So I've now put around 17 hours into the game and have beaten the first 3 temples. Most of my opinions on the motion control remain the same. It works excellently and becomes SO MUCH easier to use once you've had more time with it and really figured out how and when to time your sword swings on enemies. I actually found that the bosses became progressively easier as I went through the three dungeons. I died 3 times on Ghirahim, almost died on the second boss and dispatched the third boss losing only 1 heart in the process. This may be due to the boss fights getting progressively easier, but I think a lot of it has to do with my improved experience with the motion controls.
The formula of the game is very simple at the outset and seems to be pretty consistent for the first 3 areas:
1. Enter area and explore
2. Get new item that helps you explore
3. Get assigned a task by an NPC (either find x number of something, or activate x number of something)
4. Complete this task and open access to the temple
5. Go through temple and beat boss
Though you would probably think this would get repetitive, it comes nowhere close to the monotony of collecting tears of light in Twilight Princess. Moreover, these areas are for the most part very fun to explore and extremely easy to navigate once you push logs/blocks to enable shortcuts and streamline the exploration for later in the game. I did end up getting frustrated at some points in the second area, where it was not clear cut what I had to do, and thus I ended up wandering round like a headless chicken before consulting a guide. There is also one part of the second dungeon that will have most people ripping their hair out, not knowing what to do, and I can see from reading the thread that some people have already encountered that. All that considered though, I think that by creating very focused and dense areas, the team at Nintendo have been able to (for the most part) eliminate aimless wandering.
Another point that I want to focus on are the save points. Though I was not a huge advocate of these to begin with, as the game went on I found out how useful they really are. A lot of the time I will be in an area and will need a potion refilled or my wallet will be full of rupees. In any other Zelda game, you would have to trawl back to the nearest town to resolve both of these problems, but that issue is completely eliminated in Skyward Sword thanks to the bird statues. It is very easy to travel back to Skyloft, pick up a few upgrades, and then simply drop back to the place where you were, without any of your progress being lost. Moreover, by having save statues in dungeons you can finally have no qualms about stopping half way through one. The only thing that will change is that the major enemies will respawn when you restart, but you will start back at the exact place that you left off from. Even if you want to go outside during a dungeon, the interior acts a lot like the external environments, due to the fact that you will be creating shortcuts to access areas more easily as you progress. Things like this really streamline the process and make Skyward Sword feel like the most accessible Zelda to date.
Something that I'm really pleased with is the consistent need to use every item in your inventory. Besides the slingshot, every single item that I have picked up so far has been used frequently in every area. The best of these is the multi purpose beetle, which is nothing short of genius in design. It can be used to: Scout the area and find enemies, stun aforementioned enemies by ramming into them, collect rupees and hearts with ease, hit switches that are otherwise inaccessible, carry and drop bombs and even hit Beedle's shop bell. If ever there was a multi functioning item in Zelda, the beetle is quite clearly it. The bombs are also used much more frequently, with a focus on bowling/throwing them as opposed to simply placing them on the ground.
I don't want to get into too many specifics on the third area, as not too many people here have reached that point yet, but what I will say is that the temple is quite astounding. The overarching mechanic of the area is extremely cool and it is so well implemented into the dungeon that it really shakes up the puzzle solving completely. This is also the area where enemies will start to punish you for poor sword play, so I was glad that I had a solid handle on motion plus by this point, otherwise I would have struggled to stay alive. I'm pretty sure the game will start to change up its focus now that I'm passed the stereotypical first section of a Zelda game (which normally comprises of the first three dungeons in the 3D games).
So far so good. Let's see what the next half of the game has in store. I'm sure there will be surprises aplenty!
Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Read 616284 times)
