The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[squirtle]

The harp is the only thing I can't get. Tried the concert bit in the lumpy pumpkin about five times with no luck.

[squirtle]

Had my boy this weekend and we blasted through the rest of the game, finishing it earlier tonight. Wow! Just amazing, really. What a game. Really, really brilliant. I'm not sure I could find much of a flaw anywhere within it, if I'm honest, without feeling I was being really picky. Fi's speech at the end was really touching and the last couple of fights felt suitably solid and satisfying. I loved the Goddess Temple dungeon as well, moving the rooms around to let you get the Triforce. Brilliant, brilliant game. No one can touch Nintendo when they do stuff like this. Best game I've played in a long while.

[Let us measure]

I restarted this in Hero mode the other week - it's bloody intense! All enemies deal double damage, no hearts to be found at all and the only way to top up your health is through judicious use of potions. I had only one bottle throughout the first dungeon and died eight times (six of those on bastard Ghirahim's second stage). It gives the whole game a bit more of a darker, more dangerous flavour and I'm not sure I like it - preferred the easiness of the original version!

[squirtle]

We didn't save it after the credits as our save point was at the statue in the pit, just before the final fight with Demise, and we wanted to go back out into the world and hoover up the last of the gratitude crystals and Goddess cubes. I really loved the way the little stories played out once you were after the gratitude crystals, but we never found out who was the ghost in the toilet as we gave the letter to the girl instead. Maybe for another play through. Anyway, straight after this, we started Twilight Princess as my boy just wanted more Zelda. Been about 8 or 9 years since I played through that, so expect that thread to be dragged up now.

[christaylor]

How old's your son? Wondering if it's time to try and get my 6 yr old into this.

[squirtle]

He's 6, so, yeah, do it! If he's anything like mine, he'll love it.

[scottcr]

My son loves Zelda games as well... nobody else makes games like them either.

[christaylor]

He's 6, so, yeah, do it! If he's anything like mine, he'll love it.

Cool, might wait til the evenings are drawing in a bit more but sounds like it's time to begin the indoctrination.

[Davros sock drawer]

I played Ocarina of Time from the start with my 7 year old nephew yesterday. Amazed at how unfazed he was by the N64 graphics. He just got properly into the puzzles and managed to get all the way to Gohma.

[squirtle]

Holy shit this Triforce business is as frustrating as can be!

I can't even defeat the Mechapirate. JESUS. This'll be my fourth try now.

I completed this tonight. I thought it was really good, but then I also liked Twilight Princess. The trials and the stealth bits seem to have taken an absolute slating on here, but I honestly quite enjoyed them. Some of the dungeon puzzles were ingenious, particulalrly all of the Timeshift Stone stuff. Stunning game design.

But, aye, the robo-pirate guy was the toughest bastard in the whole game. That whole pirate ship level was great fun.

Just reading through. Ha! My boy did the Mech Pirate both times you fight him and didn't take one hit.

[Jamie John]

I'm two hours into this, just got to the Forest Temple. I really want to like it, and it certainly seems very ambitious, but the waggle controls are getting me down, big time. Fighting the standard red goblin enemies, for example: whenever I try to hit them purposefully from a particular angle, they always read the movement, no matter how quickly I move my hand from the neutral starting position. The only way I can kill them is by spamming the spin attack to knock them on their backs and then following with a fatal blow, or by just waggling the remote madly, which will eventually land three hits to kill them, but only by luck and not design. Trying to kill the hanging tarantulas in the Forest Temple is even more aggravating. I'm using a motion plus controller, too.

[BruceBruce]

I always shifted angles immediately after they changed their angle to copy mine, then sliced em. Seemed to work.

[Jamie John]

I'll have a go at that. I think part of the problem is that I tend to play games sprawled out on the sofa at the end of a long day, whereas you really have to sit up with this if you're going to make all the movements successfully.

[Jamie John]

I've been playing this for twelve hours now and I'm enjoying it a lot more, now I'm used to the controls. I still don't think the waggle adds anything especially, and serves more to hinder than make the game more fun (thrusting, particularly, is a pain in the arse), but the dungeons and the interesting ideas the game throws at you more than make up for it. It's also laugh out loud funny in places, which I wasn't expecting.

[BruceBruce]

Now we just need voice acting in the next one.. except for Link of course, he doesn't necessarilly have to speak. Never really has anyway other than grunts and dialog menu text selections.

[Stanley]

I see Zelda more as an interactive pop up book and would hate to see it voice acted.

Featuring the voice of Nolan North!

[Jamie John]

I finished this last night after about 38 hours of gameplay. That's a generous amount of time for a linear, narrative-based game, and I didn't get round to finding all of the heart pieces, either.

I really liked it, overall. Even if the controls did leave me hopping mad at certain points, the game's bursting with great ideas and the dungeons on offer include some of the best in the series (it's been mentioned before, but your voyage across the sandsea in the time-altering boat is a stroke of genius). The familiar, yet updated gadgetry was also refreshing, and it was fun combining all of your arsenal in different ways to solve the puzzles, especially in the last dungeon. It may just be me, but it's also the most Japanese Zelda I've ever played, from the music to the art style, which is very reminiscent of Ghibli in places (Totoro and Ponyo especially), and I'd argue influenced heavily by Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, too.

It takes a lot longer than most games (and certainly longer than most Nintendo games) to get into, but I'd definitely recommend it. No stamina gauge next time though please, Nintendo - that shit was whack.

[nakamura]

Back on this, needing a game to cheer me up and this worked a treat. It's my third play through and it feels so fresh still, perhaps more so that the two Zelda games released since are just HD ports. 

 

Currently at Eldin, about to hit the temple. The music is so utterly fantastic. The best in the whole series. 

[BBBBBB]

Went back to a save file for this after defeating Ganon in BotW, just out of curiosity. It still plays great, the combat is really engaging, and paced so differently.

 

The stuff they did in this with Link's agility is all over BotW, and you realise what a big step up it is over WW and TP, which both feel legit clunky today despite their other strengths.

 

Super interesting to see how potion mixing, medals and shield upgrades all hint towards what they're doing now.

 

The text popup you get for collecting materials and bugs being reset for each play session is maddening after BotW. Though it turns out, if you're playing on a hacked Wii you can put in Game Genie-style codes to turn this off, along with a bunch of the Fi alerts.

 

The big interconnected areas, visuals and music are all lovely. Like a lot of the NPC chatter and related sidequests. The sky is a real let down after BotW though, and even compared to WW's sailing, despite the bird feeling great to control.

 

Second favourite 3D Zelda after BotW.

[nakamura]

I pos every positive Skyward Sword post. 

[Fatsam]

I pos the people who pos.

 

Had a little go on this today with my nephew. It definitely moved the series forward in many ways. The very best of the old 3D Zelda games without even considering the magical controls.

 

And with Breath of the Wild ushering in a very new direction for the series, Skyward Sword now feels even more special.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

The drooling kind of 'special'.

[Kevvy Metal]

1 minute ago, Napole0n said:

The drooling kind of 'special'.

 

NEG

[Ninja Doctor]

Necrobump in the huzzouse!!!!!

 

so, has amazon leaked an upcoming remaster? Does the mooted £70 price tag mean an include controller? Switch compatible waggle stick? What does this mean for the switch lite?

[Stanley]

Yeah it also has a release date 1st Jan 2030 so it’s most likely just a placeholder, I don’t think they’d make a version that doesn’t work on Switch Lite, and joycons will work for the motion controls on a standard Switch.