Topic: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Caterkiller]

I'll PM you details, but its worth noting that the Silent Realm stuff is exhilarating. It's very intense, and they're in areas you're already familiar with, so avoiding detection is somewhat easier.

Are they mandatory?

He said exhilarating! Doesn't that settle your fears?

[NWR_Neal]

Neal, you might have missed my questions since I didn't direct them at you, so I'll ask one more time. How long did it take you to beat the game? About how much side stuff did you do and not do (a vague guess is fine)?

Roughly 35 hours. I was light on side stuff. If I went back and 100% it, I'd say it'd take me roughly 50 hours.

[Stogi]

How soon can you see yourself playing it again? For example, with OOT and WW, I came back to it in a month to play it all over again.

[NWR_Neal]

My copy is now in the hands of Andy Goergen (or should be soon) so he can play it before he has a baby.

When I get it back, I'm planning on replaying it in Hero Mode (the name for master quest) and 100%ing it.

[Luigi Dude]

New videos from the official website.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/souj/world/skyloft/index.html

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/souj/world/Thunderhead/index.html

[Shorty McNostril]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but are there any 100 rupee chests which you can't collect if your wallet is full?

[Caterkiller]

Skyward sword gets another 10 from IGN.

[Luigi Dude]

So the game has been released early in Switzerland and quite a few people already have it.  People looking to avoid spoilers might want to unplug their computers because you know the major spoilers are going to spread like wildfire in the next week.

[broodwars]

As a counterpoint to the trend of Zelda-gushing right now from the critics, the latest episode of GameTrailers.com's Invisible Walls podcast is up.  It is worth noting that Shane Satterfield, the host of the show, surprised everyone a few weeks back by declaring that Skyward Sword was his most anticipated title of the Fall.  Well, he's started playing the game (and another member of the show has finished it), and wow I don't think it's possible for him to be any more down on the game right now.  I'll be curious to see what the eventual review for that game will say, since I'm not sure which of the two podcast members is the reviewer for that game.

In case you're curious, they were very positive overall on Mario 3D Land as the other Nintendo game discussed on the show.

[Luigi Dude]

As a counterpoint to the trend of Zelda-gushing right now from the critics, the latest episode of GameTrailers.com's Invisible Walls podcast is up.  It is worth noting that Shane Satterfield, the host of the show, surprised everyone a few weeks back by declaring that Skyward Sword was his most anticipated title of the Fall.  Well, he's started playing the game (and another member of the show has finished it), and wow I don't think it's possible for him to be any more down on the game right now.  I'll be curious to see what the eventual review for that game will say, since I'm not sure which of the two podcast members is the reviewer for that game.

In case you're curious, they were very positive overall on Mario 3D Land as the other Nintendo game discussed on the show.

Listening to the complaints, it sounds like Shane wishes the game was more like Skyrim instead of reviewing it as an actual Zelda game.  Giant Bombs reviewer was the same way where he said days before he posted his 4/5 review that he finished Skyward Sword he was glad to start playing Skyrim again, which explained a lot of the complaints that reviewer had as well.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of Skyward Swords lower reviews are the result of the reviewers having just played Skyrim and so they just kept comparing Skyward Sword to Skyrim the whole time they played it. I have no problem with the Elder Scrolls series but making Zelda more like it would ruin a lot of what makes Zelda so great.

[broodwars]

Listening to the complaints, it sounds like Shane wishes the game was more like Skyrim instead of reviewing it as an actual Zelda game.  Giant Bombs reviewer was the same way where he said days before he posted his 4/5 review that he finished Skyward Sword he was glad to start playing Skyrim again, which explained a lot of the complaints that reviewer had as well.

The two complaints I heard in the Invisible Walls episode that bothered me most were complaints about yet another bad Zelda start leading into more pacing issues, as well as issues getting the motion controls to work at times.  Granted, some of that could be that these folks just don't play Wii that often so they aren't used to it, but we'll see once the game releases and folks here have a chance to play it.  Even Neal admitted that there are some fairly slow sections of the game, though.

[Luigi Dude]

Wow and right after we both post, the Gametrailers review has been unleashed.  It got a 9.1 which means either Shane was messing with us or the game must have really picked up for him in the second half.

I'm not going to watch it though since Gametrailers has a bad habit of putting major end of game spoilers in all their reviews.  End of game spoilers is too much even for a spoiler lover like me.

[broodwars]

Wow and right after we both post, the Gametrailers review has been unleashed.  It got a 9.1 which means either Shane was messing with us or the game must have really picked up for him in the second half.

I'm not going to watch it though since Gametrailers has a bad habit of putting major end of game spoilers in all their reviews.  End of game spoilers is too much even for a spoiler lover like me.

Well, I'll watch it since I like GameTrailers' reviews.  I'll let you know if there's anything there that looks particularly spoiler-ish.

As for Shane "messing with us", I don't think he was the reviewer.  In the Invisible Walls episode, Shane had just started playing and he had another member on who had already finished the game.  That person was probably the reviewer, and from the sounds of the podcast the game had grown on him late in the experience.

[broodwars]

I watched the GameTrailers review, and it was pretty decent but I don't think the review matched the score.  The review overall is much more negative than that 9.1 score.  As for spoilers, I think in general you're pretty ok watching the review unless you just don't want to know anything about the game.  The review does reveal the setup for the main quest, shows a few bosses that are already well-known, and shows a few of the new tools.  It's not a big deal for me, but I know a few folks on here who might have issue with the "spoilers".

[nickmitch]

As someone who's avoiding such things, I appreciate that summary/warning.

[FZeroBoyo]

I only know of 3 items, the slingshot, bombs, and Beetle and a few location names.


That's as much as I want to know; I'm going in as fresh as possible this time.           

[EasyCure]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39c_csXU_sw]this is to help you guys get ready for Skyward Sword

[broodwars]

Well folks, I have something very hard for me to admit, and I'm sure it'll lead to endless amounts of jeering down the line.

Over the last few months I've been very angry at Nintendo of America for how they've handled the Wii this year, especially in light of the Operation Rainfall situation with NoE.  As such, I had every intention to impose my own personal boycott on Nintendo of America for the foreseeable future, as I don't think they've earned anyone's money this year.

However, I have Xenoblade now, and it is very good.  My Wii is region-free now, and Nintendo of America has no more control over it.  As much as I dislike NoA, I just can't muster up the energy to be eternally angry at them now that I'm no longer dependent on them.  It's just getting increasingly impractical for me to deny myself a new game in my favorite Nintendo franchise, Zelda, when Nintendo really doesn't care either way and the reviews are looking good.

As such, I ended my little Cold War with NoA today by using trade-in credit to completely pay off a pre-order on Skyward Sword.  I don't like the message it sends to NoA, but I no longer care.  If they don't want to support the Wii, I'll buy games from a Nintendo division that still does.  Besides, it was either use that credit on Skyward Sword or use it on the new Assassin's Creed or Modern Warfare 3, and those games can easily wait until they're discounted.

So yeah, I'm looking forward now to getting the game when it releases next week and discussing it with you folks.

[Ceric]

You could have ordered it from NoE.

[broodwars]

You could have ordered it from NoE.

After my experience ordering Xenoblade, I really didn't want to go through that again so soon.  My Xenoblade package literally did a tour of Europe over the course of a month before it finally arrived, in the meantime having no tracking information of any kind.  Taking into account the holiday season, I just don't trust the postal system with a package over that long a period of time.

Besides, I had $71 in trade-in credit to use at GS, as well as a coupon to bring the price of Skyward Sword down to $42.  I can at least take some solace in that I didn't spend any physical money on this game.

[Caliban]

Besides, it was either use that credit on Skyward Sword or use it on the new Assassin's Creed or Modern Warfare 3, and those games can easily wait until they're discounted.

So yeah, I'm looking forward now to getting the game when it releases next week and discussing it with you folks.

I'm glad you regained your sanity. Honestly, when I read that you would rather get ACR or MW3 over a Zelda game I thought you had gone insane with how many games you play, and I say that knowing that I know you love Nintendo games just as much as anyone here.

[Ian Sane]

I haven't really followed reviews too much since I don't want to encounter spoilers.  But I have found out that a certain gameplay element from an incredibly shitty DS Zelda game is in place here.  That alone could single-handedly ruin this game for me.  What crack is Nintendo smoking to reuse that idea?  Are we going to have melting Yoshi in future Mario games, too?

All the perfect 10 scores don't erase my anxiousness towards this title.  We're talking about both motion control AND a comparison to Phantom Hourglass.  Just throw in an Other M comparison and I've got my personal unholy trinity of Nintendo disappointments.

[Stogi]

Ian, if you read Neal's review and this his post there after, he mentions how AWESOME those parts of the game are and also how SPARSE they are.

In a 35 hour game, using the word SPARSE should alleviate your concerns.

[Ian Sane]

I don't want "sparse" as much as "never".  I hope I shares Neal's opinion and those parts are awesome.  But I'm going to be skeptical about this game until I play it myself.

Though I'm getting a bit excited as well.  So much praise.  I really hope it is as awesome as the reviews are saying.

[noname2200]

As much as I dislike NoA, I just can't muster up the energy to be eternally angry at them now that I'm no longer dependent on them.  It's just getting increasingly impractical for me to deny myself a new game in my favorite Nintendo franchise, Zelda, when Nintendo really doesn't care either way and the reviews are looking good.

Eh, looking at the release schedule you will, for all practical purposes, be maintaining your boycott for a while yet, so why deny yourself what's probably the last good Wii game that NoA's bringing over?