Of course I am exaggerating about Skyward Sword. That's just who I am when I get disappointed over a game, even if it is slightly. If the game was really that bad I would have stopped playing it midway. It still does not change the fact it is personally the worst Zelda I have played. Even so, for being the worst Zelda it is still an above-average game. I have played games which are far more worse. It is just that the Zelda entries in series never managed to be less than excellent. So it was somewhat of a disappointment the game was just above-average and not excellent. I still am not going to replay it, only if I could get rid of the motion controls. Perhaps when Dolphin finally succeeds in MotionPlus emulation, I still would like to replay it with just a controller someday. I do think that having MotionPlus emulation so that I could bind all my actions to my Xbox One controller would get rid of the unresponsiveness issues (such as suddenly shield-bashing or the constant recalibrations). Plus that my arms won't get as tired. If I want to exercise I could do that without the game.
I had high expectations of the game and if it does not live up to them it will suck most of the enjoyment out of it. Of course entries such as Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks have touch-based controls which I also hate, but both entries were less of a disappointment since I excepted less from them in the first place. On the other hand if a game with high expectations manages to live up to them and go beyond (*hint hint*) I have nothing else than extreme enthusiasm for it.
I do have to agree through that the design of Zelda herself as a character from Skyward Sword is without a doubt her best iteration yet.
Well... For me, Navi wasn't that annoying. Sure she was annoying as was the owl, but both of them relatively did not interrupt my gameplay that much. Fi constantly interupts me for something I already am aware of, even more than Navi. Luckely Tatl in Majora's Mask was less annoying than Navi. As a result because Fi was so annoying I could not care any less she had to leave. I never felt to relieved before in a game when a character would leave. To bad it did not happen earlier in the game will there was still gameplay to have. I also couldn't care much for Demise or Ghirahim, mostly because it was already annoying enough to have Ghirahim being used three times as a boss. The Imprisoned is without a doubt the most frustrating boss in the existence of Zelda, mostly because it has a timer and because it was confussing. Do I have to hit it with Skyward Strikes? It turned out that bashing the pillar back into his head was good enough, if the controls just worked for once.
Sure, Skyward Sword introduced the upgrading and stamina mechanics, but that was not very well executed. The stamina meter was simply annoying because of the constant beeping should it run low. Link could even climb against walls, but only for half a meter unless he has something to hold on to. Breath of the Wild has complete climbing freedom. Everywhere you want to climb, you can.
Upgrading in Skyward Sword was annoying. Should your shield break all the time spent collecting resources and spending rupees has been a complete waste. Even upgrading permanent items such as the bow felt to arbitrary. You just to reach a certain section of the game so that certain resources are available to collect, the game is calculated to have certain upgrades at certain points. Since Breath of the Wild is a complete open-ended structure you could run all dungeons with no upgrades at all, or you could spent time preparing yourself in advance with updates prior to doing the main quests. Most entries in fact have linear progression. Such as Link getting the Master Sword after three dungeons in A Link to the Past. It is a progression that is forced and doubles your damage. It felt refreshing in A Link Between Worlds that I could choose doing the dungeons in any order. Suddenly getting the Blue Tunic was not a linear progression anymore. I can do the Swamp Palace as my first dungeon or one of the later to do which essentially allows me to choose if I found that I needed an armor upgrade I could get it earlier. Skyward Sword for example expects me to have wooden shield for the first dungeon, an iron shield for the second dungeon and by the time I started the third dungeon I would have enough materials for an upgraded wooden shield. By the time I started the fourth dungeon I would have the sacred shield.
Now to be honest, I did lie a bit. I did attempt to redo the game twice after I completed it once, both attempts up until the fourth dungeon (it still does not change my opinion of the game). I wanted to prove I could find the game to be fun. I wanted to dissect where the design would fail. With each attempt including the first complete run I always got at the same level of progression. The exact same shields, heart pieces, upgrades and what else. Sure, it is how it worked for every game in the series so far. Even Ocarina of Time which had been my nr. 1 favorite had me have the exact same progression each time over and over I played the game.
What I just wanted to say, and this rant has been going on for too long, is that many of the new mechanics and innovations did not feel as such. Sure it did try to achieve to be, but since the game was so linear the mechanics felt too limited. Sprinting and climbing was only useful to move faster around to go through the puzzles, not to explore the world. Upgrading just felt as it was expected to do so at certain sections reached in the game due how resources unlocked by unlocking new areas. Perhaps it had been an issue for too long that every entry since Ocarina of Time wanted to be the next Ocarina of Time. Both A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild were outstanding since both games finally managed to let go of the idea to be the next Ocarina of Time. This went well for entries such as Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker for the most part, but Skyward Sword came out in 2011 and it was still stuck with design choices from 1998 while still trying to innovate with modern aspects. It simply does not mix well.
I am not saying that every new entry has to be like Breath of the Wild suddenly since that would cause the same issue to start all over again. I think it is for the best if each entry could be standing strong on it's own without relying on being it's predecessor. Even if I dislike Skyward Sword for being stuck in the past, I still find my love for Ocarina of Time unchanged. The game was amazing when it came out back then and it is still today. I do run it at least once a year afterwards being followed by a Majora's Mask run.
Remember, this is just how I personally feel about the game. Don't take it serious from me when I say you should not have Skyward Sword as your favorite. You are feel to have so. It just makes me curious how anyone could think the game was so amazing. It could be just me, and again everyone is allowed to have every game as it favorites. I am just a bit to serious about gaming when it all matters about perfection.
But who knows, perhaps MotionPlus emulation or proper gamepad support could change my opinion completely about Skyward Sword. It is after all the most frustrating element that it even influences how I think about the other parts in the game in general. I might not have said it, but Skyward Sword does features the best dungeon design and soundtrack in the whole series. The dungeons and the soundtrack were outstanding. The Koloktos boss is one of my favorites bosses in the series. I would replay this game over and over for it's dungeons alone, given the controls work. Luckely there are some useful AR codes to disable the text popups when collecting resources or if your battery is about to die.
Ok, I should hopefully be done with ranting about Skyward Sword. Ohh, don't worry. I won't start ranting about the other entries since most of them are excellent anyway. Somehow I feel relieved after having ranted about it. I guess I never did rant before about a game prior to this tread. Huh, feels great to do so once in a while. Maybe we should open a new thread where we could list our complaints about games. I got a few more I could rant over. It might help people to start playing a few of those games again.
I had high expectations of the game and if it does not live up to them it will suck most of the enjoyment out of it. Of course entries such as Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks have touch-based controls which I also hate, but both entries were less of a disappointment since I excepted less from them in the first place. On the other hand if a game with high expectations manages to live up to them and go beyond (*hint hint*) I have nothing else than extreme enthusiasm for it.
I do have to agree through that the design of Zelda herself as a character from Skyward Sword is without a doubt her best iteration yet.
(01-11-2018, 03:55 PM)mbc07 Wrote: Regarding the sidekick, sure, Fi is a little annoying, but for me she still is less annoying than Navi, and in any case, nowhere near "the most annoying sidekick in the history of gaming" like you said. Another thing that I think many people don't figure out is that Skyward Sword on its own established many small details and new mechanics that were responsible to refresh the franchise and that were reused or improved in further games, even in Breath of the Wild, for example, the collectible items that could be spent in weapon upgrades, the stamina bar and the breakable weapons. Even its plot, where we finally get some explanation on why there's always a bad guy reincarnation or descendant chasing the princess and the protagonist in every Zelda game is an example of this refresh.
Well... For me, Navi wasn't that annoying. Sure she was annoying as was the owl, but both of them relatively did not interrupt my gameplay that much. Fi constantly interupts me for something I already am aware of, even more than Navi. Luckely Tatl in Majora's Mask was less annoying than Navi. As a result because Fi was so annoying I could not care any less she had to leave. I never felt to relieved before in a game when a character would leave. To bad it did not happen earlier in the game will there was still gameplay to have. I also couldn't care much for Demise or Ghirahim, mostly because it was already annoying enough to have Ghirahim being used three times as a boss. The Imprisoned is without a doubt the most frustrating boss in the existence of Zelda, mostly because it has a timer and because it was confussing. Do I have to hit it with Skyward Strikes? It turned out that bashing the pillar back into his head was good enough, if the controls just worked for once.
Sure, Skyward Sword introduced the upgrading and stamina mechanics, but that was not very well executed. The stamina meter was simply annoying because of the constant beeping should it run low. Link could even climb against walls, but only for half a meter unless he has something to hold on to. Breath of the Wild has complete climbing freedom. Everywhere you want to climb, you can.
Upgrading in Skyward Sword was annoying. Should your shield break all the time spent collecting resources and spending rupees has been a complete waste. Even upgrading permanent items such as the bow felt to arbitrary. You just to reach a certain section of the game so that certain resources are available to collect, the game is calculated to have certain upgrades at certain points. Since Breath of the Wild is a complete open-ended structure you could run all dungeons with no upgrades at all, or you could spent time preparing yourself in advance with updates prior to doing the main quests. Most entries in fact have linear progression. Such as Link getting the Master Sword after three dungeons in A Link to the Past. It is a progression that is forced and doubles your damage. It felt refreshing in A Link Between Worlds that I could choose doing the dungeons in any order. Suddenly getting the Blue Tunic was not a linear progression anymore. I can do the Swamp Palace as my first dungeon or one of the later to do which essentially allows me to choose if I found that I needed an armor upgrade I could get it earlier. Skyward Sword for example expects me to have wooden shield for the first dungeon, an iron shield for the second dungeon and by the time I started the third dungeon I would have enough materials for an upgraded wooden shield. By the time I started the fourth dungeon I would have the sacred shield.
Now to be honest, I did lie a bit. I did attempt to redo the game twice after I completed it once, both attempts up until the fourth dungeon (it still does not change my opinion of the game). I wanted to prove I could find the game to be fun. I wanted to dissect where the design would fail. With each attempt including the first complete run I always got at the same level of progression. The exact same shields, heart pieces, upgrades and what else. Sure, it is how it worked for every game in the series so far. Even Ocarina of Time which had been my nr. 1 favorite had me have the exact same progression each time over and over I played the game.
What I just wanted to say, and this rant has been going on for too long, is that many of the new mechanics and innovations did not feel as such. Sure it did try to achieve to be, but since the game was so linear the mechanics felt too limited. Sprinting and climbing was only useful to move faster around to go through the puzzles, not to explore the world. Upgrading just felt as it was expected to do so at certain sections reached in the game due how resources unlocked by unlocking new areas. Perhaps it had been an issue for too long that every entry since Ocarina of Time wanted to be the next Ocarina of Time. Both A Link Between Worlds and Breath of the Wild were outstanding since both games finally managed to let go of the idea to be the next Ocarina of Time. This went well for entries such as Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker for the most part, but Skyward Sword came out in 2011 and it was still stuck with design choices from 1998 while still trying to innovate with modern aspects. It simply does not mix well.
I am not saying that every new entry has to be like Breath of the Wild suddenly since that would cause the same issue to start all over again. I think it is for the best if each entry could be standing strong on it's own without relying on being it's predecessor. Even if I dislike Skyward Sword for being stuck in the past, I still find my love for Ocarina of Time unchanged. The game was amazing when it came out back then and it is still today. I do run it at least once a year afterwards being followed by a Majora's Mask run.
Remember, this is just how I personally feel about the game. Don't take it serious from me when I say you should not have Skyward Sword as your favorite. You are feel to have so. It just makes me curious how anyone could think the game was so amazing. It could be just me, and again everyone is allowed to have every game as it favorites. I am just a bit to serious about gaming when it all matters about perfection.
But who knows, perhaps MotionPlus emulation or proper gamepad support could change my opinion completely about Skyward Sword. It is after all the most frustrating element that it even influences how I think about the other parts in the game in general. I might not have said it, but Skyward Sword does features the best dungeon design and soundtrack in the whole series. The dungeons and the soundtrack were outstanding. The Koloktos boss is one of my favorites bosses in the series. I would replay this game over and over for it's dungeons alone, given the controls work. Luckely there are some useful AR codes to disable the text popups when collecting resources or if your battery is about to die.
Ok, I should hopefully be done with ranting about Skyward Sword. Ohh, don't worry. I won't start ranting about the other entries since most of them are excellent anyway. Somehow I feel relieved after having ranted about it. I guess I never did rant before about a game prior to this tread. Huh, feels great to do so once in a while. Maybe we should open a new thread where we could list our complaints about games. I got a few more I could rant over. It might help people to start playing a few of those games again.