14 replies to this topic

[Arturo]

After a nostalgia trip playing through TWW HD, today I decided to re-buy Skyward Sword for my Wii U (and I say re-buy because I had it in the first place, but my dearest ex-flatmate threw it away, together with the Wii and other things). I remember that I found the game wonderful from the beginning to the end, in spite for some minor flaws, and I had the feeling at the ending, that SS had at last outclassed OoT. But I also felt it didn't have much replay value (we'll see now) and I think most of Zelda community does not agree with me, and there's much SS bashing around.

 

So I would like to know the opinion of you guys about this game, with the distance of two years since its launch. Do you like it? Is it high above your favourite Zeldas? Does too much handholding/Control System/whatever ruin the experience for you? Do you the side quests are worth it? Etc. Etc.

 

 

 

P.S. This is my first thread at a Zelda section since 4 years ago o.o

[Hana-Nezumi]

Skyward Sword was okay as far as I played it.

But I couldn't get passed the first temple due to arachnophobia.

[SnowsilverKat]

I haven't played past the third dungeon.

 

I like that you feel a lot less 'prepared' than in previous Zelda games.  There's definitely a sense of intimidation each time you go down to the surface world, but I feel that the adventure gets interrupted a lot in that you have to head back to Skyloft to restock on stuff or get your stuff fixed.  Personally, I'm the type that likes to 'stick' in a dungeon or area until I've finished with the current plot.  Part of the roleplay aspect of it for me, maybe?

 

Also the motion controls.  Really cool.  Not so cool an hour in.  Really not so cool two hours in.  It isn't the arm fatigue, it's just that playing that way gets old mentally.  I'm not very coordinated, so I'm stuck thinking about every move, and after a while it's more of a chore than a game.  Also, I have one friend who can't play this game due to having only one functional hand, with no options for a non-motion control scheme.

 

The story so far is great.  Loving the fact that Link's a bit of a dork.  I've heard amazing things about Groose.  I will finish the game eventually, but it's low on the list at the moment.

[SteveT]

This is how I remember it:

 

 

Skyward Sword is in my bottom 3.  It had some outstanding dungeon design, but the relentless hand-holding, tedious overworld, railroading, and constant hassles ruined it for me.

[Masamune]

I have fond memories of Skyward Sword, though the handholding and linearity was kind of a pain. Gorgeous worlds to climb through, though.

As with most 3D Zeldas, I haven't felt compelled to play through it yet. One day, maybe?

[Crimson Lego]

The orchestrated music was probably my favourite aspect of SS, especially the credits song. The divergence from traditional Zelda didn't annoy me at all, and I actually liked the graphics better than I thought I would've from looking at trailers and pictures. Handholding was fine, and it's probably my 2nd or 3rd favourite game.

[Wolf O'Donnell]

It's been two years since I never bought it? Wow, how time flies.

[Sir Turtlelot]

Personally, I loved SS. The beautiful worlds, the incredible soundtrack, and the just overall experience of the game. And then there's Fii... I could handle the rather poor controls, but Fii was just plain aggravating. I first I thought it was funny having the Windows 98 helper follow you around, but that didn't take long to change.

 

 

So yeah, I would place SS within my top five Zelda games, but I completely understand people's hatred towards Fii. Fortunately, I was able to mostly just tone her out, and enjoy the game for what it was.

[deep]

I played SS to completion, but it felt more like a chore the further in I got. It wasn't even the hand-holding that was the worst part, it was the relentless backtracking and repetition. Let's go back to the same 3 maps after each significant milestone, let's do 4 stealth sections, let's fight the same boss 3 times... painful.

 

Once I got used to the sword controls, though, I loved them. Way more than TP. It felt like I was adding skill to the sword slashes, which was a great feeling. The world looked fantastic. The item progression was really cool. I didn't even mind the bug/tumbleweed grinding. I didn't even mind the motion controlled flight and beetle. They were kinda neat.

 

Either a shorter game with less repetition, or a game of the same length with more unique content, and SS would've been the best entry to date.

[Veteran]

I dislike the game quite a bit. I got to the fourth iteration of the same boss and haven't played it since. I have no idea how the plot wraps up and I don't really care.

The sky is emptier than Wind Waker's ocean, the motion controls are largely terrible, the backtracking is annoying and there are jellyfish instead of Zoras.

The game's one saving grace is that this was the final one before Aonuma realised he sucks at being Zelda director and decided to change his ideas.

[JRPomazon]

I enjoyed Skyward Sword when I was playing it. Some games just make me feel anal when I play them, have to accomplish this, do this extra thing there, etc. I didn't have that feeling with Skyward Sword, I just played it one bit at a time and enjoyed it slowly.

 

What I liked:

The dungeon design, the boss battles (excluding the Imprisoned and Ghirahim the second time around because the repetition was pretty much BLAH) I felt were engaging and enjoyable, the artistic direction of the game was pretty awesome was well considering the limitations of the console and I never really had too much of an issue with the motion controls. It was a really scenic and beautiful environment and the game's story at times was enjoyable to play through despite it being a little cliche with the anime plot points. The final boss fight and everything leading to it was pretty intense as well. I thought the save points in dungeons would be kind of cheap but they grew on me after a while.

 

What I didn't like:

The repetition and the cookie cutter world map. You had circle one, two or three and everything else was just an open and uninteresting sky. The thunderhead was kind of interesting because suddenly there were enemies to fight but Loftwing combat was meh at best. If traveling through the sky was going to be so important, I expected there would be more to do WHEN traveling above the clouds. It was a missed chance. And then there is the total lack of being able to travel on land from location to location which in all fairness would have made up for the inherent lack of anything to do in flight. And the repetition of revisiting locations, doing similar tasks and quests over and over again grew tiresome even though they tried to open up newer parts of these maps with every visit.

 

What I really dislike about the game is how it tried to take every good thing from the previous games and mash them all together in a bland way that took away certain difficulties, but this was a problem almost all Nintendo games had since 2006 or so (featuring titles such as New Super Mario Bros., Metroid: Other M and Pokémon Black and White). It felt homogenized, plastic and "safe", it was Zelda but it just felt like a hodge podge of shit that I'd done already in other games. It felt like it was was clearly made for someone who might not have played Zelda before and less for the fans that have been coming back since '86. It was a bit too easy in the first go through and the Hero Mode was immensely unfair, you'd think difficulty balance wouldn't be an issue for Nintendo to manage. And to top it all off, it was the game that tied into the 25th anniversary of the franchise. This was going to be a game that would represent all the history and triumph that the series had accomplished during all these years, with the Hyrule Historia, the Symphony of the Goddesses tour, this entire campaign to celebrate the Legend of Zelda as a whole. It's kinda lame that the game wasn't better because it had every opportunity to be.

 

Despite that, I liked it over all. It was fun to play through the first time, though I doubt I'll play it again on any mode. Not my favorite Zelda but I'm sure it's someone's.

[Arturo]

I just began re-playing. I now even like Fii.

[Hana-Nezumi]

Well, I was finally able to face my arachnophobia and progress in the game, and... I have to say, after playing the game a lot more, it has really grown on me. I love it! Actually, it beats out Wind Waker as my second favorite Zelda game after Ocarina of Time.

I was frustrated with the motion controls at first before I got the hang of them, but now that I do, it makes me feel more connected with the game world than ever. It means a lot to have every sword slash that Link does be something that I ACTUALLY DID in real life! I like flying. I like that I can easily return to Skyloft when I need to, and head right back down to the surface and continue adventuring. Soaring through the skies gives me that great feeling of embarking on an adventure. I actually liked that you keep returning to the same places with different things happening. It reminded me of Ocarina of Time in that way, where you can go back to a place that's familiar, and help characters that you know, and explore a section of the world that you had seen but couldn't get to before. And the characters are all really colorful and interesting, often to the point where I laughed out loud, and I like the story a lot too. I would say the NPCs are the most developed I have seen in a Zelda game besides Majora's Mask, and for me that is a really important part of making the game's world interesting. The only time that Fi annoyed me was her low health warning, and that wasn't a problem anymore after I got a few more hearts. The boss battles were really fun and creative, and the dungeons felt new and fresh as well. I actually like Fi quite a lot, she keeps the narrative going and acts as a partner to Link, so that you don't go for long stretches without any dialog or a clue as to what your objective is. Then, for me, the gratitude crystals and goddess cubes add a lot to the game because I love searching for and collecting those kinds of things.

It's funny that the some of the reasons I like the game are the same reasons that some of you dislike it. Just different tastes I guess.

Edited by Hana-Nezumi, 27 November 2013 - 02:04 PM.

[SteveT]

so that you don't go for long stretches without any dialog or a clue as to what your objective is.

 
 
Gaaaaaaah!  Why would you want that?  You're everything that's wrong with the video game industry.  Hate and rage!  Rage and hate!  

Edit: Dark Souls!

Edited by SteveT, 27 November 2013 - 04:09 PM.

[Alastair]

I find it difficult to rate SS. There are many aspects of the game I love, such as the player-instigated interactions with NPCs (far more to do than there was in TP - the introduction to Batreaux being a particular highlight) and the orchestral music. I finished the game clocking up around 50 hours of play time, so it must have something.

 

Unfortunately, the motion controls conspire to suck the fun out of the game. In their defence the contols work the majority of the time, which would be fine if the gameplay did not place such emphasis on attacking with a specific sword strike. Its possible the gameplay was conceived on the assumption that the controls would work near 100% of the time, but the release schedule (or a bloody minded refulsal to accept the margin of failure in motion recognition) resulted in the game hitting the market with a disparity between the accuracy of the controls and the level of accuracy demanded by the gameplay. In short; dying because you, the player, erred is frustrating, yet simultaneously motivating. Dying because the controls messed up is just frustrating. I have no plans to re-play SS in the foreseeable future.

 

 

 

 

Slighlty off topic, but the disparity between gameplay and controls is a real bugbear of mine. A few more examples:

 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (wii). The controls function most of the time, and you also have a generous health bar. This works fine, and even ties in with the film character - Indiana Jones sometimes gets hit, but always gets back up. I consider the controls to significantly improve my enjoyment of the game. That is until the final level, where you are swarmed a horde of goons before a boss fight. However skilled the player is the motion recognition is not 100% perfect, so you will inevitably be hurt, and far too frquently killed, if the gameplay forces you into a prolonged battle.

 

Fragile Dreams. The controls work perfectly to represent a frightened boy fending off spirits with a stick. Not an obviously engaging aspect of gamplay, but fully in keeping with the story and a good way to encourage the player to empathise with their avatar. Unfortunatley as the game progresses the volume of enemies steadily increases. This becomes very tedious. Arguably this is still a good marriage of gamplay, plot and controls - I certainly struggled to summon the motivation to continue.

 

Mario Kart Wii. This game gets it right. The player has the option to choose (or even switch between) the 'fun' controls and the more accurate ones.