Post by George Willson on Mar 7, 2012 9:58:13 GMT -5
The latest installment of the Zelda series takes us back to the beginning of the Zelda timeline where our young hero of legend lives in a place called Skyloft, high above the surface, which neither he nor anyone in his town have ever seen. He has a friend named Zelda who is rapidly whisked away and being the hero he is, he follows after her leading him into a lot of danger and power-ups.
Skyward Sword follows the mechanics of the Zelda games introduced in Ocarina of Time back on the Nintendo 64, and the graphics hearken back to that style followed also by Twilight Princess in that they are more realistic and less cartoony (no flashbacks to Windwaker). That familiarity with the gameplay helps us to settle into the new stuff, particularly the 1:1 ratio sword fighting and using the Wii remote for everything it could possibly be used for. This is a very physical game and I made much larger motions in the sword battles than I have in pretty much any other game, since most require little more than a flick of the wrist. The new integration with the Wii Motion Plus into the swordplay was a lot of fun.
The story was very engrossing and interesting. It took me 36 hours to play through the game, and I didn't do some of the side quests or get all of the items I could have, so this play time could easily be stretched out. But the story kept me engrossed and interested in what happened next. The game was very helpful in leading you on to the next goal, although the in game character help (also introduced in Ocarina of Time as a fairy) is far more intrusive this time as she not only informs you of your next step, but how to do certain very obvious moves whether you ask or not, lets you know your hearts are low (which is especially annoying during very difficult battle sequences), as well as informing you that your wii remote batteries are low. In an otherwise very strong game, she was an annoying weak point that didn't spoil it for me.
One big change to this title from earlier Zeldas is the dungeon design. Old school Zelda games had two primary elements: the overworld where you moved from point A to point B, and the mind-boggling dungeons which was a labyrinth of puzzles to overcome to reach the boss. Skyward Sword mixes this up a bit by using the overworld area as part of the puzzle. The dungeons (when you find them) are not as sprawling as the previous games because the game uses that massive, almost free-roamable overworld as part of the challenge. I figured this was going to be a typical Zelda game of 3 initial tasks followed by 7 to 8 more, but it ended up being a series of travels down to the 3 areas of the world below as well as within Skyloft in order to follow the extensive storyline to its conclusion. Once one goal was accomplished, it turned to be a big question mark as to what came next.
The bottom line is that although I spent a month of evenings to get through this game and I did get angry at it more than once for a couple of highly frustrating sequences, it was well worth it and a lot of fun. The frustrations were simply obstacles to be conquered and much satisfaction was had in getting past them. It is not a hardcore game, but will offer some challenge to the casual gamer without being impossible. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it.
Skyward Sword follows the mechanics of the Zelda games introduced in Ocarina of Time back on the Nintendo 64, and the graphics hearken back to that style followed also by Twilight Princess in that they are more realistic and less cartoony (no flashbacks to Windwaker). That familiarity with the gameplay helps us to settle into the new stuff, particularly the 1:1 ratio sword fighting and using the Wii remote for everything it could possibly be used for. This is a very physical game and I made much larger motions in the sword battles than I have in pretty much any other game, since most require little more than a flick of the wrist. The new integration with the Wii Motion Plus into the swordplay was a lot of fun.
The story was very engrossing and interesting. It took me 36 hours to play through the game, and I didn't do some of the side quests or get all of the items I could have, so this play time could easily be stretched out. But the story kept me engrossed and interested in what happened next. The game was very helpful in leading you on to the next goal, although the in game character help (also introduced in Ocarina of Time as a fairy) is far more intrusive this time as she not only informs you of your next step, but how to do certain very obvious moves whether you ask or not, lets you know your hearts are low (which is especially annoying during very difficult battle sequences), as well as informing you that your wii remote batteries are low. In an otherwise very strong game, she was an annoying weak point that didn't spoil it for me.
One big change to this title from earlier Zeldas is the dungeon design. Old school Zelda games had two primary elements: the overworld where you moved from point A to point B, and the mind-boggling dungeons which was a labyrinth of puzzles to overcome to reach the boss. Skyward Sword mixes this up a bit by using the overworld area as part of the puzzle. The dungeons (when you find them) are not as sprawling as the previous games because the game uses that massive, almost free-roamable overworld as part of the challenge. I figured this was going to be a typical Zelda game of 3 initial tasks followed by 7 to 8 more, but it ended up being a series of travels down to the 3 areas of the world below as well as within Skyloft in order to follow the extensive storyline to its conclusion. Once one goal was accomplished, it turned to be a big question mark as to what came next.
The bottom line is that although I spent a month of evenings to get through this game and I did get angry at it more than once for a couple of highly frustrating sequences, it was well worth it and a lot of fun. The frustrations were simply obstacles to be conquered and much satisfaction was had in getting past them. It is not a hardcore game, but will offer some challenge to the casual gamer without being impossible. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it.