I'm past the 2nd dungeon. Scaldera was better than I expected. Despite seeing lots of footage of it I didn't know what to do and I died the first time fighting him (though I decided it would be cheating to fill my hearts back up at any point). I mean, yea, I knew you were supposed to use the bombs but the bowling mechanic is new, it took some minutes for my head to wrap around the idea in the heat of battle, which is the ideal result. It took me a lot of practice to get used to bowling, my first tendency was to not swing very hard so I would accidentally switch between roll and overhead throw instead of rolling it. Fighting Scalder got me used to doing it right, I couldn't make mistakes anymore to have a shot at winning first try (I came very close).

I was a tad underwhelmed with the earth temple. Except I did get stuck in classic zelda fashion, not having a clue I needed to find a bombable wall. I had to use the map and study the layout of the level to conclude a wall must be bombable. But even as I looked at I thought 'is this really bombable?' Thank the pikachus zelda is hiding its bombable walls well again, at least once at least.


I thought the beginning was too long for replays too. I'm going to make a save file that skips the start.

@carlosrox Bokoblins aren't random, like they will always guard their side if you hold your sword out to the side and just wait for them to move again. And it seems if they block one of your hits it is hard to immediately come in for a successful hit after that, they anticipate it better after blocking you.

I got the feeling I didn't want to stop to cut random grass too, but felt that was the right kind of feeling to have. I think his reach is shorter than it was in TP's, when I was trying to hack away the webs in sky temple, I usually was not close enough at first. I'm predicting he makes his sword longer later.

I have to wonder if the long beginning was a result of me taking my time. It think it took me at least an hour to get a sword. I wonder if that will change upon replays though.

Is there any way to make the text scroll faster by the way?

@anon_mastermind
Yeah I agree with a lot of what you said actually.

I sorta regret my negativity, maybe in just scared of change lol. I think many of my points are still valid, but it may indeed be too early to call.

My final complaint I forgot to mention is NO CLICK Z FOR LOCKON?? ONLY HOLD?????
I've been doing click since OOT, why the fuck are they forcing hold Z targeting? It's so much less intuitive, ARGH!!!!

Other than that I'm gonna come home after work and look past these issues. Dwelling on them will not help me. And I've had a tough time posting positive stuff but it's there. The gameplay is more methodical and part of me really likes that. Feels like a much more strategic game.

I just completed the first temple last night. Once you start getting into the game, it really grabs you, and you don't want to stop playing. I'm loving the mysterious story so far, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

The swordplay is heavenly, it works extremely well! I love the challenge of every enemy encounter, and the boss of the first temple really kept me on my toes.

All of Link's movements and control options are some of the best improvements I could have imagined over the previous 3D Zelda games.

gamewizard65 said:

EDIT: You know what I am really having a tough time mastering!ll This shit!!! Walking on those damn tight ropes. I take a few steps and fall. And no matter if I gently try to rotate the wiimote the opposite way or move it faster, damn link will fall over and over. Sure, I make it to the other side. What is the friggin trick to getting this to work smoothly. I hope there isn't much more of this in the game!

I was having trouble with that at first, but here's what I do now. Hold the remote upward, pretend it's Link standing on the rope. As you walk forward, you only have to gently move the remote to the left, then to the right, and so forth, as he is walking across, so he can keep his balance. The motion control is very sensitive to small movements, so as long as you keep your eye on whether Link is swaying one way or the other and you are countering with a small movement in the opposite direction, you should get the hang of it. It takes a little practice.

@carlosrox
The only thing I can think of in regards to the lack of Z-Lock is that they felt it would be too restrictive that way? The combat is a bit more freeform now, in general, since you don't really even have to lock on.

@PogueSquadron
The intro was a bit lengthy, but I'm sure it'll be super-short on a replay, since we know all of the trigger points.

What's with all the room cleaning?

DrFinkelstein said:

@rebonack

Or the evil cat I beat up and then threw off a cliff. This is not waggle.

I just ran around the cat. My kids were watching and my daughter kept asking why the cat was evil at night, and begged me not to hurt it.

I've never been a proponent of voice acting in Zelda games simply because it doesn't matter much to me either way. But after playing a story heaving intro while having to read it to my 4 year old, or wait for my 7 year old to read it, I'm firmly in the voice acting camp. These kids are going to drive me to drink.

Yeah do any of the NPCs comment on why the cats become angry at night? Or are these simply stray cats that run around at night?

It feels a little weird to have enemies in Skyloft, period. I like the idea of enemies becoming more common as the game goes on, but apparently they just have it so that the cats become wild at night (and there are bird enemies as well). Kind of an odd choice.

Also pretty disappointed that I couldn't go flying around at nighttime. I guess you can't visit any of the surface below while it's nighttime? What is even the point of sleeping until night? Some Skyloft sidequests?

By the way, did you guys know that the Bundles are going for, like, $100+ on the resale market right not? AFTER ONE DAY?

@roykoopa64

So the wiimote needs to be held upwards in a vertical fashion, instead of flat(horizontal) the way it usually is when you are playing. If so, then that is why nothing is happening when I tilt the thing. Like I said, I was trying to be really careful cause I figured the motion controls are sensitive.

I know I see some of the posters complaining about why did Nintendo change this, that, ect, compared to previous Zelda games. I guess this is where is benefits me to have a bad memory, cause no way in hell do I remember how the control setup was even in TP. Sure, I remember some stuff.

See, this is another reason why I dont like to play alot of games in the same series before a new game is released. I get used to those controls and then it makes it harder adapting to different controls on the newer game.

I honestly have no qualms about the motion controls. Other than the bird and then the tight rope walking, everything else is pretty easy.

@Anand


Seriously. I mean, the only difference is getting the gold wiimote. I know stores around me still have bundles for sale.

@PogueSquadron
Holding A to make text scroll a bit faster is all I've discovered. Probably as fast as we're gonna get.

Last night, I got through the first dungeon and am just about to enter the second dungeon.

Thoughts so far:

The first dungeon completely changed my entire impression of the game so far. The first few hours were pretty underwhelming, but damn, did everything change in a hurry. First of all, this is probably one of the best "first dungeons" in any console Zelda that I can remember in a long time. The first thing I liked was how they pretty much made you expect another forest temple to start off, but it's really more of a water temple than anything else. First curveball. Secondly, make no mistake about it, this game is hard. Much more challenging than the last few games. I've already died several more times in this game than in the last two, combined. I was so impressed with the first boss battle. There's no question, this isn't Wind Waker/Twilight Princess Round 3. If I was skeptical about this game not being a big leap from the last couple of games, I'm sold after the first dungeon.

My biggest gripe so far, and I'd like to gauge you guys on this as well, is that I'm definitely having some issues with the pointer. I don't know if it's the game, the WM+, or something else goofing up, but I've had to re-calibrate my controller several times already. And it's more than just pressing down to center it. When I would press down on the D-pad, the cursor would move to the center of the screen, but I'd still be pointing somewhere else. This started becoming more noticeable when I was controlling the Beetle and things just seemed wonky. Hasn't been a huge deal so far, but I'm going to try and get this figured out.

Maybe a better question for you guys -- does WM+ seem to work better or worse in a dark room or with lights on? I was playing with the lights off last night when things were getting screwy, and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced anything like this?

Also, there are a few controller issues that I'm still getting used to. When I dash & climb, I keep dropping down because it just feels natural to keep holding A. I also tend to keep pressing B when aiming my slingshot; it just feels more natural to shoot with B than A. But I haven't played a Wii game with a ton of motion controls in a while, so I think a lot of it is just rust.

Anyways -- controller issues aside, it's been pretty damn awesome so far. If the first dungeon is any indication of what's to come, this should be one hell of a game.

@TheBigG753

The calibration on pointing stuff is completely annoying. I would have preferred the use of IR for aiming items.

IR is fine EXCEPT for when you accidentally point out of the area. We might have the experience to avoid that, but for most gamers, it is a big stumbling block when you are suddenly taken out of the game world and told that you have to point at the screen.

@TheBigG753
Certain types of lights (and natural light) can definitely screw around with the Wiimote. It sounds like that's your problem (and certain reviewers' problem), since I'm not having those issues.

But, yeah, it might be a bit too easy to run off of bridges, and such. It almost feels like free running in Assassin's Creed.

Do you guys find the character movement to be a little stiffer than Twilight Princess, overall? Maybe it's just that I'm not rolling everywhere.

@TheBigG753
You have to point at the middle of the screen when you press down on the d-pad.

This is the first time WM+ has been used to replicate a cursor on screen. Well, Wii Play Motion did it too actually. It works pretty well, but it's not as accurate as IR, thus why you'll never see an FPS using the WM+ aiming.

@Simbabbad
Unlockables are spoilers.

It's valuable information, but I think spoilering it is fine, because the kind of people who want to know the information can still read it.

Guillaume said:

@Simbabbad

People have been very sensitive to spoilers, so better be safe than sorry.

Besides, a spoiler tag isn't censorship, the content was still there. What was the point of deleting the post?

Fixed. Way to RUIN it for everyone, Gill.

@-JKR-

Oh whatever. I deleted it. God forbid I post stuff on this damn site.

Zero said:

stephen08 said:

Overall, it seems like the motion controls are being made good use of but I'm not convinced it makes for a better experience than standard controls.

Well I, for one, am shocked that you landed in the minority here (IE most everyone else, even review sources that are generally not kind to the Wii, are calling them brilliant.) Totally shocked. Still, I'd give it a few more hours before deciding motion controls were a complete dead end path this generation.

I didn't say that they were not good or anything like that. There are pros for sure but at the same time I don't know if I'd rather have other benefits of traditional controls like camera control for example. There were a bunch of instances where I really missed that feature. But hey, thanks for marginalizing my opinion. My turn!

Well I, for one, am shocked that you landed in the majority here (IE most everyone, even review sources that are generally not kind to the Wii, are calling them brilliant.) Totally shocked. Still, I'd give it a few more hours before blindly accepting motion controls are an improvement.

You say that this is a fan forum where Nintendo does receive criticism from fans here yet any time I voice a dissenting opinion (hell, even when it's not that contrary to the public opinion) it gets marginalized as me just being me. How about you respond to the post and not the poster?

@Simbabbad

Simba, that's enough man. You clearly hate this place more than not. Don't say hateful shit like that. Act like an adult here. Don't take it so personal that something got spoiler tagged. Seriously. I respect you as a man who helped this place become what it is, but damn if posts like that don't make me lose respect for you as a poster here.

I don't quite know what you posted but from the gist of things, it seems like your plan was to wait till you could download a file and utilize some kind of post-game bonus that makes a second-play thru (or your first in that case) more fun. Many people aren't interested in that. I wouldn't take that if you offered it to me this second. I take pride in unlocking things myself and even if that means a "less fun" play through now. But that's also pretty subjective because everyone feels different. It's better to protect those at the top of the "I care about spoilers" gauge than to ignore them. Again, don't take it so personal.