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[Zankou]

I loved Skyward Sword. The dungeon-like overworld and the dungeons were great. I like compact worlds where you can find a lot of secrets without walking around for ages. The motion controls worked perfectly for me and I had a blast with the combat. Every enemy had its own pattern and it was exciting to try out different moves to kill them.

It is one of my favourite 3D Zeldas. I liked it much more than Twilight Princess which was a huge disappointment for me.

 

[KooopaKid]

Also :

WTF Nintendo. Amateurish design.

 

[Brainiac 8]

Making me do this to play it.
I'm not sure how good the game would have been without the motion controls, because I never made it through the first dungeon before I was sick of doing this to play:

Man, if this is how you were playing, you were doing it wrong.

You didn't have to do more than lightly flick your wrist to slash the sword. It was super easy and you could do it while your hands sat in your lap. Maybe people who had to sync constantly were waving their hands around like this too.

Either way, this is the worst way to play the game.

 

[Marlowe89]

Skyward Sword was very good at differentiating its content between the overworld and dungeons.

Not really. Your examples tell me that the pre-dungeon areas have different puzzles than the dungeons, but so do dungeons in comparison to other dungeons. This has no bearing on my argument, which primarily discusses the massive similarities in structure between the surface overworld and the actual dungeons. I think it's particularly exacerbated by the map design of surface locations - the enclosed tunnel-like layouts provide a very 'guided' experience as opposed to open layouts, which I feel harms Skyward Sword's sense of exploration a lot more than it helps. Instead of actually discovering things far from your intended location on a wide field or a vast ocean, you're stuck to a very confined path completing the same types of tasks you would in the dungeon you're trying to reach. I think it starts to feel mundane pretty quickly. It's awfully homogeneous and makes the otherwise fantastic dungeons themselves feel a little less unique from the rest of the game. Saturating the surface with extremely linear puzzles made me feel less excited to scavenge what I thought was ultimately just needless busywork, and while The Sky attempted to compensate for that, I think it failed pretty spectacularly. There were only three themes for the surface areas, all three of which forced you to revisit them later in the game, and the fact that it was all segregated didn't help. I just didn't enjoy SS's approach here at all.

While obviously games should have both, I prefer more meaningful content that finding a hole to fall down that leads to a menial task. I want to be challenged, and very few islands in WW provide a challenge. Plus the sea being a grid where each square has an island takes a lot of wind out of the "I found it myself" sails.

Fair enough, but I didn't get the impression that any of the tasks outside of dungeons in Wind Waker were "menial" - fighting through enemy-filled rooms or navigating my way through a grotto puzzle was personally pretty engaging for me without being totally overwhelming, as was using treasure charts to track down submerged chests or raiding watchtowers and submarines; in the end, I respect these design choices because they didn't pretend to be overly 'dungeon-like' for lack of a better term. More importantly, all content-dense islands were distanced enough so as to not detract from the Great Sea's open-ended map design. I also disagree that filling each grid with island content necessarily takes away from the feeling of discovery, especially considering that there was occasionally a "dud grid" such as a reef or a rock formation.

I won't argue that Wind Waker is an objectively better game than Skyward Sword, but I did enjoy it a hell of a lot more and the HD version only makes me more convinced that its overworld is drastically superior from a personal standpoint.

 

[Moaradin]

I will never understand the hate for the controls. The motion plus was SUPER accurate.

 

[Diddy Kong]

The collection text every damn time. The controls. I couldn't do it.

 

[Addi]

Also :

WTF Nintendo. Amateurish design.

and the fact that this is almost the only enemy you meet...

I also hated that you had to visit the same areas twice.

My main problem with the latest zeldas though, is the lack of fascinating atmosphere.
There are some moments here and there (I had my hopes up when I had to follow Fi at the start to this music), but Majora's Mask was really the last time a Zelda game has completely drawn me into it's world. It's like the newer entries only are scratching the surface.

 

[Balb]

The beginning isn't just bad, it's flat out terrible. TP was bad in that regard as well so hopefully the Wii U Zelda is better paced.

 

[Ansatz]

Empty sky, forced explanations and not the ideal overworld structure however I loved the individual areas. Also they held back on dungeon complexity in the second half as if casuals would get that far. The final dungeon is the perfect example of great concept but meh execution, I breezed through way too easily. The only part I'd call padding was the return to Skyview temple because nothing barely changed, I would appreciate it if they completely remixed it sort of like a master quest version of the dungeon.

 

[Georome]

This is why I never played it, honestly, so I would agree 100%.
My desire to play Zelda games in recent years has diminished... but beyond that, my desire to own a Wii and play games with Wiimote motion controls is pretty much zero.
My ex-fiancee had bought a Wii -- and from my limited time with it, the games I enjoyed overall used the Wiimote like a classic NES pad or were arcade light gun shooters like HotD.
The rest just never felt right to me.
So with that in mind, if it was a game that played well with a gamecube controller, I would probably look into buying a copy and using Dolphin... but it's not.

Pretty much this. Motion controls can fuck off forever as far as I'm concerned.

 

[chadboban]

This game really is divisive huh? I for one absolutely loved it. One of my favorite Zelda games. My only major annoyances with it were Fi telling me that my batteries were low and having to be told what items I got every time I loaded a save. Absolutely loved the controls and how agile link feels compared to his other 3D counterparts. His ability to dash and also strafe while aiming a projectile really helps with this. Also, the bow in the game is one of the most satisfying weapons I've ever used in a game, it legitimately felt perfect to use for me.

 

[KingErich]

I'm confused.
You don't like motion controls, but you bought the Wii to play Wii Sports?

a lot of games offered classic/gamecube control support.

not Mario Galaxy and Zelda SS (both perfectly playable), but a lot of other games did.

Look motion controls work great with certain games, like Wii Sports. Zelda, Metroid, Mario aren't made any better with waggle. Super Mario Wii was ruined by the use of the hideous non ergonomic remote controller. We've come a long way since the use of the NES pad. We didn't need to go backward.

 

[zruben]

Look motion controls work great with certain games, like Wii Sports. Zelda, Metroid, Mario aren't made any better with waggle. Super Mario Wii was ruined by the use of the hideous non ergonomic remote controller. We've come a long way since the use of the NES pad. We didn't need to go backward.

Zelda SS and Metroid Prime are FAR from being "waggle".
Mario Galaxy just needed an occasional slight wrist flick, also far from "waggle".
the only thing that I consider as legitimate "waggle" in those franchises are the sword slashes in TP.

and about NSMB, personally, I didn't have any "ergonomic problems" with it. You just needed a D-Pad and two buttons to play it, with a controller WAY bigger and thicker that the NES one.

but well, we're just exchanging opinions, so it's kinda pointless.

 

[SYNTAX182]

It felt very limited. The level design was not that good. The atmosphere and pacing felt off. The enemy designs were pretty lackluster.

What I liked was the motion controls of swinging the sword, that was really a fun idea and worked surprisingly well for me. Though they need I give link a bit more fluid movement and make the combat more about timing than r1 mash.

The new one looks awesome though and the atmosphere looks great.

 

[Marceles]

I didn't have any problem with the controls of Skyward Sword, the only thing I remember was feeling that it was longer than it should've been. I had a lot of fun playing most of it.

 

[ajjow]

Man, finished this game today.

Just loved it.


Not perfect. Its really crazy how this game can go from 10 to 2 in a few seconds.


But in the end, its the best zelda in my opinion. This terrible pace doenst break the game for me, but It takes away the possibility from Skyward been one of the best games of all time.


Man, i dont understand how they decided that it was a good idea to collect song notes when you are so close to the end. So Stupid.

Besides, the forced use of motion plus for small things like flying is a terrible idea too. They could create a 10 game, but their necessity to prove that motion is better than anything elss destroyed what could be a 11/10 game.

Well, really liked and Im really crazy about zelda wii u.

 

[riskybusinesstomcruise]

What's wrong with it ? Its the most recent console Zelda game and this is the internet. Thats what's wrong with it.