So I just finished up the game today, overall an amazing experience. Final time was just over 45 hours, I pretty much did everything except finding all the heart pieces and
. Hard to say if its my favorite 3D Zelda, I'd need to some time to think about that, and perhaps a 2nd play through before deciding. It's certainly up there though, they are all extremely good in my eyes honestly. Some thoughts:
- The artstyle was lovely, I wouldn't mind them continuing with this one. With improved graphical features I bet the could do something really impressive with this style on the WiiU. It's the right mix of cartoony and realism I think, and it reminded me very much of the colorful style of ALttP.
- Personally I thought the opening was one of the most enjoyable in the series, it takes some time to leave Skyloft, but at the same time the story and characters are presented well, as is the setting. It's a different feeling from TP I think.
- With regards to the hand holding, I'm kind of mixed. At times it can be very intrusive, particularly when things are over explained and it becomes annoying in dungeons where I thought they would almost give you the answer before allowing you to explore and do it yourself. Fi telling me I'm low on hearts/battery is fine, but its problematic when you cant avoid hearing her tell you a million times over thanks to the beeping she makes every few minutes if you continue to be low on batteries or hearts. Speaking of which they also need to get rid of the beeping from the actual heart meter, its pretty unnecessary and distracting. There were times when I felt things needed an explanation and I'm glad it was given, but in the future i think it would be better to just allow the player to consult Fi(or w/e helper they have) as they see fit rather than being interrupted. Overall it wasn't a big deal, but its something they need to fix because it gets in the way of simply playing the game.
- Fi as a character I enjoyed, it's too bad that she will get a terrible wrap due to how she is used. Would have liked a little more development for her but oh well.
- With regards to dungeon design, I would say that it's stronger than say WW, but not as good as TP(which I think is the pinnacle of dungeon design so far in Zelda). Dungeons 3,4,and 6 were certainly the best of the lot, with lots of interesting puzzles and navigation throughout. I was disappointed in the last dungeon.
. I think on some level the dungeons are hurt when too much is given away in terms or what to do, which happened at times.
- Boss battles were pretty stellar as usual, I particularly enjoyed the boss of the 4th dungeon
but one thing that really bugged me was
The final two boss fights were pretty great, and in fact I think that final battle is probably one of my favorite Zelda fights ever, since the story lead into it so well. Certainly better than TP in that regard. Would have liked it to last a little longer.
-Story was pretty solid, it was a bit too straightforward and I thought it lacked a bit of mystery so to speak. The characters were excellent though, they added a lot to the environment and the story. They need to work on the over explaining of plot elements, I feel like the cutscenes are wasted sometimes by this. Also the text scrolls way to slowly, they need to add options for this, because it causes the game to drag at times.
- The ending along with the credits, was probably my favorite since ALttP. Loved the music they used for the credits. Really knocked it out of the park there.
- Speaking of music, it was great, but not as good as I thought it would be. Some tracks are unremarkable, at the same time there are some fantastic ones in there as well. I think I would like to listen to the full OST to get a better idea, but it was certainly no SMG1&2, which is kind of what i was hoping for out of the orchestra. A step above Twilight Princess, but I think OoT is still king when it comes to 3D Zelda music.
- For motion controls, they certainly added to the experience, and were mostly well implemented but there are some issues to be worked out if they continue in that direction. The sword fighting was very engaging, I also really liked using motion for the items. Flying was solid, actually enjoyed that a lot. Swimming I'm a bit mixed on, but I never really had any issues with it. They are probably as good as it gets so far, in terms of motion gaming. On that note, the idea that "oh regular controller is better" is not something I think really applies when trying to figure out if a motion control game works well. There are certain problems like the device not always getting your movements right, or having to recenter the cursor, or some slight response issues, that are inherit to current motion gaming. Judging it against a normal controller is disingenuous, and I saw it come up a few times in reviews, it should be judged against its peers. Should dual analog games be constantly compared to a mouse and keyboard setup, and should that be used as a critique for every console game? No. So I dont think its fair to review a game by comparing to a completely different control method. If you dont like motion controls, that's totally fine, I just find it annoying because it becomes difficult to tell if people are saying "well these motion controls arn't as well implemented as X game on the Wii/Kinect/Move" or if they are just saying "motion controls suck." The latter is not as helpful, particularly in reviews.
- Stamina and Shield bars were a great inclusion in this game. Added a whole different dynamic to movement and combat, so I'm really glad they were added. Hope its something that sticks in the series now.
- The Silent Realm was pretty cool, I thought more could have been done with it though. Would have been nice if it mimicked the [/spoiler]stealth section in the volcano
Doing the Thunder Dragon's silent realm game
- The artstyle was lovely, I wouldn't mind them continuing with this one. With improved graphical features I bet the could do something really impressive with this style on the WiiU. It's the right mix of cartoony and realism I think, and it reminded me very much of the colorful style of ALttP.
- Personally I thought the opening was one of the most enjoyable in the series, it takes some time to leave Skyloft, but at the same time the story and characters are presented well, as is the setting. It's a different feeling from TP I think.
- With regards to the hand holding, I'm kind of mixed. At times it can be very intrusive, particularly when things are over explained and it becomes annoying in dungeons where I thought they would almost give you the answer before allowing you to explore and do it yourself. Fi telling me I'm low on hearts/battery is fine, but its problematic when you cant avoid hearing her tell you a million times over thanks to the beeping she makes every few minutes if you continue to be low on batteries or hearts. Speaking of which they also need to get rid of the beeping from the actual heart meter, its pretty unnecessary and distracting. There were times when I felt things needed an explanation and I'm glad it was given, but in the future i think it would be better to just allow the player to consult Fi(or w/e helper they have) as they see fit rather than being interrupted. Overall it wasn't a big deal, but its something they need to fix because it gets in the way of simply playing the game.
- Fi as a character I enjoyed, it's too bad that she will get a terrible wrap due to how she is used. Would have liked a little more development for her but oh well.
- With regards to dungeon design, I would say that it's stronger than say WW, but not as good as TP(which I think is the pinnacle of dungeon design so far in Zelda). Dungeons 3,4,and 6 were certainly the best of the lot, with lots of interesting puzzles and navigation throughout. I was disappointed in the last dungeon.
Not really a fan of the moving rooms thing, it didn't feel sufficiently "epic" for a final dungeon honestly. There not being a boss was pretty lame as well, it was just too simple.
- Boss battles were pretty stellar as usual, I particularly enjoyed the boss of the 4th dungeon
using the whip to tear off limbs and then getting to use that giant sword was a blast
them using Ghirahim in place of bosses for 2 of the dungeons, that was pretty disappointing. Would have preferred they kept those encounters separate, perhaps as mini-boss fights, and created true bosses for those dungeons.
-Story was pretty solid, it was a bit too straightforward and I thought it lacked a bit of mystery so to speak. The characters were excellent though, they added a lot to the environment and the story. They need to work on the over explaining of plot elements, I feel like the cutscenes are wasted sometimes by this. Also the text scrolls way to slowly, they need to add options for this, because it causes the game to drag at times.
- The ending along with the credits, was probably my favorite since ALttP. Loved the music they used for the credits. Really knocked it out of the park there.
- Speaking of music, it was great, but not as good as I thought it would be. Some tracks are unremarkable, at the same time there are some fantastic ones in there as well. I think I would like to listen to the full OST to get a better idea, but it was certainly no SMG1&2, which is kind of what i was hoping for out of the orchestra. A step above Twilight Princess, but I think OoT is still king when it comes to 3D Zelda music.
- For motion controls, they certainly added to the experience, and were mostly well implemented but there are some issues to be worked out if they continue in that direction. The sword fighting was very engaging, I also really liked using motion for the items. Flying was solid, actually enjoyed that a lot. Swimming I'm a bit mixed on, but I never really had any issues with it. They are probably as good as it gets so far, in terms of motion gaming. On that note, the idea that "oh regular controller is better" is not something I think really applies when trying to figure out if a motion control game works well. There are certain problems like the device not always getting your movements right, or having to recenter the cursor, or some slight response issues, that are inherit to current motion gaming. Judging it against a normal controller is disingenuous, and I saw it come up a few times in reviews, it should be judged against its peers. Should dual analog games be constantly compared to a mouse and keyboard setup, and should that be used as a critique for every console game? No. So I dont think its fair to review a game by comparing to a completely different control method. If you dont like motion controls, that's totally fine, I just find it annoying because it becomes difficult to tell if people are saying "well these motion controls arn't as well implemented as X game on the Wii/Kinect/Move" or if they are just saying "motion controls suck." The latter is not as helpful, particularly in reviews.
- Stamina and Shield bars were a great inclusion in this game. Added a whole different dynamic to movement and combat, so I'm really glad they were added. Hope its something that sticks in the series now.
- The Silent Realm was pretty cool, I thought more could have been done with it though. Would have been nice if it mimicked the [/spoiler]stealth section in the volcano
rather than just running around and grabbing tears. It was a bit too simple.
- The backtracking and fetch quests were not really a problem for the most part. I enjoyed revisiting old areas in games, and I didn't feel like some of fetch quests were necessarily bad ones. However I thought that
- I was kind of disappointed with how the gratitude crystal quest ended, getting the crystals was really fun, and many of the early rewards were really useful, but the final reward was pointless.
There's some other things I have to say about the game, but I was also thinking about what needs to change in future Zelda's. I firmly believe that current core mechanics are still perfectly fine. I don't think the series needs any sort of radical changes, it certainly doesn't need to become an Elder Scrolls ripoff, or completely open world etc etc. I think there is room for some non-linearity, but it has to be done correctly so as not to sacrifice other aspects of the series.
Presentation is probably the biggest aspect in need of fixing/changes. Story and other elements being presented through text boxes with big red highlighting for important points just seems archaic at this point. Find a way to correctly add voice acting in the game, keep text boxes but get rid of the highlighting. Some level of hand holding is fine, but they really need to cut back on that. They also dont need to give us a description each time we pick up a collectable, its unnecessary. As I mentioned earlier, add options for text speed.
In terms of the world itself, as I mentioned it doesn't need to become open world, but the is room to create towns and areas that feel more alive. Skyloft is great, but it's a bit small. I think with the power of the WiiU, creating some sort of giant city with a large population but with a small number of key NPC's would go a long way to making the world more interesting.
I still believe that WW had the most well realized overworld. It was expansive, but there was still a lot to do on different islands in the sea. While I liked that SS focused heavily on the areas surrounding the dungeons, which made the journey to getting into those dungeons much more interesting, I thought it sacrificed too much with regards to the sky. There's really not a whole lot to do when you fly around, only a couple places to visit. Adding some interesting air battles, like the giant squid battles in WW, and having a couple more places like the pumpkin bar would have made the sky much more interesting. Going forward it would be nice if they struck a better balance between what SS did, and what WW did.
- The backtracking and fetch quests were not really a problem for the most part. I enjoyed revisiting old areas in games, and I didn't feel like some of fetch quests were necessarily bad ones. However I thought that
making you carry the water all the way to the top of the volcano was really stupid. Total waste of time, which was unnecessary given how long the game is already.
- I was kind of disappointed with how the gratitude crystal quest ended, getting the crystals was really fun, and many of the early rewards were really useful, but the final reward was pointless.
There's some other things I have to say about the game, but I was also thinking about what needs to change in future Zelda's. I firmly believe that current core mechanics are still perfectly fine. I don't think the series needs any sort of radical changes, it certainly doesn't need to become an Elder Scrolls ripoff, or completely open world etc etc. I think there is room for some non-linearity, but it has to be done correctly so as not to sacrifice other aspects of the series.
Presentation is probably the biggest aspect in need of fixing/changes. Story and other elements being presented through text boxes with big red highlighting for important points just seems archaic at this point. Find a way to correctly add voice acting in the game, keep text boxes but get rid of the highlighting. Some level of hand holding is fine, but they really need to cut back on that. They also dont need to give us a description each time we pick up a collectable, its unnecessary. As I mentioned earlier, add options for text speed.
In terms of the world itself, as I mentioned it doesn't need to become open world, but the is room to create towns and areas that feel more alive. Skyloft is great, but it's a bit small. I think with the power of the WiiU, creating some sort of giant city with a large population but with a small number of key NPC's would go a long way to making the world more interesting.
I still believe that WW had the most well realized overworld. It was expansive, but there was still a lot to do on different islands in the sea. While I liked that SS focused heavily on the areas surrounding the dungeons, which made the journey to getting into those dungeons much more interesting, I thought it sacrificed too much with regards to the sky. There's really not a whole lot to do when you fly around, only a couple places to visit. Adding some interesting air battles, like the giant squid battles in WW, and having a couple more places like the pumpkin bar would have made the sky much more interesting. Going forward it would be nice if they struck a better balance between what SS did, and what WW did.
