The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)

Depends whether you already have a WII MOTIONPLUS or not
 
I got the Wii remote because for an extra £15 I thought it was worth getting one with integrated MotionPlus. I'm sure you can get the same with a cheaper game but the whole package is very nice and worth 50 quid.
 
BLOODY HELL this is ROCK SOLID. Usually I breeze through a Zelda but I keep dying at EVERY turn because every enemy now has a different attack pattern.

Also as a noted arachnophobe, the Skulltulas are FUCKING CHILLING.
 
I'm at the first "temple" and liking the fact that it's much more open. But yes, the enemies are fairly challenging. I'm still not entirely sold on the MotionPlus functionality. It makes defeating some enemies rather frustrating - such as the goblin things where you have to attack on their open side. Except if they're blocking to the left, it's hard to get Link's arm over to the right to slash on their open side without hitting them and causing them to alter their stance. And the thrust forwards to get the Skullta's is frustratingly unresponsive.
 
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I'm at the third temple. The game does get better after the first location, and I got better at battling too, although it still seems a bit random and my wiimote keeps going mental every 15 minutes. Controls are overall a fucking DAMP on an overall excellent game. The only other thing I'm not loving is the obvious handholding and 'Go from A to B' scheme of the pre-dungeon stages, but the puzzling and exploring is great, as expected.
 
Ooh, well I just started this yesterday morning. So far I've just messed around with the training bits and pieces but the MotionPlus stuff seems rather grand. The bit where you have to raise your sword/arm to the sky had me grinning from ear to ear!

I've now got to sort out some more CASH so I can buy a shield and get going properly :disco:
 
The bit where you have to raise your sword/arm to the sky had me grinning from ear to ear!

As amazing as that moment is (and let's face it the whole game was probably designed with motion controls as an excuse to do the whole 'lift sword from pedestal into the sky' thing :disco: ) you'll grow to HATE it when you have to do it again in the middle of a battle and the remote refuses to obey - cue Link running around wielding the sword like an ax maniac shouting 'Ha!' while the enemies PUMMEL you.
 
So this is apparently the FASTEST SELLING ZELDA GAME EVER in the US shifting 535,000 in its first week.

It clunked in at #7 over here and fell to #19 this week :(
 
I think it'll have good selling value over Christmas - Donkey Kong Country Returns similarly ducked into the chart fairly low down last year and then held up solidly, mainly because it was the only notable festive release.

The Wii really is on its deathbed though now, I'm quite surprised that Nintendo chose to wait until now to release it. Common sense would say save it for the Wii U but I guess they were too far into development of the game...
 
I am in love with this game.

Everything is near perfect. Skyloft is the best Zelda town since Clocktown. The dungeons are so inventive and I love the relative scaling down of the number of weapons with them ALL being useful after their initial dungeon - the Spinner from TP I'm looking at YOU.

Still struggling to do a forward stab though. Those damn Skulltulas :grr:
 
I don't entirely disagree with this review:

<div style='width:650px;font-size: 12px;'><embed src="http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/global/movies/player/flowplayer.commercial-3.2.7.swf" flashvars="config=http://www.themis-media.com/videos/config/5148-be23eeee8f9dc0f4e727e13391927736.js%3Fplayer_version%3D2.5%26embed%3D1" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" width="650" height="391" wmode="opaque"></embed><div><a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com'>The Escapist</a> : <a href='http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation'>Zero Punctuation</a> : <a href='/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5148-The-Legend-of-Zelda-Skyward-Sword'>The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword</a></div></div>
 
The unnecessary padding towards the end makes the Triforce Quest look like a breeze (Tadtones :manson:) but what a FUCKING GAME.

Groose may be my favourite person ever.
 
I sort of enjoyed the Tadtones but having all your items removed in a LAVA scenario was NOT FUN. I am one battle away from the ending and I have enjoyed it thoroughly, even with its defects.

In other Zelda-related news, this baby sits in my games room from today :disco:

zeldaposter.jpg
 
So has no one finished this?

I loved the ending, very low-key but emotional. Also, the final boss was :disco: although fairly easy I have to say. Overall, I would give it 8/10. I enjoyed it thoroughly and some of the dungeons were excellent (the last one is one of the best in ANY Zelda game in my opinion) but wasn't completely sold on motion controls and the padding got a bit tiresome in the end. They really need to shake up the formula a little bit, or maybe I'm just a bit jaded after 25 years of the same!
 
I finished it last night!

Demise was actually quite easy after Ghirghjbfcvbj. Loved the twist with him.

The ending was perfect. Link FINALLY got his end away :disco:

Seriously we need Legend Of Groose.

Also the tragic tale of the Item Check Girl was even more upsetting than the couple from Majora's Mask.
 
The final dungeon was ACE. A pleasant treat after all that fucking back tracking.
 
What was her beef? I don't think I saw her sidequest!

You had to keep visiting her and she'd fall in love with you. Then if you spoke to her father at the bamboo game he'd ask you to scare away her stalker(!). At night you could either visit her home and confess your undying love or dump her. You'd get Gratitude Crystals either way.

I'm gutted I can't go back and finish everything off because of that damn Hero Mode.
 
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I see. I never visited her shop as I never needed to store anything so I missed out on that. I also made the mistake of overwriting the file... WTF was Nintendo thinking??
 
I'm loving reading all the little things over on Neogaf which tie everything together over the course of the series.

Mind blown that it's your Loftwing on the Hylian Shield.
 
I am getting back into this, although I have just hit a brick wall (literally) in the Earth Temple. It's one of those "I know what I need to do, I just can't do it" moments. I'll be back later for advice if I don't crack it (again, literally).
 
Well I finally polished this off this weekend and I enjoyed it - but it wasn't the world beater I'd been led to believe it was by all those reviews. Not even close really.

Upsides were the amazing art style (that paintbrush effect for things in the distance just never got old), new ways to fight, some great characters and brilliant set pieces. I loved the lava sections and there were some brilliant bosses - in fact, the whole section in the Asian temple leading up to the automaton boss was pure genius.

Sadly that was partly undone by some really glaring negatives. The controls veered between pitch perfect and just plain broken (the skydving and the flying... :zombie:) and the padding was frankly inexcusable and entirely unnecessary for a game which is pretty lengthy anyone. I never really took to the Silent Realm sections bar the last one. The world also felt underpopulated and disconnected. I loved going back to old areas and seeing how they'd changed - no problem there, but when the collectathon challenges just kept coming back and bosses were repeated endlessly, I started to lose the will to play. By the time I got to the Song Of The Hero section, I really just wanted it to be over, finished, done with.

Lots of it felt really creaky in retrospect. The world only exists to throw up obstacles in Link's way rather than being an entity in its own right and that really hit hard here. The writing was generally awful too. Throw in Fi and her endless jabbering and the non-stop reminders of what particular treasures were and I could have shoved my Wiimote through the TV at times :(

Eek, I didn't mean to moan that much. I haven't even started on that hideous section with the floating whale, the swimming, the god awful Scrapper...

Oh well, it was still a great experience, just not one I can ever see myself repeating. The highlights were amazing though and are definitely sticking out now that some of the pain has receded. And that final boss was pretty damn incredible looking - shame we didn't see more of him. His sidekick wasn't nearly as interesting.

I'm off to Xenoblade Chronicles now - let's see how I get on with that. Then I'm going to finally give Twilight Princess a try. There's something about Zelda that is just incredibly compelling even though it's not been perfect for a long time now.

7/10
 
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Well I finally polished this off this weekend and I enjoyed it - but it wasn't the world beater I'd been led to believe it was by all those reviews. Not even close really.

Upsides were the amazing art style (that paintbrush effect for things in the distance just never got old), new ways to fight, some great characters and brilliant set pieces. I loved the lava sections and there were some brilliant bosses - in fact, the whole section in the Asian temple leading up to the automaton boss was pure genius.

Sadly that was partly undone by some really glaring negatives. The controls veered between pitch perfect and just plain broken (the skydving and the flying... :zombie:) and the padding was frankly inexcusable and entirely unnecessary for a game which is pretty lengthy anyone. I never really took to the Silent Realm sections bar the last one. The world also felt underpopulated and disconnected. I loved going back to old areas and seeing how they'd changed - no problem there, but when the collectathon challenges just kept coming back and bosses were repeated endlessly, I started to lose the will to play. By the time I got to the Song Of The Hero section, I really just wanted it to be over, finished, done with.

Lots of it felt really creaky in retrospect. The world only exists to throw up obstacles in Link's way rather than being an entity in its own right and that really hit hard here. The writing was generally awful too. Throw in Fi and her endless jabbering and the non-stop reminders of what particular treasures were and I could have shoved my Wiimote through the TV at times :(

Eek, I didn't mean to moan that much. I haven't even started on that hideous section with the floating whale, the swimming, the god awful Scrapper...

Oh well, it was still a great experience, just not one I can ever see myself repeating. The highlights were amazing though and are definitely sticking out now that some of the pain has receded. And that final boss was pretty damn incredible looking - shame we didn't see more of him. His sidekick wasn't nearly as interesting.

I'm off to Xenoblade Chronicles now - let's see how I get on with that. Then I'm going to finally give Twilight Princess a try. There's something about Zelda that is just incredibly compelling even though it's not been perfect for a long time now.

7/10

I agree wholeheartedly with the motion control bollocks (I HATED diving, it was just so unnatural) and I know what you mean about the world feeling a bit underpopulated but I also think that's the point... the world underneath IS pretty much barren until the end of the game when Zelda and Link stay behind to populate it and create the future Hyrule. I felt a bit underwhelmed about Skyloft but as the game progresses I actually appreciated less characters to interact with but with some really good character development (I thought the writing was GOOD, not great but there were some nice touches like Groose's redemption or Ghirahim being the evil Master sword, and unlike 99% of the Internet I didn't mind Fi - but then I LOVED Navi's stroppiness so what do I know. It's true that the divide between the sky and the ground could have been handled much better (I blame Wii's hardware for that) and that the sky was pretty much a combination of a random rocks and three main spots, and the whole thing feels much more linear because of that.

In the end what really makes Zelda for me it's two things: the sort of very Japanese mixture of folksy fairytale and epic adventure, which I RARELY get from Western developers, and the amazing dungeons with those penny dropping moments which many, many games have tried to emulate but very few have matched. Some of the stuff they ask you to do in this game is so clever it's miles away from any other adventure game.
 
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Midna (or Ghost Zelda) remains Link's greatest companion.
 
Ghost Zelda was a really great idea but sadly she appears in what I consider the NADIR of Zelda games.
 
Just started on the Switch version of this. Never played the original but OMG the controls are absolute DOGSHIT

I just died three times trying to kill a simple skulltulla, and that's with the motion control switched off!

Shame, as the game itself looks beautiful. :(
 
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I thought about trying this but the controls sound like a pain in the arse, they really should've made a mode with proper button controls even if it would've required reworking more stuff.
 
Also waiting patiently for them to put that HD version of Wind Waker on Switch 😤
 
I bought a pirate card with the amiibo data on it (I have 2 boxes of sealed ones I'm TOYING with the idea of selling), but am waiting for the sale. It's the playing it in 60 frames per second that's luring me in. I do think it looks better, but I also think the Wii's 480p was almost part of the art and this is slightly lost here... It actually sounds like enough "quality of life" measures were taken to try and stick with it though. There are 2 great characters in this in my opinion.
 
I thought about trying this but the controls sound like a pain in the arse, they really should've made a mode with proper button controls even if it would've required reworking more stuff.

I thought they had done that??!

I'd rather stick NEEDLES in my EYES than use WAGGLE WAGGLE to fight enemies in this game ever again.
 
I really need COMPLETE confirmation that you can play this in docked mode before purchasing. FUCK MOTION CONTROLS!
The button controls sound awfully mapped, but I'm prepared to attempt them as the only major Zelda game I've never played.

I'm amazed motion controls were ever a thing. Who wants to get RSI flopping your hand about unnecessarily after a day at work, or even WORSE, when hungover :zombie:
 
SS is the game that proved the worth of motion +

The mistake was not offering both schemes from the get go and not requiring the "solution" they've cooked up here. I can totally see them going back to both WW and SS art styles.

I was watching the Digital Foundry video and it is a convincing peice.
 
I've gotten a bit better at the Motion Controls now, but it's still FUCKING ANNOYING. I spent about 30 minutes trying to open that combination lock in the Water temple, having already figured out the order I had to hit it in, but I couldn't stop Link from double-slashing which resets the whole thing. :zombie:

Also controlling the whip is teeth-gnashingly frustrating. Great item, HORRIBLE execution, especially with that big boss whose arms you have to pull off.

Still a lovely game though. I just feel like I'm in a domestic abuse relationship with it.
 
The controls and the horrible padding (have they removed the TWENTY FIGHTS against that blob creature? Because that was Phantom Hourglass levels of TEDIOUSNESS) make this game an imperfect Zelda, but it does have some great temple designs and I really liked the characters and story. A MIXED BAG.
 
The characters really are what make the Zelda games for me.

I think my favourite minor character in this one so far is Pipit's feckless mother who would rather blow through her son's college fund than lift a finger to clean up her own filth. :D
 
Well, just to close the loop, I finally completed this over the weekend and I adored it.

My observations are largely consistent with others': when it's good, Skyward Sword represents the series at its best; when it's not...it's repetitive rather than objectively bad.

The graphics look incredible on the Switch; I think it's the first time I really appreciated the art style they were going for. I didn't even touch the motion controls this time around. I think the flaw remains (judging from @VoR's experience) in that the game can't reliably differentiate between an attack and when you're just recentering your aim. It's manageable up to a point, but as the enemies require more precise angles of attack, you often find yourself striking them unintentionally. It's still evident within the button controls, but never as prominently.

I guess that button controls probably make the game exceptionally easy. Some of the bosses (particularly towards the end) are a walkover because you can deliver attacks far faster than the Joy-Cons/Wiimote would permit. That smoothes out some of the repetitive elements though (The Imprisoned :manson:) because no individual section of the game outstays its welcome.

In hindsight, it is really clear how much the development was over-cooked. There's so much backtracking, like the developers just didn't know when to stop. Even so, every area is so well designed and utterly charming that I didn't ever really hit a point where I thought "Oh, not this bit again". I suppose it's possible that any post-Breath Of The Wild 3D Zelda game will feel like that now. However, the relative linearity of Skyward Sword is why I liked it. I've sunk hours into Breath Of The Wild, but never taken down any of the bosses. It was nice to play through a game where there was a clear and constant sense of progression.
 

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