The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[ftninja]

I'll probably give it a shot the next time I decide to replay. I'll have to do a minimal-health run at some point, too (guess we can't call it a 3-heart run anymore). Of course, I have yet to beat Majora's Wrath with 3 hearts, but I'm workin' on it. Trying to avoid getting sword upgrades if I can help it.

o_O

May the Triforce be with you...

[Brandon Strader]

RAWRAWRAWRAWRAWRAWRAWRAWRARAWR

MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW

Wait... I don't remember saying that! ...or did I?

I'm so confused right now... I mean...

BARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARKBARK

[Toadofsky]

Dolphin?

No. It isn't GPU reliant very much at all. If anything, it's CPU reliant. A modern CPU clocked at around 3.5GHz will get you a maxed out 30FPS in Skyward Sword, maybe a dip or two here. 4GHz intel processor? forget about it, 60FPS Mario Galaxy @ 1080p glory.

The only reason Zelda only gets 30 FPS is because that's what Nintendo hardcoded it for. Galaxy 1&2 are a beautiful 60fps the entire time.

From what I've read, if you want to get some of that 4XAA rendering a Graphics card helps a bit. But I'm sure I'm mistaken on some part of that. I also wouldn't mind taking a crack at those texture packs I've been seeing, especially for Luigi's Mansion and I think the Wind Waker has one also.

The reason I'm wanting a good card is to at least play other PC games that I'll eventually get to playing, Arkham City possibly being one of them.

[RDX]

I'm about 3 hours in. The graphics are really bad, to be honest, I'm pretty disappointed in the Wii for messing with such an otherwise beautiful game. But I really like where this is going. It seems like Nintendo really paid attention to the little things, something they're well known for but I thought was lacking in Twilight Princess. I'm genuinely excited to be able to go back to Skyloft with the correct equipment and get to the places I can't access, and get new equipment. I just wish the graphics weren't so bad.

I also thought the intro sequence wasn't as painful as it usually is. It was almost as quick as Wind Waker's, and I appreciated how you didn't have to do the tutorials if you didn't want to.

Also I didn't think the romance between Link and Zelda was all that overt, which isn't actually a bad thing, I like that.

So far it's probably one of the best Zelda games I've played in awhile. I stopped watching trailers after the Comic-Con one (The one that spoiled like 4 different bosses and all of the shield types and like three different items), so yeah. Pretty excited.

And...the CD is pretty cool. I'm on track 2 as I'm typing. I need to stop doing stuff and just listen to it.

[Overflow]

I kinda have to agree about the graphics, at least early on. Skyloft isn't really all that impressive. Rest assured, however, that the graphics get continuously better.

I think I said it earlier that I think the early game areas aren't visually impressive because to Link, they are boring. He grew up there, after all, so he wouldn't find them impressive, and I suppose the audience wouldn't either. As you progress and start exploring the world below, especially the Lanayru desert, you really start to get a sense of wonder and adventure from the more impressive visuals. There's also some really great particle effects in the volcano area.

Actually though, I really think the music steals the show this time. Some of the best music in the zelda series, in my opinion.

[Benjamin Briggs]

a zelda game hasn't felt this close to zelda 1 since zelda 1

so much brain-wracking already

[RDX]

Oh yeah. The file select music? God, my mouth literally dropped. I wish someone had taken a picture of my face it probably looked hilarious.

Can't say I'm a fan of the flying music though. I wish it had a stronger melody, it just seems too disjointed. It's great stuff and I turned the volume up when I first heard it, but I just don't like it as much as the Ocean or Termina Field songs. And while it creates this impression of grandness, it can hardly hold a candle to the wide array of emotions the OoT Field song expresses.

The thing is, I love the graphical style. It's just everything is insanely jagged, and everyone is covered by like a cloud of fuzz. I had read that Skyward Sword looks pretty bad in widescreen, but I never thought it would be this bad.

Oh well, it's still pretty great so far. At first I thought the sky was too small but then I opened up the map and it's actually pretty massive. Does anyone else have trouble making the bird go straight, though? It seems that after awhile it just stops, and then I have to swing the control around and dive in order to get it moving again. I wish we got 6 wings instead of 3.

man, i get way too excited when talking about zelda games.

[HalcyonSpirit]

No. It isn't GPU reliant very much at all. If anything, it's CPU reliant. A modern CPU clocked at around 3.5GHz will get you a maxed out 30FPS in Skyward Sword, maybe a dip or two here. 4GHz intel processor? forget about it, 60FPS Mario Galaxy @ 1080p glory.

Out of curiosity (since I likely won't be able to get the game for a while and I have a Wii to play it on), do you think it would play well on a Quad-core 2.83 GHz with a GeForce 9800 GTX? I know next to nothing about Dolphin and I'm not sure where to look to get a straight answer (main project page doesn't say much).

[ocre]

Skyward Sword BEATEN!! (No, I didn't use any sort of guide. I figured everything out myself.)

This game was so so good. Loved the art style, loved the sheer amount of content, loved the dungeons, loved the motion controls (surprisingly), and I loved the fact that I had spoiled very very little from trailers and preview feature write-ups on various sites around the net and was able to dive into a meaty Zelda game where everything was fresh and exciting.

The biggest thing I can say I was pleasantly surprised with, motion controls being great aside, is the length. Nintendo has somehow managed to stretch out what has become a routine gameflow up to this point in the series and make the game last well beyond what I was expecting. There were a lot of times I found myself saying "Wow." because the game kept on giving me more to do.

and spoiler: Figuring out who the old woman was at the intended time was soooooo awesome.

As for music, I really dig

Every Zelda fan, or fans of fun games, get this. And I definitely recommend going in fresh if you can help it.

[ectogemia]

a zelda game hasn't felt this close to zelda 1 since zelda 1

so much brain-wracking already

So what you're trying to say is the game completely owned you from the first screen? Because that's the Ben Briggs+Zelda 1 I know.

[Nekofrog]

Out of curiosity (since I likely won't be able to get the game for a while and I have a Wii to play it on), do you think it would play well on a Quad-core 2.83 GHz with a GeForce 9800 GTX? I know next to nothing about Dolphin and I'm not sure where to look to get a straight answer (main project page doesn't say much).

Mmm... might be pushing it. If you can get it up to 3.2GHz, or even 3, you might be able to run it at 2x native res @ 30FPS.

Fuck, even running it at 720p would be like a million times better than SD so it might be worth a shot.

[Overflow]

So, I'm 31 hours in now, and I think I'm at the final boss. I mean, I'm not sure what else the game could throw at me at this point, so I'm assuming. First thought: This is shorter than I was promised Twilight princess took me around 45 hours to beat the first time around, and this was supposed to be a 50 - 100 hour game. Oh well, it was one heck of a ride.

Second thought: Holy CRAAAAAAAP is the final boss hard! I haven't died ONCE the whole game yet, but I've died 4 times already trying to beat it! Man, tomorrow I need to get right back to it. That is one heck of a challenge.

[Lemonectric]

Second thought: Holy CRAAAAAAAP is the final boss hard! I haven't died ONCE the whole game yet, but I've died 4 times already trying to beat it! Man, tomorrow I need to get right back to it. That is one heck of a challenge.

Yup, that battle kicks your ass if you don't know exactly what you're doing. I had to use a fairy and a potion, and I hadn't done that since the first boss (um...I was still getting used to the controls? ). There's a moment when you suddenly figure out how to beat it and you just go "oh my god this is cool."

Of course, for all I know, you have figured it out and you're just still having trouble. It's definitely one of the more aggressive Zelda final bosses. Just thinking of Ganondorf from Twilight Princess makes me chuckle. No final boss should be that easy with minimum health and no healing items.

I went into Skyward Sword expecting it to follow the trend of the Zelda series getting easier and easier. Then I got electrocuted about 1500 times over the course of the game. You really have to pay attention to what you're doing with the sword and/or get clever with items. Not that it's hard-hard...but it felt like things were actually trying to kill me.

[Overflow]

Tru dat, this game is a challenge.

Just beat it this morning, and wow. I have to say, that ending was pretty powerful. Definitely this was the most story-heavy Zelda game, and it was better for it. It had a very intimate feel. I never really got the feeling that this was a cataclysmic event, like you do in OoT or TP, but really, it worked better because it was personal. The relationship between Link and Zelda is what drove the story. I'm not sure if it matched that strong point of TP when Ganondorf crushed Midna's helmet, but it was pretty close, if nothing else.

And let's just say that you will never look at the Master Sword in OoT, TP, WW or any other Zelda the same way again.

Major spoilers ahead, pertaining to the Zelda timeline theories and such.

So we're to assume now that Demise is the root of all evil in the Zelda universe, I suppose, and villains like Ganondorf are re-incarnations of him. That's an interesting theory. Neither he nor Zelda ever got a piece of the Triforce, but clearly they were still chosen by the goddess.

Speaking of, I suppose that implies that there were actually 4 goddesses, eh? Din, Naryu and Farore may have created the world and the Triforce, but it was Hylia that watched over it. I suppose since Zelda is Hylia reincarnate, then that implies that her children were the first Hylians. Obviously they stayed on the world below and created Hyrule, and the Temple of Time around the Master Sword.

That was one thing that got me: If there was an actual temple of time in Lanayru Desert, why didn't the sword get placed there? I suppose the Sacred Grounds was a second temple of time? Oh well, it doesn't really matter.

The triforce became physical in this game, which was interesting. Having the mark on your hand and possessing the physical item are clearly two different things, but I wonder what happened to them? At what point did they enter the Sacred Realm?

[ftninja]

@Ocre It hurts my heart that you weren't in love with

Spoilers?

Lanayru Present and

Lanayru Past (omfg it's my favorite!)

The music in this game is bloody brilliant. I love all the little things that Nintendo did. I went into the waterfall cave at night to look for the midnight merchant, and a bell tolls. It has the same tone and quality as the Majora's Mask bell. Creepy shit.

I have to say though, out of all the music in this game, i remember Lanayru Past best. It's just so GOOD.

[Nekofrog]

I'm only at the second dungeon but my biggest complaint (other than the awful, awful Fi) is the lackluster soundtrack.

[Bleck]

yeah they really touted the soundtrack being orchestral which is good but then it turns out that half of the music is bad anyways

I finished this a few minutes ago and I've decided that it's more or less as good as twilight princess

[ocre]

@Irish Oh, I do like those songs a lot, I just wanted to share the one that I like the best, hehe.

Also, I love the music when you fight the lava spider/tentacle sea monster and how it changes up when the boss is in offense mode.

[Overflow]

I personally love the music! I think it's some of the best in the series, actually.

Spoiler:

So, after watching a hint movie, I found out that you can defeat Demise by using a special Skyward Strike! 0.0 I didn't know that! I beat him Punch-Out!! style: by recognizing his attacks, dodging out of the way and counterattacking, one slash at a time. It took forever, but man was it intense.

[ocre]

Spoiler territory in these impressions: I was trying to beat him that way too until I realized he was doing his own "skyward strike" and then it hit me. Bam.

Also, I have to say, I think it's really interesting how they've pretty much told us that the Goddess Hylia 'pulled a God' by turning into the mortal Zelda (Jesus). And Demise is totally Satan/The Anti-Christ(Inverted Triforce on the sword). Classic good vs evil. Classy.

[Overflow]

Yeah, that was interesting.

Spoilerish:

I'm actually pleased with Nintendo for not holding its punches with this game. They had demons, prayers, goddesses, Ghirahim going on about draining you of your blood and tormenting you for eternity: it was actually kind of brutal in some places. And I loved it.

Nintendo is known for being kid-friendly and censoring anything that might be offensive, but here they went all out. Spirituality and spiritual growth, Batreaux referring to himself as a demon, etc.

Big Spoiler:

I loved the twist with Ghirahim, what he really turned out to be. When I realized it, I was like "WHOA"

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Just got to the Earth Temple, and honestly, I'm kinda disappointed so far. Music and visuals are great, but I'm finding the gameplay to be quite boring and the controls to be clumsy and finicky. I also can't stand the way it leads me by the hand through every step of the game, explaining everything, even the most obvious points, three or four times. I'd love it if there was some way to switch between an "easy" mode and a "yes, I've played a zelda game before" mode.

That said, the accompanying CD is absolutely fantastic.

[ocre]

True, it would be nice to have a mode like that from the get-go. Unfortunately you don't get it til you beat the game.

Also, I would recommend copying your file before you beat the final boss. Just a heads up.

[Overflow]

Just got to the Earth Temple, and honestly, I'm kinda disappointed so far. Music and visuals are great, but I'm finding the gameplay to be quite boring and the controls to be clumsy and finicky. I also can't stand the way it leads me by the hand through every step of the game, explaining everything, even the most obvious points, three or four times. I'd love it if there was some way to switch between an "easy" mode and a "yes, I've played a zelda game before" mode.

That said, the accompanying CD is absolutely fantastic.

If you think the game is boring, just wait until you enter the third area (considering Faron Woods as the first, and Eldin Volcano as the second). They introduce a new gameplay mechanic that is incredibly inventive and wonderfully fun to use. That area is actually my favorite in the game, and the temple makes phenomenal use of the mechanic.

[RDX]

This game is very hit or miss, that seems pretty clear by now. Some people will love one part and another person will say that's what bugs them the most about the game. There's clearly a reason why some of the scores critics have given it have gone all across the spectrum (spectrum meaning 7-10, because no one gives out scores below 7 for a blockbuster).

I rarely play video games, so this is the first one I've played in a year and I absolutely love it. I get floored by just about every video game I buy because I can't be bothered to pick up half of the ones that get good reviews. Things like grass swaying in the breeze and idle animations make me jizz in my pants. So really it all comes down to what your perspective is. I think the motion controls are pretty cool because I'm not aware of what the better motion controls would feel like, the music is pretty cool but kind of generic at times, and most things feel generally fresh to me. But I say that as what someone might call a "casual" gamer.

So, to anyone who's reading this thread considering whether or not they want to buy the game, consider that.