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Legend of Zelda Offical The Legend of Zelda Thread

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Fun Fun Island is quite possible one of the worst things Nintendo has ever created.
 
I dunno, that archery mini game with Fledge is making me want to kick puppies. it's difficulty is just ridiculous.
 
So I just went to the Thunder Dragon to do the boss mini game and get the shield. There are apparently 9 bosses. I figured that if you do all 9 instead of just 8, you'll get whatever the previous reward was PLUS what's next. But nope. I just wasted all that time for some ****ing rupees. Now I have to do it all over again to the damn shield.
 
I felt that the shield was under-utilized. Past games have given them more application (mirror shield especially). Maybe I just wanted to throw it at someone Captain America style...
 
I liked how you could parry with it. And the damage meter on it was definitely new for a Zelda game, so I enjoyed the changes. I do with the mirror shield were in it, though.
 
I never used the mirror shield unless I had to. I need my Link outfitted with the Hyrulian
 
Imagine a Captain America shield in Zelda... That would be awesome :P
 
I don't see why throwing a shield would be too difficult. A wooden, round one anyway. Have it work like a boomerang.

Was actually surprised to see that absent in this game.
 
A boomerang in a Zelda game? Ridiculous. What's next, a flying beetle or ball and chain?
 
Or a spinning top. Id take a boomerang shield over a slingshot, that is probably the most useless weapon in this game
 
yeah, the sling shot worked in Ocarina because it was basically a young Link equivalent of the bow. But a slingshot without young Link is really just a waste, especially since we get the bow. replacing the slingshot with the boomerang in SS would have made me so happy.
 
And you get the beetle right away which is much more versatile than the slingshot even though its more of a tool than a weapon
 
One thing that has bugged me for years, is why Link can't just go buy weapons. Naturally, legendary weapons with magical powers should be one of a kind, and hard to come by.

But why can't Link just got to the bazaar and buy a bow? In some games they're actually on walls in castles, or hanging in the store. That was nice in Spirit Tracks, you just went to the store to buy a bomb bag.
 
Because that takes the adventure out of the adventure game
 
I don't see how it diminishes adventure. You can buy shields, no? And there have been Zelda games where you can buy swords? I say let you buy basic equipment and weapons from stores and save the dungeon, legendary weapon slots for interesting, unique weapons.
 
I'll get to SSword once I finish up OoT 3D. It's amazing how great this looks on the 3DS.
 
Really enjoying this game so far. I am about 20 hours in and on the 4th temple. A great game which can definitely be challenging from a swordsplay point of view. Takes a while to master, that is for sure.

I wish I could just play this game non stop.
 
If I have one major issue with the game it's the lack of involved / interesting supporting characters. Midna was a lot more fun than... I forget the sword girl's name. Zelda's father just goes missing in the middle of the game... Well, he's in his study, but he's nowhere to be seen in most of the game. You would think he'd send some knights to search for his daughter or something.

And that brings me to something that has been bothering me since Twilight Princess, where the heck are Link's parents? Ocarina of Time at least gave its Link a tragic backstory. Wind Waker gave him a family (still with no parents, but a grandparent, so it's a start). But both the Links in Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword have no family or background.
 
Okay, so 72 hours, 18 hearts, tons of gratitude crystals, and several Ghirahim fights later I have finished this game (thanks to a coincidental week off of work with nothing to do). It should be noted that I bought a Wii just for Zelda. I had a Wii before, but sold it when I moved country so I got a Wii in prep for Skyward Sword as I'm a devotee of the series.

That being said, there were some things I liked and loved, and some I disliked, and dare I say hated about this game. In retrospect, would I have bought a Wii anyway just for this game? Yes... I mean, there are other Wii games I have to play through (just finished NSMB and I've got Galaxy 2 and Metroid to play through), but I would've anyway because I'm a Zelda fanatic and have been for the past 25 years. (I got to go to the concert in London in October. Oh how sweet!)

So this is my in-depth review. I'll add blackouts where necessary. First of all, this game is beautiful. Like many of you I looked at the colors, and coming off the heels of TP it did hurt my eyes... but I didn't appreciate this game's beauty until my first return to Skyloft. Wow! So bright, so colorful. I was worried after entering Faron Woods that the visuals were going to be too repetitive, but after you see the contrasts that soon faded. Swimming through Lake Floria before going into the Ancient Cistern was probably one of my favorite moments in video game history just because the presentation was flawless. Link controlled beautifully with swimming, especially with that underwater swim move maneuver he does (even better than MM's Zora Mask swimming capabilities), although I didn't think it was necessary to switch from controlling him with the control stick to them using WMP controls for underwater swimming. The switch is extremely awkward and an example of where this game overuses WMP. While the visuals and presentation in general were good, for the first time I noticed two flaws I don't generally (if ever) notice in Zelda games: framerate issues and a poor camera. The camera is the worst camera in any Zelda game ever. Very, very disappointing. While it isn't a problem the whole game, combined with a less than grand implementation of a new control scheme, I felt like my battles were more against the game itself rather than the villains. Very unlike Zelda quality. Forgivable though, as it doesn't seem to follow you the entire game in later (more open spaced) environments and Z-targeting can alleviate some of the missteps here. Overall, presentation works as the orchestral themes (again, Lake Floria is just amazing... so serene, so beautiful!) stir up feelings like only Zelda can.

Which brings me to the story. Okay, so... best story in any Zelda game ever in my most humble of opinions. That being said, it was not flawless and suffered in the presentation again. I felt this game started out really slow because of the story. It also was extremely linear... there are a couple of options to run the story on your own terms, and being able to change the outcome of a specific event in one of the side stories [BLACKOUT]the Karane letter epilogue[/BLACKOUT] is a fun easter egg, but this game is not what I expected when it comes to interesting side characters. MM really was a great game because of the side characters... and there were so many of them. These all just feel cartoony, with the notable exception of Link, Zelda, Groose, even Ghirahim to an extent [blackout](his ending is great as he was such a tool in the end and so loyal to his master, and then his master just kills him in a split second as if he was nothing... I love it!)[/blackout], Granny [blackout]aka Impa[/blackout]. These guys just pop! The very ending is a little flat... but I could live with it because I felt it all came together nicely. I really felt like this was an official "Legend of Zelda" game. Fi was okay, I'm probably the only person in the world who actually liked Navi and was sad to see her go... Fi came nothing close. And yeah, her voice was stupid. Saying goodbye to the Master Sword at the end was also teary. I formed a bond with that sword... much like in Ocarina... but even moreso as the sword was forged and then put there for later Links to pick up. I don't know how it ends up in the Temple of Time for OoT, but it looks like this game leads up to Twilight Princess just as nicely as it does OoT. Anyway, minor plot holes and deadpan characters aside (Zelda's father is a joke), I thought the story was the best. I should mentioned though that I've never been an advocate for voice acting in Zelda before, but now I'm ready. It really detracts from the experience this time more than ever. Link doesn't have to talk, but the others need to. As graphics get better and better it feels archaic not having some voice acting. And people will always refute the need for it in Zelda saying it's just trying to keep up with others if they do it, but what people don't seem to remember is Zelda/Nintendo were always praised for blazing the trail in producing games that were unrivaled in offering an immersible experience, but that has faded because innovation in general has grounded to a halt. The reviews got it right... this is Zelda, and for that reason it will always be great... but the industry is leaving this format in the dust and Zelda is clinging to it. It's sad to hear they thought they could still get away with Midi music another game. We're light years past that now. Anyway, story = the greatest yet... but could leave you with a feeling of 'it could've been better' due to presentation and too much linear control.

Which brings me to yet another point... this game is far too linear. The overworld was not a true overworld to me. I had little to no desire to explore, which didn't really matter because there wasn't really anywhere to explore. I did take some time and explore later in the game, and that was well rewarded... fortunately (I say fortunately, but some people will hate this, though I loved it) the game takes you through the same three environments three times each... so you get to scrap up anything you missed earlier for not having the right equipment. That's the only time exploration exists. There's no town centers... no place where there's tons of people to go talk to other than Skyloft... it's a very empty place. I miss... people... towns... exploration... a cohesive overworld. All that is gone, but I praise the Zelda team for trying something new here... I just feel that one of the side-effects is it was far too linear. The only exception is a later quest [blackout]recovering the song of the hero[/blackout] allows some options for the order in which you do the events... however I've seen people online say if you do the sequences in a specific order the game breaks. This is a trend I've noticed in non-Miyamoto directed games (basically, everything since Ocarina), Zelda is becoming more and more train-tracked. I miss walking into a big overworld and wondering "what should I do... where should I go...?!" I miss walking into dungeons I have no ability to solve yet, so I have to leave.

On the subject of dungeons, these are the best yet, hands down. There are six 'official' dungeons in this game (ie - dungeons that end in a boss battle. [blackout]It's a little disappointing that two of those bosses are Ghirahim, but this was a sword battle affair, not an item-getting quest, so I can make my peace with that.[/blackout] But as you guys said, the pre-dungeons are sometimes just as exciting as the actual dungeons themselves. I have a mild complaint about the dungeon concepts compared to older games... and that's that most of the dungeons have come down to solving each room at a time, and once that's solved you just move onto the next room. It used to be that dungeons were more cohesive, and had to be solved as a whole, but again it seems they're pulling away from that. No matter, as they still remain crazy fun (after the first one or two, that is), and the pre-dungeons, along with the final Temple [blackout]collecting the Triforce = incredibly imaginitive!![/blackout] amount to some of the best video game playing around! I don't know how they can top these.

So anyway, my biggest gripe is the controls... they just don't work very well. I sat further back away from my TV, and that helped a little, but overall 1:1 doesn't really exist. I saw the video of the guy who did the rebuttal of the gamespot review, and I could make that same exact video... but there are a few problems: look at the delay time between actual swing and Link's swing... there is a very brief delay. That is difficult when the game requires exact timing, but you're plagued with a split second delay. I suppose you can counter that with an awareness of a delay, but that is even more difficult and sometimes impossible. Also, speed recognition for the wii remote is poor. It essentially has two or three recognitions, which means if you want your hand in a certain position quickly to pull off a specific maneuver, you'll need to put your hand there slowly so you don't leave yourself open on an accidental swing. If you move it quickly in the hopes of readying yourself for a quick slice, you'll blow your chance with a premature move and be open for an attack. The upsetting thing is, your opponent never suffers this problem. They can move their hand/sword in position quickly (much like you could in real life) without attacking. So I think the issue is that motion sensors only are picking up two or three speed levels when you move your remote... and therefore mistake subtle movements for strategy sake with stabs or slashes. Second to this, there are only 8 points of recognition for the wii remote... not 1:1 by a long-shot. You have all the compass points (N, NE, E, SE, S, etc...) and any slash starting from one of those points to the opposite end. I found the stab to be hit or miss, though much less responsive when I was either too close or the batteries were low. Same with the shield bash. So this moves us to strategy #2: shield bash and wii remote waggling. Shield bash is great, even if it did take me the whole game to really master it. It made for a great final battle which I thoroughly enjoyed! And since I had the Hylian Shield by then, I didn't care if I missed my timing once or twice because my shield protected me and it never broke... but it does keep you on your toes. I don't like that that is the ONLY way to effectively use your sword, and I thought overall that WMP was a liability more than a fun new friend... but whereas I started the game hoping they'd drop it in the future, I finished it with hoping they retool it and improve it so it works. I'm definitely a fan of it if it works... but would rather see it dropped if it emulated this game again. WMP's need to recenter constantly took the fun and thrill out of going into your pouch midgame without being able to pause it. Because you can memorize where things are in your pouch, pointing the remote at the screen to pull out a potion or a different weapon should be a one-second thing, but instead you'd always have to guess where the remote cursor would land you, giving your enemy an advantage. Nice idea... very poorly executed. As said, I also didn't care for swimming using WMP, but I liked it for walking on ropes and shooting arrows (although again needing to center it constantly was a pain!) The bird at first felt clunky, but I mastered that before long.

I didn't care for The Imprisoned in the first couple of battles, but then I realized how big of a part that was in the story and in retrospect thought it was great. He's not too difficult to beat, especially when you have to fight him three times in the boss rush challenge. I didn't understand the benefit of breaking his toes if he only fell on his back and the thing you had to strike was upside down, until I realized you could strike your sword up into him (sadly I only realized that on the third fight... haha).

Overall, this is really a beautiful game. It doesn't deserve the 100's, because I cannot remember a more flawed Zelda game... I also cannot remember a game that seemed to take all of those flaws and somehow ignore them to produce such a strong adventure. Greatest story and some great presentation elements. The silent realm was haunting and really had my heart beating in some moments (even though it was largely non-consequential as you can repeat it however many times you want), but just the presentation got you going, as did the boss rush challenge to get the Hylian Shield (I only played the first 8 bosses... although it will eventually let you repeat 12 bosses in total). Zelda and Link have never been better, and I hope for a return of some kind of Groose character, or even a spin-off with the hinted at Legend of Groose! The controls went from being completely disappointing to perhaps hopeful. They never failed me during the final battle, although perhaps that's just because the final battle is so straight-forward. I like the idea of a separate shield and sword... but there still needs more work there. If they can't perfect it, or at least improve it vastly come next game, I would be happy to have a standard controller, or at least a standard controller option.

Great game. Buy it if you have a Wii. If not, play it for Wii U unless you're a Zelda fan like me. I played this game without a guide (which is, in my opinion, the only way to play a Zelda game and enjoy it), and the learning curve was decent, though more involved than past games. Figuring out each boss can be fun, and getting to the fifth dungeon and learning that you can throw horizontal skyward strikes was a thrill for me... who knew?! Fi never lets you down though if you get too stuck, as does the gossip stone on Skyloft... but most of the game will be pretty obvious if you seek out your environments well enough. The stealth moments later on are great... especially when you're up against more enemies than you can battle in a room and you need to take them out one at a time from far away before they even notice you. I love that! Of course the music is gold, but when is it not?

I can sense a shift coming soon in the series, so if it's the last of its type, then this was a great swan song.
 
Nintendo has come out saying that they are indeed considering the use of some voice acting in the next Legend of Zelda game. The catch......they speak Hylian, not English or Japanese.
 
part of me thinks that a neat idea and part of me thinks it's utterly ridiculous.
 
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