The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Sami]

Fifth dungeon already? This game sounds either short or has tons of dungeons.

Also, how are the skulltulas in this game? I ask because I'm an arachnophobic and those giant fuckers in TP made me afraid of encouters.

I got the game a week ago. I'm about 25-30 hours in now.

[speedfreak]

Played through the "tutorial" section that I've seen getting a lot of hate around the internet the past week or so and I gotta say, I LOVED IT! Skyloft is a very interesting place to explore. The sword controls are working great for me so far. Though the bird is a bit wonky. I hope I just need to adjust to it. Since I seem to be having a blast with the part most people found tedious I can't wait to see how much I enjoy the game later on where people say it picks up.

Also, the Zelda in this game is already my favorite Zelda incarnation. As a matter of fact I'm loving a bunch of the characters on Skyloft.

[Indigo Rush]

[RidersDX]

I just got this game. Going to play it after I get some stuff done!

[Melru]

Got the game earlier, played it for about two and a half hours but now I have homework =/ From what I've played, it's pretty awesome. I love the cinematic feel of it, or at least it is compared to the other Zelda games. I feel so into the world and I actually feel more of a connection with the characters. I feel like I'm watching a little film.

Thankfully I have the special edition because I needed a Wii Remote Plus to play the game, lol. I be digging this gold. And this soundtrack, while it may have only 8 tracks, is like heaven to my ears.

Edited November 20, 2011 by Melru

[Diogenes]

Dang it, Nintendo. How do you expect me to kill this thing?!

Oh god damn it. I can't unsee it.

[DistantJ]

Jeez.

This game is most certainly not the best Zelda game ever made. Its perfectly reasonable for people to dislike the controls and input method. You shouldn't have to fiddle around with your "set-up" to make the game play as it should. It should work with any set-up.

I find it so ridiculously unbelievable that people cannot accept the fact that not everyone will like this game. What I played of it was pretty irritating. It wasn't broken, but it certainly wasn't perfect. The lowest score the game got was 7.5, what is the big fucking deal? Its lowest score claimed that it was a good, but not perfect game......is that really not enough? Oh no somebody doesn't think this game is the best thing since sliced bread, so lets chew them out claiming that its their fault the game isn't working like its supposed to.

[Conando]

I've been playing it for a while and the controls are just fine. Except the diving ones, those didn't make a damn bit of sense. It seems you have better control if you hold the Wii Remote straight up. They weren't kidding when they said all the enemies are like little puzzles, even mooks like Bokoblins have a strategy, seems best to wait until they're about to strike then parry or attack before they can.

[Ekaje]

For Boboblins, I usually just use a Skyward Strike and a finish before they notice me or when their guards are down while running at me.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Ekaje

[Tornado]

I find it so ridiculously unbelievable that people cannot accept the fact that not everyone will like this game. What I played of it was pretty irritating. It wasn't broken, but it certainly wasn't perfect. The lowest score the game got was 7.5, what is the big fucking deal? Its lowest score claimed that it was a good, but not perfect game......is that really not enough? Oh no somebody doesn't think this game is the best thing since sliced bread, so lets chew them out claiming that its their fault the game isn't working like its supposed to.

Zelda fans invented Eight Point Eight, so I'm not particularly surprised.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Tornado

[canderson]

That 8.8 nonsense from 5 years was ridiculous compared to the 7.5 people are getting so overwhelmed about. XD

I hope to hear some more impressions of this game from you guys.

Edited November 21, 2011 by canderson

[RidersDX]

I'm not that far into the game, but so far so good. The controls have been good, but I haven't exactly gotten into a situation where there was a major emphasis on them. I love not having to spam the A button to go fast anymore, and this game definitely feels different from previous LOZ titles. I LOVE the relationship between Link and Zelda, and yeah, there definitely is a more cinematic feel to this game then previous games. It makes the game feel that much more epic and I always appreciate more focus on story. I can't wait to get through more of the game, and finally go under the clouds.

[The Kid]

Sounds like you either love this game or just find it okay. Still, if the lowest score a game has gotten is 7.5, with sites like IGN giving it a 10, I'd say this is going to be a pretty great installment in the series. I picked mine today up so hopefully I'll be able to give my impressions soon once I get farther in the game.

DistantJ, no one thinks you're lying about your opinions or that all the reviewers are crazy. Only reason people are arguing with you is that you seem rather intense with your distaste for the game. Controls don't work for you, okay then. They work for others, as made evidently clear earlier. I don't know if your Wii-mote is set wrong, you got a bad copy by downloading it illegally (never crossed your mind that could be the problem), or it was just never set up right when you started. It may not be a great game by your standards and a group of others, but it is by a good number of people, maybe even the majority(?). I don't know, just sort of annoyed by all raging going on here. I'll quietly step out.

Also what did you expect from Youtube, a warm welcome and a complimentary mint with your stay?

Edited November 21, 2011 by Hedgehogs Homing Attack

[Conando]

I lol'd. Speaking of, my brother said he's going to name Link "Fagballs" to "honor" Yahtzee.

[Sami]

This game sucks ass. My number one complaint is that in the beginning, you can't select that many letters when naming your character. I was forced into naming my character "Buttpoop", even though I had my heart set on "Buttcheeks". Sadly, that name could not fit.

This is poor programing at its finest.

If I may make a suggestion:

[Solid SOAP]

Liking this so far, however it still feels very formulaic. Not a bad thing, but still feels like a very safe game to me. Liking the way character development is heading though, and I love the music and setting. It just feels very "safe" to me though, as much as I am enjoying it.

[Conando]

I like the idea that the overworld is actually split up into pseudo-dungeon fields, though. That was a really good idea.

[DistantJ]

DistantJ, no one thinks you're lying about your opinions or that all the reviewers are crazy. Only reason people are arguing with you is that you seem rather intense with your distaste for the game. Controls don't work for you, okay then. They work for others, as made evidently clear earlier. I don't know if your Wii-mote is set wrong

Edited November 21, 2011 by DistantJ

[LATER BUDDY]

So I played it for about 4 hours and just got into the first dungeon.

Control-wise, I love it, =U. IDK what you guys mean about having to recalibrate all the time, as I didn't have to once. Every single time I swung the sword, it went where I wanted it to go. The only thing I don't like much is the tight-rope walking, but I think I was doing it wrong, as in I held it horizontally and twisted my wrist side to side, instead of waving the tip upwards side to side (giggity).

What I love most about the game though is how much more of a movie it seems. The expressions on characters are what seals the deal, sometimes finding myself not really reading the text even, but just watching the faces. Other than that for favorite things, the sprinting thing is the best thing ever. It's so simple and should have been there ages ago, but it makes the game SO much more fluid.

Since I've gotten to the first dungeon though (like went through a few rooms, that's it), it seems like the game has calmed down and slowed down a lot at this point. I don't dare say "boring", but it's definitely not as exciting at the moment. However, I expect it to pick up any second.

Best Zelda game though? I...can maybe see it honestly, but I want to get more into it before I start jumping on that train. To me, the game runs like a charm, the story is richer than ever, and so much more. There's even non-important side characters that I fucking love just because of their design. Like that senior kid and that dude working on that squeaky door (reminded me of Luigi lawl) look like badasses.

[PSI Wind]

^{Zelda: Skyward Sword in a nutshell:}

^{Wii anounced: OMG A 1:1 ZELDA FINALLY!}

^{Twilight Princess comes out: MAN, THIS IS ALL WAGGLE! I WANT TO SWING THE SWORD AND LINK FOLLOWING MY MOVEMENTS!}

^{Skyward Sword announced at E3 2010: FINALLY! 1:1 SWORDPLAY!}

^{Skyward Sword comes out: OH WAIT, I DON'T LIKE MOTION CONTROLS! GO BACK TO BUTTONS PLZ~}

Edited November 22, 2011 by PSI Freeze

[speedfreak]

Just entered the second temple, still loving it. I did a few of the side quests on Skyloft and I thought they were pretty enjoyable. I still don't think this will end up as my favorite Zelda but I'm still having a great time with it.

[Agent York]

Did anyone notice Link actually speaks a little in this game. So far only noticed it against the first boss. When you try to jump slash the boss, Link will yell, "TAKE THIS!". Just a random thing I wanted to note.

[TrueBlue]

I thought a mod came in and said to stop this part of the discussion? It's only intense in the way you're reading it, it's text, there's no infliction, so it just comes out however you read it. To me, people seem 'intense' in their anger towards me. They work for SOME others, and don't for some others as well, you act like I'm alone in this, but I can't find many people who do like the game outside of this place and Zelda forums. You want to try sometime putting your impressions of something out and then having people claim you just make stuff up just because their impressions of it were different to yours. It's ridiculous and insulting. I got the exact same response when I didn't like Sonic Unleashed at first, and once again with Colours. "You're doing it wrong", they say, "you're shit at games", they say. I was an idiot just like the critics, then later on in retrospect they are talking about the same flaws I saw at the time. People were claiming I was 'making things up' about Sonic Colours which I now see other people referring to as problems the game had which Generations fixed. Perhaps you can understand my frustration now?

Anyway I thought we weren't on this part of the discussion anymore? Sean made it clear that this part of this topic should stop, so I'm going to just refer anybody else who digresses to this particular post.

Now that that's out of the way, I'm going back on topic: Zelda impressions.

Having gotten used to the controls, which I've said several times and am tired of explaining, it's all about the actual content of the game for me now. The whole 'cinematic' thing, I sort of agree that it is more-so than the previous entries but it's hard to see it as cinematic when you're usually reading your way through the cut-scenes rather than watching and listening. It's not a huge problem for the most part but an example I'll give are the beautiful scenes where Fi dances around on the water at the end of temples whilst reciting prose. They're gorgeous, stunning looking little scenes, so good to watch, but you can't fully invest yourself in watching them when a good portion of the screen is obscured with a text box, and you have to he reading the bottom of the screen when you want to be watching the action. It's a lot like why I don't like subtitled films, particularly if animated, because I like to focus on what's going on and let the dialogue flow naturally to my ears. Some people are better at reading subs 'out of the corner of their eye' than I am, so this might not be as much of a problem for some people, but I'm sure these parts would still be nicer and more immersive without the text-box obscuring so much of the screen.

I do really like the dungeons. They are mostly very short and snappy. I'm hoping they get longer and more intense though because sometimes it feels like the fetch quests can take longer than the dungeons. The bosses so far I've found a little silly to look at (they look like Pokemons, lol) but very fun to fight (bar the first Ghirahim battle, which was just boring and annoying).

So far it's nice to see less 'old game logic' than in Twilight Princess. I'll explain what I mean - an example would be the cannonball puzzles in Twilight Princess's snowy yeti house level: a large number of puzzles in the dungeon revolved around getting a cannonball into the next room, due to the fact that you couldn't walk through a door carrying one. They even had these little mechanisms which could pop the cannonball through a hole in the wall to the next room, and they were all required for the simple fact that Link automatically would drop the cannonball before using a door, and leave it behind. For me those kind of things today can cause damage to the immersion level, and thankfully Skyward Sword seems to be low on them. It's spared us most of the cliches too, there aren't very many block-pushing puzzles and I've yet to see a torch-lighting puzzle. I'd call a few puzzles cheap though, for example I remember being stuck for a while in the second temple simply because I had to bomb walls where the visible 'bombable areas' were practically invisible; tiny cracks hidden down low.

I still don't like the enemy designs much. I do appreciate how they've 'de-evolved' them since it's the very beginning of the story, but I just find a lot of my favourite enemies now just look stupid. Dodongos have been de-evolved to land-dwelling fish called Pyrups (makes sense, right, that is where lizards came from), which is a cool idea but they just look ridiculous, and Octoroks have been merged with Deku Scrubs to make some kind of bizarre mushroom-shaped Octopus that lives in the ground. Bokoblins look like Beano characters and there's an overabundance of them in the game. The Guay (big bird thing, been in the series since the SNES) now attacks by pooping on you. And I mean big, smelly, coiled-up dog poop, not bird poop. It's kinda funny but seems so un-Zelda, lol. So far however I have really liked the new Lizalfos, the new Armos and Beamos (brilliant!) and the new Deku Babas. Of course, the Skulltulas are very creepy, but I think I preferred them in Ocarina when they actually resembled a skull glaring back at you.

The new races - hate Kikwis, they make me embarrassed to be playing the game. Mogma's are OK, they don't seem to fit so well, I'd have preferred to have had Gorons in their place but I'm pretty sure Aonuma's bored of doing the same thing over and over. Parellas (the sort of seahorse-jellyfish types, Zora replacements) are awesome, and I love the ancient robots.

I am really torn about this game in so many ways. I love and hate the visual style - it's the perfect mix between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker but somehow it doesn't have the charm or atmosphere of either (until you're in the dungeons). It takes leaps forward but also leaps backwards. One minute I'm in a temple, thinking 'this is the perfect 3D representation of the Legend of Zelda, it honours the past and present of the series at the same time perfectly', the next I'm bored and frustrated in a fetch quest in a boring over world section. Interestingly, even though there are Kikwi's, Mogmas and the like hanging around in the over world sections, there's this Metroid-style feeling of isolation the whole time you're on the surface, and I never really wanted that from Zelda, Ocarina's over world was amazing because of the sense of community in it, when you cram all of the NPCs into one little town (and only a handful of them at that) it does start to feel very sort of 'lonely'. Even Majora's Mask had it's own little 'towns' in areas (Deku palace, Goron city, Zora palace etc.). Objectively, this isn't a flaw by any sense of the word; Metroid is praised for it and fans were somewhat disappointed by the parts at the start of Prime 3 where you aren't alone, but for me personally the thing Zelda had above other adventure games was the feeling of being part of a world filled with life and communities and such, like you were saving a bright and diverse world worth saving, rather than just 'searching for Zelda'.

If it wasn't for all the hype, I'd probably be enjoying it a lot more. I mean, I really expected to be blown away by this one, but it's pretty much just another Zelda.

So, it's not the worst Zelda ever? Well, that's a relief.

[speedfreak]

Really?! That's odd. I know in Wink Waker he said "Come on!" but I haven't heard him say anything in SS yet.

[lounge]

In Soul Calibur 2, if you do this double kick move, it sounds like he's saying "Take this!" as well.

I also loved that touch they did in Wind Waker where Link says C'mon! I remember I used to keep making him say that.

December 25, 2011 is going to be amazing!