Quote :

"such as lifting the object over your head for every item that you haven't picked up since you turned on your system."

Ah yeah that was fucking annoying. I had like 50 of those amber relics by the end of it but it still acted like it was the first time I had ever encountered one after getting 51.

1/3/2012 1:10:03 PM

I would say you should at least finish the 5th dungeon, as it and the 4th dungeon are widely considered to be the best in the game and were the peak of the experience for me.

[Edited on January 4, 2012 at 12:48 PM. Reason : .]

1/4/2012 12:48:24 PM

Quote :

"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."

I got this game for my two younger sisters, 14 and 16, and they have played the crap out of it. Im pretty sure its their first zelda game. I was actually surprised that they took to it so well but they are almost as far along in it as I am, especially the 14 year old.

[Edited on January 4, 2012 at 1:14 PM. Reason : it]

1/4/2012 1:14:01 PM

I was somewhat disappointed with the implementation of the potions and medals on my first play-through, but I feel like they will have more importance in hero mode. (I'm only at the first trial in hero mode, and I'm already equipping the heart medal.)

As for the motion control problems that others have experienced, I had less problems with them as the game progressed. The only problems I continue to encounter after having beaten the game in normal mode are avoiding striking electrified enemies with my sword and catching bird feathers with the net.

Also, the skyward strike felt much more natural by the end of the game; it's been my go-to attack since beginning hero mode.

1/4/2012 4:58:35 PM

Please tell me that Hero Mode at least treats you like a player and not a 5 year old trying to cross the street.

1/4/2012 5:12:46 PM

It contains all the cutscenes, but it allows you to skip through many of them. Sadly, it still occasionally reminds you that you've added a 52nd amber relic to your inventory, but I was never really that upset over the few seconds that took away from gameplay.

In some respects, I feel like hero mode should've been the way that normal mode ought've been played; however, the game would've been way too difficult for many people playing through the game for the first time.

[Edited on January 4, 2012 at 5:25 PM. Reason : ]

1/4/2012 5:25:07 PM

Hero mode makes me be more careful about fighting enemies because I don't want to hear that damn beeping noise for 10 minutes. And on top of that Fi starts making a noise to tell you to heal.

The way the item thing works is that each time you load the game it does the little prompt to tell you what an item is the first time you get it. So the first time you get an Amber Relic after loading up the game it'll do little scene, but it won't do it again until you turn the game off. You can get around this by using the beatle to pick up but that won't help with bugs and it's almost as tedious.

Really, for something that happens so many times during a playthrough Nintendo should've had a way to streamline it. No one really cares that a damn roach has the hardest shell of any creature.

1/4/2012 9:24:38 PM

I'm pretty hyped about starting this tonight. Haven't even put the game in and I kinda wish it would just let you start on hero mode...

1/5/2012 9:51:34 AM

What has been everyone's favorite level? I think mine was the Ancient Cistern although I really enjoyed the Fire Sanctuary too

1/5/2012 3:53:01 PM

So far the last dungeon I did (the pirate ship) has been the only one to have that old school Zelda feel.

1/5/2012 8:38:18 PM

Any of you nerds going to the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses concert?

http://www.warpzoned.com/?p=16986

Quote :

"If you are like many Zelda fans, tingles run down your spine whenever you hear three simple notes from a piano and the haunting tones of an ocarina. You can’t help but grin with the desire for adventure when your iPod is on shuffle and the Hyrule Field Main Theme sneaks its way into your earbuds. Imagine the majesty of your favorite soundtrack brought to life by an entire symphony orchestra. That’s what The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses tour aims to do when it sweeps into town. Check out the current schedule: Jan. 10 – Dallas (SOLD OUT) March 14 - Vancouver, British Columbia March 26 - Seattle March 28 - San Francisco April 7 - Denver April 20-21 – Phoenix May 12 – Atlanta May 31 – Montreal, Quebec June 22 - Austin, Texas July 14 – Orlando, Fla. Sept. 29 - Toronto, Ontario (tickets go on sale March 31)"

Just bought my ticket for the Atlanta show.

1/6/2012 1:24:27 PM

I just hit a fairly rough patch in the game. A boss fight with a timer (the second giant critter encounter, this time with arms), about 15 minutes worth of dialog, and a timed flight trial.

Ugh. Timed crap and escort/protect missions are my #1 and #2 most hated thing in games. I hope it picks back up after this because that stretch was beyond annoying.

1/9/2012 7:46:36 PM

Loving the game. Made it to outside what I'm assuming is the boss room in the Mining Facility last night before going to bed.

I wish some of the floating islands had a bit more depth to them. And I'm definitely on the wagon with every other person who has played the game and wondered how it made it through testing without streamlining the repetitive instructionals and eliminating that god awful Fi.

1/10/2012 11:55:15 AM

SPOILERS




Just finished the game on hero mode. I encourage everybody who has beaten the game to do this. The game is SO much more fun and the battles are much more intense (at least in the beginning, later on in the game and especially once you get the heart medal the changes are less of an issue).

Also, has anyone finished the Lightning Round? I finished it yesterday; by FAR the hardest thing I've ever done in a Zelda game. Really fun and really intense.

Also, I think I'm going to have to change my favorite temple to the Sky Keep. It is truly the most non-linear of any Zelda game in my opinion, and it is very easy to play the game several times but to never play this dungeon the same way twice. The puzzles in this dungeon were absolutely fantastic and among the best I've ever seen in a Zelda dungeon. There is also the room where you fight all the skeletons. This is probably one of the most intense areas in the entire game. It was also great to hear all of the awesome music from the other dungeons again (although I wish the main Ancient Cistern music was in there instead of the underground theme). All in all, this was a very memorable and well done dungeon.

1/10/2012 4:49:54 PM

I'm also curious to what people's thoughts are about the Top Ten list I wrote for GameFAQs right when the game was released:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/top10/2375.html

1/10/2012 4:51:28 PM

^^Is the lightning round the way to get the Hylian Shield? If so, I got that but you're right it was tough. I took the boss gauntlet route when I did it. I think one thing that really helped was that I was lucky to get a good mix of early bosses with late bosses. Some of the earlier bosses had jars and grass and stuff that I could break to get hearts so I played a hard boss, easy boss (replenish health), hard boss, easy boss, etc.

1/10/2012 5:19:04 PM

^^The explanations for each item on the list are overly long. You write a whole page to describe stuff that could be summed up in two paragraphs.

Also #2 and #3 are cop-outs. It irks me when people make a list and jumble a bunch of items together when they can't fit all of them in. That's just me nit-picking though.

Two omissions IMO are discovering the second quest in Zelda 1 and fighting Dark Link in Zelda 2. A second quest was unprecedented at the time and essentially doubled the length of the game. Dark Link was just cool and went on to reappear in later games.

I also don't remember the Zant battle being particularly memorable. Otherwise the other items are fine.

[Edited on January 10, 2012 at 7:43 PM. Reason : .]

1/10/2012 7:21:31 PM

^ The long explanations in my opinion were necessary to re-create with some semblance of the event in question along with all of the associated feelings and moods present within the moment. I didn't feel like I could have done this otherwise and was a personal design choice.

I'm also curious why you think #3 is a cop-out. #2 I can see, but #3 was one of the most critical things on that list in my opinion.

I didn't add Dark Link for the same reason you feel about Zant; I didn't think that fight was that memorable, fun, or cool whether in AoL or OOT.

I seriously considered adding the 2nd quest in Zelda 1 as an item, but I ended up going against it since it was purely optional. Looking back, I do think I should have added this to the list.

1/10/2012 8:16:20 PM

I think everyone reading the list can remember what each moment was like.

#3 was a cop-out to me because it's not a 'moment', it's multiple moments spread out over the course of the game. I would've preferred one particular puzzle that stuck out. Or even better, the moment could've been the first time you hear the classic chime for solving puzzles. That way you cover one of the series' hallmarks and the sense of discovery in one item.

1/10/2012 8:30:51 PM

You wrote that? Good stuff. I didn't have a problem with the long descriptions. I'm a huge Majora's Mask fan. I would move #7 to #2 and remove the "last 4th of the game" thing. It's not a moment and the ending was kindof weird to me. But I was losing my mind in panic that first time that I was minutes from the moon crashing down. #3 also wasn't a moment. I know that the list needs something from the first game though. Using items? Bombs to blast holes in the wall? I also disagree with the Zant battle. It's just a rehash of boss fights with a laughing idiot that's not nearly as good as the Ganon fight later in the game. If I was picking a Twilight Princess moment, I would choose Midna getting burned, reaching Hyrule Castle as wolf Link, or the fiery joust on the bridge. Oh, and I definitely have a new top-3 moment in Skyward Sword (spoiler): using the you-know-what near the end.

1/10/2012 11:23:50 PM

^^ I get what you are saying. #3 is something that is more personal than anything else on the list and is different for all players. I put the Master Sword as one such example of a quest object that you had to put some work towards, but the entry is not so much about finding any one particular item or solving any one particular puzzle as much as it is about the process of discovery, exploration, and accomplishment in the Zelda games and the satisfaction that is derived from these undertakings. #3 is broad by virtue of description but I would argue that this entry is anything but a cop-out as that sense of satisfaction I outlined is what I believe to be one of the greatest and most characteristic things about Zelda and easily as memorable or "great" as anything game-specific.

Originally #2 was going to be the Ikana Castle from MM. Many will disagree with me on this one, but I felt like that moment was exceptionally well done and very memorable. Then I remembered the scene with the mummy father, the Stone Tower Temple, and then the entire segment with the Moon. Believe me, I thought very long and hard about what I was going to add to this list, but I felt like I couldn't do that section of the game justice if I didn't list it in its entirety.

[Edited on January 11, 2012 at 12:15 AM. Reason : .]

1/11/2012 12:11:07 AM

Also, for those of you who didn't know (or care....), Nintendo has released an OFFICIAL timeline for the Zelda series.

Apparently it goes like this:

There are 3 timelines in total, all of which branch off of Ocarina of Time. For all 3 timelines, Skyward Sword is at the very beginning followed by Minish Cap, Four Swords, and then Ocarina of Time.

The 3 branching timelines from Ocarina depend on certain things. One of the timelines occurs if Link is defeated by Ganon in OOT. Following OOT in this timeline is Link to the Past, the Oracle series, Link's Awakening, Zelda 1, and then Zelda 2.

The next two timelines are when Link is successful in sealing Ganondorf in OOT. The second branching timeline is for when Link returns to his childhood in the past after defeating Ganon. Following OOT in this timeline is Majora's Mask, then Twilight Princess, then Four Swords Adventures.

The last of the branching timelines is a continuation of the future timeline in OOT after Link seals Ganondorf. Since Link goes back to the past, he no longer exists in this timeline. Evidently Ganondorf breaks the seal, but since Link no longer exists the goddesses flood Hyrule, leading to the events of Wind Waker. After Wind Waker comes Phantom Hourglass and then finally Spirit Tracks in the new Hyrule.

http://www.glitterberri.com/hyrule-historia/page-69/

http://kotaku.com/5871215/the-official-zelda-timeline-now-with-added-detail

[Edited on January 11, 2012 at 12:30 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on January 11, 2012 at 12:31 AM. Reason : .]

1/11/2012 12:30:28 AM

i haven't played this since before christmas. I was going full steam ahead until christmas and then I was so busy with other stuff, I haven't gotten back to it.

I'm in the area where I'm riding around in the boat looking for the pirate ship... right before the 5th temple i'm assuming

1/11/2012 5:46:48 AM

Quote :

"Also, for those of you who didn't know (or care....), Nintendo has released an OFFICIAL timeline for the Zelda series. Apparently it goes like this:"

I read that, but it still doesn't make sense. Are they saying there is continuity between SS and OOT? I didn't play MC or FS, so maybe that explains why Link is a kid again or why Link/Zelda don't remember each other or the events in SS? And 3 timelines doesn't seem like a good explanation to me.

1/11/2012 9:34:25 AM

It's strange that they would even try to release some global timeline. Why is a timeline even important? Every game has a standalone story, you don't need to be brought up to speed on "the story thus far." They probably don't even give a second thought to fitting a new Zelda game into some global story. They just worry about how they are going to squeeze the find three things for a sword so you can use it to find more things formula into some fresh gameplay elements... and be sure to say Triforce and Zelda somewhere in the dialog. I guess they felt the need to come up with a timeline because... nerds were sending them too many letters about it? Seriously, I don't know.

[Edited on January 11, 2012 at 10:13 AM. Reason : -]

1/11/2012 10:01:54 AM

Quote :

"I read that, but it still doesn't make sense. Are they saying there is continuity between SS and OOT? I didn't play MC or FS, so maybe that explains why Link is a kid again or why Link/Zelda don't remember each other or the events in SS? And 3 timelines doesn't seem like a good explanation to me."

You asked almost the exact same quest on the previous page, and it was answered there. But to be more specific with this timeline info...
Same timeline doesn't mean its the same Link. Some Links are the same (OoT and MM), but most are different people throughout the ages. Three timelines doesn't mean 3 Links, its more like 3 parallel universes (though not quite the same).

[Edited on January 11, 2012 at 10:30 AM. Reason : ]

1/11/2012 10:27:22 AM

At the very end of Skyward Sword when you defeat the final boss, there is kind of a mention of different generations of Link and Zelda throughout the ages.

1/11/2012 11:04:30 AM

Quote :

"You asked almost the exact same quest on the previous page, and it was answered there. But to be more specific with this timeline info... Same timeline doesn't mean its the same Link. Some Links are the same (OoT and MM), but most are different people throughout the ages. Three timelines doesn't mean 3 Links, its more like 3 parallel universes (though not quite the same)."

I know it was answered, it just still seems dumb. So there are generations of people named Link and Zelda, who all look exactly the same? I know The Legend of Zelda is not the apex of story telling, but just seems like a cop out for a lack of a coherent overall narrative. It is supposed to be a "legend" after all, not a bunch of choppy, independent stories strung together.

1/11/2012 2:09:32 PM

I remember reading an interview years ago where they said they believed Link was just a guy who arose at different points in time to save Hyrule. I gave up looking for much continuity in the series. I think of it like Final Fantasy in that there are common elements between all the games but each one is a standalone story (with a few exceptions).

1/11/2012 2:27:28 PM

so the ballad of the goddess is zelda's lullaby backwards. pretty cool.

1/27/2012 8:05:58 AM

this is a good game so far. I really do think it compares to some of the best one's out there. I think the controls are pretty tight and integrated well within the game.

1/27/2012 4:00:23 PM

I'm really enjoying this incarnation so far. TP was totally forgetabble to me. I've been quick to blame the motion controls when things do not work but usually it is because I'm doing something wrong.

2/14/2012 10:21:34 AM

I'm getting near the end. Each dungeon has gotten better and better. Good creativity. One wish is that you don't have to stop moving to swing (already been said, i know).

2/14/2012 10:27:13 AM

Ok this game is starting to fall apart after the first 3 dungeons. "Oh the pinwheel is missing. Go get it. I need some holy water. Go get it. I need the sea map. Go get it."

Pointless backtracking. A Zelda game does not HAVE to be 40-50 hours Nintendo.

2/22/2012 10:43:36 AM

Hmm, i found myself more and more interested. It is very linear though, but even 40 hours or whatever in, i'm still enjoying it. All I have left is the last dungeon

2/22/2012 11:36:13 AM

I finally picked this game up a few weeks ago. Beat it last week, and have been playing it a second time for the past week. I may start the Hero Mode run after I'm done with this second playthrough.

Overall, this was a really fun game. The combat is way more involved than previous Zelda titles, but it's also way more fun. One thing I've wanted for a long time was sword combat where the direction of your swings makes a difference, and this game has delivered. It can get a little irritating trying to change my sword's position, though; go too fast and it registers as a swing, but go even a little bit slow and the enemy will react accordingly.

One thing that really stood out for me was the themes of the dungeons. In most Zelda games, the dungeons stick to elemental themes, eg fire, ice, water. While there was a little bit of that, the dungeons had a lot more thematical variety to them. You visit a ship (and actually feels like a ship, instead of random rooms that happen to be inside of a ship), a cistern with many eastern religion overtones, a monastery, an ore-processing facility, etc. It just felt like such a breath of fresh air from the stale forest/fire/water diet that we got in OOT, WW and TP.

The puzzles were another seriously fun aspect. The desert was my favorite area simply because of all the puzzles involving the time shift stones. The only times I got really stuck were with the eyeball things in the Skyview Temple and the introduction to water fruit in the Fire Sanctuary. Especially with the latter, I don't recall getting any hint about how I could stab them with my sword so that I could carry them and throw them. Had I not accidentally stabbed pumpkins earlier in the game, I wouldn't have even considered to try that. But overall, the puzzles felt really clever without being too cheap or devious.

Boss fights were fun, but mostly stuck to the old formula of use-dungeon-item-to-stun/spam-hits-until-dead. But fighting Girahim was wicked fun and difficult. He smacked me around hard the first time I faced him, mostly because I couldn't ever hit him without him grabbing and stealing my sword. I've since gotten much more proficient at fighting him, but it's still a blast. Fighting the imprisoned was a huge pain in the ass until I read that you could just jump on top of his head, then he became laughably easy.

Probably the lowest point in the game for me was the stupid escort mission with that cargo robot. He bitches at me to protect him, yet he insists on hovering right next to me and frequently gets between me and an enemy. Frankly that's pretty par for escort missions, but the icing on the cake is that he has to act like such a jerkass about it. Then he wonders why Fi won't give him the time of day.

Speaking of Fi, she didn't reach Navi levels of annoying for me, but I found everything she said to be incredibly unhelpful. What's that, Fi? I'm low on health or can't hold more money? Thank you ever so much for letting me know, I never could have figured that out on my own. What do I need a HUD for when I have you?

The only other complaint I can levy against the game is that it contains too much melodrama for my taste. Link gets all teary-eyed and upset every time Zelda so much as opens her mouth, and Zelda is hardly any better. And I feel like Girahim should have pursued a career as a chef, because he cooks up some serious amount of ham every time he so much as appears on screen. Girahim, I know you like dressing like a queen, but that doesn't mean you have to act like one too.

I probably have a lot more I could say about this, but my brain's dumped all it can for now. But overall this has been a really fun game.

2/28/2012 10:27:03 PM

^Fi is the queen of reiteration. Just there to break up the action to retell the entire quest that you were just asked to do. Suffer/sit through a 5 minute cut scene. Awesome, I can finally control my character again. You know your destination, you know what you have to do, you're halfway out the door, and BAM Fi pops out to retell everything you just heard for another 5 minutes of press A, wait, press A, wait, press, A wait.

I only really had two lingering gripes. 1) The cutscenes/dialog droning on too long and breaking up the action too often, especially in the beginning. I just want to play the game, yet here it is stopping the action AGAIN. 2) The Imprisoned - nothing even remotely fun about those encounters.

[Edited on February 29, 2012 at 3:00 PM. Reason : -]

2/29/2012 2:58:04 PM

I beat it last night and really enjoyed it overall. There was some serious fetch questing going on after you visit each region for the first time and finding all the music notes for the Water Dragon was awful. I really hated that fucking Water Dragon. Get me Holy Water, get all the music notes, get my water basin. Fuck you Water Dragon. I'm ready for the next iteration in HD with all the filler taken out and difficulty amped up. Do it Nintendo.

2/29/2012 3:12:02 PM

Okay, I haven't actually finished Hero Mode yet; I've still got to do the final Silent Realm trial, acquire the Triforce and kick proto-Ganon's ass. But it's mostly in the bag.

Hero Mode is certainly more challenging, but while it definitely makes things more interesting, I don't know that it really increases the difficulty all that much. It's true that enemies deal twice the damage, but you get to deal the same amount of damage to them as before (and actually, you start the game off being more dangerous, since you start with a fully powered skyward strike). Battles aren't really more difficult, you're just penalized more harshly for making mistakes.

Having no access to hearts can make fighting annoying, but sprinkled throughout all of the levels are stools or benches that you can sit on and regain your health over time. So if things get too hot and heavy, you can retreat and lick your wounds without having to even go back up into the sky. This isn't the case inside of dungeons. But even then, carrying a heart pendant will make enemies and grass drop hearts again. You of course don't start the game off with any heart pendants, so you do have to slug through the initial phases of the game without that advantage, but once you get one it lifts a lot of pressure off of you.

So really, the only place Hero Mode makes a real difference is during boss battles. Especially during the Lightening Round. Getting hit even once could be the difference between fighting another boss or tapping out early. All that said, I'm not hardcore enough to even try all 12 rounds of Lightening Round. I only played just enough rounds to get the Hylia Shield and heart piece, but even then I had to resort to a dirty trick to pull it off*. I've gotten pretty damn decent and getting through most boss fights unscathed, it's mostly my lack of confidence in surviving boss fights from later in the game that makes me too scared to do all 12 rounds.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a just a little disappointed that Hero Mode isn't really as hard as I imagined it would be. But on the other hand, I'm glad it's not as hard as I imagined, or else it would have simply been too frustrating. It's a nice change of pace from how laughably easy WW and TP were, and if you're a seasoned veteran of the LoZ series it adds some nice spice to the mix.



*Basically, drink a fully upgraded invincibility potion and stamina potion right before you begin. Make sure you're wearing the potion pendant when you do it, so that the potions' effects last a lot longer. After that, get through as many boss fights as you can, as quickly as you can. I did not come up with this tactic, I read it in an FAQ.

3/11/2012 10:02:23 PM

Where is the lightning round boss fight thing? That's one thing I didn't do, but it's also the one thing I kinda wanted to avoid. I just saw myself doing well against the true bosses and then having to start over 100 times because I'd keep running out of time during the Imprisoned portions.

3/12/2012 1:00:10 PM

^All you have to do is talk to the Thunder Dragon after he teaches you his part of the song.

3/12/2012 1:35:16 PM

The lighting round was fun but the fact that the rewards are not cumulative is lazy lazy lazy. I got my Hylian Shield and Heart Piece and never looked back.

3/12/2012 2:03:23 PM

Went to the Symphony of the Goddesses concert in Atlanta on Saturday. Lots of nerds and people dressed. It was a fun time -- I've never been to any sort of event like it. There were a few girls who thought that they were supermodels just because they were among nerds.

Fat Link attacking the snack bar:


Fat Zelda:


The stage:


[Edited on May 14, 2012 at 11:35 AM. Reason : ]

5/14/2012 11:32:46 AM

Sucks to be their loftwing.

5/14/2012 11:44:49 AM