Topic: Skyward Sword Game Glitch Discovered

[NWR_pap64]

Nintendo has already offered an official solution. UPDATE: NOA offers save data repair service, announces plans for online save patching solution.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28582

UPDATE: Nintendo has updated their official website with details on how to repair a save file suffering from this serious glitch. NOA is offering two methods of repairing player's Skyward Sword save data. Currently, you may contact NOA at 1-800-255-3700 and arrange for them to receive and repair your save data. Nintendo is also planning to release a program "that will repair save data for those who have their Wii connected to the Internet." Presumably this program would be published via the Wii Shop Channel or a similar mechanism. (Special thanks to Bryan Szollosi for the news tip!)

ORIGINAL STORY: A game-breaking glitch has been discovered in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, to which Nintendo has offered an official solution.

The glitch can be encountered when players complete the Thunder Dragon first when obtaining the Song of the Hero. After completing some unspecified tasks, the game would prevent you from completing the Water and Fire Dragon quests, forcing players to restart the game or select a prior save point.

Players have contacted Nintendo regarding the glitch. The company's response details what causes it, as well as how to prevent it from happening. The full response is as follows:

"We have been made aware of the issue that results in being unable to progress in the Song of the Hero quest. If the game has been saved after completing the sequence of events, it will no longer be possible to proceed through the game on that save file. The only options at that point are to either start the game over or to use an earlier save file to continue.

The situation is caused by performing the following sequence of events during the Song of the Hero quest:

1. At the beginning of the quest, go to Lanayru Desert to retrieve the song of the Thunder Dragon.

2. In the Lanayru Mine, speak with Golo the Goron.

3. Complete the Thunder Dragon's event, and receive his song.

4. Before heading to the forest or volcano regions, speak with Golo in the mine again.

5. At this point, the forest and volcano events will no longer occur, making it impossible to continue.

Solutions:

• This issue WILL NOT OCCUR if the Fire and Water Dragon songs have already been collected before collecting the Thunder Dragon's song. Talking to Golo in the Lanayru Caves will also NOT trigger this issue.

• If the game has been saved after completing the sequence of events, it will no longer be possible to proceed through the game on that save file. The only options at that point are to either start the game over or to use an earlier save file to continue.

I wish I had a better answer, but I'm afraid there currently is no other fix available. I can assure, however, that we are documenting all feedback we receive on this issue. Thank you for your patience and support."

It is expected that further releases of Skyward Sword will revise the game so as to avoid this glitch.

[broodwars]

Nintendo has already offered an official solution.

No, they haven't.  A "solution" is a fix to a mistake or problem that's already been made.  If you hit this glitch, your Game is Over.  You have to start the game all over again if you want to get around the glitch at this point.  This was basically Nintendo just saying "We can't patch things on Wii and we have your money, but this is the stupid thing you shouldn't have done.  Sucks to be you."

A "solution", albeit not a great one, would be for them to do what they did with Other M and have a mailing program to fix your save file for you.  But the Wii is pretty much dead now, and Nintendo probably didn't get that many bites on their Other M program so who cares? 

This is a terrible bug to have slipped through Nintendo QA, though my exasperation with Nintendo is tempered by the fact that I've seen much worse examples of terrible QA policy lately. *cough*Bethesda*cough*

At least the Wii U will likely have the online system to support patches, so shoddy programming like this can at least be rectified without forcing players to restart a 50-60 hour game.

[Leont]

I have no idea in with part of the game this is?


Mid game SPOILER ALERT


Can some one help me plz cos I don't wanna get that same problem. I got the green fire for my sword and now am in the dessert ocean in front of the pirates base.

[Seacor]

It's to bad Nintendo failed to consult with Treyarch and High Voltage Software on how those developers were able to implement a software patching system for their Wii games (Black Ops, MW3, Conduit 2)

[broodwars]

I have no idea in with part of the game this is?


Mid game SPOILER ALERT


Can some one help me plz cos I don't wanna get that same problem. I got the green fire for my sword and now am in the dessert ocean in front of the pirates base.

You'll be coming to a part of the game where you have to go look for a song in the 3 regions you'll have already done.  Just don't pick the desert area first, and you'll be fine.

[Ian Sane]

An annoying part is this bug is that to avoid it I have to deal with spoilers.  So when needing to get songs don't do desert first?  Got it.

But, yeah, Nintendo should have a way to patch this stuff.  Come on this is 2011!  My parents would fit the non-gamer mold and if I told them they would almost immediately say "so when's the patch coming out?"  This ain't hardcore computer techy stuff here, Nintendo!  If you have an electronic device that connects to the internet people expect bugs to be fixed with patches!

[the asylum]

HVS was able to issue patches for Conduit 2, why can't Nintendo do this for their own games?

Sometimes I think Nintendo likes living in the past

[ThePerm]

this is something that can easily be fixed with a small download, not patching the game so much as changing the save file so its not broken. When writing events in a game they are usually like on and off switches, basically to fix the event is basically like resetting a switch.

[Mop it up]

Considering how much time this game spent in development, I'm a little disappointed to see there are some pretty bad glitches in it. I've discovered two others myself, including one that causes the game to crash without fail. I wonder if Nintendo know about that one yet.

[Jonnyboy117]

If only it were possible to let users download some kind of small file that would update the game to correct this bug that any half-way decent developer would have discovered and fixed before the game was released! But whatever would we call such a solution?

[Shorty McNostril]

If only it were possible to let users download some kind of small file that would update the game to correct this bug that any half-way decent developer would have discovered and fixed before the game was released! But whatever would we call such a solution?

MAGIC!!!!!

[broodwars]

If only it were possible to let users download some kind of small file that would update the game to correct this bug that any half-way decent developer would have discovered and fixed before the game was released! But whatever would we call such a solution?

"Blasphemy".  Remember, Nintendo doesn't create games with bugs!  Users create the bugs, such as they did in Other M when they clearly were too stupid to follow the simple progression Nintendo placed before them.  Note that Nintendo's response never includes the phrase "we are sorry", or accept blame for this issue in any way.  Instead, they state the way that users have been creating this bug by not playing the game exactly how Nintendo wanted them to, placing the fault on the players.

Seriously, I was being a little facetious there, but it is striking to me that there's no apology in this official statement or expression of regret for all the players who now have to repeat 50 hours of content because Nintendo got lazy.  Instead, it's just a "well, you should have known better than to do that" sort of response.

Note: And before someone tries to bring up how other companies create buggy games, observe my rage about that game's buggy-ness and Bethesda's lousy PR in the Skyrim topic.  I have certainly not forgotten them.

[lolmonade]

If only it were possible to let users download some kind of small file that would update the game to correct this bug that any half-way decent developer would have discovered and fixed before the game was released! But whatever would we call such a solution?

MAGIC!!!!!

Witches!  You must be burned at the stake!

[BlackNMild2k1]

So the key is to keep multiple save files just in case?

Good thing I tend to do that in RPG's anyway, just incase I assign the wrong attributes, sell the wrong item, kill the wrong character or take the wrong path.

If only it were possible to let users download some kind of small file that would update the game to correct this bug that any half-way decent developer would have discovered and fixed before the game was released! But whatever would we call such a solution?

MAGIC!!!!!

Witches!  You must be burned at the stake!

No. Wizards!!

[broodwars]

No. Wizards!!

Heh, you know...I actually like that movie, for all its goofiness.  And no, having the main characters be from Utah and a large portion of the movie being shot in Utah have nothing to do with that.   

[Leont]

I have no idea in with part of the game this is?


Mid game SPOILER ALERT


Can some one help me plz cos I don't wanna get that same problem. I got the green fire for my sword and now am in the dessert ocean in front of the pirates base.

You'll be coming to a part of the game where you have to go look for a song in the 3 regions you'll have already done.  Just don't pick the desert area first, and you'll be fine.

Thanks, now I can be at ease... 

[Ian Sane]

"Blasphemy".  Remember, Nintendo doesn't create games with bugs!  Users create the bugs, such as they did in Other M when they clearly were too stupid to follow the simple progression Nintendo placed before them.  Note that Nintendo's response never includes the phrase "we are sorry", or accept blame for this issue in any way.  Instead, they state the way that users have been creating this bug by not playing the game exactly how Nintendo wanted them to, placing the fault on the players.

What is really annoying about this and the Metroid bug is that Zelda and Metroid are known for their non-linear progression.  Going off the beaten path is part of the appeal of the gameplay and I don't mean sequence breaking either, I mean just exploring Area B when the game's story is pushing you towards Area A.  For Nintendo to have two of these bugs, essentially in a row since this is the most recent title in both series, means that Nintendo isn't even testing these games in the way that fans have played them for years.  They're making Zelda and Metroid with the design plan of a linear progression which goes totally against the way the series have traditionally worked.  So the fans then try to break from that mold and we get bugs.  And why wouldn't fans do that?

[Eyothrie]

announces plans for online save patching solution.

Better late than never.  I'm happy to see that they are fixing this issue.  Hopefully this taught them a lesson moving forward with the Wii U.

[broodwars]

Alright, now that Nintendo is offering an online patch and a SD card mail-in program for those without internet connections, now you can say that Nintendo is offering a solution to the problem.

[Shorty McNostril]

Alright, now that Nintendo is offering an online patch and a SD card mail-in program for those without internet connections, now you can say that Nintendo is offering a solution to the problem.

Ha.  Only took them 5 years.  What will the patch do?  Does it fix a broken saved game, or just fix it in game so it doesn't affect anyone anymore?