The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[JezMM]

It does seem suspicious that the link dies scenario pretty much covers all the old awkward games that are hard to keep in line with the modern ones.

Frankly I don't think I'd care if they just deleted Zelda I and II from canonicity. They're pretty much worthless story-wise

Edited December 23, 2011 by JezMM

[Koopalmier]

This is exactly why I don't like that 3rd split. That's a what if scenario. I can't believe they approved of that idea. I don't want Link to die

Not a What If scenario. ALttP's backstory (which tales the Link Fails scenario, with a few changes because it's a legend) preceeds OoT, so if anything OoT is the What If scenario now. But it's not. So yeah, you got two alternate versions of the events, one leading to a double split.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Koopalmier

[Jetronic]

More details on the timeline - this should be good

Edited December 23, 2011 by Jetronic

[JezMM]

Another little thing I'm personally not too keen on is FSA coming after Twilight Princess. I thought the ending of Twilight Princess made it pretty clear that Ganondorf had died at the end. Like, proper. No existing in limbo waiting to be revived. Just dead. It kind of steals from the poignancy of the moment.

[Koopalmier]

Another little thing I'm personally not too keen on is FSA coming after Twilight Princess. I thought the ending of Twilight Princess made it pretty clear that Ganondorf had died at the end. Like, proper. No existing in limbo waiting to be revived. Just dead. It kind of steals from the poignancy of the moment.

But he IS dead. FSA Ganondorf is a different character, a new male Gerudo King. But it happens he's the reincarnation of OoT Ganondorf and has the same wicked soul. Ganondorf also does tell Link both their descendants will still fight with each other.

What bothers me is Zelda 1's Ganon. How was he revived after Zelda 3 ?

[JezMM]

But he IS dead. FSA Ganondorf is a different character, a new male Gerudo King. But it happens he's the reincarnation of OoT Ganondorf and has the same wicked soul. Ganondorf also does tell Link both their descendants will still fight with each other.

This pleases me greatly! I haven't actually played FSA so made assumptions.

[speedfreak]

Pretty cool, even if things don't fit completely perfectly. I REALLY hope they release that book stateside.

I guess the important question is where do they go from here? I don't really want to see any more prequels. I guess I'd be fine with them continuing any of the three split timelines. Wouldn't it be wild to see a sequel to the Adventure of Link after all these years?

[Octarine]

The three-timeline thing is weird, but I can deal with it. There are a lot of placements that I really appreciate (for reasons mostly unrelated to logic), like Minish Cap fitting in near the beginning and the Oracle games being sandwiched between ALttP and LA*, and I suppose there's a certain elegance to the timelines splitting off by theme into cel-shaded, classic and... uh, whatever was left.

In terms of where I want to see the series go next, I really hope we get one more game in the Wind Waker timeline, just to make the New Hyrule thing feel more complete. Not that Spirit Tracks wasn't good (at least story-wise), but I'd sort of like to see the place in a console game before we close the book on it, y'know?

*There is kind of a plothole in there since the Zelda of the Oracle games doesn't recognize Link, but I'm willing to ignore that because everything else fits together so well. I've gotta play those four in sequence one of these days.

[Neon]

IGN made an article on the timeline:

http://uk.wii.ign.co.../1215301p1.html

It seems like a lot of people are confused about it. Specifically Timeline A.

Edited December 25, 2011 by Neon

[Sami]

So the reaction to the "Link dies" timeline (not just here, but everywhere else) shows how little people know about alternate timelines/dimensions. Think of it in this way: After any single action that ever happens, an alternate dimension is created.

Remember that Great Fairy Fountain outside Ganon's castle that Link needed to lift a giant rock in order to gain access to? Since he fights Ganon regardless of whether or not he does so, it creates a split in the timeline. Here's a random stupid example I came up with as to what could happen:

Timeline A - Link lifts the rock and the Great Fairy rapes his eyes or whatever. He then goes on to fight Ganon and wins.

Timeline B - Link doesn't lift the rock and beats Ganon regardless. Years later, some Hylian explorer discovers the fountain and claims it for himself. He becomes a rich, powerful man by charging access to the fountain (for its healing water, I guess) and buys himself a large district of land in Hyrule Field.

Is timeline B expanded upon? No. Therefore it's completely unimportant and doesn't need to be acknowledged. HOWEVER, this split still exists because of this aforementioned option to skip the fountain and go straight to Ganon. It just isn't expanded upon in any games, rendering it unimportant.

If Link dies in Minish Cap, Vaati should rule the world. If he dies in Skyward Sword, Demise would revive fully. If we're to accept that Link dying in OoT is a possible timeline branch, then shouldn't every single game branch in two based on the possibility of Link's death?

[Jetronic]

Winning or losing to Vaati would create a parallel timeline:

Timeline A - Link wins. OoT happens after and expands upon this timeline.

Timeline B - Link loses. No games take place after this, so this timeline doesn't really matter. If, however, Nintendo decides to make a game that does expand upon it, it would be perfectly feasible.

Edited December 25, 2011 by Jetronic

[Solly]

I think the problem I, and a lot of other people have with the Link Fails time-line (besides the inconsistencies) is how incredibly half-assed it is.

One of the rules of writing a good story across all mediums, be it movies, television shows, comics, or videogames, is as follows:

"Show. Don't tell".

It's pretty simple. If something happens in your story, especially if it's something crucial, you need to show it to the audience. Don't just SAY it happened in an alternate universe. The audience, or in this case, the player, isn't going to want to hear that Link died in the final battle with Ganon when they saw him win. Using something like this to attempt to tie a bunch of games together after you've already written their stories feels amazingly cheap.

On top of that, when people said they wanted the games tied together, they didn't WANT an alternate universe to be created. That's the lazy way out- and they STILL have contradicting plot points.

[Sami]

I think the problem I, and a lot of other people have with the Link Fails time-line (besides the inconsistencies) is how incredibly half-assed it is.

One of the rules of writing a good story across all mediums, be it movies, television shows, comics, or videogames, is as follows:

"Show. Don't tell".

It's pretty simple. If something happens in your story, especially if it's something crucial, you need to show it to the audience. Don't just SAY it happened in an alternate universe. The audience, or in this case, the player, isn't going to want to hear that Link died in the final battle with Ganon when they saw him win. Using something like this to attempt to tie a bunch of games together after you've already written their stories feels amazingly cheap.

On top of that, when people said they wanted the games tied together, they didn't WANT an alternate universe to be created. That's the lazy way out- and they STILL have contradicting plot points.

Then what wouldn't be the lazy way out? This is a timeline that tie together all the games in a series that's 25 years old. It couldn't possibly be perfect without making changes to games that already exist.

[Solly]

Then what wouldn't be the lazy way out? This is a timeline that tie together all the games in a series that's 25 years old. It couldn't possibly be perfect without making changes to games that already exist.

There probably isn't a timeline that's absolutely perfect, but my point is that they suddenly declared ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, hoping in vain to avoid contradicting story elements and they STILL didn't get it right.

Nobody expects perfection, but this is just kind of dumb.

[Salamander]

That's just what happens when you're dealing with several decades' worth of story-light games. They've already been retconned all over the place by each other, and some of them probably will be again. It's for that reason that the timeline doesn't really matter, as demonstrated by the fact that it's been released in an obscure Japanese artbook and without any official fanfare whatsoever. It's nice that it exists, but it's just a curio; it only really exists to give a little context to each game and to rationalise sequels and prequels (and probably as a response to it being increasingly clear that fans care so deeply about it). The "Link dies" timeline is a bit of a hash, sure, but it's only there because ALttP required it due to its backstory being retconned by OoT. Although at the time they made OoT, they probably didn't think of it as being a retcon, which would have been even more of a hash! So really, I think it's a net improvement, and they'll probably be more careful about such things in future.

[Spooky Mulder]

Got the game today. First part of the game is extremely boring, but Ive found most Zelda games are like that.

Zelda just got kidnapped so it looks like things are going to pick up soon.

[lounge]

I finally played the game and I LOVE IT!! WAY better than Twilight Princess. The inclusion of being able to dash was just such a great idea. Being able to run up ledges and stuff feels so much better than having to slowly and tediously climb up on them from prevous games. Combat feels so great. So far I haven't had any problems with the response. Everything responds perfectly. I never even had to recalibrate except once. Way better music than TP too. So beautiful and soothing. I'm only up to the first temple though. And the cutscenes are amazing! They pulled me into the game right away. Nice shots and angles and animation. Zelda and Link are really likeable characters. I'm surprised at how attractive Zelda is here. She's really gorgeous and beautiful in this game. In Twilight Princess, Zelda was completely unappealing to me. She had no purpose and was completely uninteresting.The cutscene animation really does this game justice. The ingame animation for Link is really nice as well. Great controls and it doesn't have that slow feeling TP had. Attacking enemies feels so good cause they're actually not pushovers. I'm so happy. I was a little worried about all of these things.

The only things that's bugging me so far are the enivironment graphics. Now after playing this game for myself, they could've done a way better job. The water color textures come of as looking more like bad PS1 style pixels than an actual good represention of water color. The trees all have this papery, 2d effect that doesn't look good for what the Wii is capable of. Bottom line so far, with the exception of the cutscenes, animation and characters, the graphics aren't as impressive as they could be. But everything else so far I'm really enjoying. So I can forgive that. I'm so happy that this is leagbues better than what I expected.

EDIT 12/26: Man this game is addicting. I love the compactness of it like Majora. Flying thu the sky is so amazing and the music energizes me every time. Much better than the overly big for no reason ocean. To this day I still haven't been to all the islands nor do I have the will power. Here at least the sky doesn't intimidate me with it's size. And being able to flap higher and dive is so good. The first dungeon was actually challenging, thank you new zelda team! I'm already going thru all these side quests which actually motivate me. Leveling up my stuff and all. Getting new items, which again motivates me cause the enemies actually pose a damn threat this time. And I haven't even entered the volcano area. The characters really are better and likeable. And the music just keeps getting better and better. The soothing shrine music and all. Thank goodness Toru Minegeshi didn't touch this!!! This game proves Koji Kondo can trust these other new composers. I'm actually warming up to the graphics of the environments. The lighting of everything really is gorgeous. Skyloft has so much to explore.

I can't believe G4 complained about how there aren't crowds of people walking around like in Assasins Creed. They did that in Twilight Princess and I didn't care for it. It's actually better this way cause there are enough people to keep track of especially with their confusing names. And personally I like it better when an area isn't crowded with people walking eveywhere as it helps show off the beauty of Skyloft.

Edited December 26, 2011 by lounge-mas

[Jeffhog]

Currently at the Lanayru Mining Facility. ROBOTS.

In any case, the webcomic "Manly Guys Doing Manly Things"/"The Punchline is Machismo" parodies Fi.

[Melru]

^lmao that's great. To be honest I thought Fi was annoying, but tolerable. The incredible obviousness did make me laugh a few times.

So not that anyone cares, but I beat Skyward Sword on December 31, 2011 at 1:00 AM. Freaking awesome. I teared up, I stared at the screen with surprise. Amazing..... Probably my favorite game ever at this point.

The battle with Demise was a little easier than I thought, but the atmosphere was great so I didn't mind. The presentation was absolutely brilliant and finishing him off with a

electrified Skyward Strike

was probably the best part about it. Such a beautiful and cinematic game, great experience from start to finish.

I declined Hero Mode though. Why can't you do it on another file? Seriously, I didn't finish the first file, why should I save on top of it?

Edited January 3, 2012 by Melru

[Noir]

I declined Hero Mode though. Why can't you do it on another file? Seriously, I didn't finish the first file, why should I save on top of it?

Copy your file, then beat the final boss again in the new file and save over that for Hero Mode.

[Legendary Emerald]

I stopped playing this game a few days ago. I was in that desert area, and decided that was as far as I was going to slog through. Simply put, this is not one of the better Zelda games in my opinion. However, I just want to ask a question:

What is YOUR opinion of the motion controls? And why?

Because if I'm to be completely honest with myself, I think this is the worst controlling Wii game I've ever played, but most other people haven't been saying much about them one way or another. The sword fighting is passable, but too finicky, and suffers from the same delay that all motion controllers have. Pointing and clicking is handled all through the device, with the sensor bar not taken into equation, so the cursor feels disconnected from reality, heavy, and unwieldy. Flight controls strain the wrist due to the awkward way in which you have to hold the controller. Rolling bombs requires you to turn the entire controller upside down, when doing an actual rolling motion would have sufficed. There are so many terrible flaws with this games controls, in my view, that they completely kill what would otherwise be at least a passable game.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Legendary Pine Tree

[Conando]

I have no idea what you're doing wrong because, these are the BEST motion controls in any game I've ever played. They're not perfect, as no 1:1 tracking technology is yet but, they worked about 99% of the time for me in all situations. The aiming does not use the IR, so pointing at the screen isn't going to do you much good, it views the center as whatever you were pointing at last (generally not the TV), in fact that made it easier to aim for me because, I could just be a lazy slob and slouch down without having to sit in a certain position to make everything work. I was using a Wii Remote plus, and I am not sure whether this makes any difference. As for flight, all you do is tilt the controller like you would have in Super Mario Galaxy's Ball stages or Super Monkey Ball, so yeah.

[Legendary Emerald]

I have no idea what you're doing wrong because, these are the BEST motion controls in any game I've ever played. They're not perfect, as no 1:1 tracking technology is yet but, they worked about 99% of the time for me in all situations. The aiming does not use the IR, so pointing at the screen isn't going to do you much good, it views the center as whatever you were pointing at last (generally not the TV), in fact that made it easier to aim for me because, I could just be a lazy slob and slouch down without having to sit in a certain position to make everything work. I was using a Wii Remote plus, and I am not sure whether this makes any difference. As for flight, all you do is tilt the controller like you would have in Super Mario Galaxy's Ball stages or Super Monkey Ball, so yeah.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Legendary Pine Tree

[Old dead account]

The motion control have no problems at all from my experience. I hated bumbling through things like those gimmicky stages in the galaxy games and the dark bird in Twilight Princess. But in this game the motion controls honestly feel perfect. In fact, I'm now having a hard time going back to Metroid Prime Trilogy because the motion controls feel so much clunkier in comparison. Also, Prime Trilogy felt like you had to get used to the controls whereas Skyward Sword felt so natural.

As for my progress in the game, I got it on day 1 but because of finals and shit I had to get away from it for a few weeks. I'm on those Goddess trials right now and I've just completed the forest one. I have to meet some dragon or something in the south of the forest through the gate. I loved the Lanayru Mining Facility and its boss. I think that's the first time I've felt a Zelda boss to actually be hard for a long time

[Conando]

The general consensus is that there's nothing wrong with the controls. If it's your opinion, then fine. I kind of feel like you're beating people over the head with it, though. Just because you had a hard time with the controls and others didn't doesn't mean that said others are blind to the controls being bad. That said, I was rather off base by implying you were "doing it wrong".

Edited January 3, 2012 by Kringle Of Fate