nohero

The only enemy that ever really gave me a hard time in SS was the damn techno bokoblin, and those were minor enemies. All the bosses were simple, really. Of course, if you play on Hero Mode, they become considerably tougher. I really don't think bosses in SS were any tougher than ones in TP, overall. In fact, the final boss is much more of a pushover than Ganon's incarnations in TP. I do get your point, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "Man, Super Mario Bros 3 was the worst game in the series. The damn frog suit was only useful in like 2 levels!"

I remember at least two places in Hyrule Field where you had to use it to scale cliffs. Plenty of items in "good" Zelda games get used far less than the items in TP.

I'll give you the Ganondorf/Zelda dynamic. Major ball dropping on Nintendo's part after the awesome portrayal of his character in WindWaker. And I never quite got the whole point of Zelda sacrificing herself but not really sacrificing herself. That straight up made no sense. But the items? The spinner made for a boss battle that reminded me of Goht from Majora's Mask, which was one of my favorite boss battles. And dual clawshots? How can you hate on dual clawshots? The overworld wasn't THAT sparse either. I personally see it as on par with Ocarina. Ocarina's version of Hyrule field was pretty damn boring, even if the other parts of the land were interesting. At least there's fun stuff to find in TP's Hyrule field, areas you can only access with certain items. In that way, it captured the essence of Zelda, to me.

Huh. I got the impression that damn near nobody cared for Twilight Princess, much less liked it more than WindWaker. I still don't fully understand why it's not more widely approved of. It was a shame, though, to see TP take a step backwards when it came to the treatment of Ganondorf's character.

The silent realms were probably my favorite aspect of Skyward Sword, and the only challenging aspect, at that. They did a damn good job of getting my heart pounding when I'd accidentally step in that stupid detection water or get too close to a hard-to-see Poe, and would then spend what felt like minutes running/sprinting while searching for a tear. The clingy clangy music helped out, of course. Still, the soundtrack in general was meh. Funny how Groose's theme and its many variations stand out to me as the most memorable part of the soundtrack, but then again, Groose also miraculously ended up being one of the stronger parts of Skyward Sword. Him and "Grannie."

I was starting to think I was the only one. That moment definitely had a chilling effect, and having played the game at a pretty young age, I'd say that was pretty much the first plot twist I ever encountered in a videogame. With both Majora and Awakening, I always felt a little uneasy, but in a good way. The atmospheres they established were haunting in a way, and I think I found that compelling. I do, however, have to give SS credit for making what might have been a Windfish reference.

Skyward Sword's got to be high school cafeteria cake with acrid frosting, in that case. Cafeteria cake with an albeit solid story. A little surprised you weren't too fond of Awakening, Bleck. To me, it had a similar feel to MM, a little ethereal and trippy. Actually, I'd say LA involved some of the most exploration of any Zelda game, unlike SS.

Link's Awakening miiiiight be able to wedge itself in between the two.

Skyward Sword did nearly the exact same thing WindWaker did: it teased at an awesome, alternate world not wholly unlike the Dark World of Link's Awakening, but then only lets the player experience the tiniest smidgeon of said world. The amount of "Hyrule" that you experienced in WW was laughable and didn't feel anywhere close to being as fleshed out as the other environments in the game. Similarly, in Skyword Sword, we only get a very very tiny chunk of the past to explore(not counting the temporal distortions caused by the Timeshift Stones, which I suppose I should be grateful for). Also, the game needed a big reveal on Fi; I think we all suspected her of being a computer, no? Whining aside, I can't help but feel that Skyword Sword serves to set up new plotlines for the next Zelda games. Will a certain malevolent spirit be freed from the confines of the Master Sword? Will Ganon find an ancient sword that enshrines a flamboyant personality? Will we see Ghirahim in the next Smash Bros? ... God, on second thought, I really hope not on that last one.

I was kind of hoping Tron: Legacy would be a KH3 world; I'm not sure the 3DS can do it full justice. I guess waiting until the release of KH3 would have made it feel stale. Oh well, here's hoping there's a Sorcerer's Apprentice world in KH3, too. The Nick Cage movie. Not the Fantasia segment.

Them dwarves is far too good lookin'.

At a certain point after the 6th temple? And I mostly agree on the boss of the 5th temple: it looked incredibly dorky and was a touch formulaic, but I did enjoy the process leading up to the fight, even if the fight itself was meh.

Horrible voice acting and numerous cliches aside, Legend of Dragoon managed to bring a tear to my eye. The battles actually managed to be fun, too.

I'm going to have to go ahead and recommend Charles Barkley's Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden.

Zack mowed down Shinra's enemies with a smile on his face damn near the entire time. He ain't that mentally stable, himself.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but for some reason, I felt heavy FFVI vibes throughout that video.

I can't argue on the reversal of FFX's tragic ending, but in all fairness, that was only the "perfect" ending. Didn't get it on my initial playthrough and looked it up online, instead, and tried to convince myself it wasn't canon. That aside, as mentioned, the Dress Sphere system was essentially your old "job" system with a fancy new name. All in all, people tend to like Chrono Trigger's battle system. People tend to like job systems in RPGs. Look past its makeup, and X-2 is pretty fulfilling.

Glad I'm not the only one who actually enjoyed X-2. Admittedly, the girl power themes were annoying as hell, but if they were removed, I think we'd actually have a pretty decent game. The battle system was more similar to Chrono Trigger than a lot of people who cite CT as being the best RPG evar would like to admit.

Fun fact: Wario actually shouts "Butt Smash" while ground pounding in one (or both) of the Mario Strikers games.

Batshit insane clothing never stopped anyone from liking Gilgamesh... To be honest, though, I'm pretty sure Amarant has one of my favorite character designs; minimalism works here. His unexplained white skin aside, he might have the best chance of blending into a crowd.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Revenant_Wings

I haven't had dreams about it yet, but I'm pretty sure that Acme-esque rocket barrel song is stuck in my head for life, and will likely trigger Pavlovian anxiety if I hear it outside of the game.

I actually thought it was kind of refreshing to have levels where you die should you take a single hit, just like games of old. Games used to be way harder before life gauges were ever implemented, so this seemed a bit like a throwback to me.

Although it had its flaws, I thoroughly enjoyed Legend of Dragoon and got a little teary at the very end when you see two characters who have shared star-crossed destinies for thousands of years flying happily above as birds. KH2 is definitely on the list, too. I never really cared much for Sora, but I felt awful for Roxas, and his sadness really has an impact (along with how much more ass his theme kicks than Sora's). Probably the best game at stirring up emotions, whether they made me cry or not, was Majora's Mask though. Helping the 3 heroes to pass on and the scene with the innkeeper and the cursed fiance holding hands as the moon destroys the world, promising to greet the morning together, was ridiculously touching.

Metal.... Gear?