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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo Wii) discussion [game]
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11/17/11, 19:54 Edited: 09/20/12, 03:19
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@Chozoman If you understand what you're getting into I think you'll truly appreciate the awesomeness of Skyward Sword. It doesn't have the best towns (or, I should say town), sidequests or characters. Nor does it have that much genuine exploration or a good overworld. If that's all you want out of a Zelda game, then you'll probably be disappointed. Here's what you do get: The best pacing in the series, some of the best puzzles in the series (this is truly genuine stuff, plenty of these you've never seen before - the days of pushing blocks, lighting torches and shooting arrows are gone). Some of them weren't that hard, but I still got stuck on them because I was thinking inside the Zelda box. You got an awesome item selection - literally every single item uses WM+ in a unique way, or at the very least the IR. Awesome graphics, enemy and local designs, and some fun (albeit a bit easy, though not as easy as TP) boss fights. The combat is great too - every single enemy is a small puzzle. And there's room for experimentation, you can try to use other offensive items aside from your sword to see how effective they are on each enemy (as in other Zelda games, but it's better here). Some enemies you can't even touch with the sword. This is the Zelda game with the most amount of pure, genuine gameplay out of all of them. And the less of everything else, all the "living breathing world" aspects are diminished quite a bit. After you beat the first dungeon it truly picks up, and a lot of the times it feels like Metroid Prime. Yes, the dowsing feature is a bit lame, and toward the end there's some annoying stuff you need to do. But the game's got it where it counts. And I'm not just saying that. |
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(Just a little analysis ahead...I'm not knocking the game for something it's not really trying to do.)
I still never felt for a moment that there was a "blend" between the dungeons and overworld. I think they put a lot of puzzles INTO the overworld, but every time I entered a dungeon, I was pretty well aware that I was entering a dungeon. There was an absolute distinction between the overworld and the game's 6, technically 7 dungeons.
Also, the game doesn't really deviate from its overworld/dungeon pattern set up from the first level. While some of the settings were a little unorthodox (really only two come to mind), the game absolutely establishes a rhythm that it adheres to throughout the entire game. This isn't necessarily bad or good, but honestly, I do feel like it takes away from the game a little. I think if you contrast this to a game like Okami, I rarely remember feeling like I was entering 6 arbitrary dungeons for the sake of getting to their respective bosses. Maybe I have to play through it again (I never beat it), but I kind of just felt like I was organically moving through the different areas of the game.
In SS, I was always very well aware when I was in a dungeon (if we define a "dungeon" as a very concentrated area of puzzle solving that includes things like a map, keys, and a boss key). This game also still requires you go grab a special item that will inevitably help you navigate the rest of the dungeon, and defeat the dungeon's boss (minus a couple bosses in the game, and that made me happy). Every time you entered a dungeon area, there was some eerie music with a dramatic shot of Link walking into the next area. There was also typically a big reveal of what a dungeon area was, or an area would be named such that it felt like its own 'level' (that is, an area was literally named a temple)
To me, if there's a blend between the dungeon and overworld, I shouldn't realize I'm in a dungeon until I'm a ways into it. Maybe I don't realize I'm OUT of a dungeon until I've already completed it. If I'm going into THE EARTH TEMPLE or THE SKYVIEW TEMPLE then I'm pretty well aware that this is an area separate from the overworld. Perhaps you could finish a 'dungeon' area, and there isn't your average boss fight before you can leave. For instance, maybe there's a "dungeon" in a mountain cave, and your reward isn't a boss fight and a heart container. Maybe you don't even get a magical item that helps you navigate that area. Maybe you come out of the cave and you come across a woman who is tied to a tree by a monster, and you free her, and then this rope becomes your next item that you use to fight the monster. Why does the series necessarily have to adhere to these tropes that it has clung to since a Link to the Past? Is that what defines Zelda? Having a set number of dungeons that all operate under the same set of mechanics? While I applaud Nintendo for being bolder about what, in fact, WAS a dungeon, I still don't understand why every dungeon has to feel the same (Looks like I need a key to unlock this door, find a map, my item, get a boss key, and defeat the boss)
I think they had a real opportunity to fake the player out a bit with the Lanayru Mining Facility but they gave that area a HUGE reveal, complete with the dramatic cutscene of Link walking down the stairs. If I had gone into that area (or a similar area) and just started going through some rooms and then start getting lost a bit, I would've been more likely to go...wait, is this a dungeon? I think this is what happened to me in the Arbiter's Grounds in TP (though I did not feel this way upon a second playthrough...maybe I wasn't paying attention the first time). It just feels like another area of the game. I think they could've done this with the Sand Ship as well, but again, I thought they were pretty heavy handed about telling the player they were in a 'dungeon.' Snowpeak is a great example of what I wish they would do more of. When you first find a locked door in Snowpeak Ruins you're like...wait a minute, I'm in a dungeon now?
Maybe it's just me, but when these dungeon areas have context or feel like they're just an area you need to progress through, that's when I start to feel pretty heavily immersed in a world. If something is an armory or a boat or a mountain cave an abandoned town or whatever, then I get the illusion that this is part of the game world, and not simply an arbitrary, artificial area of puzzle solving. And if this area is ingrained INTO the world, rather than exist as a dead end, then I really start to get more immersed, because then it doesn't feel like it was an area solely designed for me to grab an item and kill a boss.
Again, that's all just analysis. I know Skyward Sword isn't necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel as far as the structure of Zelda is concerned, but I feel like they made some attempts to disguise the dungeons a bit better. I just don't feel like they were really successful in doing that. I think that in the future, the less that Zelda games can say "Link, you need to go to these three places," the less dated the mechanics of the games will seem. |
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