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How many copies will The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword sell?

How many copies will TLoZ: SS sell?


  • Total voters
    215

Marty-McFly

Banned
The results are fairly even. It’s difficult to pinpoint Skyward Sword’s sales tbh. Given its history, fans have had mixed feelings about it and rightfully so. But it’s an okay game and a Zelda game nonetheless so it should sell many copies based off the prestige there and how great all of the games are

Even though it’s my least favorite Zelda game and I would argue probably that objectively it’s one of the laziest installments in the series, I still sort of want to play it at some point just to go through the story and better understand the lore
It's selling so fast it's like people think it's the sequel to BOTW, which they probably do because nobody knew the Wii U existed.
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
Care to elaborate?
These are the things that struck me as very poorly carried out by the development team

-There are only two Gorons maybe three shoehorned into the game
-Kikwis are a forgettable race, as are the sea creatures in the latter portion of the game (Mogmas are cool though, and the writing to their characters left a little bit of an impression)
-Overworld is linear to the point where the player is in an area to accomplish some tasks, there isn’t a whole lot of content for the player in any given part or area of the game outside of Skyloft to intimately explore. It’s essentially, you’re here, you need to do something, enjoy the scenery and complete the task
-Zelda’s father is rather nonchalant about her abduction when you speak with him and there is no urgency to his character about the matter. At one point, you can even sneak into his quarters while he is just sitting in a hot tub doing literally fucking nothing but sitting in a hot tub. No pondering captions about Zelda’s health or safety or whereabouts. Just him. Sitting in a hot tub. Abysmal character development. Outside of a bit of scholarly work on his part, he does nothing to motivate, inspire, or guide Link on his courageous mission to rescue his daughter, Zelda
-Demise’s design is almost Akuma exactly
-Fi is the spirit of the Master Sword yet she looks like a manakin that would be displayed outside an Avon Perfume store for women in a mall or something. Wtf is that shit?
-Fi’s character is drab and annoying, not personable at all. Very poor writing and very little imaginative effort went into her character
-Ghirahim is fought like four times
-The boss to the Lanayru Mining Facility later becomes fodder as you fight a scorpion just like it later in the game; of course defeating it without much issue at that point
-Scaldera…this boss fight is a spastic flaming boulder with arms and legs…
-Tentulus boss fight looks like something out of Monsters Inc

There are probably more, way more to point out but I haven’t played this game since its release year in 2011
 

kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
These are the things that struck me as very poorly carried out by the development team

-There are only two Gorons maybe three shoehorned into the game
-Kikwis are a forgettable race, as are the sea creatures in the latter portion of the game (Mogmas are cool though, and the writing to their characters left a little bit of an impression)
-Overworld is linear to the point where the player is in an area to accomplish some tasks, there isn’t a whole lot of content for the player in any given part or area of the game outside of Skyloft to intimately explore. It’s essentially, you’re here, you need to do something, enjoy the scenery and complete the task
-Zelda’s father is rather nonchalant about her abduction when you speak with him and there is no urgency to his character about the matter. At one point, you can even sneak into his quarters while he is just sitting in a hot tub doing literally fucking nothing but sitting in a hot tub. No pondering captions about Zelda’s health or safety or whereabouts. Just him. Sitting in a hot tub. Abysmal character development. Outside of a bit of scholarly work on his part, he does nothing to motivate, inspire, or guide Link on his courageous mission to rescue his daughter, Zelda
-Demise’s design is almost Akuma exactly
-Fi is the spirit of the Master Sword yet she looks like a manakin that would be displayed outside an Avon Perfume store for women in a mall or something. Wtf is that shit?
-Fi’s character is drab and annoying, not personable at all. Very poor writing and very little imaginative effort went into her character
-Ghirahim is fought like four times
-The boss to the Lanayru Mining Facility later becomes fodder as you fight a scorpion just like it later in the game; of course defeating it without much issue at that point
-Scaldera…this boss fight is a spastic flaming boulder with arms and legs…
-Tentulus boss fight looks like something out of Monsters Inc

There are probably more, way more to point out but I haven’t played this game since its release year in 2011
I see a lot of your personal opinions about design choices but I'm not seeing much about how the game is "objectively lazy". I think many of the criticisms you made would also apply in ways to the entries that preceded it.

I can understand it not being your favorite entry and I can totally see your points even if I don't feel the same, but I don't get the "lazy" part when the game is still well polished (Wii) and has a standard "Zelda" amount of content.

Since you are considering playing it, just know, the motion controls work on the switch, but are poorly implemented most of the time. For example, firing the bow is horrible, but flying the beetle is fine. The non motion controls aren't great either. For reference I loved the Wii release and had no complaints at all about the controls with the motion plus controller that was bundled in with the game.
 

FR1908

Neo Member
It's selling so fast it's like people think it's the sequel to BOTW, which they probably do because nobody knew the Wii U existed.
Especially now that the BOTW2 trailer has the same 'falling from the sky' scene as falling on a Loftwing in Skyward Sword. Nintendo's marketing machine?
 
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Cutty Flam

Banned
I see a lot of your personal opinions about design choices but I'm not seeing much about how the game is "objectively lazy". I think many of the criticisms you made would also apply in ways to the entries that preceded it.

I can understand it not being your favorite entry and I can totally see your points even if I don't feel the same, but I don't get the "lazy" part when the game is still well polished (Wii) and has a standard "Zelda" amount of content.

Since you are considering playing it, just know, the motion controls work on the switch, but are poorly implemented most of the time. For example, firing the bow is horrible, but flying the beetle is fine. The non motion controls aren't great either. For reference I loved the Wii release and had no complaints at all about the controls with the motion plus controller that was bundled in with the game.
Most of what I stated in those points is true, there's nothing to really refute aside from the second one, and the last one which are both pretty much opinions when I gave the bare minimum like that. If I'm to expand on those points, it would become clear that SS is lacking in comparison to the others. And I strongly, strongly disagree. Maybe you can find some similarities with Fi and Navi if you disliked Navi, but if you think otherwise then I'd like to hear some of your thoughts on the earlier Zeldas. Every single 3D TLoZ game that precedes Skyward Sword is worlds greater IMO and offers a lot more in almost every category across the board. Even compared to the previous 3D Zelda game in Twilight Princess, we as fans received much less than what was in TP. I have to question why, and every time I come to the same conclusion: something went wrong during the game’s development. It might have been due to the way in which Wii games were developed? I’m not sure, it’s only a guess. But SS is by far the weakest 3D Zelda game imo

Thanks for the info too, I would never consider playing with motion controls though. Will definitely be turning them off during a second playthrough. Oldschool controller is always preferred, have never been a fan in the slightest with what motion controls offer in gaming tbh. I always felt like that gimmick took away from the Zelda games
 

Kjtc1979

Member
I am a huge Zelda fan, and even I quit Skyward Sword Wii after one dungeon. I’m currently finishing the Ancient Cistern in the HD remake.

I am enjoying the story and the world building, and I like the new items. It all feels very restricting compared to BOTW, and feels even more linear than earlier 3D Zeldas. But it turns out there was a decent game under so many layers of bad choices by Nintendo the first time out.
 

kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
Most of what I stated in those points is true
Let's look at your statements:

1 partially true because you inject your opinion with "shoehorned" so you are making two statements in 1, a quantifiable amount and then an opinion on the execution.

2 Entirely opinion

3 not even sure how to evaluate this one since you use the term overworld broadly, there is the sky overworld and the 3 land overworld locations. In the sky there are mini quests, small islands to check out and mini games. On the land there are goddess cubes to find and enemies to farm items from. Each land has shortcuts to unlock and all locations have insects to collect. There is more content here than ocarina of time and wind waker...

4 You started with factual elements and then used that as a basis for an opinion.

5 don't even know what you are referring to... Also seems like your opinion?

6 again a problem you have personally, opinion

7 each encounter is different and builds toward the narrative, but you aren't wrong. This is a common game design element so I personally wouldn't classify this as lazy, but I understand your point

8 I don't think that's the first time a boss has been used again as a miniboss later in the series, but I think this is a legitimate gripe and in line with your original accusation

9 opinion

10 opinion
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Looks good? It is an upscaled wii game, and wii was basically a gamecube on roids.

It looks like shit by todays standards.
believe it or not, but some people also look at the art direction, use of color, scenery etc. to judge a game's visuals.
 

Beer Baelly

Al Pachinko, Konami President
I think this could go 5 to 6 million easily. It looks so good, some might assume it's a sequel to BOTW, not an ancestor.

Thats right. 10 year old Wii games look even better...... On Dolphin @4K60!


full
 

Deerock71

Member
Skyward Sword doesn't look like shit by any standards. Zelda's art style belies it's age with all the entries mentioned (Skyward Sword, Wind Waker, BOTW). They'll still look good a decade from now. No ray-tracing needed.
 

Bragr

Banned
Especially now that the BOTW2 trailer has the same 'falling from the sky' scene as falling on a Loftwing in Skyward Sword. Nintendo's marketing machine?
Falling from the sky down to "land" was something they tried to do in Skyward Sword but couldn't pull off, BOTW's "cloth flying" is based on that, BOTW 2 seems like it's building off the ideas they tried to do in Skyward Sword.
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
Let's look at your statements:

1 partially true because you inject your opinion with "shoehorned" so you are making two statements in 1, a quantifiable amount and then an opinion on the execution.

2 Entirely opinion

3 not even sure how to evaluate this one since you use the term overworld broadly, there is the sky overworld and the 3 land overworld locations. In the sky there are mini quests, small islands to check out and mini games. On the land there are goddess cubes to find and enemies to farm items from. Each land has shortcuts to unlock and all locations have insects to collect. There is more content here than ocarina of time and wind waker...

4 You started with factual elements and then used that as a basis for an opinion.

5 don't even know what you are referring to... Also seems like your opinion?

6 again a problem you have personally, opinion

7 each encounter is different and builds toward the narrative, but you aren't wrong. This is a common game design element so I personally wouldn't classify this as lazy, but I understand your point

8 I don't think that's the first time a boss has been used again as a miniboss later in the series, but I think this is a legitimate gripe and in line with your original accusation

9 opinion

10 opinion
Yeah you’re kind of right in a way. But I’ll never not think that this game isn’t the worst Zelda game ever made and by an extremely large margin. And it will especially never be anything other than the worst 3D Zelda game ever made IMO. If there ever comes to be 3D Zelda game worse than SS, something went terribly, terribly wrong. The only way I can se that happening is if Nintendo survived an apocoalypse, a true apocolypse that the entire earth had to suffer through and developed a Zelda game in an actual recovering post-apocalyptic world or something. That’s the only way another Zelda game as poor as SS ever comes about. Because SS dropped the ball in so many areas, that it’s exhausting even just to discuss

Like I said before in other threads, I can enjoy the game. Too big of a fan not too. But it is not up to par with other Zeldas. Not even close. SS is like a 400 lbs participant entering a marathon, it’s just so far behind the rest

I’ve only heard from a couple SS apologizers here, but it was interesting to hear their thoughts on the game
 

SantaC

Member
Skyward Sword was supposed to be blurry. The visuals are inspired by the art of Claude Monet:

street-scaled.jpg
Thats nice and all, but that doesnt make it look incredible by todays standards. But the visuals are least of the games problems. It is the worst Nintendo developed game I ever played.
 
S

SpongebobSquaredance

Unconfirmed Member
Thats nice and all, but that doesnt make it look incredible by todays standards.
Well, its highly subjective, just saying that the game being blurry is intentional as it's directly inspired by art that is blurry. The whole point was to make a game that looks washed out. It's a unique stylistic choice you may or may not like.
 
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kingpotato

Ask me about my Stream Deck
Yeah you’re kind of right in a way. But I’ll never not think that this game isn’t the worst Zelda game ever made and by an extremely large margin. And it will especially never be anything other than the worst 3D Zelda game ever made IMO. If there ever comes to be 3D Zelda game worse than SS, something went terribly, terribly wrong. The only way I can se that happening is if Nintendo survived an apocoalypse, a true apocolypse that the entire earth had to suffer through and developed a Zelda game in an actual recovering post-apocalyptic world or something. That’s the only way another Zelda game as poor as SS ever comes about. Because SS dropped the ball in so many areas, that it’s exhausting even just to discuss

Like I said before in other threads, I can enjoy the game. Too big of a fan not too. But it is not up to par with other Zeldas. Not even close. SS is like a 400 lbs participant entering a marathon, it’s just so far behind the rest

I’ve only heard from a couple SS apologizers here, but it was interesting to hear their thoughts on the game
I don't know what the criteria of a "SS apologizer" is, but I actually enjoyed the game. I agree with many of the criticisms as well.

Unpopular opinion, but I honestly feel that Twilight Princess is the weakest of the 3D console mainline entries. My gripes there center around a bland design that seemed to come from fan survey results rather than a specific creative vision. It may be the only mainline 3D entry that adds nothing to move the franchise forward.
 

Y0ssarian

Banned
I bought this game as an impulse buy but then when I started playing it I remembered why I never finished the Wii version. Link's awakening remake was good but couldn't be bothered with SS
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
It's now at 3,600,000 copies sold as of September 30th, 2021

Very surprising to see it sell so many copies this quickly tbh

It sold that many in less than two months time
 

Kjtc1979

Member
It's now at 3,600,000 copies sold as of September 30th, 2021

Very surprising to see it sell so many copies this quickly tbh

It sold that many in less than two months time
It’s crazy that Skyward Sword Wii and Skyward Sword Switch have the highest opening quarters of all Zelda games. That’s the benefit of releasing on consoles that have sold 90 million units!
 
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Dr Bass

Member
Never played much of the Wii version because I hated the motion controls. The stick controls are clunky on the Switch, but I'm enjoying it. At least my sword doesn't break.
I absolutely loved it when it released. I remember it distinctly, I beat it over the thanksgiving weekend, 4 days of 10 hours each in a row. Yeesh.

I also distinctly remember LOVING the motion controls and sword fights, but when finishing it, thinking it was a lot of work and how I would one day like to try it again if they made it adapted to just controller inputs. Obviously that day has arrived, but man I am not in the mood for another huge game right now.
 

Kjtc1979

Member
Except that it was on Wii, which everyone and their grandmother knew existed.
Yeah, Skyward Sword had two big launches because it was released several years into a very popular system’s life cycle each time. I expect the Switch version will be just as frontloaded in sales as the Wii version was.
 
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