The game goes black right after I click on start... I have firmware 4.1U and its updating now.. do yo think the issue is just that?
because when I dumped the game via USB loader it loaded fine, but the game looked very distorted! maybe my eyes are spoiled from playing PS360 for some time?
i just got to the pre-dungeon 5 area and holy mother of God
timeshift stones with the desert turning into a sea and back in real time? get the fuck out of here. when i saw "the sea" i was like no way they cant do this...and they did
im also gonna GTFO out of this thread until i finish this game. my curiousity got the best of me and i ended up spoiling a few things prior to this point in the game. i dont want to accidentally spoil anything from this point on until the end so peace until then
I expect all the Links from previous Zeldas to go out on strike after the revelation that the Master Sword contained a veritable Hyrule encyclopedia and Player's Guide, straight from the Pros at Nintendo Power.
This is a great game, possibly the best Zelda yet, but I would literally buy a "Player's Choice" copy or whatever some time down the line if they just added an option to turn off the excessive hand-holding. It's out of hand. Yeah, it doesn't hurt the game in the end, but it's just.. it's so befuddling that it got to this point.
This is a great game, possibly the best Zelda yet, but I would literally buy a "Player's Choice" copy or whatever some time down the line if they just added an option to turn off the excessive hand-holding. It's out of hand. Yeah, it doesn't hurt the game in the end, but it's just.. it's so befuddling that it got to this point.
I really agree. The funny part of my previous post is that as hostile as previous iterations of Hyrule were, the other Links would probably want to know that the sword was so helpful. Sure the others had helpful advisor NPCs, but all your information in the sword itself is just so convenient!
I think I can understand what's going on; the game(s) is/are getting bigger as time goes on, and guidance keeps the player on the right track. I actually felt I didn't get enough (specific enough, anyways) help at certain points (like learning how to use the harp).
the flute is like a LOL complaint compared to that segment. I didn't have much problems with the flute segments, except I had to play in silent areas since it picked up the sounds of a mouse.
The segment I'm talking about forces you to revisit an entire segment again for the eighteenth time, only with
swimming sans viable camera/180 degree control
and
fetch questing for, like, my god... three dozen notes or some shit.
It is the antithesis of anything that makes Zelda good, and people who say they enjoy it clearly have the wrong idea about Zelda and I hope Nintendo never listens to them about anything ever.
I'm curious, Amir0X, do you enjoy fetch-questing in any game? What's your gauge on that? What do you think of, for example, Bethesda RPGs, where a large portion of them is basically relegated to going around and "fetching" things in an open-world environment?
It is the antithesis of anything that makes Zelda good, and people who say they enjoy it clearly have the wrong idea about Zelda and I hope Nintendo never listens to them about anything ever.
It wasn't bad in anyway shape or form. It also really wasn't that hard, long or tedious. I'll agree that they did too much backtracking but this wasn't even close to the worst offenders. Also you can't speak for an entire community and say that someone's opinion is wrong and don't know about Zelda. I've played just about every Zelda except the CDi ones and Minish Cap. So my opinion on what I enjoy and what didn't bother me is just as valid.
For me the worst offenders were
Going back through Skyview and the Escort mission in Eldin
. However, I'm tired of people complaining about "Fetch Quests" it's the same crap we've been having to do in every Zelda game. TP had probably the most amount of"fetch quest" offenders, the only difference is that these occur inside a dungeon not outside of one. I don't think the section you're talking about should be done again in other games but it being the worst section of any Zelda game is pure BS.
I don't mind the fetch quest/side quest stuff in Zelda, for the most part (the only time I felt it got excessive was in Majora's Mask), but it's really a damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario for Nintendo, I'm afraid. For everybody whining about padding in Skyward Sword, you'd probably have an equal of people amount whining about the game being too short without it.
I expect all the Links from previous Zeldas to go out on strike after the revelation that the Master Sword contained a veritable Hyrule encyclopedia and Player's Guide, straight from the Pros at Nintendo Power.
How cool would a Zelda game with several Links be? They could be summoned from various time periods(read: games) in order to take on some evil being transcending time.
They could even include co-op and multiplayer modes!
No seriously though, where the hell will they take Zelda next. Will it return(from SS) to more staples since using the WiiU pad will be fresh enough in itself, or will they continue the SS route and go crazy? (yes please!)
It wasn't bad in anyway shape or form. It also really wasn't that hard, long or tedious. I'll agree that they did too much backtracking but this wasn't even close to the worst offenders. Also you can't speak for an entire community and say that someone's opinion is wrong and don't know about Zelda. I've played just about every Zelda except the CDi ones and Minish Cap. So my opinion on what I enjoy and what didn't bother me is just as valid.
For me the worst offenders were
Going back through Skyview and the Escort mission in Eldin
. However, I'm tired of people complaining about "Fetch Quests" it's the same crap we've been having to do in every Zelda game. TP had probably the most amount of"fetch quest" offenders, the only difference is that these occur inside a dungeon not outside of one. I don't think the section you're talking about should be done again in other games but it being the worst section of any Zelda game is pure BS.
It absolutely is not the "same crap" we've been hearing in every game; no Zelda game is remotely as severe an offender as Skyward Sword. It takes the concept and runs away with it, like the spastic kid who scores a touchdown but keeps running because he's too mentally handicapped to realize the crowd is screaming for him to stop. The biggest bullshit in your post is that TP has about the same fetch quest level as this. Never has a more inaccurate statement been said about a game. You may claim to play all the games in the series, but you've clearly forgotten them or else you're in a state of self-delusion. It's not even in the same galaxy of fetch questing. Not even in the same universe; maybe a parallel dimension or something.
Similarly, I did not say your opinion is not "valid", I say IF you're a fan who enjoyed that horrendous crap, you're exactly the person I hope Nintendo never listens to about anything ever in history. And that's my opinion, which is also valid.
In any event, it truly never ceases to amaze me what people will convince themselves is fun, but I accept that everyone has different tastes. I just don't think I've seen a single compelling argument as to why this padding, fetchy crap should be apart of a Zelda series which should be known for its streamlined refinement regarding puzzles, dungeons and combat. All this other stuff is just taking us away from the task at hand that everyone really wants to get to, and forcing players to play anti-Zelda segments for no reason other than to needlessly extend gametime. If you're OK with that, again, your opinion IS valid. I just know who I don't want Nintendo listening to.
I'm curious, Amir0X, do you enjoy fetch-questing in any game? What's your gauge on that? What do you think of, for example, Bethesda RPGs, where a large portion of them is basically relegated to going around and "fetching" things in an open-world environment?
No, I don't enjoy fetch questing in any game. Fetch questing is my number one complaint with Skyrim too. The DIFFERENCE being... I can almost entirely decide to skip 99% of fetch quests in Skyrim. I can fast travel where I need to go, choose which quests to go on ... and if it's something like "go down a hill to give a potion to the shop keep", I can skip it.
In Skyward Sword, there's no skipping available to me. I have to suffer these awfully designed segments else I can't beat the game. It has rendered it essentially un-replayable, the first ever for a console Zelda game as far as I'm concerned.
theonik said:
Yeah I hated that
tadtone part, though it turns a lot less annoying once you get the ability to dowse, but still what's the point of it all.
It was the only segment I begrudgingly forced myself to use that lame dowsing shit. And
I don't even get what was the gameplay purpose between not letting the dowsing option be available from word go. So the player is forced to wander aimlessly for a bit, once more needlessly padding gameplay?
That part confused me until I read what Fi had to say about (ending spoilers)
Demise. She claims that Demise is "an eternal being" that's "conquered time itself," which makes me wonder if Demise is some kind of Gigyas-esque being that can physically manifest itself when it chooses and requires utter destruction to be stopped.
there are air vents all over the place and he is perfectly tall for the ledges you can jump from. Plus the first trailer he was in showed Link jumping on his back.
Yes they were. First fight was vanilla to get you used to the concept. Fight 2 introduces his ability to climb and the cannon, making the fight a lot more tense if you miss a shot with the cannon. Fight 3 he gains the ability to fly, and you have to race him to the top as he flies to the temple and almost makes it. Each time it gets a lot more tense and introduces new tactics.
Ok, that makes a ton more sense and probably will change how I feel about that fight. I did not know there were multiple ways of handling it. Thank you for pointing that out. I did not watch any trailers for the game, otherwise I would have been complaining I couldn't do that, haha.
I thought of a few more things that I did not like about the game last night. These don't subtract from the positive feeling I have about the game though.
Final boss fight spoiler -
Was I the only one irritated that after fighting the Demon Lord I had to run back to the temple to sit in order to refill my hearts? Could they not have provided them any other way?
For whatever reason, I assume by design, usable items do not replenish if you reach a game over? I had to use a fairy during the last boss fight and I still died, so I re-challenged him after the game over screen, assuming I still had my fairy. I took a few risks early on, relying on that fact, died, and went straight to the game over screen. I noticed this a few times throughout the game that my arrows or seeds weren't staying the same after game over, but I thought I just may have been mistaken. This was kind of irritating and I can imagine a younger or new gamer become frustrated over it.
Comment about overall dungeon design -
I was slightly annoyed that so many of the areas were reused so often. Namely the volcano zone. I thought some of the reuse was really enjoyable, but it did kind of wear to be playing and think to myself, "didn't I already do this three times?"
A brief comment on how to fix this problem in the future, this covers some end game spoilers
Since there was a gate of time, why not use it and have us visit these areas in the past? I know it makes it like OoT, but this would have let them reuse the designs, while adding different content.
I am not sure how I feel about this myself, but in the next Zelda, I might enjoy playing as Zelda for a little and seeing her side of the story. Give her some abilities or make her like Shiek in OoT and let us explore her character, too. Like I said, I am not sure how I feel about it. This would need to be done just right. I think I would like it to be optional, maybe as a director's cut version that becomes playable after you beat the game.
I think that is it for now, but I will try to add more if I can think of it.
In Skyward Sword, there's no skipping available to me. I have to suffer these awfully designed segments else I can't beat the game. It has rendered it essentially un-replayable, the first ever for a console Zelda game as far as I'm concerned.
Well, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both had mandatory fetch quest parts. Though I never had that big of an issue with TP's Tears of Light. The Triforce quest in Wind Waker is definitely something that makes you want to stop playing once you get to it, though.
I don't really have much of an issue with fetch quests myself. I enjoyed the fetching in the Metroid Prime games, for example.
And as for open world games, Fallout 3 was one of my favorites of 2008, though I think if I skipped the optional fetch-y parts of the game I wouldn't really have enjoyed it since the main quest seemed quite bland to me. Then again, I think there was a "give and take" sort of relationship here, too. Some of the side-questing where you had to explore and fetch stuff was actually fun for me, but then there were incredibly repetitive parts like the sewers and subways that felt like the worst kind of padding.
It's nice to hear different opinions, though, in regards to fetch quests. Some people love them, some people hate them.
Well, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both had mandatory fetch quest parts. Though I never had that big of an issue with TP's Tears of Light. The Triforce quest in Wind Waker is definitely something that makes you want to stop playing once you get to it, though.
I don't really have much of an issue with fetch quests myself. I enjoyed the fetching in the Metroid Prime games, for example.
And as for open world games, Fallout 3 was one of my favorites of 2008, though I think if I skipped the optional fetch-y parts of the game I wouldn't really have enjoyed it since the main quest seemed quite bland to me. Then again, I think there was a "give and take" sort of relationship here, too. Some of the side-questing where you had to explore and fetch stuff was actually fun for me, but then there were incredibly repetitive parts like the sewers and subways that felt like the worst kind of padding.
It's nice to hear different opinions, though, in regards to fetch quests. Some people love them, some people hate them.
Yeah, I love different opinions. I really love to hear how people like this stuff, because it really is confusing to someone who feels like it's a ton of busy work taking me away from proper Zelda gameplay. Lord Bryon's opinion IS valid, as is yours, even if I feel Nintendo should not take advice as to the direction of the next Zelda from people such as him (else I don't know if I could play the damned thing).
Well, Wind Waker and Twilight Princess both had mandatory fetch quest parts. Though I never had that big of an issue with TP's Tears of Light. The Triforce quest in Wind Waker is definitely something that makes you want to stop playing once you get to it, though.
I don't really have much of an issue with fetch quests myself. I enjoyed the fetching in the Metroid Prime games, for example.
The thing about the fetch quests in WW and Metroid Prime (all 3 more or less), is that you could choose(or accidentially) to find most of the items during your playthrough, leaving you with an almost finished fetch quest when the game prompts you to do it.
That was how I did the triforce fetch quest in WW and at the time I couldn't understand why so many people hated it, until I found out that most people had to find all triforce parts at once.
Nevertheless, you could say I just lessened the 'impact' of the fetch quest. What little fetching I had to do wasn't in anyway great gaming design, it just wasn't as bad/tedious as most other people experienced.
this game doesn't have the incredibly high highs i was expecting after what people had said, but it doesn't have the incredibly low lows either. the triforce hunt is still worse than anything in skyward sword.
i'll articulate more about why i think it's not padding (versus some other stuff in the game that is, and what makes it better than tww's stuff) later, probably after i've beaten the game. i have to head off to work.
anyway, 32 hours in. everything is complete except some goddess cubes i probably won't find. all sidequests are complete and all that's left is the endgame. should beat it tonight.
I 100% agree with Amirox on that one fetch quest. That was horrible and made me think I was playing some shit Rare game on the N64. Did not fit in the game at all. It didn't make me hate the game but it is hard to imagine that anyone liked that.
Yeah, I love different opinions. I really love to hear how people like this stuff, because it really is confusing to someone who feels like it's a ton of busy work taking me away from proper Zelda gameplay. Lord Bryon's opinion IS valid, as is yours, even if I feel Nintendo should not take advice as to the direction of the next Zelda from people such as him (else I don't know if I could play the damned thing).
I will say I'm a bit disappointed that fetching has been made a part of Skyward Sword, after both Wind Waker and Twilight Princess were often panned for having unnecessary fetch quests. Then again, maybe the reason Nintendo doesn't listen is because this is a vocal minority issue?
It seems to me that Nintendo just needs to focus on non-fetchy exploration in the next Zelda. Less unnecessary padding is always good. But Skyward Sword shows a lot of strength in the areas that have always made the Zelda series compelling, and offers more engaging combat as well. Hopefully these "best parts" are continually implemented in the series, while fetching is taken down a notch and made more optional for the players that don't enjoy it.
The thing about the fetch quests in WW and Metroid Prime (all 3 more or less), is that you could choose(or accidentially) to find most of the items during your playthrough, leaving you with an almost finished fetch quest when the game prompts you to do it.
SS seems to have so much padding at times, I wonder if Nintendo feels pressure to make Zelda a 40 hour epic. SS probably should be about 22-25 hours, maybe less if we could skip dialogue.
Things like the fetch quests and
the repeated Imprisoned fights
just dilute the good stuff. I actually enjoyed the Silent Realm btw.
I have no problems with fetch quests as long as they're relatively fun or varied enough. Which was my thing with the Tingle stuff in Wind Waker. If it was 3 pieces, yeah fun.
But 8 times of going around, then back.... then paying him. Like "Tingle, here 300 rupees..can I continue playing the game? No..okay..BRB".
The "tad thing" while I know many won't like it; found all but one group on the first. Then again, I liked just swimming around and knowing Nintendo they could've made it worse; which I was expecting after all the hate (i.e. I expected it to be timed and when the time expired you lost them all ).
So, if anything I was glad that it wasn't that bad.
The problem with a lot of the fetch quests in the game is they have such idiotic context. Like seriously
Why the fuck does the Water Dragon still not believe you're the hero after you've done all the shit you've done? Why is the windmill arbitrarily broken and you have to go through two different fetch quests just to fix the robot and get the windmill part? This is related to the fetch quest with the basin, but why the hell does a robot suddenly get too tired to fly? How are these silent realm levels helping you gain courage, wisdom, power? How are these even trials?
It's all such stupid padding. Fetch quests should be left toward side quests, not in the main game.
The problem with a lot of the fetch quests in the game is they have such idiotic context. Like seriously
Why the fuck does the Water Dragon still not believe you're the hero after you've done all the shit you've done? Why is the windmill arbitrarily broken and you have to go through two different fetch quests just to fix the robot and get the windmill part? This is related to the fetch quest with the basin, but why the hell does a robot suddenly get too tired to fly? How are these silent realm levels helping you gain courage, wisdom, power? How are these even trials?
It's all such stupid padding. Fetch quests should be left toward side quests, not in the main game.
I noticed that for the people with a good sense of rhythm or music knowledge the instrument worked withouth much issues. So it was more a fault on the user side, yet Nintendo has some of the blame because its a problem that should have been anticipated in the play testing.
Just got the clawshots. I'm going back to old areas to grab things I haven't been able to so far. I'm at Eldin volcano, right outside the dungeon there, and there is a clawshot target to the right of the dungeon entrance. It leads to a small ledge, but the only thing I can find up there is a glowing orb that does nothing when I touch it or use items on it. Is this something I can't do anything with until later?
I have no problems with fetch quests as long as they're relatively fun or varied enough. Which was my thing with the Tingle stuff in Wind Waker. If it was 3 pieces, yeah fun.
But 8 times of going around, then back.... then paying him. Like "Tingle, here 300 rupees..can I continue playing the game? No..okay..BRB".
Yup, I guess what Nintendo need to learn if they so stubornly want to have fetch quests in their games is to put some more meat into said quests.
How about encountering a near boss like battle during a fetch quest? Incorporating some big event(could be stroy related) to a fetch quest?
With fetch quests usually just being repetitions of the same action an X amount of time with hardly any changes, it's not hard to understand why so many dislike them.
But I guess the very reason they are put in games, to artificially lenghten the game, is the core problem.
Just got the clawshots. I'm going back to old areas to grab things I haven't been able to so far. I'm at Eldin volcano, right outside the dungeon there, and there is a clawshot target to the right of the dungeon entrance. It leads to a small ledge, but the only thing I can find up there is a glowing orb that does nothing when I touch it or use items on it. Is this something I can't do anything with until later?
"MASTER! You know that robotic guy with the hook for a hand and big tricorn hat and peg leg and eye patch swinging a sabre around who you just had an intense battle with? There is a fairly high probability that he was the robot pirate captain!"
I hate that I'm started to get an instinctive sense of exactly when she's about to pop out and tell me something obvious whenever I make the littlest accomplishment. I thought Nintendo was getting really good lately about helping out sucky players without getting in the way of skilled players, what with the standardized helper systems in their recent games that only appear after a certain amount of failure.
And I never even had a problem with Navi back in the day. I always found her little voice quite cute actually.
For the first time in my life, I LITERALLY spit out coffee while reading a post. I'm not sure what it was about your first sentence, but I was taking a sip of coffee and actually started choking while reading it, and had to drool it out. Good job.
But yeah, exactly. There's a part right before/after that too, where it fucking pans to the timeshift stone you're supposed to hit, and then she comes out. In my head Im like NO NO NO NO.' MASTER, THERE's a 97% CHANCE THATS A TIMESHIFT STONE LIKE THE OTHERS YOU'VE SEEN, MAYBE SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN IF YOU HIT IT'. So, what gave it away, Fi? The fact that it looks EXACTLY LIKE EVERY TIMESHIFT STONE IVE HIT AND SOLVED A MILLION PUZZLES WITH?
She's the main reason I have no intention to replay the game, ever. I simply can't put up with it without the possibility of getting an ulcer.
I just don't think I've seen a single compelling argument as to why this padding, fetchy crap should be apart of a Zelda series which should be known for its streamlined refinement regarding puzzles, dungeons and combat. All this other stuff is just taking us away from the task at hand that everyone really wants to get to, and forcing players to play anti-Zelda segments for no reason other than to needlessly extend gametime.
The thing about the fetch quests in WW and Metroid Prime (all 3 more or less), is that you could choose(or accidentially) to find most of the items during your playthrough, leaving you with an almost finished fetch quest when the game prompts you to do it.
That was how I did the triforce fetch quest in WW and at the time I couldn't understand why so many people hated it, until I found out that most people had to find all triforce parts at once.
and the Triforks quest strike at what is probably the deepest divide among Zelda fans. Although there seems to be a general consensus that
tadtones
are terrible, the reasons why players hate them are different.
For me, the problem with the
tadtones
is not the activity itself or even the controls. My problem is that it is forced on the player when the game feels like it ought to wrapping up. I had a similar reaction to Crewnh:
how have I not already proven myself to everyone in this game?
. If the
tadtones
were an optional mini-game, a sidequest, or at least placed in a world where there were other things to explore, I wouldn't have minded it at all. Same for the repeat
silent realms
.
The triforks quest is a very different case. There, you can basically start the quest whenever you want and complete it in any order. If you've been exploring, you may hay stumbled onto a map or location without anyone ordering you to find it. That sort of discovery is, in my opinion, at the heart of the Zelda series. Of course it would be better if you didn't have to pay Tingle exorbitant fees or (even better) if there were another dungeon or two to break up the quest, but I don't think the "fetching" itself is a bad thing. Zelda benefits from a rich overworld where you can explore at your own pace and interact in the world in a different way than the straight-ahead, puzzle-to-puzzle structure of dungeons. I think Zelda games should have things like the Biggoron sword quest in OoT, the fishing pond in TP, or the invisibility cape in LttP. Dungeons may be the most important part of a Zelda game, but I think SS shows that turning the whole overworld into a dungeon can make Zelda feel very restrictive and rob the player of any sense of exploration.
Clearly there are Zelda fans who regard basically anything outside the dungeons as padding. I think Y2Kev asked earlier how everyone would feel about a dungeon-crawler Zelda. People who prefer that route probably would have hated the triforks quest even if WW had had more dungeons. I guess I can understand that position. I would definitely play that game. But it's not the way I want Zelda to go.
EDIT: By the way, I say this as someone who has always been skeptical of requests for a LoZ-style non-linear Zelda because I love puzzles and think the series improved drastically when LttP and OoT made progress through dungeons more dependent on obtaining items in a specific order.
I noticed that for the people with a good sense of rhythm or music knowledge the instrument worked withouth much issues. So it was more a fault on the user side, yet Nintendo has some of the blame because its a problem that should have been anticipated in the play testing.
No, it's simply because it uses the microphone. Touch screen, buttons, or even motion controls, if the DS had them, would've been fine. It isn't the user's fault. Back in the gaf thread, where people like myself were bitching about it, others were talking about how they had to exploit the mic to pass it. A "not that bad" defense. But it was 'that bad' of a decision--full stop.
I apologize for bringing back an old argument. I was just pointing out that the flute is the sequence in Zelda games because it's broken, mechanically, and not just bad design. Thankfully in Skyward Sword
the harp controls are fine. Getting perfect at the pumpkin bar rhythm game is consistently achievable.
Yup, I guess what Nintendo need to learn if they so stubornly want to have fetch quests in their games is to put some more meat into said quests.
How about encountering a near boss like battle during a fetch quest? Incorporating some big event(could be stroy related) to a fetch quest?
With fetch quests usually just being repetitions of the same action an X amount of time with hardly any changes, it's not hard to understand why so many dislike them.
But I guess the very reason they are put in games, to artificially lenghten the game, is the core problem.
The thing is though, SS's fetch quests always allow for new gameplay opportunities. The
key hunt
in the second dungeon just allows a way for Nintendo to incorporate rolling bomb puzzles. The
tadtone hunt
was probably a concept the development team had for a while and thought it would add to the exploration of their new Zelda title, trying to
find all the notes - yay fun! (you could even swim in a place that was normally dry, which was kind of cool)
I didn't enjoy all of the fetch quests, but most hardly took any time at all, and some were actually fun. I don't understand why people think these are filler, when they clearly create new gameplay opportunities. Is the game padded? Sure, slightly. But if that is the case, I would consider the entirety of Skyrim padding.
Generally good, but there are a lot of mixed opinions. Almost everyone hates Fi, most don't like the fetch quests, some don't like the controls, a few don't like the game much and consider it the worst, and a few (including me) think that it's the best Zelda yet.
Yeah, I love different opinions. I really love to hear how people like this stuff, because it really is confusing to someone who feels like it's a ton of busy work taking me away from proper Zelda gameplay. Lord Bryon's opinion IS valid, as is yours, even if I feel Nintendo should not take advice as to the direction of the next Zelda from people such as him (else I don't know if I could play the damned thing).
Again I didn't say Nintendo should do it again. I just said that it didn't bother me. I thought part of it was fun and I didn't mind it that much because I liked the Faron Woods area and it offered a different gameplay variation. On the other hand I started to really dislike Eldin area because the amount of times I had played in the exact same area.
I didn't mind the backtracking but if I were Nintendo I would've instead had just had Levios give you the entire song and avoid the dragon songs quest. I think they made you traverse the same areas one too many times.
My personal rankings of all the areas go like this:
1. Lanayru
2. Faron
3. Eldin
Ok, guys. I've been reading this thread thinking that the vast majority of the comments about the problems in the game were too exaggerated to be true, but now that I am playing the game and am at the door of the Earth temple, I can see why people is being driven so mad.
Is there ANY consistency with Fi and the help system in this game? WHY does she appear every single time I move a log, I speak with a character, I discover a landmark, while I am getting no help for some much more obscure sequences (like skydiving, bombing rock "plugs", or building momentum with that damn bird)? I hope it's not gonna get worse from here, because, ok, it's intrusive, but if I can't even rely on it...
No, I don't enjoy fetch questing in any game. Fetch questing is my number one complaint with Skyrim too. The DIFFERENCE being... I can almost entirely decide to skip 99% of fetch quests in Skyrim. I can fast travel where I need to go, choose which quests to go on ... and if it's something like "go down a hill to give a potion to the shop keep", I can skip it.
In Skyward Sword, there's no skipping available to me. I have to suffer these awfully designed segments else I can't beat the game. It has rendered it essentially un-replayable, the first ever for a console Zelda game as far as I'm concerned.
It was the only segment I begrudgingly forced myself to use that lame dowsing shit. And
I don't even get what was the gameplay purpose between not letting the dowsing option be available from word go. So the player is forced to wander aimlessly for a bit, once more needlessly padding gameplay?
What fetch quests are for you, stealth missions are for me. I don't play Zelda to sneak around crap; that's work and not fun to me. I play to go beat the ever-living daylights out of demonic hordes armed only with my sword, wits, and lots of cool items, not to sneak around in a constantly tense environment.
In other words, the Silent Realms are what have made the game unreplayable for me. Especially Eldin/pre-Dungeon 6. Yes, the Bokobolin Gauntlet was my favorite part of the game. Very therapeutic.
I mean, that was the whole central conceit of Zelda in the first place - that a young boy, armed only with a wooden sword, goes out to explore his garden world and defeat a great evil. That's why people like Wind Waker so much - it was the first game since ALttP (maybe LA) that gave you the sense of being a very small person in a very large, scary and dangerous world, with everything stacked against you except for your indomitable will and courage. Ganondorf was so incredibly menacing in that game, because it took gamers back to the time when they were children, and adults were all invincibly powerful. And the game granted you the opportunity to actually come out on top, to become a man through the display of courage in the face of paralyzing fear and overwhelming odds.
Stealth missions do not appeal to Link's core character trait of courage.
In the Sacred Realm, you had to sneak around and try to avoid the powerful guardians, rather than grow as a character through facing these fearsome creatures. I would have been fine with one stealth realm for Nayru's segment, as a means of illustrating Link's increasing wisdom. The other two should have had objectives that more closely resembled the qualities of the particular god(dess). Farore's section could have involved dropping your health down to one heart, then being swarmed by enemies, with the trick being to stand perfectly still, ready to accept the inevitable death that approached. Din's section could have involved something like an old martial arts master requiring you to break planks with your hands (using the remote) or carve through a block of ice, the lesson being that to wield power, one must do so judiciously and with complete self-control.
What the above alludes to is that the stealth missions and fetch quests deprive the game of storytelling techniques that allow for a more immersive experience. The motion controls had great promise, in that they potentially made it so that the player's approach to the game would have to grow along with Link. The player would have to grow along with Link. It's not just Link who
would not be ready to face Demise and his destiny until the end of the game, but the player who would need to be taught how to defeat the great evil throughout the course of the game, and fulfill his destiny; that is, to complete the game.
.. 
