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LTTP: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

See that's what I'm talking about, the sword controls for TP are completely arbitrary. They might have as well (should have) just mapped it to a button. People's minds are so accustomed to thinking "press a button the same thing happens the same every time."
Shaking the remote only trick you into thinking you're actually doing something different.


The IR pointing for TP, that's another story. That actually added a lot to the game.

It was the IR pointing that impressed me the most really. I wanted to skip to the part in SS where you got the Bow.

I wouldn't particularly mind another motion controlled Zelda, I just don't see why button controls should be counted out from Zelda games forever either.
 
Fixed. I would love this.

I agree and would welcome that with open arms. I'm just saying I would be happy enough with getting rid of the tedious stuff.

And I think Wind Waker would be just as suitable for this type of thing, maybe even more so. Imagine adding those unfinished dungeons, and faster sailing (aka loading times).
 
It was the IR pointing that impressed me the most really. I wanted to skip to the part in SS where you got the Bow.

I wouldn't particularly mind another motion controlled Zelda, I just don't see why button controls should be counted out from Zelda games forever either.

Yeah, I mean if they find a way to incorporate something else innovative over the sword controls, then yeah they should go with the buttons. Otherwise, seeing how Zelda has a lot of focus on Swordplay it makes sense to give the player a deep experience in that area.

I agree and would welcome that with open arms. I'm just saying I would be happy enough with getting rid of the tedious stuff.

And I think Wind Waker would be just as suitable for this type of thing, maybe even more so. Imagine adding those unfinished dungeons, and faster sailing (aka loading times).

Oh my... :O If they ever did that, I don't think I could keep myself from exploding from joy.
 
I bought the game upon PAL release last year, I loved everything about it bar the overworld; I thought the overworld was bland, boring and not varied enough. Even that from Skies of Arcadia does a much better job IMO. In every other respect though SS is legendary.
 
She also show's a bit of a personality when you say
you don't want to ask the robot to help you carry the basin
.

If you get her to give you info on specific characters or items, she sometimes gives an amusing response. One I remember is if you ask her to identify a fairy, she says that "there's a 6% that it could be a type of bug", or something like that. Well, I thought it was funny, anyways...
 
I liked the sword controls in Twilight Princess. Skyward Sword is a perfect example of people not wanting what they think they want*. In Twilight Princess, because it was early in Wii's life cycle, there was a novelty to the waggle which, while offering nothing in terms of game design, made the game feel different and helped you feel slightly more bad ass when using the sword**. In Skyward Sword, what happened is they designed the combat around the limitations of what a remote control can realistically portray, which means 99% of the time you're standing still, waiting for the EXPOSED WEAK SPOT~! and then slashing in a certain direction (with a 75% chance of the game recognising it correctly). So what at one point made you feel powerful ended up resulting in boring, repetitive combat that slowed down the pace and limited the amount of enemies you were exposed to.

I hate Skyward Sword. I really do. I like some aspects of it and some ideas it had, but the controls are just one of many issues I have. Twilight Princess I still think is probably the best game in the series.




*I know some people like the controls. I'd say most don't, but you're entitled to disagree
**yes, in retrospect there's nothing bad ass about waggling
 
I played a first part of this game on the Wii on my 60 inch TV and the second part via Dolphin. It became something magical as soon as I switched to Dolphin. So awesome!

The ending boss fight was a bitch though...
 
It can be a bit of a slog at times. Took me a while to finish.

I *do* like how the game slowly teaches you how to be a better swordsman. After you beat the first boss you think you're so good, but then you get to the next sword fighting boss and start back at zero as it introduces more advanced sword techniques.

Slightly spoilerish:

I really think, though, that the time mechanic used in the desert portions of the game should have been THE mechanic the entire game was based around, allowing you to gradually upgrade your powers and expanding the player's ability to control it, using the control over time as a weapon even (aging things to death), etc.

Whenever I left the desert the other areas felt flat and lifeless by comparison. Being able to experience every area of the map across multiple eras could have been really cool (forest could have been a polar region in the past, etc.).
 
I liked the sword controls in Twilight Princess. Skyward Sword is a perfect example of people not wanting what they think they want*. In Twilight Princess, because it was early in Wii's life cycle, there was a novelty to the waggle which, while offering nothing in terms of game design, made the game feel different and helped you feel slightly more bad ass when using the sword**. In Skyward Sword, what happened is they designed the combat around the limitations of what a remote control can realistically portray, which means 99% of the time you're standing still, waiting for the EXPOSED WEAK SPOT~! and then slashing in a certain direction (with a 75% chance of the game recognising it correctly). So what at one point made you feel powerful ended up resulting in boring, repetitive combat that slowed down the pace and limited the amount of enemies you were exposed to.

The best moment for sword controls was the
boss in the 4th temple. You could pick up his massive sword and swing it at him and break him to pieces.
I felt like a boss taking that guy down. There was something special there that was never fully realised.

Also, why on earth did they drop IR pointer aiming? That worked way better than the motion alternative.
 
Yeah in the minute or two it took me to realize why I was totally befuddled over why the bow and arrow in the game with motion controls as an after thought felt so much better than in the game built up from the ground floor with them.
 
If the next Zelda game doesn't use the circle pad for movement and a button for Link's sword... what's wrong with that Nintendo? Really, using a stylus/Wiimote isn't innovation, it's just not as accurate and hurts your arm.

Maybe they should just throw another warning sign at the beginning of the game instructing you that you can use light wrist movements.
 
Good:
Combat
Dungeons
Groose

Bad:
Mostly bland artstyle
No exploration
SILENT REALMS WHYYYYY

I really enjoyed it, but to me it didn't feel like something that took five years to make. I really hope the Wii U Zelda expands on the controls and combat of SS though.
 
I liked the sword controls in Twilight Princess. Skyward Sword is a perfect example of people not wanting what they think they want*. In Twilight Princess, because it was early in Wii's life cycle, there was a novelty to the waggle which, while offering nothing in terms of game design, made the game feel different and helped you feel slightly more bad ass when using the sword**. In Skyward Sword, what happened is they designed the combat around the limitations of what a remote control can realistically portray, which means 99% of the time you're standing still, waiting for the EXPOSED WEAK SPOT~! and then slashing in a certain direction (with a 75% chance of the game recognising it correctly). So what at one point made you feel powerful ended up resulting in boring, repetitive combat that slowed down the pace and limited the amount of enemies you were exposed to.

I hate Skyward Sword. I really do. I like some aspects of it and some ideas it had, but the controls are just one of many issues I have. Twilight Princess I still think is probably the best game in the series.




*I know some people like the controls. I'd say most don't, but you're entitled to disagree
**yes, in retrospect there's nothing bad ass about waggling
but most people like the controls....
 
I didn't like the controls at all. They weren't very precise. Frustrating. Couldn't play any longer so I stopped.
And maybe it's just me, but games with motion controls get tedious very fast. The novelty wears off very quick for me and it just gets tedious instead. Especially when the controls don't work accordingly.

Just give me traditional controls Zelda please. Thanks.
 
I already replayed it in hero mode. Though there's lots of things that I enjoyed (I even thought going back to the first dungeon was good) and there's some aspects that are the best in the series, it just doesn't leave the greatest impression on me. Maybe because it doesn't have a proper overworld and minor annoyances. Or because it really doesn't feel like a game that has been in development for 5 years.
 
The game did have one thing going for it: made a nice profit on ebay after spending about 8 miserable hours with it. Very frustrating to have to sell a new release in one of my favorite series within a week of release. Even looking past the motion controls, nothing in the first 8 hours felt very compelling. A shame...
 
I remember when that first piece of concept art in the style of Twilight Princess was put out. I thought you were going to get a cool story about an ancient spirit that dwelt within the Master Sword. Instead, I got a shitty maid robot who ground the game to a stop with banal "humans are so illogical" observations and spoke in percentages and other generic "brzrt-click" robot cliches. Hated the entire concept and execution of the character. The singing animation where she just wobbles her open mouth was also surprisingly bad for a game of SS's production value.
 
Instead of manually animating the mouth movement like they did in every other instance in the game they decided to have her mouth open in time with the music. They really should have seen the idea didn't work as planned.
 
I remember when that first piece of concept art in the style of Twilight Princess was put out. I thought you were going to get a cool story about an ancient spirit that dwelt within the Master Sword.

Oh man, now I remember that. I wished they had stuck with that art direction.



1046031-fullzelda.jpg
 
The game did have one thing going for it: made a nice profit on ebay after spending about 8 miserable hours with it. Very frustrating to have to sell a new release in one of my favorite series within a week of release. Even looking past the motion controls, nothing in the first 8 hours felt very compelling. A shame...

Did you remember to calibrate the Wii remote? Sometimes the controls were off, all I had to do was go to the menu and calibrate again and it was perfect after. Also the game gets better later on(for me) Excellent dungeon designs
 
I played a first part of this game on the Wii on my 60 inch TV and the second part via Dolphin. It became something magical as soon as I switched to Dolphin. So awesome!

The ending boss fight was a bitch though...
I played on Dolphin first and it really was incredible.
 
Did you remember to calibrate the Wii remote? Sometimes the controls were off, all I had to do was go to the menu and calibrate again and it was perfect after. Also the game gets better later on(for me) Excellent dungeon designs

I had to constantly calibrate it. Plus the cool, necessary uses of motion controls (1:1 sword swinging) were far outweighed by unnecessary, obtrusive uses ( flying, climbing ladders, balancing, others) that were all too unwieldy and inconsistent for my tastes. I watched videos of later areas that looked pretty cool, but the beginning of the game and the first dungeon or two were just...totally dry to me. Looking forward to Zelda U.
 
I stopped playing somewhere after the third dungeon. My thoughts:

I really liked the art style and the music.

I hate the controls. I died three times on that scorpion thing because the game would just refuse to recognise the forward stab.

Didn't like the whole find your way to the dungeon area around it. Rather have a full world to explore and just fixed dungeon areas.

Dowsing. fuck it.

Really liked the beatle, so versatile

The dungeons and area design just didn't click with me. Hated the area with the sand. Especially the part where you do something with advancing time.

Unmemorable so far, can even remember the above situation.

Liked the upgrade system.

Edit: Oh and fuck that companion thing. Vii or something?

Edit2: I did like thos animal thingys in the forest area. Those squirel like things, too bad they didn't return in the dungeon in some way like the monkeys in TP
 
I remember when that first piece of concept art in the style of Twilight Princess was put out. I thought you were going to get a cool story about an ancient spirit that dwelt within the Master Sword. Instead, I got a shitty maid robot who ground the game to a stop with banal "humans are so illogical" observations and spoke in percentages and other generic "brzrt-click" robot cliches. Hated the entire concept and execution of the character. The singing animation where she just wobbles her open mouth was also surprisingly bad for a game of SS's production value.

They completely ruined what could have been an amazing origin story. There were a few really good moments, but those are completely shadowed by the crappy vial of apathy everyone seems to posses in this game. No one seems to care what is going on. Everything feels very anti-climactic.
 
I had put SS down for the longest time even though I only had about five hours left to play and I finally beat it a few weeks ago. The final 5 hours were truly phenomenal. I played through those final hours in one sitting. I still have a few issues with the game mostly in terms of how padded it feels but it really is great.

edit: I want to know what environment people who didn't like the controls were playing in. Bright lights and aiming the wiimote at said lights would totally fuck shit up. I learned to play in a darker environment and I had no problems with the controls save for the fact that they used motion plus instead of ir for aiming.
 
A lot of parts of this game felt like a chore to me. Especially having to go through the first dungeon again and collecting tadtones. My favorite part of the game was probably the Ancient Cistern. Both the dungeon and the boss were phenomenal. Overall, I didn't like this game as much as the other 3D Zelda games. A lot of parts were great, but a lot of other parts were just plain boring. The quality isn't very consistent.

I agree with the people who were disappointed by Fi. Her design is great, and the part at the beginning where you follow her was beautiful. Unfortunately she turns out to be a pretty bland character. She is constantly repeating the obvious including things that other characters just said about 5 seconds earlier. Combined with the slow text speed, it just made her really irritating.
 
I had to constantly calibrate it. Plus the cool, necessary uses of motion controls (1:1 sword swinging) were far outweighed by unnecessary, obtrusive uses ( flying, climbing ladders, balancing, others) that were all too unwieldy and inconsistent for my tastes. I watched videos of later areas that looked pretty cool, but the beginning of the game and the first dungeon or two were just...totally dry to me. Looking forward to Zelda U.

Hopefully Zelda U will be more to your liking. I'm personally hoping for some changes too, like more freedom and exploring, less holding your hand bits while keeping the charm of Zelda games.
 
I haven't played past the first five hours, it was just so boring I don't know if I could ever go back. And nay on the controls.

This is my first Zelda as well.
 
The music and artstyle was FANTASTIC. Everything else was boring. I gave up around the first dungeon, will restart now.
 
Not surprising considering your inexplicable love for anything nintendo. Your overall sentiment with the game as a whole is in agreement with someone who has only beat first dungeon? Seriously this is getting remarkably over the top. Havin tolerance for this game's many flaws is one thing; turning a blin eye to them and convincin youself they don't exist is blind fanboyism at its best.

On topic: by and large the biggest disappointment i have played this gen. I had to force my way up until 6th dungeon and then just couldn't take it anymore. This is nintendo phoning it in with the padding fetch quests, repeated enviroments we've seen in past games, repetitive gameplay, unmemorable music, unnecessary flying sections...all of it. This is lackluster at its best.

dude...
 
Loved the game, I had no issues with the motion controls, they worked perfectly for me. Loved the dungeon design in the game, and totally dug the way they handled upgraded equipment. I hope a lot of what they did carries over to the next game in the series.
 
Not surprising considering your inexplicable love for anything nintendo. Your overall sentiment with the game as a whole is in agreement with someone who has only beat first dungeon? Seriously this is getting remarkably over the top. Havin tolerance for this game's many flaws is one thing; turning a blin eye to them and convincin youself they don't exist is blind fanboyism at its best.

On topic: by and large the biggest disappointment i have played this gen. I had to force my way up until 6th dungeon and then just couldn't take it anymore. This is nintendo phoning it in with the padding fetch quests, repeated enviroments we've seen in past games, repetitive gameplay, unmemorable music, unnecessary flying sections...all of it. This is lackluster at its best.

I pretty much have the opposite opinion about this game. Gameplay wise, it's my favourite in the series. I had zero problems with the controls, which surprised me. It probably has my favourite dungeon design in the series and I loved all the environments, especially the desert. The game had a slight Metroid vibe to it with returning to previous areas with new abilities so you could discover new paths, which I loved! The fetch quests were a good excuse to run around and see every little nook and cranny of the environment, which I would've done regardless.
The music I'd honestly say is my favourite in the series. The various versions of the main theme and Fi's theme, the flying theme, the Sand Sea, Lumpy Pumpkin, Boss themes etc were all great and very memorable.

It had some small flaws (Fi, repeatedly fighting the Imprisoned) but they never bothered me all that much. It's easily in my top 3 Zelda games, along with Majora and Links Awakening. It's a far cry from the massive disappointment that was Twilight Princess.
 
I liked it. There were some flaws (e.g. some filler, overworld limitations), but nothing that totally drowned out the experience for me. I didn't have any problems with the controls once I figured them out (though rolling bombs was annoying). Only flapping the bird's wings ever seemed to tire my arm a bit since it required a stronger movement than everything else.

Cutscenes were very well done, characters were nice, boss fights were great (except for the easy scorpion), and the game was overall fun.

I don't know if I care whether the next game uses motion controls in the same way. Right now I expect they'll keep Zelda mainly using the Wiimote, but will incorporate the UPad in some way (e.g. used for something to point the Wiimote at for certain purposes).
 
First half is pretty bad and boring. The second temple is a joke and FI is the most annoying sidekick ever. The music did nothing for me in the first half either. But the second part till the end is much much better in my opinion. The music, the design, everything. For me it was like a second team programmed it. I'm glad I was able to stick around.

Btw this was my first Wii game, since I feel obligated to play every Zelda game that comes out and I had no problems whatsoever with the controls. They work fine period.
 
I did liked the dungeons very much.
The motion controls in the game was also a nice evolution.
I don't have any complaints about the art style.

However if they create some dark art style such as zelda tp again, then i would like to see another kind of art direction. Huge views but smaller paths. The environment has to be filled instead of having a huge landscape without having many objects in it. Bit more fantasy with moving objects (trees thunder water...) which make the whole environment come to live. They already did a good job with zelda ss, but it's still far away from what could be done.

But what i do hate with zelda ss & zelda tp is the collection part.
Such as :
http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki...nd-of-zelda-skyward-sword/c/c4/Sword_5075.jpg
and
http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki...nd-of-zelda-skyward-sword/c/c4/Sword_5075.jpg

It feels like they did it to extend the duration of the game.

I would rater see that they implement a idea like :
Like zelda lttp, there is a (master)sword in a stone. Around this "sword in the stone", there are 9 monster statues. When link is pulling the sword out of the stone, the 9 strange monster statues become alive at full moon. They will rule the overworld (again only when it's full moon), and hunt you down.(towns are afraid of those and will close their homes) As soon when you collected a triforce peace after completing one of the dungeons, you'll be able to kill one of them, but you'll have to find which one.
(You can see that part a little bit like lords of the rings)

And finally : they should make training things optional which would not be related to the story of the game.
I rater would like to see to start a adventure a little bit isolated. Such as zelda lttp. Starting from a home alone somewhere in the woods moving to the big hyrule castle through thunder and rain.
 
this game is riddled with ancient design and programming:

  • why oh why does the game always pop up the extended screen when you gather bugs/items every session - I would love to grab the person who okayed this and throttle him/her
  • again - why oh why does it repeat so much text that is not skippable - for example when buying potions etc - please someone find the person who okayed this and f him/her up
  • why is there no checkpoint/auto save??? wtf? is this 1992?
  • fi is annoying as shit, her voice and character - I preferred the fairies
  • omg those collect tears lvl - just a chore, no fun at all - whotf were the testers??
as good as Nintendo is, a good chunk of them are stuck in the past

god how I would love to see a Zelda game done by a team with the talents of rocksteady or santa monica or something. fuck Nintendo's old ass teams.
 
this game is riddled with ancient design and programming:

  • why oh why does the game always pop up the extended screen when you gather bugs/items every session - I would love to grab the person who okayed this and throttle him/her
  • again - why oh why does it repeat so much text that is not skippable - for example when buying potions etc - please someone find the person who okayed this and f him/her up
  • why is there no checkpoint/auto save??? wtf? is this 1992?
  • fi is annoying as shit, her voice and character - I preferred the fairies
  • omg those collect tears lvl - just a chore, no fun at all - whotf were the testers??
as good as Nintendo is, a good chunk of them are stuck in the past

god how I would love to see a Zelda game done by a team with the talents of rocksteady or santa monica or something. fuck Nintendo's old ass teams.

All these complaints have nothing to do with Nintendo being stuck in the past though.I really don't get that.
 
I have fun playing this game, but it really lacks an impression on me and has way too many flaws and odd design decisions that it turns me off the idea of replaying it. It's an enjoyable game, but it's nowhere near my favorites of the series.
 
Hopefully a one month bump isn't too frowned upon.

Spoilers ahoy, you've been warned.

Jesus fucking Christ the padding. The hateful, drudgery of endless fetch quests.

I just hit the 40 hour mark and now Im being asked to collect music notes......under water.......that move....

Did anyone making this game ask if this shit was fun? Why would you do this?

Also the hand holding isn't just annoying, it doesn't even make sense. For instance you have a life bar. It's a clear, ever present representation of your health. Now if that wasn't enough, when your health gets low, it makes a beeping sound. Completely unnecessary, but its been around for a long time so I tend to forget about it. But that still isn't enough. Now Fi even starts to beep and when I bring her up, what does she say? You're low on health. I FUCKING KNOW!

Also, the amount of hand holding on controls and puzzles seems to be aimed a players who are completely unfamiliar with videogames. Trying to bring in new players isn't necessarily a bad thing but the complexity the game exhibits in terms of its dungeons and larger battles is simply beyond what players of that skill level would be able to handle. You could teach my mother the various ways to swing the sword but theres no chance in hell she'd ever clear a dungeon on her own. So who exactly is the hand holding for?


Just gotta push on to put this game behind me.
 
Not surprising considering your inexplicable love for anything nintendo. Your overall sentiment with the game as a whole is in agreement with someone who has only beat first dungeon? Seriously this is getting remarkably over the top. Havin tolerance for this game's many flaws is one thing; turning a blin eye to them and convincin youself they don't exist is blind fanboyism at its best.


what flaws? Maybe I didn't find them as much game-breaking as some of the people who complain about them. Maybe those are the ones who are overblowing the actual issues of the game because they can't tolerate this or that. That's their problem, not mine. I've stated my opinion about the game many times, and since I was able to greatly enjoy it, I will find myself in agreement with those who share the same feelings

and yes, I love Nintendo. I played their games for 25 years and will keep doing it as long as the quality is there. I have criticized Nintendo a lot in some of my posts, but maybe you didn't notice. If you're that bothered with the attitude you can put me in your ignore list

and another thing: calling me a fanboy doesn't offend me in the slightest. At least I am a fan of great games
 
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