yeah needing the wiimotion is the only thing keeping me from this game. dealbreaker :-/

12/4/2011 5:01:30 PM

It's only $8 on ebay

12/4/2011 6:11:28 PM

I was in the same boat. I didn't have a wii motion plus and hadn't turned my wii on in months. However, nothing was going to keep me from buying and playing this game. Been a die-hard zelda fan my whole life and this game ROCKS. seriously, if you like zelda, you should just get the wii motion plus.

12/4/2011 8:38:08 PM

The gold edition controller bundle is $20 more than the regular non-bundled game. The Wii Motion Plus thing that clips into a controller is also $20. There really isn't a reason to not get the bundled edition unless you already have a motion plus.


Anyone having calibration issues? Ever since I got the bow and arrow it seems that I have to recalibrate every 2-3 mins. It's a pain.

[Edited on December 5, 2011 at 8:58 AM. Reason : ]

12/5/2011 8:57:38 AM

Just finished the game. My thoughts below.

*SPOILERS*



The new controls worked very well for me. I got the hang of the sword fighting pretty easily, only issue is that I had to slowly move the remote to position for swings. Didn't have to calibrate too much when aiming with the bow.

The dungeons were well-done and each one brought something interesting to the table. Boss battles were decent too, although pirate ship boss looked horrible, like something from Monsters, Inc. The music is fucking phenomenal, easily the best I've heard in any game all year. The story is pretty good too. You actually get the impression that Link and Zelda have a romantic connection even though it never gets past longing looks (I mean, c'mon Nintendo even Disney characters kiss each other). I didn't care for the villains in this game, the final boss looks a lot like Oni from Super Street Fighter IV AE. But then again Ganon ain't all that either. Overall, it was a great game.


BUT...

There was way too much goddamn backtracking in this thing. Some of it I didn't mind and even enjoyed, but I'm fucking sick of Faron Woods. At one point the Water Dragon says "Wow, you're really powerful and clearly chosen by the goddess but before I help you you need to prove yourself by collecting these tadpoles I scattered". Utterly ridiculous.







* END SPOILERS *

Overall I'd rate the game 9/10. It'd be 10/10 without the backtracking.

12/6/2011 9:19:42 PM

I'm 15 hours in and just beat the Imprisoned monster where I had to hit his toes and keep him from getting to the top of the woods...

I'm guessing I'm getting ready to enter the part where there is a lot of backtracking. I don't have much time to play, so at this rate I will probably finish sometime after the new year...

oh well...no rush, i want to get all the items and i'll just have to wait a while for a new zelda anyway

12/6/2011 9:24:15 PM

^ you actually don't have to hit his toes the first time around. much easier to just use the geysers to go up a level and just jump on his back

12/6/2011 10:15:26 PM

wow...wish i would have known that. it wasn't that difficult the first 2 cycles...but then the 3rd cycle where he releases shockwaves after EVERY step was a pain

12/7/2011 5:43:22 AM

I just got my first big dose of backtracking. The water dragon wanted me to bring her "special water" and I had to go back to the forest temple to get it...
it actually was pretty cool. the 3 stalfos at the end were a pain in the butt.

There is a lot of action in this game and that's what I like. I love how just getting to the entrance of the dungeon involves a lot of puzzle solving and enemy beating.

I'm getting ready to enter the ancient cistern dungeon. i'm 19.5 hours in so far.

12/10/2011 10:23:57 PM

I am really, really, really pissed off right now. Have two parts of the hero song, but the faron woods/imprisoned cutscene won't start now. first time back to faron woods i went behind the temple and couldn't get into the woods. didn't bother trying to go back into the sealed grounds. went and found the fire and lightning dragons instead. now apparently the cutscene for faron for going any further in the game won't start. 43 hours down the fucking drain....

12/11/2011 10:46:42 PM

I think you can mail an SD card to Nintendo and they'll mail you a corrected save file or something like that. Give them a call.

12/11/2011 11:20:56 PM

^If so, that is news to me. Last I read (but it was last week) was that the only 2 options you had were to start completely over, or start from an old save file.

I can't imagine how upset I would be if that happened to me. I'm glad I play slow enough so that all these things get discovered before I get there.

For those who don't know what we are talking about, there is a certain point late in the game where you must get 3 songs from 3 dragons...
DO THE FOREST AND FIRE DRAGON FIRST and then do the other dragon... This will ensure the game-breaking glitch does not happen to you!

12/12/2011 5:46:28 AM

^I read that you had to talk to the Goron after the lightning dragon for the glitch to activate. I did the lightning first then the fire and am now back in Faron Woods. Lucky for me, I was actually very low on health and wanted to head to the sky and get a heart piece from a goddess cube chest. If I hadn't been so low on health I probably would have went to see what he had to say.

12/12/2011 11:47:24 AM

Yeah, I talked to the goron. I always land in that area since it's a good place to catch cicadas. His 10 times return on my investment was in hindsight totally not worth it....

12/12/2011 12:22:54 PM

^You can talk to him before going through to Lanayru Gorge, just don't talk to him after you come out.

12/12/2011 1:37:53 PM

Nintendo's official response:

Quote :

"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. "

12/12/2011 4:05:33 PM

From a logical sense the commerce bugs me. Like the potions woman that tells me she doesn't need any "window shoppers" when I don't buy anything. BITCH I AM YOUR ONLY CUSTOMER! And the upgrade guy? To make a bug net bigger he needs tumbleweed, a 1000-year extinct flower, and a dark crystal? What the fuck is he smoking?

12/12/2011 8:30:05 PM

And who leaves rupees in the grass and random pots?

12/12/2011 8:39:44 PM

^^I LOL'd at the bug net comment.

12/13/2011 5:40:51 AM

^^I just assumed that was the result of bats. You can either kill them and take the rupees out of their stomach or let nature take its course and wait to pick it out of wherever the guano lands.

12/13/2011 7:23:18 AM

Quote :

"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."

I thought that talking to him will cause it to trigger?

Quote :

"And who leaves rupees in the grass and random pots?"

Actually if you play Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap for the GBA from a few years ago, it explains it.

12/13/2011 8:37:06 AM

Hmmm I did play that but don't remember it.

12/13/2011 9:11:31 AM

Well it's kind of a cheesy explanation but it says that the Minish are a race of tiny little people that go around putting hearts and rupees in grass and pots to "help those who are helping others" or something like that. I guess they are supposed to be messengers of karma or something.

12/13/2011 3:56:19 PM

^^^I guess they mean if you do it in that order

12/13/2011 4:06:50 PM

Just finished the 3rd spirit trial. Can someone give me a percent done estimate?

12/14/2011 9:08:09 PM

80%

12/14/2011 9:37:44 PM

I freakin' hate those trials

12/17/2011 3:36:39 PM

I just finished the 2nd spirit trial in the desert. I had to do it 4 times because I would keep getting caught at the same area.. I had to push the cart in the middle of the water and wait for it to recede. I'd always get caught b/c link wouldn't jump up on the cart like he should. I had to approach it from just the right angle.

12/17/2011 3:52:21 PM

I'm at the end of the game. This game has been pretty fucking solid but there are a few things that have been pretty disappointing.

SPOILER ALERT!
SPOILER ALERT!

1. They basically just give you the Clawshots. They could have at least made another dungeon to get them. Granted.....I love the temples/dungeons and I would like to see more of them, but just giving you these felt kinda lazy.

2. The Song of the Hero quest sound have been so much cooler.

3. The Lanayru Gorge and the Volcano Summit are two of the lamest areas in the game. It was so exciting to unlock pieces of the map to find out what was next. I remember having all of the map explored except for 2 areas that were a mystery. I was thinking "oh shit, maybe there's a snow/ice area coming up" or something cool like that. Instead, the huge part of the Volcano area I haven't unlocked is the Volcano Summit (and it's so much smaller than advertised) and then the desert area is the Gorge which has pretty much nothing.

4. I can't really give the game shit for this, but when you go to the temple in the past I was really thinking there would be a past world akin to Ocarina. I was a little disappointed to find out this wouldnt be the case.

5. You don't get any item/upgrade in the Sky Keep (okay, unless you count the Triforce)

6. The storyline just.....wasn't that good. I feel like you're kept in the dark for most of the game, and finally you just get hit with significant plot aspects at the very end. Although I felt like one thing that hurt this game was goddamn school and graduation (and the fact I had to take breaks from the game periodically)

12/17/2011 6:02:35 PM

I'm in the Sandship right now...stuck on the mini boss pirate on the plank. Died a few times because I suck at blocking with the shield so I had to quit

[Edited on December 17, 2011 at 6:18 PM. Reason : .]

12/17/2011 6:17:49 PM

He got me the first time, and then didn't lay a hit on me the next time.

12/17/2011 6:27:02 PM

I just got to the sandsea area...23 hours in... this area is awesome so far...really cool

i love how i go to the area to look for the skipper's ship and there is nothing there but another giant scorpion for me to fight.. i go back to the skipper and he's like, "oh my bad, guess we better go to the pirate stronghold then". haha thanks a lot

12/18/2011 2:38:20 PM

after my 2nd playthrough, i definitely believe SS is the best of the 3D zeldas

12/20/2011 5:42:40 PM

Too much 'busy work' in this game.

12/21/2011 4:55:20 PM

Nintendo will be releasing a "Channel" to patch your Skyward Sword save files who have been glitched and cannot advance

http://kotaku.com/5870216/downloadable-fix-for-skyward-sword-bug-now-live-in-japan-coming-soon-for-us

12/21/2011 5:51:51 PM

I'm about 35 hours in and almost done. It's been fun, but aside from the "Worst Zelda Game Ever" comment, I agree with the most of his points.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5148-The-Legend-of-Zelda-Skyward-Sword

[Edited on December 22, 2011 at 12:04 PM. Reason : ]

12/22/2011 12:03:37 PM

About an hour in,so far so good but I can say that I'm not a fan of the flight/skydive controls. Why couldn't they just allow you to use the joystick on the nunchuck? Maybe use a button to flap. They even used those lousy flight controls for aiming with free falling.

Do you get used to the flight controls after a while, or is that a relatively small game element?

12/26/2011 5:42:51 PM

I never got the hang of sky diving, especially when it comes to two particular sidequests. Flying was never really an issue.

12/26/2011 11:30:54 PM

Yeah, I never had a problem with flying. You move your hand up and down to fly up and point the controller down to glide down. If your direction is off, press + to pause and down button to re-center. I played the game standing up BTW. Sky diving was bad for me too. Falling sideways seems to work best.

12/27/2011 8:17:14 AM

Yeah, I try to play the game lying on the ground in front of the TV, it's annoying to hit a flying section and have to stand up to do it. Attn Zelda devs, I am lazy!!!

The only other thing that seems to get me is when I want to do one of those He-Man chops where you hold the sword up, let it charge, then swing at something. 90% of the time Link will go into the charge pose, then break out of it almost instantly so I'm sitting there constantly going in and out of the charge up pose instead of staying in the pose and having the sword charge.

[Edited on December 27, 2011 at 8:48 AM. Reason : -]

12/27/2011 8:35:29 AM

Also, screw the 5+ minutes I have to spend at each eye trying to get it to become dizzy.

Maybe I have a faulty remote.

12/27/2011 9:31:02 AM

Quote :

"90% of the time Link will go into the charge pose, then break out of it almost instantly so I'm sitting there constantly going in and out of the charge up pose instead of staying in the pose and having the sword charge."

This was my only frustration with the motion controls in the game, mainly for the bosses that required the sword charge to beat.

12/27/2011 9:37:18 AM

Just finished. I liked the dungeons, having frequent save points, the variety of quests, the timestones, flying as an alternative to running or horseback riding, the mogma characters, the second half of the plot, the grumpy robot, Batreaux's music, and the singing statues on the Isle of Songs.

Dislikes: The creepy and unhelpful Fi. All the dowsing. Doing the same sword fight the whole game ("Swipe the controller this way! Now that way! Not the way that's blocked by a sword!") The useless harp playing. Nothing to get me emotionally invested in the characters early in the game. The treasure/bug system where I have 50 Amber Relics, 7 Goddess Plumes that are "a treasure few will behold", and I can't upgrade a damn thing because I can't find a blue bird feather or something. And then there's the overall lack of anything memorable. I can't name three things that I will remember about this game a year from now.

12/27/2011 2:49:19 PM

I got this game for my nephew for xmas; he is 12. The biggest complaint for this entire game is that every 2 seconds there was a new cut scene or an instruction on how to proceed. It became frustrating for him. As a 12 year old boy on Christmas the last thing he wants to do is sit and read for the first hour and not really get any where. He put the controller down and I'm sure that is the last time he played it.

I, on the other hand, waited for him to go to sleep and then played my heart out. I really did enjoy the controls and was getting into the story line and challenges but even for me, a guy who has been playing the series since Christmas 1986, the constant badgering over instruction was a bit much.

Ultimately, the game is good but I can't imagine sticking through the game if I hadn't been a long time Zelda fanatic. I pushed through the first two hours of training, searching for the bird and collecting those penguin looking things on the surface because I knew the game had more to offer. I wonder how the game is received among those who haven't shared the experience us legacy players have.

12/28/2011 12:05:28 PM

^I'll agree with that comment. Lots of players who aren't familiar with the zelda series give it up after the first 30 minutes - 1 hour b/c it seems boring and tedious.

12/28/2011 4:48:54 PM

Just for fun, I went back and played through OOT again. Some of my feelings about the game have changed. Coming from SS, OOT feels much more dated than it used to. I never really got that impression after replaying OOT after MM, WW, or TP.

The dungeons in OOT just feel.....lazy now (with the exception of the Forest and Fire Temples, and the Water Temple to some degree). I never really noticed how many puzzles in OOT were based on hitting switches, pushing blocks, or defeating all of the enemies in a room. After replaying this game, I can really see the thought that was put into SS in regards to its puzzles. The Water Temple especially felt much more annoying than ever before, and the Shadow and Spirit Temples just felt lazy and rushed in regards to the puzzles and substance. I also felt like OOT's temples were a lot easier. Even though they are much bigger size-wise, they took almost no time to beat (I beat Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, and Spirit in 30 minutes each, and I finished the last 3 in one sitting). I would even argue than even though the levels in SS are smaller size-wise, they are actually longer length-wise due to the more involved nature of the dungeons themselves. It was also much harder to go back to the old style of combat controls. The fights in OOT rarely felt engaging at all after experiencing the combat in SS. Many of the items in OOT felt either completely useless or not very fun to use, which isn't the case IMO with SS. In going through the temples it seemed like the items were really only there as puzzle-solving tools (a prime example is the rusted switches that you hit with the Megaton Hammer) as opposed to things that would change the way you fight and change the way you play. I felt like there were key strategic elements introduced with every item in SS; the Whip could steal items, the Bow was your long-range weapon for hairy situations (or binoculars if you played like I did), and the Beetle could be a scout. It seems like a small addition, but being able to roll the bombs in SS increased their usefulness drastically for me. One last thing; I think the soundtrack in SS is leaps and bounds better than what was in OOT.

That being said.....SS definitely feels like it has a LOT more filler after playing OOT. OOT has hardly any fetch quests to speak of, and the ones that do exist are done so well that you don't really notice them. The best examples are probably the scenario where you save the carpenters in the desert or when you have to get the Hookshot from the graveyard before the Forest Temple. Compared to diving for musical notes it is the difference between night and day. There were moments in SS that could be described as fetch quests that were done really well and were fun (like the Desert one where you power up the 3 stations, or the Lanaryu Sand Sea area), but most of them were stupid (finding the forest creatures, finding the Earth Temple key, and finishing the Song of the Hero most of all).

Overall, SS is the game that makes OOT feel outdated at last as far as the Zelda series goes. I would say for time and place OOT is definitely the better game but by 2011/2012 standards the innovations in SS put it way over the top for me.

[Edited on January 3, 2012 at 12:51 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on January 3, 2012 at 12:53 AM. Reason : .]

1/3/2012 12:46:37 AM

Quote :

"The biggest complaint for this entire game is that every 2 seconds there was a new cut scene or an instruction on how to proceed."

Yeah, lots and lots of this. It's especially annoying when you already know exactly what to do and exactly where to go but nope, they're going to explain it to you. It becomes even worse when they stop the action to explain where to go then stop the action again once you get there to remind you why you came. Toss in dialogue that is just a reiteration of things already said in the same conversation and it becomes all the more tedious.

^I'll have to go back and play OOT but my impression is that the dungeons are far more simplistic in SS. All the dungeons that I've been through so far were as linear as a Zelda dungeon could be. I guess that's good in some ways since nothing was more annoying than the constant backtracking in OOT's water temple, but in some ways it makes the dungeons too easy to solve. The only head scratcher so far was the Lake Floria temple.

spoiler

At first I thought you were supposed to actually do something with the statue, not just visually see a symbol and use it elsewhere. I spend like 20 minutes swimming around that statue in circles wondering where or how I was supposed to hit the markers.

/spoiler

Also in a few of the temples I've been in the dungeon map was found almost at the very end of the dungeon. Thanks for nothing I guess. And it wasn't a matter of not going straight to the map right away. Like I said, the dungeons are nearly linear and without a key or specific dungeon item there's no way the map could have been obtained any earlier. The maps just felt pointless, found after you didn't need them and the dungeons were so small no map was required anyway.

I do agree in that most of the dungeons 'puzzles' are funner than in times past. Like you said, you get far more use out of the tools/items you end up obtaining.

I guess I've improved with the controls a bit. I think what finally did it for me is recentering the controller every 5 minutes or so, sometimes recentering multiple times during the course of one fight. I don't know what causes the thing to get off center so much, maybe holding the wiimote too far off the screen while the cursor in-game stays on the edge so it is out of alignment when you bring the wiimote back? Anyway it seems like they could have adjusted the wiimote sensitivity a bit. On the wii menu the cursor zips around, then the game loads and you have to do a 3 foot arc just to get the cursor to move an inch on the screen (exaggeration, still sucks though).

The only control I feel like I can't reproduce on some consistent basis is using the bug net, especially on bugs on the ground. I'll sneak up to within striking distance, target, swing and miss nearly 90% of the time.

[Edited on January 3, 2012 at 8:24 AM. Reason : -]

1/3/2012 8:16:58 AM

^ About the linearity of the dungeons....this is very true for SS and strikingly enough I got the same impression with the dungeons in OOT with the exception of the Water Temple. I think in OOT the size of the dungeon is able to mask their linear nature much better than what you get in SS, but every dungeon (except Water) has a very clear and straightforward path through it. I'm guessing the developers realized this after Wind Waker and is why since TP you usually only hold one key at a time. The Water Temple is much different since it is designed as a 3-level hub with 3 to 4 branching rooms in the cardinal directions, and each path's accessibility is different depending on the level of the water. This made backtracking mandatory in this dungeon and the paths would change depending on the water level. I would go so far as to argue that the Water Temple is the most non-linear dungeon in all of 3D Zelda and is probably the best use of space within a Zelda game, but aside from this mechanic the puzzles were fairly weak and the constant diving and boot swapping made the level much more annoying than before as opposed to the real-time item switching from SS made for such situations.

I feel like the dungeons in SS by far had the most substance of any 3D zelda game. As aforementioned, I thought the Forest and Fire Temples (and Water to some extent) were really the only ones with substance (The Spirit Temple used to be one of my favorites, but after replaying it it really does feel rushed and uninspired puzzle-wise). Stone Tower and Great Bay will always be favorites of mine with MM, and I didn't really care for any of the dungeons in WW. TP had a few good ones, notably the Arbiter's Grounds and the Snowpeak Ruins; however, the latter 3 dungeons in that game felt extremely short, easy, and rushed in order to make it in time for the Wii release. I always felt like TP peaked in the middle but dropped off significantly by the time you reach the end.

Did anybody else feel like this game was able to recapture the old "magic" from past Nintendo titles? This was something I thought was noticeably lacking in TP but came back in fine form for SS.

1/3/2012 9:42:29 AM

Can someone explain to me why at the beginning of OOT Link is a kid again? I looked at some of the timelines and timeline "theories" but I don't know why he is a kid at the beginning of OOT or why they seem to have no memory of the events of SS.

1/3/2012 11:06:48 AM

^Most Link's are different characters from different times. For instance, OoT Link is the same as the one from MM, but he is not the same as the LttP Link.

And I gave this game a break. I thought I would play through it in a week and then get Skyrim, but it just wore thin on me and I got Skyrim and gave SS to my younger brother to play for a while. I've got to say, stopping after the 3rd dungeon the game is not leaving a good lasting impression where I left it. I know it will probably get much better when I jump back in, but right now, I have almost 0 desire to do so. Old Zelda games were just MUST PLAY MUST PLAY, but this one has been really meh.

Maybe its the really annoying hand-holding that's getting to me. I _really_ hate the dousing feature, and I hate that I get the explanation for it every. single. time. that. they. want. me. to. douse. I don't want to be told how to play a game.

Maybe its the fact that there is a fun element of exploration in previous games that is missing in this game. I flew to a few random sky islands and there were things that should be there, but only later in the game.

Maybe its that nothing is truly collectable. Bugs are somewhat fun to catch, but I found the pairs of unique golden bugs significantly more interesting.
Not to mention the random objects all over the map. I felt like I made an accomplishment when I found my first gold thingy, but then I find out that it respawns after a certain amount of time or if I log out? My sense of accomplishment got severely downgraded.

Maybe its the exceptionally lazy and stupid music choice of the harp.

Maybe its that it is 2011 / 2012 and the same lazy design mistakes are made over and over again, such as lifting the object over your head for every item that you haven't picked up since you turned on your system.

Maybe its that this is supposed to be the Motion Control game that truly shows what the Wii can do . . . at the end of its life. Since that is what they are going for, they add motion control everywhere. Swimming? Motion Control. Flying? Motion Control. FALLING? Motion control. Almost makes me want to pull out Metroid Prime 3 because that's what real Motion Control felt like.

Maybe its because the whole game just feels like one giant gimmick to me.

[Edited on January 3, 2012 at 12:34 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2012 12:34:25 PM