The Skyward Sword of Disappointment

I have a lot of time for the Zeldas. I went into the gaming desert in about 1990 when 8 bit computing disappeared, and never really came out again until I got an N64 in 1999. Ocarina of Time was the game that made me fall in love with gaming again.

Now I've really tried with Skyward Sword. Overly cutesy graphics - OK, I sat through Wind Waker. Pretty much same plot (big bad kidnaps Zelda, you collect all your gear/hearts, you beat big bad, you and Zelda live together in platonic love, the end) so I can live with that. Same old formula - go into temples, get keys, beat bosses. Fair enough.

Its the damn controls+the respawning blocking enemies. This is SO TEDIOUS I could scream. I have to do this damn clumsy sword fighting with the shitty Wii stick whilst every damn enemy blocks my moves. Yes I guess I could master it, in time. But there was a reason I far preferred Twilight Princess on the Gamecube not the Wii (apart from the map being the right way round). I only needed to move my thumbs. I am not going to swing my arms for 2 hours in some failed facsimile of swordfighting fighting these things that won't die easily.

I'm told this is the future and all Zeldas from now on will have full motion controls. Farewell Zelda, I knew you well.

I'm glad you posted your thoughts because I was thinking about getting Skyward Sword. Excluding handheld titles, I've played every Zelda game since the original.

I wasn't impressed by what I had seen of TSS so far, and getting it would mean that I'd also have to plunk down an extra $30 for that Wii-MotionPlus attachment for my Wii-mote.

It's funny because a few days ago a couple of Gamestop employees were trying to convince me how awesome the game is.

It seems to be a real "love it or hate it" title from what I've seen in forums. Some people claim the motion controls are trivially easy to master, but my experience is that it feels way too much like hard work and even worse than Twilight Princess. Whereas combat in TP on the Wii could be done with a limited amount of effort (quick flicks of the wrist done from a sedentary position), with SS you end up having to stand in front of the telly, making horizontal, vertical and diagonal swings with the Wiimote in order to kill each enemy. I'm not unfit, but after an hour or so my arm is beginning to protest at all the constant swinging at trash mobs.

Maybe a year or two down the line I might try to beat SS using the Dolphin emulator and some controls more sensibly mapped onto keyboard+mouse, but right now I'm fed up with the game completely.

coaster said:

with SS you end up having to stand in front of the telly, making horizontal, vertical and diagonal swings with the Wiimote in order to kill each enemy. I'm not unfit, but after an hour or so my arm is beginning to protest at all the constant swinging at trash mobs.

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I agree. I played through the first below-the-clouds area and the first dungeon of Skyward Sword and found the controls to be really irritating. Forget ever trying to play this game from your sofa or even from a comfortable backed chair. You either need to stand up or sit on a stool (or leaning forward in a backed chair) to have room for large, sweeping motions since small movements won't do as they either do not register at all or they register wrong. In addition, even when you seem to get the hang of the controls, the game very often reads your motions wrong and you end up doing something you really didin't intend to do. Sure, it could be operator error 50% of the time, but I maintain that at least 50% of the time the game misinterpreted me and I ended up fighting the controls and not the opponents. Then again, maybe I just suck at motion controls. Anyway, to add insult to injury, after an hour of this flailing about, you're sure to have a sore arm and wrist. Not good.

Think what you will of Gamespot, but I recall their reviewer critisizing the controls quite harshly as well. Sure enough, all Nintendo fans mobbed him, claiming he's just too inept and clumsy. However, if you're at all concerned about the controls and are not too thrilled by the gimmick (it is a gimmick, IMO) of pseudo-realistic swordplay (in which it fails, IMO), take heed, you have been warned.

Coaster is right it seems to be the user when it comes to the controls. I have problems with it, my brother has no problems with it and finds it easy.

coaster said:

I have to do this damn clumsy sword fighting with the shitty Wii stick whilst every damn enemy blocks my moves.

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I've always liked Nintendo's consoles because eventhough they're generally 'less powerful' than Microsoft or Sony's console offerings, Nintendo's consoles tend to get a wider variety of generes as opposed to the FPS obsession on Microsoft and Sony's consoles.

I was a bit skeptical about the Wii and its motion controller when it was first announced. But I tried to keep an open mind and give it a try. All these years later and the verdict (for me) is in.

For the most part, when I have time to play a videogame, I really don't want to be jumping around. For me, game time is usually at night, after the day is mostly done, and I want to relax on my couch and play a game as opposed to watching TV or reading a book.

Over the years I've had my Wii, I've enjoyed using the motion controller very little, with only a few exceptions. I'd rather Nintendo fixate less on trying to reinvent the 'controller wheel' and just focus on great gameplay using traditional controllers. Or, at the very least, create games where either type of controller can be used by selecting a controller type from a game's menu.

On a side note, I've lost count of all the damage caused by my kids and their friends have caused flailing the Wii remote around playing games. I've been through at least 4 controllers now (even with protectors on them - it's as if the slightest bump can damage them) along with other peripheral damage when a controller flying across the room hits something. These kinds of remotes really aren't suitable for children under 10 in my opinion as kids at that age drop whatever is in their hands every 8 seconds.

Lol @ this thread. Breaking Wii-motes and sore arms. Too funny.

I love zelda, would've quit gaming if it wasn't for the n64 ones, but Skyward Sword is the worst zelda I've ever played.

I had an easy time with the motion controls but see no point to them, there's no sword swing you do with your wii remote that couldn't have been done more precisely with a thumbstick direction+ button press. The motion controls may be more fun for kids, but they're not used for anything a gamepad couldn't do better. Against most bokoblins you're better off just waggling anyway.

Yet it's the overall design of the game that ruined it for me. Ocarina of Time was a unique blend of action, adventure and rpg, what came to be known as zelda-like. There was a large world for you to explore, towns to find, races to learn about, side-quests everywhere that often played out like adventure game puzzles, memorable characters to talk to, catchy music everywhere.

That's all gone, there's just one town with half a dozen side quests(now pointed out by wow-esque yellow text boxes over the questgiver's head)and you start right there, you meet all the characters from the start, what few characters and races you meet below the clouds barely have any worthwhile interactions.

In skyward sword the sky overworld is an empty joke, there's skytown, the pumpkin bar with 4 npcs and the treecutter's island(1npc), everything else is just floating empty rocks, where's the exploration? The world beneath the sky is just a bunch of traditional zelda dungeons(they're fun, but the easiest I've ever found in a zelda, never had to pause and figure out which way to go) connected by "dungeon-lite" corridor-ish areas or second rate mario levels.

In fact if I had to describe the game I'd call it Mario in zelda clothing. Mario galaxy was a triumph of game and level design and I think a lot of it transpired onto skyward sword, problem is I didn't want to play as Link in a mario-ish puzzle/platformer world, I wanted a zelda game. I wanted that unique blend of dungeons, towns, characters, story , overworld etc that make up a Zelda.

This may be the zelda that plays best and is easiest to jump right in the middle of even if you took a break from it for a while, but chances are you will have to push yourself to keep playing because the plot loses steam very early on and you'll essentially be backtracking/grinding for mcguffins.

I don't even like the graphics, Link looks good, but the impressionist vibe they were going for ends up just being an excessively colourful and shade-less blur. Would've preferred it if they just used the wind waker celshading and artstyle for the gameworld. I swear it feels like the predominant color in skytown is pink. As far as music goes I only noticed two new songs I could enjoy, one is the reverse zelda lullaby and the other is fi's theme, that's not much if you recall how OoT was a treasure trove of new songs.

Ocarina of time set the bar, Majora's Mask tried to add and build upon it, Wind Waker and TP were mostly steps back in terms of towns, characters, side-quests while improving the general gameplay(I still enjoyed them though. they were still great games, zelda quality games) and it now seems like Skyward Sword moved too far into that direction.

If you consider that Nintendo worked on this game during its 7 richest years where they were printing money with the wii and the DS, consider the amount of padding/backtracking/reusing levels the game has, how few new quality songs there are, lack of towns, lack of side-quests and how they promised this would be the biggest, ultimate zelda, I feel cheated.


Assuming that the praise this game is getting isn't just some temporary thing before a TP-esque sheeple backlash it seems safe to assume this is the direction future zeldas are going in(motion controls, gameworld consisting of dungeons loosely connected by filler platformer levels etc), after 12 years of seeing them take the series in the opposite direction of what I wanted I won't be buying their next console nor the next zelda.

TL;DR: CURSE YOU… NINTENDO!

I've begun to play the game as well, and while I've just started (I've reached the first temple), I don't agree with all the complains. You don't need to make wide swings in order to swing your sword, all you need to do is gently flick your wrist (I've thus far been playing the game from my bed without any issues what so ever).

Also, I don't entirely agree with the game world being only dungeons, it feels like a bit of an inbetween actually. There are more misc things in the game world that makes it fun to explore than it was in wind waker (which is the closest zelda game to this thus far) and while .

For the record, I never really liked the N64 zeldas. To me those two games were the big disappointments of the zelda series (I have not played the DS or CD-I zelda games, so I can't comment on those), and I think that Zelda 2 & Wind Waker were the two best zelda games to date so my Zelda taste is rather non-standard (Zelda 2 for its challenge and Wind Waker for its surprisingly good story)

Yet another identical Zelda game with horrible new motion controls on outdated hardware I wouldn't even be able to hook up because I don't have a 20 year old TV? COUNT ME IN!

Wind Waker was probably the biggest disappointment for me as far as the Zelda games go. Although the story wasn't bad and had a few nice twists towards the end, I just didn't care for the overall style of the game.

I also found Ocarina of Time somewhat disappointing, especially after all the 10/10 review scores it received. I didn't play OoT until it was re-released on the gamecube though and that might have something to do with my opinion.

It would be a toss-up between A Link to the Past or Twilight Princess as my favorite, but the original Zelda and Zelda 2 both still hold fond memories for me as well.

Wow, is this the same JDR who has been bitching about Amalur for not being mature enough or too Fable-ish?

DArtagnan said:

Wow, is this the same JDR who has been bitching about Amalur for not being mature enough or too Fable-ish?

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Yep, and KoA would probably look great to me… if I was 12 years-old again. That's about the age I first discovered Zelda, which I continued to play for a long time for nostalgic purposes.

Well, I can understand that JDR. What I can't get my head around is how anybody over 12 can enjoy Zelda for reasons other than nostalgia!

zahratustra said:

Well, I can understand that JDR. What I can't get my head around is how anybody over 12 can enjoy Zelda for reasons other than nostalgia!

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I'm 44 and I still enjoy the Zelda games… *whistles*

I'm proud to be a 'kid' in many ways still...

JDR13 said:

Yep, and KoA would probably look great to me… if I was 12 years-old again. That's about the age I first discovered Zelda, which I continued to play for a long time for nostalgic purposes.

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Keep telling yourself that

DArtagnan said:

Keep telling yourself that

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Because you know otherwise?

JDR13 said:

Because you know otherwise?

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Well, let's just say that playing several games for so many hours for exclusively nostalgic reasons is a very, very uncommon thing in my experience.

But if that's what you did - it's what you did

Maybe you actually like the gameplay - and because you already "got over" the artstyle aspect as a kid, it doesn't bother you today.

Lesson being that if you manage to "get over" the Amalur artstyle - there might be a great game waiting for you.

The Zelda artstyle makes Amalur look like it was designed by HR Giger

DArtagnan said:

Well, let's just say that playing several games for so many hours for exclusively nostalgic reasons is a very, very uncommon thing in my experience.

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Did I say I played I played them "exclusively" for nostalgic reasons?

Nostalgia played a part, but it's a moot point because you're trying to compare apples and oranges. Zelda is not an RPG series, and I look for different things in an RPG.

JDR13 said:

Did I say I played I played them "exclusively" for nostalgic reasons?

Nostalgia played a part, but it's a moot point because you're trying to compare apples and oranges. Zelda is not an RPG series, and I look for different things in an RPG.

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Well, you didn't include any of the other reasons

Fair enough, it's about genre then. Which makes sense, because I don't so much divide games into genres as into whether they're for me. Maybe that's why Amalur appeals to me - though I don't really see the problem with the art style personally.

For the record, I really like Zelda - but I've rarely had a machine where the games have been available at the time of release.