So I finally got to play the game. Played all the way up to getting the sword in the hidden temple area or whatever.

Hmm, what to say? The style/music/story IE immersion factor is huge. I really wasn't expecting this for some reason, but it hit me pretty hard. Can't comment too much on the gameplay yet but man, the addition of a run button is great (I hope there is a way to expand stamina though? Runs out pretty fast.) Sword controls are awesome too, though I haven't done much with them yet. Flying controls are a little weird, but I can get used to them.

Basically this game is making me very happy so far despite the fact that I've barely cracked into it. Can't wait to play more. Why oh why do I have an 8 to 8 day of student teaching tomorrow?! Damn parent teacher conferences.

My copy arrived in Minneapolis a half an hour ago. Joy!

I honestly just spent like two hours just goofing around and doing some side stuff.

Quick fun tip, and I'm NOT putting a spoiler tag on this because it's pretty cool (maybe it's common knowledge) - not only can Fi give you information about enemies, but you can also lock onto people and Fi will give you there name and a description of them! I've only done this in Skyloft, but I wonder if she'll give you the rundown on the creatures you meet on the surface as well. It's pretty cool when you're trying to figure out who everyone is so that you know where to go when giving people things or need to talk to someone.

@PogueSquadron - I knew that she did it for creatures, but not for people. I'll definitely be trying that next time I'm in Skyloft.

She also keeps track of the # of hours played during the session, total playtime, and enemies killed. Love that addition. Her summaries are nice too read and remind me of Other M.

Super unhappy with how long, verbose, restrictive and just downright boring the introductory sequence is. The first, I don't know, four or five hours (ymmv). It seems completely antithetical to a franchise founded on the idea of openness and non-linearity. I'm all hyped up to be a hero, rescue Zelda and plunge to the surface. And as soon as I try to explore, the first moment I try to climb a ledge the game doesn't want me to climb, Fi pops out and scolds me as if I were a child climbing something I wasn't supposed to on a playground. That's the first time I can remember that a Zelda game didn't use some item related obstacle to deter me, but rather, some arbitrary and artificial means. I feel like the only reason why I'm slogging through the beginning is because it's Zelda. If this were any other game, I would have stopped.

@TVandLust

It's been an ongoing trend in Zelda games to have longer and longer intro sequences. Starting with the 3D ones OoT was the short and sweet "Hey go see the Great Deku Tree and make sure you grab a sword and shield". Majora's Mask had you follow the Skull Kid where upon you get transformed, have to trade some stuff around, find the kids and make it to the clock tower. Wind Waker had you run around the island a few times, rescue Tetra in the woods, go with the pirates to the fortress, and play that game with Niko in the ship. I guess you could count the fortress as part of the intro as well since it's not really a dungeon and you don't have any freedom. Twilight Princess I barely remember except for the fact that it was way too damn long. I recall rescuing kidnapped kids, getting turned in to a wolf, and having to detwilight the first area.

Now with Skyward Sword we have an even longer drawn out opening with the crucial differences being that it is way more linear, and has much less action than the previous games' openings. Looking back I think Majora's Mask and Ocarina did it the best. If it were up to me I would have the opening be a Zelda obstacle course in disguise. Get the player to execute each technique and help them only when they get stuck on a certain section. That let's seasoned players breeze through it and novices get instructed on only what they do not know. This could have easily been done in the opening to this game as well. The fact that Link is a knight in training could have set this up perfectly. It could have been the day of the performance evaluation of core skills or something.

Ah well, the opening does do a good job setting up the world and drawing you in I suppose. It just meanders a bit.

I played a little bit more tonight and beat the first dungeon. The game has now really picked up after the aforementioned slow opening the game excels once you are on your own and left to your own devices. The dungeon was fun, the only time I got stuck was when a crawlspace was obstructed from view. That's something I have very little patience for in games but it didn't spoil the rest of the experience.

The motion controls are holding up fairly well. The flying, fighting, swinging on a vine, and other major applications all seem to be executed very well. Oddly enough the IR cursor seems to be the most susceptible to fits of hostility and I find I have to recenter it at least 3 times or so per session. Not a huge deal though since they smartly added a way to do that very quickly.

Yeah, it has been a growing trend, it's just taken to absurd lengths here. I don't mind a bit of a tutorial or whatever, and like you said, Ocarina and Majora's Mask handled that sort of thing best. It's just so strange, though, that a game touts its 25 years right on the cover, and then acts as if no one has ever played it before. How many people sitting on a roof or perch have called out to me to use Z-Targeting and then spewed pages of text about the virtues of the very action I just performed in the past 13 years?

I had thought that things like Sheikah Stones, Fi's advice option and the fact that the controller has a Help button would have alleviated a prolonged training wheels sequence, but nope. It's actually worse.

I agree that the opening is too long. I've played for close to 5 hours now and I still haven't reached the first dungeon. Twilight Princess was slow as well but I didn't seem to mind as much for some reason.

wow... ... well ... I for one don't mind the long intro. It gets me used to the way Link plays, lets me get attached to the characters - it's a game that took years to make - why rush??

I find it's a bit like a good book..... *shrugs*

@stephen08

Didn't read the review thread? The gamespot controversy? The game doesn't use IR, just motion. Stop trying to point and to recenter, and you should stop having trouble.

I haven't had time to crack my copy open just yet (aside from listening to the CD), but I should have some extended time with it on Wednesday and over the Thanksgiving break. I can't wait to put that shiny, new gold Wii Remote to good use!

I didn't find the intro to be that bad, really. It was more interesting than Twilight Princess at least, mostly because of the focus on Zelda and the Link-Zelda relationship.

I really do love this game so far.

A few gripes though:

Flying is so so... more entertaining than sailing, but a little too wonky.

Rolling bombs sucks. I tried to the best of my ability to do it while sitting back on my bed, but I had to sit up straight and elevate more to do it in a timely manner.

Text needs to go faster than it does when holding the A button, and why is there not an exit dialogue option yet?

Putting the sword away with A, and items away with B, really messes with me.

...

Things I like:

Dashing and climbing. Much fun.

The characters.

Combat. It's challenging! Hooray!

The first boss fight was awesome. (I'm almost to the 2nd boss)

...

Never thought I'd say I miss anything about Twilight Princess, but I miss Midna as a sidekick because of her personality. Fi is... a robot.

@Guillaume Wait, why should you not bother to point and recenter? (I didn't read reviews or rebuttals to reviews)

@Renjaku

Well point and recenter if you must, I'm just saying the game doesn't use the IR pointer. The bow and arrow is motion. The inventory is motion. "It like looking for something in your pockets" and all that crap that was at the first E3 showing and in the Iwata Asks. Well it's true.

If your wiimote is pointing away from the center of the screen, while you press B to take out an item, then that "off-center" position will become your center while you are aiming. So to avoid this, just point towards the middle of the screen when you take out an item. Or else, after you've begun aiming just press d-pad down while pointing at the center of the screen to re-center.

@anon_mastermind Oh ok. I was beginning to think that's how it worked. Good to see it spelled out though.

* Spoilers through ALMOST reaching the 4th dungeon

So, I beat the third dungeon last night (and into this morning, haha! I couldn't stop playing). I'm very close to the 4th dungeon (I think)

3 good/very good dungeons so far. No superstar dungeons yet, but nothing where I feel underwhelmed either. I think this is fine, considering the best dungeons typically come after the first 3. I really liked the mines, though. Desert areas are typically my least favorite part of Zelda games -- I guess any game, really -- mainly because of the bland and dry appearance. The dichotomy with the desert being a lush, green environment at one point was a nice change of pace (though I must admit it seemed very reminiscent of Metroid: Other M). The way that the dungeon rooms transformed from decrepit ruins to vibrant, high-tech designs was pretty awesome. Also, the music changing between the past and present was a nice touch. Some really gorgeous sequences in this area.

Boss fights have all been very good so far. None have been your traditional, "hit weak point three times, then hit next weak point three times, etc." battles. I thought it was really neat, to use the blower to reveal the third boss from the sand. I wasn't sure what to do, so I'm like, "maybe I have to blow away the sand." Really cool.

Combat in this game is great. Most of the enemies are really challenging, and I love what they've done to change up the Lizalfos, Armos, etc.

Going forward, there is a TON of stuff between the 3rd and 4th dungeon (which I still haven't reached yet, though I have to believe I'm close). I get that you shouldn't just be able to go from dungeon to dungeon, but it almost feels a little too contrived after the 10th task you've had to do . Some stuff, like pacifying the "Imprisoned" and the Silent Realm was cool. Other stuff, like fetching the propeller or climbing the Big Tree just to climb right down feel a little tacked on. It's something I've always griped about with Zelda, that they tailor the story a little too close to the gameplay -- I get that it's always been that way, I just wish that it wasn't so unwilling to break that mold. I've swam to the water dragon area, so I've got to believe I'm close to dungeon #4...but I'm not convinced!

On a side note, I had a dream several months ago where I was playing the new Zelda for the first time -- and it visually looked just like the Silent Realm did, complete with bright orbs that you had to collect. Weird, but I love the dream-like style to it.

Also, blowing up Gossip Stones still causes them to take off...I was hoping that it would still happen, and Nintendo didn't let me down!

Story-wise, I'm starting to feel a lot of connections to Twilight Princess, which seems odd considering OoT comes before TP in the timeline. At least that's what we thought. The whole Temple of Time in the desert, the gateway to the other realm which I believe is what Midna used in TP to go to the Twilight Realm. I get the feeling that by the end of the game, how we viewed the timeline before this game will be significantly different from how we view it afterwards. Or maybe not, I don't really know. There's definitely some big surprises coming, though, I can almost feel it.

Damn, all these updates and I've only just made it to the first dungeon. I wish I had more time to play this game!!!