Gaming The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Shinmaru]

Just started [b]Skyward Sword[/b] yesterday and am outside the first temple right now. It's been enjoyable so far, but yes, that beginning portion is so god damned irritatingly slow. I think the low point for me is when that elder dude is like, "I NEED MY MEMORY JOGGED, SO FIND THREE OF MY FUZZY FRIENDS AND I WILL HELP YOU." I was like, "Really, you fuzzy asshole? I have to find three of your bastard friends, and then you'll help me out? Did Nintendo parachute you in from a Rare game?" Fetch quests, you are the bane of my existence! *shakes fist*

I [i]have[/i] enjoyed what little combat I've engaged in so far, though. I do like that the game is obvious about what enemy's weaknesses are without straight up telling you, "HAY GUYS HERE IS THE ENEMY'S WEAK POINT, HAVE AT IT."

[PiroMunkie]

[color="#006400"]I'm a few dungeons into this game at the moment and I want to say one thing that is standing out to me is Link's right-handedness, lol. Being a lefty, I'm finding it a little awkward at times to swing properly. I can't remember if he was right-handed in Twilight Princess, though Wiki says he was. Perhaps it wasn't as noticeable though because TP was a lot more hack'n'slash than Skyward Sword is. There wasn't a lot of technique in killing monsters, and what technique existed was in those special moves you learned which didn't favor a dominant hand.

But with the split second basic slashes some enemies require, I'm feeling a slight delay and disconnect between realizing what action I need to take and knowing I have to do the reverse action in order for Link to do it. I don't understand why they can't create a player option to switch the dominant hand of Link. Or maybe I should go see if Flanders has a copy of this game at the Leftorium.[/color]

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]Link is left-handed in the GCN version of Twilight Princess and the [i]entire game[/i] was mirrored for the Wii version to make him right-handed in that. Not that it actually matters at all since all sword control is done through the control stick, just like earlier 3D Zeldas, and the only differentiation that actually matters is simply vertical, horizontal, and stabbing.

I'm actually kind of surprised that being left-handed makes that much difference in SS, even. About the only time I've noticed a significant difference between left and right swings is when you need that little bit of extra range on a backhanded swing.[/color]

[Sangome]

[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]So I now officially have this game, and have clocked a few hours in...I'm not very far at all; I just got to the surface last night. It's so freakin' beautiful, auuuughhh I can't get over how pretty this game is.

As for the controls, I'm pretty neutral on them, except for one thing -- flying. I absolutely hate flying. I don't know why I suck at it so bad, but flying around to get that statuette was a freakin' pain in the rear. Ugh.

One nice little touch I did like though was how you pulled the Goddess Sword out of its pedestal by actually turning the Wiimote upside down and pulling it. I thought that was pretty neat.[/font][/color] Edited December 27, 2011 by Sangome

[Petie]

[quote name='Sangome' timestamp='1325020172' post='710779']
[color="#9932CC"][font="Microsoft Sans Serif"]So I now officially have this game, and have clocked a few hours in...I'm not very far at all; I just got to the surface last night. It's so freakin' beautiful, auuuughhh I can't get over how pretty this game is.

As for the controls, I'm pretty neutral on them, except for one thing -- flying. I absolutely hate flying. I don't know why I suck at it so bad, but flying around to get that statuette was a freakin' pain in the rear. Ugh.

One nice little touch I did like though was how you pulled the Goddess Sword out of its pedestal by actually turning the Wiimote upside down and pulling it. I thought that was pretty neat.[/font][/color]
[/quote]
[color="#0000ff"]On your point about pulling the sword from the pedestal, I liked that too. They do have some fun little details that make nice use of the Wii Motion Plus.[/color]

[color="#0000ff"]As for flying, I think the issue I've seen most often is overcompensating for turns. Most of the people I've seen that had trouble with the flying did so because they piratically turned the Wii Remote upside down where a slight tilt would have been more than sufficient. Next time you have to fly, be mindful of how you're handling the controller and you might have an easier time. That said, it's still far from perfect. You could be doing everything right and just don't like the lack of precision (which is the problem I have with it as well).[/color]

[Sangome]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900ff]Okay so I had made a post in here about the game when I was close to finishing it, and then literally a day later the site went BEWM and ate my post, so I'm going to make another one now that I've actually beaten it.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF]This game. I wanted to love this game to pieces. I really, really did. It's chronologically the first game in the series, you can fly around, the game looked downright beautiful -- and I'm someone who barely ever puts stock into graphics -- and I just wanted to eat it all up. The entire internet seemed enamored with it, and I wanted to be one of those people.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF]I, unfortunately, am not one of those people. I mean, don't get me wrong -- it's still a good game. Great, even, when it really hits its stride. It starts off with a ton of energy and makes you so excited to jump right into the story.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF]And then, for me, around Lanayru, it just slowly started to fall flat. The desert was a pain to navigate, and I was not fond of the mining facility at all. And then things after that just...got really shaky.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF]I can sum up my main two problems as thus:[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF][b]One:[/b] The sheer lack of places to go. I get that they were trying to cram everything onto a single-layer disc, but even then I don't really like that excuse. You're sent to the same three places each time you go down, and while they do do things to shake it up, it just gets really frustrating. I wanted to be able to explore interesting new locations, and it just kinda failed. The sky REALLY dropped the ball in this regard -- it's so limited and cramped. It didn't feel like the vast sky at all. I was hoping the thunderhead would explore more of that, but it didn't have a whole lot, either.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF]That said, the third visit to each area I actually really liked...except for Faron [which I'll touch on later]. The stealth mission in Eldin was shockingly fun, and Lanayru was not that bad, probably because it was mercifully short. And I loved Skyloft itself -- it's probably my favorite hometown in any of the games.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF][b]Two: [/b]FETCH. QUESTS. I don't mind them in small doses, doubly so if they're just sidequests, but the middle of the game just POUNDS you with so many of these stupid things that the game became more of a chore than anything else. I wanted story and exploration, not pointless padding in the form of "HEY GET ME THIS THING AND I'LL TELL YOU WHERE TO GO...JUST SO YOU CAN GET MORE THINGS FOR PEOPLE LOL!!!!1!111111!!!11!!1". The third and final visit to Faron with the Tadtones was the worst, which sucks because I probably actually would have liked it if there hadn't already been so freaking many beforehand. [Although the rage was doubly compounded by Fi tossing the dowsing at me when I was already 75% done, and then you can't even use the dowsing when you swim anyway, so what's the point?! GAH!][/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF]NOW. With that all said, there were still good things to make it worthwhile.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF][b]The story: [/b]The story managed to keep me interested all throughout, and was my main motivator throughout the whole ordeal. Catching on to all of the mythology gags was fun, too [even if I had to look a lot of them up later because I'm that dense >_>;].[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF][b]The characters: [/b]This is my main selling point right here. I love, love, [i]love[/i] the cast in this game. They rank up there with Majora's Mask and Wind Waker's cast for me. The denizens of Skyloft are all unique and likeable [generally, anyway; I kind of wanted to pour more dust on Pipit's mom after her little side story when you get her gratitude crystals], the races on the surface are all interesting and fun, and then Link and Zelda themselves are probably my favorite to date. Ghirahim is a delightfully disturbing villain and a fresh change from the "GRR I'M GANON AND I'M ANGRY >:C" that we're usually used to. [spoiler]Demise is a surprisingly affably evil guy, even when you kick his face in. He's a better sport than his sword[/color][/font][font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF] at any rate.[/color][/font][font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF][/spoiler] And then there's Groose, who is basically Mido if he had better writing/character development and played an active role in the story. His development pleasantly surprised me, and he ended up being my favorite character out of the whole thing.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF]But yeah, great ragtag bunch of misfits. I really hope to see their ancestors in future games. [Especially Groose. I refuse to believe his physical similarities to the Gerudo is just a happy coincidence.][/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF][b]Gameplay: [/b]I'm...actually kind of torn on the motion controls. Generally, they work pretty good. But there's just some times when it feels tacked on -- the key things to the boss doors are a prime offender. Whoever thought that'd be a good idea needs to be slapped with a lobster.[/color][/font][font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF] But I'm kind of miffed because Nintendo themselves admitted that the long development time is because of the fine-tuning of the motion controls, which means everything else just kinda took a backseat, and it shows. I actually had a similar complaint towards Pokemon Black and White, but it had the inverse problem of the story, while good for a Pokemon game, took up nearly everything, while all the other stuff got pushed off to the side, especially in the postgame.[/color][/font]

[font=trebuchet ms,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#9900FF]I digress, though. I've rambled long enough. It's a good game. It's just deeply, deeply flawed. I'd recommend it to fellow Zelda vets, but I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to someone as their first Zelda game.[/color][/font] Edited March 22, 2012 by Sangome