jetsetfluken
Member
WARNING: Unmarked spoilers.
Note that this isn't just another LTTP thread made before/during someone is playing a game. It's post-game talk.
I have to say, sitting back and playing a long Wii game has been very refreshing. I'm used to playing the HD consoles or PC games for the past few years almost exclusively, and to not have to have in the back of your mind things like worrying about achievements/trophies, having stupid people on your Friends List message you and taking you out of the game, constantly being connected online and "showcasing" what you're playing.
Just you and the game. That is all. Nothing to prove to anyone. Totally engrossed in the experience...forgetting every responsibility in real life and focusing on what's in front of you, with no underlying "friends list" messaging you and taking you out of it.
In the past I was one of the ones stressing to hope Wii U would have an achievement system and full online and such, but playing this game in true peace has made my decision on that change to "some things have features, some don't. Everything can't have every feature or it'll be too overwhelming and no variety of game experiences (on the OS level). There must be balance so to speak".
It took me 112 hours, but I believe I finally 100%'d the game, sans Hero Mode.
And I used no guide or help at all. Pretty good accomplishment to me seeing that I had to look up the help of a guide for well over 3-5 Heart Pieces in TP for example.
I have no idea how someone with a busy schedule would even complete this game (just the story, skipping sidequests/100% file goals) in say under a month, it's taken me pretty much the entire month of March, with only a few days breaks between. Pretty much about 25 of the 31 days of March I've been playing SS, and I devoted solid sittings to each one (around 7 hours minimum, 15 hours or more on long sittings). I did take my time, but I wasn't standing around for dozens of hours either. This just might be the longest 3D Zelda game...or perhaps I just took my time? I 100%'d Twilight Princess and I don't think it took this long. Not that I'm complaining - this game has been the true definition of a grand "adventure".
My file is right before the "warp" in the past to Demise in the "goddess realm". These are from what I understand the only things left for my 100% file, and things some of you might have missed too.
100% file? What you may have missed:
- Glittering Spores: In Faron Woods, slash a glittering mushroom, then you can take an empty bottle and swipe it next to the glittering mushrooms. I was always wondering what their importance was, but just figured it'd be explained later (like the missing eye bird statue in Skyloft). I once tried swiping the net next to them, but nothing happened. There is I believe one hint to this, perhaps from a Gossip Stone late in the game, but I was confused at it. Note: you can also get "Mushroom Spores" from swiping normal mushrooms then using an empty bottle next to it, but it's only 1 use instead of 5 for Glittering Spores and doesn't seem to have a sparkling effect, may not last as long either. http://www.zeldawiki.org/Glittering_Spores
- Max out the Bomb Bag/Seed Satchel/Quiver: I was wondering why the bazaar shop has an unlimited supply of these, and it's because you can have as many as you want, and what I didn't find out until now, is that you can upgrade them twice, the same way you can upgrade shields/items/etc.
- Get 43 cuts or more in Peater's "Clean Cut" minigame on Bamboo Island. From what I understand there's no unique item for doing this, but you more than likely get some unique dialogue and of course a new record set. I've practiced a lot of techniques here and only able to get in the mid-30s, perhaps I'll try another time, but not the biggest deal since it's not required technically for a "100% file".
- Find the secret "shop" in Skyloft: At night, if you go inside Waterfall Cave, there's butterflies. Play the harp and a special Gossip Stone that sells the rarest tier of treasures appears.
- Get under par time on all Silent Realms in the Thunder Dragon's Lightning Round. There is no prize for these other than a Goddess Plume (your first time doing it at least). After many tries and doing Lanayru Desert under 4min15sec, I discovered there's no unique prizes there. Arguably by some harder than the 8-straight "boss rush" for the Hylian Shield.
- Last Dowsing target I'm missing one Dowsing target (NOT including the top event-specific one), it's the one on the straight left. You have to talk to people to get them to show up, and I can't figure out which one this is or who to talk to.
edit: Actually I'm not missing any, the straight left one is a sidequest slot, and the top one is a main quest slot ( http://www.zeldawiki.org/File:Dowsing_All_targets_aquired.png )
- Make sure all Shiekah Stone entries say "Clear!" The only thing I was missing was to draw all the designs on the Goddess Walls, was just missing the circle (for bombs) one. You obviously can't make the Demise battle hint one say "Clear!" though since you can't save once you enter that battle.
- Hero Mode. The normal game took me long enough to 100%, I have no intention of playing all over again just due to enemies doing a little more damage. I could handle it, but do I want to right now? Not now.
I've read in the guide (I bought the guide and never looked at it til AFTER I beat the game...hey, guilty pleasure of the old days of just skimming through guides and seeing pretty pictures on the toilet for example) that there are "new dialogues" in Hero Mode, among other "secrets". What are these differences?
Beyond those little tidbits I believe I have a 100% file and everything done. Anything else you think I forgot, please say so.
Right now I'm listening to the 25th Anniversary orchestral CD that came with the Gold Remote bundle copies and I believe all relatively first-run copies, although I've read new copies are still sold with the CD (and shiny gold foil cover in NA at least). One thing I'd like to point out is that all of the music here is only from 3D Zelda games. While some of the best, some of the best were also present in 2D games like Link's Awakening or Link to the Past. Although there's some LTTP song sequences thrown in. Hopefully next game, we see a return of the LoZ/LTTP/LA style Link design (perhaps even in 3D) - besides "Celda" look, all the 3D Zeldas have been variations of the look established in OOT. Hopefully the selections of the 8 tracks to be on this CD (only 3D game tracks) aren't representative of what Nintendo thinks of the 2D games in terms of their importance in future games.
Story and timeline implications:
I have to say, before playing this, I was thinking it'd be more like a "Twlight Princess 2" and offer the same type of overall game and storyline as WW and TP have. But I was wrong - not only is this game arguably much longer in length and better overall than WW and TP in my opinion, but SS does incredibly important things to the timeline and overall story of the franchise, since probably OOT. This game does some very, very important stuff.
I feel that the experience and the story (and what it does to the series timeline as a whole) was too important for me to not make this thread. That sequence after Link re-emerged into the "real world" after the battle with Demise, as Fi was saying goodbye and that she'd meet Link again in "another life", I almost shed a tear - not because of the sadness of it, but the implications that things like this mean for the timeline - that is THE first time the true Master Sword was set in stone, and the thought that her spirit lives on as future Links wield it in games like LTTP and OOT, games that we have grown with; future Links who are very much the same "spirit" as this (supposedly) first Link, it took a weight off there. I always disliked the "different Link" approach to the timeline, but when you know it is the very same "spirit" deep down, you feel like you really are playing the same character each time. This scene really re-established that greatly. Also, just wanted to add Ghirihim is a nice nod to the "big bad guy" right hand master magician very much like LTTP's Agahim (sp?) is.
From what I understand, Nintendo has gone and set Skyward Sword as the very first in the series. There's been some very important and shocking tidbits about the timeline and story revealed in SS, and many things are being established here but not necessarily said.
One of the main questions that have been lingering in my mind...the "world" of SS.
So, we see in Twilight Princess, it the Faron, Eldin, Lanayru province names were still in motion, although at that point the world was renamed "Hyrule" (there are no mentions of it in SS). I notice that the "surface world" map of SS is very much in-tune with OOT: Lanayru is around the same area as Gerudo Desert, Faron near Kokiri, Eldin near Death Mountain. I don't think it's coincidence obviously. But I see that the Master Sword is set in stone in the Sealed Temple, which is in Faron (Kokiri Forest), southeast of the map. You have OOT, where the Master Sword is set in stone in the Temple of Time near the north/center of the map. In Link to the Past the Master Sword is in a forest, but that's in the northwest. Perhaps Faron=Kokiri=LTTP's Lost Woods, despite it's location on LTTP's map? The "Temple of Time" in SS is located in the Lanayru Desert. Perhaps over time, that portion of Lanayru becomes normal ground and Hyrule Castle/Market Town (as seen in OOT) is built around that area? If this is true, then what game explains how the Master Sword being set in the woods area transitions over there?
Some other lingering tidbits, such as Gondo (Scrap Shop) and his mother having dark skin and his grandfather's robot (Scrapper) indicate their origin are from Lanayru and keys you in on how long ago exactly the goddess sent the land of people up to the sky.
Also a mystery of Lanayru: when you hit a Timestone and are in the ancient times, there's multiple questions I have...how much into the past is it compared to the past you enter via the Time Gate, the "advanced" Bokobins that are in the past - could this be a reference that humanity (and erm, monsters here too) was at once time very advanced, but due to unnamed events, reverted to more primitive ways? Could this be a hint that the Legend of Zelda timeline takes place AFTER our modern times?
Strange similarities
I noticed some strange similarities between elements in this game and other games in the series. Some may be just me, but some may be intentional. If you guys know anything, please say so.- Old Impa's "robe" shape bears a resemblence to Zant's helmet in Twilight Princess
- The LD-301 robots in Lanayru Province - their helmets bear resemblence to Midna's in Twilight Princess
- The Sailcloth - is this the same cloth that is eventually used as a sail on the boat in Wind Waker? The design is slightly different (more swirled in WW), but that may just be this game's art style "take" on it.
What could have been
- Dark World - Before going to the otherworldly realm to fight Demise, you are put to sleep in the crystal (like Zelda was) for whatever reason for about 10 years while in the ancient world, and re-awaken in a dark world enslaved by Demise. The entire skyloft and surface world are different, tweaked versions (like LTTP's Dark World variant). You would go on to collect (ideally) three key items/three dungeons to "unlock" the pathway to the realm Demise resides in. There would be one last final dungeon. On top of that, perhaps another phase or two in the Demise battle, because I thought it was a little short and anti-climatic.
I really enjoyed the part of the game when Faron Woods was entirely flooded, jut think of drastic changes like that to all the other areas in a "Dark World".
This would have added another perhaps 30%-40% on to the length of the game, not that it's short by any means, just saying that making these Dark World tweaks on top of existing assets wouldn't have taken up too much more space thus allowed a longer game at the same time conserving disc space.
- More sidequests/events - Since I was going for a 100% file, after every "key event" (post-dungeon) I talked to every person in Skyloft, both day and night, as well as on Pumpkin Landing, Beedle day/night, etc. I found that a lot of the time, there were no new events, and if so, only one every dungeon or two. I feel there was a lot of potential that was missed with many characters giving you sidequests - you could have done a fetch quest for Piper gathering rare ingredients, quests for the man eating at the bazaar/Lumpy Pumpkin at night, etc. I actually enjoyed the early sidequest where you had to deliver the Hot Pumpkin Soup to the knight instructor in time - things like that made the sky realm feel much more connected and aware of eachother.
This also ties into the next "could have been":
- More islands in the sky instead of tons useless boulders - When I first got the ability to ride the Skyloft and explore the "sky world map", I was in awe. There were dozens and dozens of seemingly new, explorable islands just in my view - what lied in the horizons I could only assume were dozens and dozens more. But upon closer inspection they were just useless suspended boulders to I guess make it look like more of a world with things in it. Alright, I figured later on maybe new islands would "appear". As I progressed through the game, I was wrong (besides the 2 "big" islands inside the Thunderhead). I was very disappointed, because I was looking forward to this being the "sky" take on Wind Waker's ocean. The ocean in WW felt very huge, and there was of course way more explorable islands. In essence, besides Skyloft, which isn't necessarily huge in itself, you are left with only a handful of "real" islands, almost all of which are small and only 2-3 only contain one-room "houses".
Having a sky world the same size as it is but just with 10-20 more "real" islands with people on them (it'd also help for them to be a little bigger than little circle sized islands with a tiny one-room house) and things to do would have easily added on to the replay value of the game by many hours.
Well, that's all off the top of my head right now. I just couldn't complete the game and shelve it, I had to get some things off my chest.
I read sometimes on GAF people claiming that they were disappointed and I have no idea how. This game not only does shockingly important things to the timeline/franchise, but as a product in itself, I feel it's superior to WW/TP were. Not OOT/LA/MM/LTTP territory, but definitely a very high ranking and important title in the series to me.
Anyway, off to spend a day reading Zelda wikis then.