Despite all my hate for it, I am giving Skyward Sword another chance.
It was exactly 4 years after I posted this thread about how much I detest Skyward Sword http://vintage.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=78227 that I decided to try it out again. It actually was not planned to try it again on this particular anniversary, it just happened to work out that way. After watching E3 and getting psyched up for Breath of the Wild, I knew the next game I'd play had to be a Zelda game to hold me over until March. Had to wait a few weeks while I finished up Gauntlet Legends as I wanted to totally focus on Zelda instead of jumping back and forth between multiple games.
Why did I pick Skyward Sword though? I could have picked one of the Zelda's I really love which would have held me over just fine. Adventures of Link, Ocarina of TIme, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess should have been first run contenders as they are my favorites. Even those that aren't favorites but I still like enough to own and play occasionally: A Link to the Past, Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks should have been picked instead right? Then why the hell did I pick Skyward Sword? You know even I'm not really sure. It may have something to do with the fact that I'm cleaning house of excess games which I won't have enough time in my lifetime to enjoy. That part would make sense knowing me. Or that it was the last Zelda game in the main storyline released on a home console (not portable) and it will be 5.5 years between main storyline Zelda releases when BotW comes out. Or even that I just wanted to make sure that Breath of the Wild clears up the mistakes Skyward Sword made when I wrote that thread four years ago.
The original thread above clearly shows numerous problems I had with the game four years ago. I'm going to try to remain unbiased and base my opinions on what I am encountering now as opposed to four years ago. We can see over time how similarly they match up.
I've played for at least an hour each day, so I'd say I'm at least 4-5 hours in now. I won't be able to play over the weekend but I'll have a large block of time on Tuesday to really delve into the game.
Playthrough so far
7/6: Started the game, watched intro, interesting enough. I'm jazzed to play some Zelda despite my previous apprehensions and my knowledge of how it was in the past. Lots of story. Not just in reading the intro but that the characters talk on and on and on. Yeah it's common in Zelda games, you have to talk to the townspeople. But this talking goes on and on and on. I had eight different people tell me more than once to (don't forget to press down to call your Loftwing). I think after the first few times and the image prompt of the controller saying click down to call Loftwing was enough to get this point hammered home. Controls are okay, honestly not a fan of the Wii Motion Plus. I am playing this with the Wii Motion Plus attachment and not a Wii Motion Plus controller. I do have the Gold Wii Motion Plus controller and I may switch them partway through to see if having it built in to the controller makes a difference. I have had to reset it a few times but not enough to really bother me. Art style is not as bad as I remember and I do kind of like it. I remember hating it last time, especially compared to Twilight Princess which I love. Zelda is definitely the ugliest Zelda though. Yeah she's a younger kid so there's a bit of an age difference compared to other versions, but Zelda is supposed to be beautiful, not a goofy teenager. Link looks pretty much the same through most games, but Zelda is just different somehow. Not fond of it. Being limited to such a small area really limits the open world design I am used to. Yeah you unlock more over time but it's an island in the sky, so you are limited. I love Groose! That guy is hilarious. Got as far as the intro and through the ceremony mission. Over an hour of playing and exploring and I really only had one small section of fighting and one event and that's it. Definitely a slow starting game.
7/7: Got to go on a follow me quest which was fine, kind of helped the controls sink in a bit better. Camera angles aren't great but they aren't bad. Controls are a bit too sensitive too. I may change them up in the settings later. LOTS OF TALKING after the follow me quest. Introduction of Fi. I remember before she would come around like every 20 steps and interrupt you. She definitely kept on doing that. Interrupt me before I open a door. Interrupt me as soon as I exit the door, interrupt me before I walk 20 steps. It really is that bad. It disturbs the flow of the game so much and makes you really hate Fi. If it was occasionally I'd understand, but even Fi said, "Don't forget to press down to call your Loftwing". I ALREADY KNOW THAT!!! Quite irritating and I can see it being one of the reasons I hated Skyward Sword before. Stuff happened and I finally got to go through the clouds to Faron Woods. Did some exploring which was only occasionally interrupted. First real enemy battles where knowing which direction to flick your sword is needed since enemies block you. Not a huge fan of that. I just liked flicking my wrist like in Twilight Princess. Maybe BotW will be the same but I hope not. Played for over an hour today and just got to Faron Woods.
7/8: First real time in a somewhat open area to explore. So I explored Faron Woods for about two hours. Fought enemies, ran around and performed a mission or two to advance the story. Learned about how much I hate the Shield health system. Figuring it all out as it were. Not terribly bad, but I did notice I wasn't really having fun doing it, despite it being in an open area finally which I wanted. I was just going through the motions, speeding through all the character text to advance my play time (I did read it all though). Still not feeling drawn into the story. I know I'll be coming back and forth to this place due to the previous playthrough almost five years ago, but even after two hours I'm still getting lost finding places. Aiming the slingshot is not as smooth as I would have hoped. I honestly feel the controls on Twilight Princess were better. I'll fiddle around with them to try to get to a good setting before my longplay on Tuesday. I also discovered another thing I am definitely not fond of. Collect an item and it says (here is item X, it can be used in many things}. When you power off and start again from your save point, it says the exact same thing again. I already know I have this amber item or this blue rupee is five and don't spend it all in one place. I believe they even made a point of mentioning in E3 that they fixed that problem in BotW. You'd think the beta testers of SS would have told them about it beforehand. Today I advanced to the first dungeon where I will begin the longplay on Tuesday.
Thoughts so far: Art style isn't as bad as I remember, but Zelda is definitely ugly compared to other iterations of the game. It's not a dealbreaker, but every other character looks pretty good except her, even the supposedly weird looking ones. Controls are not as smooth, I will try to adjust them to find a better feel for me. Motions controls were perfect in Twilight Princess, they should have stayed with those. The big thing I take away is that Fi is annoying and really breaks the flow of the game. Navi and Tatl and Midna helped you out and weren't overly annoying at most times. Fi I just want to break her neck already. Just let me play the damn game and figure it out. Not even just Fi, every single characters takes forever to talk. I'm a fast reader so just pop it all on the screen at once like in OoT. So far I'm still in the mood of wanting to play the game which is good as I just got to the first real dungeon and I will give it a longer playthrough on Tuesday.
Why did I pick Skyward Sword though? I could have picked one of the Zelda's I really love which would have held me over just fine. Adventures of Link, Ocarina of TIme, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess should have been first run contenders as they are my favorites. Even those that aren't favorites but I still like enough to own and play occasionally: A Link to the Past, Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks should have been picked instead right? Then why the hell did I pick Skyward Sword? You know even I'm not really sure. It may have something to do with the fact that I'm cleaning house of excess games which I won't have enough time in my lifetime to enjoy. That part would make sense knowing me. Or that it was the last Zelda game in the main storyline released on a home console (not portable) and it will be 5.5 years between main storyline Zelda releases when BotW comes out. Or even that I just wanted to make sure that Breath of the Wild clears up the mistakes Skyward Sword made when I wrote that thread four years ago.
The original thread above clearly shows numerous problems I had with the game four years ago. I'm going to try to remain unbiased and base my opinions on what I am encountering now as opposed to four years ago. We can see over time how similarly they match up.
I've played for at least an hour each day, so I'd say I'm at least 4-5 hours in now. I won't be able to play over the weekend but I'll have a large block of time on Tuesday to really delve into the game.
Playthrough so far
7/6: Started the game, watched intro, interesting enough. I'm jazzed to play some Zelda despite my previous apprehensions and my knowledge of how it was in the past. Lots of story. Not just in reading the intro but that the characters talk on and on and on. Yeah it's common in Zelda games, you have to talk to the townspeople. But this talking goes on and on and on. I had eight different people tell me more than once to (don't forget to press down to call your Loftwing). I think after the first few times and the image prompt of the controller saying click down to call Loftwing was enough to get this point hammered home. Controls are okay, honestly not a fan of the Wii Motion Plus. I am playing this with the Wii Motion Plus attachment and not a Wii Motion Plus controller. I do have the Gold Wii Motion Plus controller and I may switch them partway through to see if having it built in to the controller makes a difference. I have had to reset it a few times but not enough to really bother me. Art style is not as bad as I remember and I do kind of like it. I remember hating it last time, especially compared to Twilight Princess which I love. Zelda is definitely the ugliest Zelda though. Yeah she's a younger kid so there's a bit of an age difference compared to other versions, but Zelda is supposed to be beautiful, not a goofy teenager. Link looks pretty much the same through most games, but Zelda is just different somehow. Not fond of it. Being limited to such a small area really limits the open world design I am used to. Yeah you unlock more over time but it's an island in the sky, so you are limited. I love Groose! That guy is hilarious. Got as far as the intro and through the ceremony mission. Over an hour of playing and exploring and I really only had one small section of fighting and one event and that's it. Definitely a slow starting game.
7/7: Got to go on a follow me quest which was fine, kind of helped the controls sink in a bit better. Camera angles aren't great but they aren't bad. Controls are a bit too sensitive too. I may change them up in the settings later. LOTS OF TALKING after the follow me quest. Introduction of Fi. I remember before she would come around like every 20 steps and interrupt you. She definitely kept on doing that. Interrupt me before I open a door. Interrupt me as soon as I exit the door, interrupt me before I walk 20 steps. It really is that bad. It disturbs the flow of the game so much and makes you really hate Fi. If it was occasionally I'd understand, but even Fi said, "Don't forget to press down to call your Loftwing". I ALREADY KNOW THAT!!! Quite irritating and I can see it being one of the reasons I hated Skyward Sword before. Stuff happened and I finally got to go through the clouds to Faron Woods. Did some exploring which was only occasionally interrupted. First real enemy battles where knowing which direction to flick your sword is needed since enemies block you. Not a huge fan of that. I just liked flicking my wrist like in Twilight Princess. Maybe BotW will be the same but I hope not. Played for over an hour today and just got to Faron Woods.
7/8: First real time in a somewhat open area to explore. So I explored Faron Woods for about two hours. Fought enemies, ran around and performed a mission or two to advance the story. Learned about how much I hate the Shield health system. Figuring it all out as it were. Not terribly bad, but I did notice I wasn't really having fun doing it, despite it being in an open area finally which I wanted. I was just going through the motions, speeding through all the character text to advance my play time (I did read it all though). Still not feeling drawn into the story. I know I'll be coming back and forth to this place due to the previous playthrough almost five years ago, but even after two hours I'm still getting lost finding places. Aiming the slingshot is not as smooth as I would have hoped. I honestly feel the controls on Twilight Princess were better. I'll fiddle around with them to try to get to a good setting before my longplay on Tuesday. I also discovered another thing I am definitely not fond of. Collect an item and it says (here is item X, it can be used in many things}. When you power off and start again from your save point, it says the exact same thing again. I already know I have this amber item or this blue rupee is five and don't spend it all in one place. I believe they even made a point of mentioning in E3 that they fixed that problem in BotW. You'd think the beta testers of SS would have told them about it beforehand. Today I advanced to the first dungeon where I will begin the longplay on Tuesday.
Thoughts so far: Art style isn't as bad as I remember, but Zelda is definitely ugly compared to other iterations of the game. It's not a dealbreaker, but every other character looks pretty good except her, even the supposedly weird looking ones. Controls are not as smooth, I will try to adjust them to find a better feel for me. Motions controls were perfect in Twilight Princess, they should have stayed with those. The big thing I take away is that Fi is annoying and really breaks the flow of the game. Navi and Tatl and Midna helped you out and weren't overly annoying at most times. Fi I just want to break her neck already. Just let me play the damn game and figure it out. Not even just Fi, every single characters takes forever to talk. I'm a fast reader so just pop it all on the screen at once like in OoT. So far I'm still in the mood of wanting to play the game which is good as I just got to the first real dungeon and I will give it a longer playthrough on Tuesday.
Comments
I also don't get why people hate Link's assisting characters so strongly. I never had an issue with Navi, Midna or Fi. Perhaps I block them out a bit as I play, but I don't feel as though I am doing it on purpose. They're just semi-useful background banter to me.
Well, after playing it (decided to rent it anyway), I honestly couldn't get past the first town. The tedium and fetch quests were too much and absolutely wrecked my enthusiasm.
I've heard it gets better, especially when you start reaching dungeons, so like you, I'd like to revisit it someday.
Originally posted by: Estil
You have to understand though that these quest type of games (even the 8-bit ones) can take at least 40-50 hours so you just have to be patient. I mean don't you want to get your $50-$60 worth?
Oh you On my first playthrough when I played it on release day, I ended up getting about what I figure was 2/3 of the way through the game. Multiple temples, several sets of item crafting such and such done, lots of exploring and bosses defeated. I'm not stranger to Zelda. But honestly this one really didn't meet my expectations the first time through. So much so that I quit playing before reaching the end because I was disgusted with it. The old thread I linked at the top of the post has that discussion, but I'm really trying to give it a fair chance like I give every game, especially since it is a Zelda game. I'm purging the unplayed and lacking fun games from my collection and honestly this one was next on the list so I figured I better play it before I make my decision.
Generally speaking, they're all pretty fun but OOT will always be the pinnacle because of personal nostalgia and playing it with friends. My older brother would've said A Link to the Past because he played that for months trying to beat it back in the 90s (I've never beaten ALTTP).
Twilight Princess and OOT are tied as my favorites because both of them have certain nuances that the other doesn't have but both play incredibly well. Skyward Sword I only tested for a few hours when I first bought it but I plan on playing through it at some point. I did enjoy the little bit that I played. I also have to catch up on the very positively reviewed Wind Waker which I've never experienced.
I think the main issue I have with Zelda is that it's usually been done before. Most folks know what to expect when a new Zelda game comes out similar to a Mario or FF game. There isn't the same mystery and adventure as there was with the 90s/early 2000s titles. I guess part of it is nostalgia and lack of social media at the time too. However, when I watched the recent Zelda Breath of the Wild gameplay, my interest renewed in Zelda for sure. It looks like the best one since Twilight Princess IMO. I imagine the devs sitting in a room and making a list of what made all past Zelda games good and then trying to incorporate them into BotW. I'm really looking forward to the reviews and getting my hands on it once it comes out.
Anyways, have fun on your second playthrough of SS and hopefully you enjoy it more this time around! Let us know how your experience goes.
Faced the boss which was Ghirahim, the first official introduction of him. I'm not a huge fan of the character art, almost like an albino with white makeup on. He is powerful though and it took awhile to figure out his attack patterns. I wasn't worried about dying though as I was adequately stocked with fairies and potions. I did have to learn how to beat him properly though since I forgot from last time how to do it. I wasn't fond of the fact that there was no health meter either. Whenever he changed his tactics I kind of figured I was making progress.
Overall I feel the temple was very good for a first temple but had not enough enemies IMO. Adding a few more could have made it a bit better but it was really about the exploration to figure it out here. I did not change the controls as I figured out how to use them adequately. Sensitivity was mostly fine and I didn't have much of an issue with the Wii Motion Plus at all. I am having trouble with perspective differences when swinging on the vines though. I think I'll have enough speed and distance to make the jumps, but then I miss. Maybe I'm just bad at vine swinging.
After the temple I advanced and came upon a new area to explore. Before that though I zoomed around Skyloft for awhile and there was another mini-mission waiting for me. I did part of that mission and just explored some and goofed around. It was nice.
Current thoughts: Liking the game. Getting through all the talking and such was a huge PITA, but I am enjoying it now that it is to the action and I am glad I came back to it. I know there are parts coming up that I hated in the past so we will get to those when they come around.
Status: Still feeling good about the game and having fun, can't wait to play this dungeon!
No joke man, this game is not good. You can't have fun with it.
How things have changed! Glad you are now having fun with it.
Originally posted by: Rooster
By the time I finally got off tutorial island, I had kind of had enough. Probably not a fair chance for the game, but I was just done putting time into it and moved onto other things.
I was well past Tutorial Island on my original playthrough but I totally feel the pain. You have to spend at least two hours doing and learning and reading reading reading which is a huge PITA. Once you get to the first temple it gets a lot better honestly. It's the fact of getting to that first temple which took me around 4 hours or so to do which was the hardest part so far. It should have been much faster then that to get to the action otherwise it does pull you away from wanting to play the game. Just like watching the bad early episodes of a TV show to "get into it" before you get to the funny ones.
I recently got around to try a backup copy of Skyward Sword out on my PC using the Dolphin emulator and a USB sensor bar. The game looks incredible once you bump the rendering resolution to 1080p and apply some anti-aliasing/texture sharpening effects.
Played the new area which was Lanayru province desert which was pretty cool. This one was just fun. Hard to describe why. Just lots of discovery and a fun time exploring and killing and figuring out how to do certain things. Took quite awhile to get around due to figuring/remembering how things work. Played for longer than I expected and got to the point where I can go into the Lanayru temple which is pretty sweet. Not enough time to play it today so I'll get back to it as soon as I can.
This time around there was very little interruption from Fi and it was mostly just run around and figure this game out. Which is what Zelda has always been about, which is what I love about Zelda. Just let me figure it out and I'll go from there. I can't wait to be able to play again and beat this temple and see what happens next.