fit into all of this? A little light shed here would be most helpful.
EDIT: Also, how do I
get Karane and Pipit together? I already handed the letter to the hand in the toilet so now Cawlain is spooked.
The thing about legends is that the details tend to get murky over time. So, in the time between OoT and LttP, the Hero of Time's quest became the great Imprisoning War, which turns out to be more related to the events that set the action of SS in motion. People forget that these massive historical events involved figures that have uncanny similarities to one another. The multiracial Sages became all humanoid as time went on. The Master Sword went from having been forged by several people to fight evil, to being an implementation of a divine plan. Who knows - later incarnations of Ganon may be the malevolent spirit of Demise reviving himself as a universally feared figure, rather than being the same person.
I think it's very plausible that subsequent generations began to forget about the Goddess Hylia. The Hylian people go from revering the goddess to simply not knowing where their name came from. It might have become politically unwise for the King of Hyrule to claim divine ancestry (this is a Japanese game, after all). The Triforce goes from being a hidden relic of the old gods in Skyloft to a universally-known source of divine power in Hyrule. The old gods get conflated with the Goddess Hylia to become the three goddesses.
I didn't realise people didn't like Ghirahim. I thought he has been cool so far (pre-dungeon 4). I just wish he showed up more often maybe, had more of a presence. If it really seemed like he was tailing you and trying to stop you in your tracks more frequently, then he would have felt like more of a threat. Because whenever he does show up, it's been great.
I should have been clearer. My understanding is that the call for voice acting is primarily (though not exclusively) about story presentation. I may be in the minority, but I don't think presentation is the problem. I think a dull story is the problem, and voice acting wouldn't help.
Wait, you thought the story was dull? Really? For videogames (and other forms of media), the plot usually isn't all that great, but the characters and the way it's told s what makes it a standout.
This game isn't exactly the pinnacle of storytelling, not at all. But it was good enough and actually a bit too much for a Zelda game. I guess it's justified since it's the origin story but I really hope they go back to the simple fairy tale-like stories.
