The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[NecroMorrius]

That Matthewmatosis review isn't perfectly structured but he's bang-on about pretty much everything, both good and bad. Embedded for lazy folk.

It's telling that the people most defensive of the game are the biggest Nintendo diehards. Take the blinkers off for a bit and realise that the criticism comes from people who believe Nintendo can do better.

They're absolutely smashing it this gen, I have high hopes for the Wii U version.

[Keyboard Koala]

Dunno if I'm considered one of the Nintendo diehards, but I thought Skyward Sword was an excellent game. Would've been a solid 10 any way you looked at it if it wasn't for *that* stealth section and those bloody annoying tadtones. If they'd left those two things out, it might've been my all-time favourite Zelda. As it is, it sits comfortably alongside Wind Waker as the other Zelda game that could've been better.

A 10 was a bit generous.

And the motion controls were great.

[NecroMorrius]

I dunno, I replayed Wind Waker (or rather, Wind Waker HD) and enjoyed it way more than replaying Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, Ocarina or even LTTP. Which is weird because I didn't like Wind Waker much when it came out. Funny how things change. Anyway, I finished the game tonight, it's about half good and half filler, all-in-all. The most violent swing between highs and lows the series has produced so far. The best bit by miles is the sand sea, it's mostly all downhill from there.

Now to finally finish ALBW!

[Calashnikov]

People only tend to remember the niggly bits of Skyward Sword, but the thing I remember most was the area with the Time Stones of Aggadar, or whatever the fuck they were called. Remember them? They were like little crystal balls or something that cast everything within a virtual 5 metre radius of where you were carrying them back in time, so that you could witness the locale simultaneously in the past and present, which you'd have to link up and reconcile through cunning, mind-expanding puzzle solving. Uber Nintendo game design ingenuity. Amongst their best. It was like having a portable, contained series of Zelda-fied Back To The Future set-pieces and dilemmas to solve. Fucking brilliant. It often had me shaking my head in disbelief at how clever it all was. You could tell that the designers had been nourished by the same magical water coolers as they were during the production of the Mario Galaxy games.

Skyward Sword had moments of brilliance. Certainly wasn't 10 material, but I'd definitely have given it an 8.

As for Twilight Princess, I enjoyed it a lot more whenever I got round to replaying it, 3 or 4 years after first playing it on release. It has a pretty nice wee atmosphere to it. A very somber vibe, with a subtle sense of twisted dread. Certainly nothing compared to the all-out craziness of Majora, of course, but tinged with a sense of meloncholy and mournfulness that I thought seemed quite unique, or more pronounced than it usually does, for the series. Some of the best dungeons ever, too.

[MattyP]

I dunno, I replayed Wind Waker (or rather, Wind Waker HD) and enjoyed it way more than replaying Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess, Ocarina or even LTTP. Which is weird because I didn't like Wind Waker much when it came out. Funny how things change. Anyway, I finished the game tonight, it's about half good and half filler, all-in-all. The most violent swing between highs and lows the series has produced so far. The best bit by miles is the sand sea, it's mostly all downhill from there.

Now to finally finish ALBW!

Enjoyed WW too. Especially like the graphics style. I liked the fact you could fast travel around the map too.... not sure why they never put that in SS.

The time bits in SS were absolutely a work of genius. The more I look back on this the I remember the truly great bits. Certainly one Zelda games are amongst the best games I ever played.... worth every bit of the praise they get anyway... looks like I'm in for a treat with the tadtones section Guessing its in the same vein as the silent realm bits?

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

People only tend to remember the niggly bits of Skyward Sword, but the thing I remember most was the area with the Time Stones of Aggadar, or whatever the fuck they were called. Remember them? They were like little crystal balls or something that cast everything within a virtual 5 metre radius of where you were carrying them back in time, so that you could witness the locale simultaneously in the past and present, which you'd have to link up and reconcile through cunning, mind-expanding puzzle solving. Uber Nintendo game design ingenuity.

Yeah, there were some good bits. I also like the time-based puzzles, although - like the rest of the game - it was very easy and over by the time you were ready for some more challenging tasks. But instead you got sent on another god annoying errand or repeating bossfight or whatever.

[Super Craig]

The third dungeon with the time stones was amazing. I remember wondering how they were going to top it in the later dungeons and they didn't come close sadly. I suppose Nintendo are stuck between a rock and a hard place as if they make the puzzle solving difficult for veterans it'll be near impossible for newcomers.

[Keyboard Koala]

Also; best Lizalfos of any Zelda game!

My favourite part was probably the oriental style Earth Temple, where you got to fight the blighters. I adored the art style of Skyward Sword as a whole though. Better than Wind Waker's imo. But might be bettered by the WiiU game.

[MattyP]

Also; best Lizalfos of any Zelda game!

My favourite part was probably the oriental style Earth Temple, where you got to fight the blighters. I adored the art style of Skyward Sword as a whole though. Better than Wind Waker's imo. But might be bettered by the WiiU game.

Yeah that was one that sticks in my mind too! That's the one with the big water cistern thingy in the middle great level an boss too..... liked how you could use its weapons against it.

[NecroMorrius]

Yeah, that's the best boss by miles

[MattyP]

And then the tadtones. The tadtones.

THE FUCKING TADTONES.

Edge gave this a 10

Mind you they also gave LittleBigPlanet a 10, a platformer in which the jumping doesn't work properly.

Tadtones. Now at that very bit! Had to quit last night as it was getting late. Guessing it wont save where I've got to on collecting these things.

Only got four groups left to get.

Funnily enough finding this less frustrating than the flying boss....

[Stanley]

That Matthewmatosis review isn't perfectly structured but he's bang-on about pretty much everything, both good and bad. Embedded for lazy folk.

It's telling that the people most defensive of the game are the biggest Nintendo diehards. Take the blinkers off for a bit and realise that the criticism comes from people who believe Nintendo can do better.

They're absolutely smashing it this gen, I have high hopes for the Wii U version.

A tad conceited don't you think? I loved Skyward Sword and it's not because I am a blinkered fanboy. It's a genuinely great game.

[MattyP]

A tad conceited don't you think? I loved Skyward Sword and it's not because I am a blinkered fanboy. It's a genuinely great game.

Watched a bit of this.... Agree. Not sure what the reviewer was expecting TBH. Suppose the problem is that when you try to innovate from regular controls the purists (read long time games) won't like it. I didn't. Not sure if I do. It made the game more satisfying in some places a little more frustrating in others. You could nit-pick every game apart to nth degree and there is no perfect game out there.

Anyhow don't feel I've wasted my time investment in this... It has been a very rewarding (if not emotional at some points - f-you flying boss) journey this far and looking forward to finishing it off and the getting the next Zelda this year.

[Fatsam]

A tad conceited don't you think? I loved Skyward Sword and it's not because I am a blinkered fanboy. It's a genuinely great game.

I also think it's a genuinely great game Stanley. The blinkers are on Master Shortpants. He's unable to see how others might enjoy elements more than he does, or rate bits that he does not. Nintendo are smashing this gen, but they smashed last gen too, and as good as their Wii U games are (brilliant), I don't think they've yet given us anything as ground breaking and accomplished as Mario Galaxy and Skyward Sword. Although Mario Kart 8 is obviously sensational.

[Kevvy Metal]

I utterly adore Skyward Sword, much like most of the Zelda games.

The only thing that this does differently from other games such as Assassin's Creed or Skyrim etc. is that it does place side activity or "busy work" more on the critical path. That won't really rub up well with power gamers who want to race to the end to get straight onto devouring their next videogame meal.

With the Wii's demograph at the time, it was wider and far more diverse. I can understand their decision to add a bit of downtime between dungeons.

[NecroMorrius]

A tad conceited don't you think? I loved Skyward Sword and it's not because I am a blinkered fanboy. It's a genuinely great game.

I'm not saying you don't love it because you think it's great, I'm saying you're ignoring lorryloads of shitty content precisely because you're so ready to love it. You've demonstrated a willingness to ignore problems with Nintendo games countless times in the past, but that's not to say there's much to love about the game.

Weirdly when I started playing it again I was loving it too, for perhaps the first half of the game, I wondered why I ever gave up first time around. I was ready to say I'd been totally wrong about it. Yet by the end I could barely bring myself to play it, I only finished it because I didn't want it to beat me again, I wanted to be able to say I was judging it was a whole.

It would actually be preferable if the filler was distributed more evenly throughout the game, but the whole last third is an annoying fetch quest punctuated by sub-DLC like content such as the tadtones and the bit where all your equipment gets stolen. It's so lopsided as an experience overall, no doubt they had a minimum playthrough time they wanted to hit and began to recycle content, especially areas.

My worry for the next Zelda is that they have a relatively short time to put it together, and that they seem to be going for a massive world. I hope that there's enough hand-crafted and non-repeated content there. I have really high hopes, as I always say I never bet against Nintendo. Skyward Sword didn't sell that well, I imagine they'll be looking to big sellers like (gulp) Skyrim, (gulp) Assassin's Creed and maybe the Souls games for inspiration as they go open world. It would be a crying shame to lose what makes Zelda Zelda, but it needs to change. Maybe all at once, maybe conservatively, but it needs to happen.

A key word with Skyward Sword is "underdeveloped". Alongside the repetition of environments, there were many new elements introduced which could have been great, but they weren't fleshed out enough. For example you could play through the entire game without ever upgrading one piece of equipment (in fact I did) and you could ignore the bug collecting entirely. I'm going to be writing a piece about my hopes for the next Zelda soon, I'll copypaste it on here somewhere so you can see if and where we agree.

Also... I'm going to replay Twilight Princess soon, I never finished that one either for much the same reason. You've been warned

[NecroMorrius]

It will be interesting to see what others make of the flying boss when they get to it LOL. I'm determined to beat this thing now... my journey on this game has been epic LOL started in Christmas 2011!!! Really want it done before the next full Zelda adventure gets released.

Out of interest, which one was the flying boss? That whale thing? I can barely remember it even though it was less than a week ago.

I should clarify I didn't have any problems with the controls really this time around. Maybe I had a bad setup when I played it first time around. I didn't have any issue controlling the flying bits, but rather I found them tedious and empty.

[Davros sock drawer]

I'm not saying you don't love it because you think it's great, I'm saying you're ignoring lorryloads of shitty content precisely because you're so ready to love it.

Or maybe he just honestly didn't think there was any shitty content?

[NecroMorrius]

Tadtones

[MattyP]

Out of interest, which one was the flying boss? That whale thing? I can barely remember it even though it was less than a week ago.

I should clarify I didn't have any problems with the controls really this time around. Maybe I had a bad setup when I played it first time around. I didn't have any issue controlling the flying bits, but rather I found them tedious and empty.

Yeah that whale thing... It's not actually a boss as such as you just have to rid it of nasty parasites that have taken over its mind...

No finding the controls better now too but my whole setup has moved location since last time I played this. That or maybe I got used to the flying after practicing on this bit.

[MattyP]

Weirdly when I started playing it again I was loving it too, for perhaps the first half of the game, I wondered why I ever gave up first time around. I was ready to say I'd been totally wrong about it. Yet by the end I could barely bring myself to play it, I only finished it because I didn't want it to beat me again, I wanted to be able to say I was judging it was a whole.

Think it was maybe because of the fetch quests? When I was playing last time I was full on spending most of my spare time on it (was Christmas and had plenty of time that year). It felt like one fetch quest cycle after another! If I'd have had a break from it a few times it will probably have been much more enjoyable!

[NecroMorrius]

With the Wii's demograph at the time, it was wider and far more diverse. I can understand their decision to add a bit of downtime between dungeons.

But they didn't, the key difference between SS and previous Zelda games was the inclusion of dungeon style puzzling outside/between the dungeons. Everything else was mandatory fetchy fillery toing and froing, downtime and padding aren't the same thing.

[MattyP]

Tadtones

Liking these so far... enjoying the swimming around... and like the transformation of Faron Woods...

[Fatsam]

Tadtones

An enjoyable, swimming collection section, that's a nice contrast to the intense boss battle it follows. Finished off with a little, celebratory, moment of magic.

[Davros sock drawer]

Tadtones

Old Skool N64 era collecting. Didn't bother me in the slightest. Very arcadey, but so what? So is Pac Man.

[MattyP]

Old Skool N64 era collecting. Didn't bother me in the slightest. Very arcadey, but so what? So is Pac Man.

Out of interest does anyone know if the game saves progress on how many of these have been collected already? Ran out of time (needed sleep!!!) the other night and only had around 4 bars to go.... I suspect I will be doing a fair bit more swimming... but maybe it does save...

[Kevvy Metal]

If I remember, the Tadtones section is basically requiring you to revisit old areas for a last hooray before passing through the post of no return and onto the final dungeon.

They're reminiscent of the Crackdown orbs, if I recall. It's fun.

[Wroth]

The crackdown orbs were optional.

[boxoctosis]

The crackdown orbs were optional.

No they weren't. Not once you started....

[Kevvy Metal]

They were used to increase your Agility level. They were also 70% of the game. Jumping and collecting orbs was a massively integral mechanic.