Official Zelda Thread

[Infinity's End]

Just beat the game less than an hour ago. [spoiler]The last boss was kind of anti-climatic..[/spoiler]

Cool dude, I beat the game just today as well! I also think, although it wasn't perfect, it was still the most satisfying Zelda game ever made thus far. Leaps and bounds better than Twilight Princess for sure.

[spoiler]I was also expecting Demise to be a LOT more challenging and the fight to last a lot longer, span multiple forms, etc, but in the end, I can't say I was disappointed. It was extremely fun and I will definitely be going through Hero Mode![/spoiler]

[Apothem]

I finally finished Skyward Sword the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. The game has it's flaws: Still somewhat imperfect motion controls, far too many reiterative and annoying boss fights and graphical restrictions brought about by the Wii's unnecessarily underpowered hardware but overall it was fun. It simply felt like it could've been something more.

One such area the game could have improved upon, as DJ Trancetronica links to, is voice acting. The game, and series in general, barely has any and for the most part that's fine, but the characters in Skyward Sword are far more animated and cut scenes more text heavy then ever before. The fact that characters remain largely silent while broadly mouthing their words is somewhat jarring. Some good voice work could have most certainly enhanced the experience, be it Japanese, English, or a false language such as Hylian of whatever the hell Fi speaks. The point being that hearing characters emote and express themselves beyond simple sounds can help broaden their personalities and further endear them to players. Of course, the one massive downside to voice acting in general is that it's such a crap shoot, you never quite know what to expect, and Nintendo especially is often less than stellar in the voice department. Still, if Aonuma and Miyamoto seek to expand on the Zelda series cinematic flair, proper voice acting in some form is a likely concession they'll have to make.

Extrapolating from the interview previews themselves, Koji Kondo's opposition to voice acting in the series regards maintaining Link as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and that giving him a voice disconnects him from the player. His argument is flawed for several reasons: First, Link already has a voice, however limited it may be, and has had one ever since Ocarina of Time. Second, Link is Link, he has never been anymore a blank slate than Mario or any of Nintendo's other characters. Third, The Legend of Zelda isn't about a nameless, faceless stranger in a foreign land with some seemingly random destiny laid in his lap. This isn't The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Mass Effect or any number of similar games where you the player are responsible for constructing your character. The Zelda games are a heavily scripted series wherein Link is very much is own man far removed from the player's actions. You don't get to make the legend, you get to advance it, and that's by no means a bad thing, it's how the series plays, and whereas moving towards the open world sensibilities of western RPGs could be an improvement for the series, it's far from necessary and not at all what we are dealing with here and now. Maybe Link should stay mute, after all, look what happened the last time Nintendo decided one of it's formerly silent protagonists should start talking. Still, it's another element to help build the world and the characters, Link or no, should speak in some form.

[gigatravis]

[spoiler]I didn't even try shield bashing Demise's sword back. I just circled him and striked him with my sword after he attacked. I got hurt a lot, but I still beat him. And FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU- I should have copied my file to another save slot before starting Hero Mode! What was I thinking?[/spoiler]

[LesserChozo]

I'm still on the first dungeon.

[Chris]

Voice acting

Just do it like Corruption, everyone but Samus/Link talking. Elder scrolls and Fallout do the same.

[Infinity's End]

[spoiler]I didn't even try shield bashing Demise's sword back. I just circled him and striked him with my sword after he attacked. I got hurt a lot, but I still beat him. And FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU- I should have copied my file to another save slot before starting Hero Mode! What was I thinking?[/spoiler]

Yeah, I totally realized what was going to happen and did exactly that before I beat it. Now I can go back and finish all the sidequests before taking Hero Mode on.

[Apothem]

Here's something new: A game breaking glitch in Skyward Sword (contains minor plot spoilers) late in the story that prevents further progress if you were unfortunate enough to save after performing a very specific series of events. I barely avoided it myself, and damned glad I did, as I had nearly 50+ hours invested into the game by that point.

The spoiler free version, for those looking to avoid the pitfall and potential plot details: Later in the game, when you're assembling a three piece "whatsit" and need to revisit the game's three regions, if you decide to complete the Lanayru leg of the quest chain before Faron or Eldin, DON'T TALK TO THE GORON (Golo) AFTER COMPLETING THE DESERT QUEST. It's best to leave the desert for last at this point, if for no other reason than to assuredly avoid the glitch. You can afford to talk to him BEFORE completing the Lanayru quest, just not AFTER until you've done Eldin and Faron.

Myself? I rushed off to Lanayru first for a particular reward you can earn after completing that leg of the quest, and without knowing narrowly avoid ruining my save. You'll know if you've crossed the line as the special scripted sequences necessary to start off the Faron and Eldin quests won't trigger, effectively leaving you screwed. There is presently no workaround for the glitch. Either load up a different save, or start over if you're effected.

[Chris]

Doubt this spoils anything but I'll try keep the specifics to minimum:

I froze the game when was moving the windmills, I kept on blowing by accident on the second windmill after it was in position so it triggered the small cutscene but as the windmill went pasted the trigger position soon after the animation of what follows never happened and the camera stayed where the intended action was taking place. I had to re-do the fetch quest as a result. The second time I saved before attempting the movement before hand just incase.

[Infinity's End]

Check out this compendium of all the "Mythology Gags" in SS. It's not 100% complete but it's very thorough.

There are HUUUUUUGE spoilers for those who haven't played the game, but you have to highlight to reveal them.

[Naner]

It seems people in São Paulo are already receiving their copies of the game. I'm going to call the store I pre-ordered at later today. With luck, it'll be here today or Monday.

[Warhead]

Finished the game not too long ago, it was better than TP by leaps and bounds.

The controls worked well for the most part, the story was interesting(save for the agonizing beginning), and the worlds managed to be more interesting.

Also, did anyone notice the Metroid nods? I mean, there's the bird statues(basically medieval save stations), the dial-turning puzzles and the bigger emphasis on going back to previous areas to progress?

[Tianna]

I went to bed last night in the first dungeon. The Skultulas are pissing me off.

[Apothem]

Here's a point I'd like to discuss with my fellow players, especially those of you still early on in Skyward Sword: Since finishing the game about a week ago I've been reading and hearing other people's opinions about it and one thing I've found baffling is the almost unilateral agreement that the game has proven challengingly difficult, a notion I find hard to understand. During my initial play through I actually found the game to be ridiculously easy, especially the boss battles. The enemies clearly telegraph their openings and give plenty of time to attack, and most of them can be taken down with a quick shield block and spin attack. Bosses, as in every Zelda game, involve little more than identifying their simplistic patterns and striking appropriately. So where exactly does the difficulty lay? I've even suffered suboptimal hardware performance and still found Skyward Sword to be a walk in the park.

I can admit to three instances of varying levels of challenge, all stemming from boss fights.
[spoiler]First: Girahim, first encounter. He threw me for a loop at first until I realized I couldn't use the Slingshot or Beetle against him. Afterwards it was a simple matter of striking him opposite his hand with the Goddess Sword.

Second: The Imprisoned, third form. This bastards second form was a bitch but tolerable. It's third form made me want to break my Wiimote, until I realized just how useful the Goddess Bow was in the fight. I still had to do it twice, as I catapulted over the damned things head the first time around. Of all the games fights, this would be the only one I'd say was truly challenging, and even then because it was remarkably cheap.

Third: Demise. He hits like a truck, compared to everything else in the game, forcing me for the first time in my long play through to actually use a potion. The fight, however, is laughably easy and straight forward. Block thrice, strike once. If it wasn't for the occasional miscommunication of the Wiimote he'd likely never have struck me.[/spoiler]

All in all, Skyward Sword was still good fun, it simply could've been a tad bit more challenging. I recall having a rougher time with Twilight Princess, possibly even Wind Waker, though memory's a little hazy on the matter. At least it's not as difficult as Donkey Kong Country Returns. I'd likely have thrown the Wii out the window.

[Infinity's End]

I'd say I probably died as many times in SS as I did playing through ALTTP the first time; somewhere around 25-35 deaths. And that's saying quite a bit. Every Zelda from OOT to TP I probalby died, max 3-5 times. In SS, it was a much more common occurrence.

The dungeons themselves, for me, were the biggest "disappointment" in terms of challenge. The final dungeon was cleverly built though, and I did really enjoy the puzzles.

I died only once on the final boss, but all other bosses except Koloktos did not kill me. The death during Koloktos was mostly my fault because I went into the battle with very low health.

[Apothem]

Fascinating. The final boss was the only instance in which my health ran critically low. Up until then I had been lugging around a fully infused health potion for over 50 hours with nary a need to use it, and if it hadn't been for some sensor trouble I'd have never needed it for that final fight. That's not to say I never took damage, I just never took very much, and aside from that one non-standard game over I never died. If anything I'm now more inclined to play through Hero Mode. Maybe the increase in difficulty will provide an actual challenge.