Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Review

[MagicCow64]

I will join the pushback against Twilight Princess hate. It's a bit muddy aesthetically, and did feel like the ghost of OoT was haunting it too much, but it's a top-notch game nonetheless. I would compare it to Mario Sunshine: widely disparaged, and yet still the best example of its genre in the generation it was released.

I remember IGN Wii shaking their heads in disbelief when Okami won game of the year. They said something like "how did a shameless Zelda clone win GOTY when there was a Zelda game out the same year that was better on the merits?"

And did people forget how good the fishing hole was?!

[GoldenPhoenix]

Funny thing is that Wind Waker is probably the least polished among the Zelda games, the dungeons were average IMO (I still cannot really remember much about them, except they were bland), and there were only a few. The bosses were fine but like the dungeons there were hardly any, they were vastly more interesting in Majora which did a good job with limited dungeons, likely because it was designed around time restraints. Wind Waker felt unfinished, and the triforce quest is easily the worse padding the Zelda series has ever had and if anything felt thrown in to extend length, it was the triforce scavenger hunt, which was far worse in the Japanese release. People bash TP's overworld but I enjoyed more then the one in Wind Waker, which is quite sparse and uninteresting.


I think Wind Waker the game survives more based on its artistic merits, story, and its battle system. Twilight Princess was an extremely polished game, and I enjoyed most of the dungeons, the story was fine, had some great boss battles along with being the first Zelda game that felt like a true sequel. To see many of the same sights found in OOT, but ravaged by time and war was fantastic.


Did TP have flaws? Of course it did, but Wind Waker had a ton of them as well, right down to being a rushed product. But both games have many redeemable qualities as well. Is TP similar to OOT? Yeah it is but that doesn't mean it is bad, it does plenty to distinguish itself, and I find the similarity in the worlds to be apart of its charm, as a sequel of sorts to the events of OOT. Now if there was another game in the series that felt similar to TP and OOT in regards to setting, I would be far harsher, but as it stands, I find TP to be a great follow up, and homage to OOT. So basically I love Twilight Princess but do not want to see another game similar to it!


Picking my favorite 3D Zelda is still a very hard task, only Majora's Mask and the handheld 3D games did I not enjoy much. With Majora though I admit is a great game but just isn't for me. Now with Skyward I am glad to see nintendo shaking things up, and seemingly implementing great motion controls that actually show why motion controls can be a positive feature for gaming. The game's release can't come quick enough!

[NWR_Neal]

There are definitely people who have changed their opinion about Twilight Princess.

I am one of those. I really loved the game when I played, but like broodwars, I can't get past the first few dungeons. It's just so awfully paced.

I think the three-day opening is one of my least favorite things in any Nintendo game ever. It's almost inexcusable. At least with the Wind Waker Triforce quest, you can go off and do side missions during it to spice it up.

The Forest Temple is also stupidly long. Maybe that dungeon is the same length as ones in other games, but it just feels sooooo sloooowww. My last playthrough managed to get me on the cusp on the second dungeon, but I just have no will to continue.

I might try to pick it up again, as I remember really liking the Water Temple, but after lots of thought, mostly brought on by Skyward Sword, I think TP is by far my least favorite 3D Zelda.

[MegaByte]

That actually seems to be a trend. I stopped playing Ocarina at the Forest Temple too. It's worse with Twilight Princess though since it's right up front and the whole beginning drags.


Timely.

[Dasmos]

Can I offer a suggestion? I love the addition of the video review, but maybe you could add some different content to what's already in the written review? Unfortunately I read the review first and all I could think was having the video review act as just a readout of the written one with gameplay video seemed a little redundant, doesn't it? Maybe having the VR act as a game overview with a shorter version of the review, so you could leave the WR as a more indepth look at things that were noted in the VR?

[Halbred]

That actually seems to be a trend. I stopped playing Ocarina at the Forest Temple too. It's worse with Twilight Princess though since it's right up front and the whole beginning drags.

Timely.

Not saying it reminds me of a certain lowball score I gave a certain high-profile franchise game, but...okay, that's exactly what I'm saying.

[Ian Sane]

I find that with Zelda games it can very hard to determine how good the game is from reviews.  Zelda is kind of "sacred" with gamers.  OoT can so many perfect 10's it was like a stunt.  It was the "best game ever" and your magazine or website would lose credibility if it didn't have the same opinion.  People say there is no such thing as bad publicity but that's not quite true.  Being contrary can hurt one's credibility.  If you don't like Zelda, that's like a film critic not liking The Godfather or a music critic not liking the Beatles.  It is such a contrary point of view that everyone thinks you're either nuts, have horrible taste, or are being contrary on purpose.

As a result I feel that Zelda gets a lot of benefit of the doubt from reviewers.  Zelda is supposed to great.  The expectation is so ingrained that for a Zelda to not be great would be like a hit to our very belief system as gamers.  Zelda being lousy or even just okay is videogame blasphemy.  So reviewers are going to be looking to give it a high score because, deep down, they're fans and they want Zelda to kick ass as well.

Mario gets this a lot, too (the real Mario; not spinoffs).  So does Blizzard.  Phantom Hourglass has an 88.91% average on GameRankings.  That game with it's wonky controls and annoying Temple of the Ocean King would have gotten ripped apart if it was not a Zelda game.  But it got great reviews (though not as great as Zelda often gets).

The "bad" review of Skyward Sword at least gives the impression that the reviewer did not allow "OMG IT'S ZELDA!!" to cloud their judgement.  Of course they could also be contrarian just because.

I'll know what this is like when I play it because I love the Zelda series enough to give it a chance.  But I gave Phantom Hourglass a chance, hated it, and did not play Spirit Tracks as a result.  If this an annoying wagglefest, I'm not buying any other Zelda with the same type of controls.

[Ax23000]

A lot of people have been bringing up Twilight Princess, but I think there's one VERY distinct difference between that game and Skyward Sword.  Twilight Princess was a highly anticipated launch game for a highly anticipated console.  Skyward Sword is the swan song for a console that most people think died a year ago with controls that have had everyone skeptical from day one.

Twilight Princess received lots of favorable previews, where on the other hand, until the last month or so, Skyward Sword had been all but dismissed.  Even a lot of Nintendo sites have seemed down on the game.  Pretty much from the second that disastrous E3 conference took place people have been harping on the game.

My point here is that I believe that the scores for Skyward Sword have been, on the whole, less influenced by hype, because when you get down to it...there has been little hype for Skyward Sword for much of its life.  Yes, it's Zelda and that alone creates a stir, but the levels are still far lower than what I remember of Twilight Princess.  Now, certainly, this lack of hype could be having the opposite effect on some where low expectations lead to greater enjoyment of the game.  But I still believe that the high scores for this game are impressive considering the state of people's thoughts both on the franchise (with complaints of franchise fatigue at an all-time high) and also on the Wii itself

[Luigi Dude]

Mario gets this a lot, too (the real Mario; not spinoffs).  So does Blizzard.  Phantom Hourglass has an 88.91% average on GameRankings.  That game with it's wonky controls and annoying Temple of the Ocean King would have gotten ripped apart if it was not a Zelda game.  But it got great reviews (though not as great as Zelda often gets).

Only Phantom Hourglass didn't have wonky controls and the Temple of the Ocean King wasn't annoying to everyone.  Phantom Hourglass got the reviews that were quite accurate to how most people felt.  Some people found the game to be a new and unique take on Zelda and loved it, which resulted in high reviews.  Others didn't which resulted in more negative reviews.

The "bad" review of Skyward Sword at least gives the impression that the reviewer did not allow "OMG IT'S ZELDA!!" to cloud their judgement.  Of course they could also be contrarian just because.

Considering most of the negative reviews are docking it points because it's not on an HD system or doesn't have an huge open world like Skyrim, I wouldn't consider the bad reviews any more acurate than the some of the OMG greatest game ever reviews.

[Shaymin]

So Nintendo's really putting the marketing budget to work for Skyward Sword. Famitsu 40.

[NWR_insanolord]

To quote myself from the staff email thread: "Oh boy, that means it's as good as Nintendogs!"

[Chad Sexington]

So I've decided to buy Skyward Sword and I realized I don't have a Motion Plus.


1) Does the normal copy of Skyward Sword come with a Motion Plus?
2) Does the Skyward Sword bundle come with a Motion Plus, or just the Gold Controller?


I'm guessing the normal one doesn't because it's listed at $49... and the bundle seems a little too reasonable with a controller + motion plus... so I have to buy the game and a motion plus separately to play the game?


Thanks.

[NWR_insanolord]

The Gold Wii Remote is a Wii Remote+, which has Motion+ built into it.

[Chad Sexington]

Ok, so that's a better deal then?


I don't really care too much for the gold controller.  It'll be nice, but I just want whatever's cheaper.


I think motion pluses are like $25 on Amazon.




edit: whoa, nm.  I need to shop around a little I think.  I think they slashed the price down to $16.

[Chad Sexington]

Ordered.


I decided to go with the Gold Bundle from Gamestop for $70.


The shipping costs were actually more for the 2 products from Amazon than the bundle alone from Gamestop.  It kind of evened out.  Anyway, I kind of like having it be one piece instead of an add-on.

[Lithium]

There are definitely people who have changed their opinion about Twilight Princess.

I think the three-day opening is one of my least favorite things in any Nintendo game ever. It's almost inexcusable. At least with the Wind Waker Triforce quest, you can go off and do side missions during it to spice it up.quote]

Agreed. The opening is probably the sole reason why i will never replay twilight princess.

[Ceric]

There are definitely people who have changed their opinion about Twilight Princess.

I think the three-day opening is one of my least favorite things in any Nintendo game ever. It's almost inexcusable. At least with the Wind Waker Triforce quest, you can go off and do side missions during it to spice it up.quote]

Agreed. The opening is probably the sole reason why i will never replay twilight princess.

I can live with the 3 day opening.  To me it wasn't its fatal flaw.  Its halfway through the game and the story drops out from under it, where I felt pretty driven to go forward before I know instead feel like whats the point?  Also how the world was laid out.  I found the fishing when I was literally at the end of the game.

[hydropie]

There is absolutely no way this game could be as good as 10 out of 10. In fact, I've heard from many people that the game was terrible. No overworld, too easy, bad story, way too much dialogue, snorefest puzzles, game breaking glitches, as well as constant rehashes of the terrible collection quests that every single 3d zelda has been plagued with!. How could nwr editors be foolish enough to give this game a 10!?

[TJ Spyke]

Have you played the game? If not, then you can't say the game doesn't deserve a 10/10. To quickly address your complaints (others can tear your post apart more):

1)There is only 1 glitch that could be considered game breaking. Ideally there would be 0, but this one is more than easy to avoid.
2)Almost every mainstream outlet is giving it high praise (there is a reason it has a 93 average on Metacritic). It does have a overworld, reports I have seen say it's harder than previous Zelda games, etc.

I really hope your post was satire.

[GrabMyBoomstick]

Finally picked up Skyward Sword yesterday. Having a blast thus far. Only a few hours in but what I've experienced thus far is absolutely phenomenal.