Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD | NSW | Out now!

How hard are the final battles in this? I've just finished Sky Keep and was checking the walkthrough to see what heart pieces and side bits were left to do, and it was strongly recommending that the boss rush 'mini game' be done to get the Hylian Shield. A Boss rush doesn't sound like fun at all to me.

You don't need to do it, I wouldn't worry if you don't want to

GrinWithoutaKat wrote:How hard are the final battles in this? I've just finished Sky Keep and was checking the walkthrough to see what heart pieces and side bits were left to do, and it was strongly recommending that the boss rush 'mini game' be done to get the Hylian Shield. A Boss rush doesn't sound like fun at all to me.

They can be tricky but you have loads of options with potions and heart medals etc. if you need extra help. Could argue the boss rush is probably harder so just make sure the regen shield is upgraded.

That wasn't so bad at all. I managed to let my shield get destroyed in the second phase of Demise before I'd even knocked him down once, but it wasn't that hard to just side step his attacks and then unleash a skyward strike at him.

Is there a way to turn Fi off? Constantly being told stuff I already know and having any level of player agency taken away from me as she laboriously explains something that I'd worked out myself is really diminishing this experience!

Jenuall wrote:Is there a way to turn Fi off? Constantly being told stuff I already know and having any level of player agency taken away from me as she laboriously explains something that I'd worked out myself is really diminishing this experience!

there is a 95% chance the answer is no

shy guy 64 wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Is there a way to turn Fi off? Constantly being told stuff I already know and having any level of player agency taken away from me as she laboriously explains something that I'd worked out myself is really diminishing this experience!

there is a 95% chance the answer is no

Haha

Jenuall wrote:Is there a way to turn Fi off? Constantly being told stuff I already know and having any level of player agency taken away from me as she laboriously explains something that I'd worked out myself is really diminishing this experience!

Ah, this takes me back :wub:

Jenuall wrote:Is there a way to turn Fi off? Constantly being told stuff I already know and having any level of player agency taken away from me as she laboriously explains something that I'd worked out myself is really diminishing this experience!

Hang on are you playing on Wii?

No Switch, she's annoying enough here I can't imagine what it must have been like if she was worse before! :dread:

Sandship done, a nice dungeon but didn't quite have the spark I was expecting given the reputation.

Overall I think that's my main criticism of the game, it's incredibly competent at what it does, a smooth running machine of a game. Rarely displaying anything that could be rated as less than good or even great at times, but has never threatened going beyond that level to offer something really special.

What about when the Loftwing spits Zelda's letter at Link? That was hilarious.

There's certainly plenty of charm to it, no denying that

I can't work out how I feel about the game. I honestly couldn't give you many criticisms at all, and actually it has many QoL improvements that get rid of most of the downsides to previous Zelda games. Yet I just found it all a bit of a slog for some reason. It took me over 4 months to complete.

Jenuall wrote:No Switch, she's annoying enough here I can't imagine what it must have been like if she was worse before!

You know every time you get the prompt that she has something to say if you press a button? Imagine that she always popped out to say it every time, and the text was unskippable.

Jenuall wrote:Overall I think that's my main criticism of the game, it's incredibly competent at what it does, a smooth running machine of a game. Rarely displaying anything that could be rated as less than good or even great at times, but has never threatened going beyond that level to offer something really special.

Skyward Sword is the most linear action game of the series, like the Uncharted of Zeldas, I think it does that wonderfully but I suspect that's to the opposite of your tastes.

Then again you should love BOTW for its interacting emergent systems and apparently don't :capnscotty:

OrangeRKN wrote:
Jenuall wrote:No Switch, she's annoying enough here I can't imagine what it must have been like if she was worse before!

You know every time you get the prompt that she has something to say if you press a button? Imagine that she always popped out to say it every time, and the text was unskippable.

She seems to just pop up all the time regardless of whether I push a button!

"Master I believe that the switch you pressed just opened a door, because when you stood on it the camera showed the door opening, and then showed where the door was, and made a noise to draw attention to it. You should go through that door now"

OrangeRKN wrote:
Jenuall wrote:Overall I think that's my main criticism of the game, it's incredibly competent at what it does, a smooth running machine of a game. Rarely displaying anything that could be rated as less than good or even great at times, but has never threatened going beyond that level to offer something really special.

Skyward Sword is the most linear action game of the series, like the Uncharted of Zeldas, I think it does that wonderfully but I suspect that's to the opposite of your tastes.

Then again you should love BOTW for its interacting emergent systems and apparently don't

I love BOTW! It's just not quite as perfect as I'd like

I don't think I've actively disliked any Zelda game in all honesty (ALTTP comes close I guess

) and I don't inherently dislike linear action games, they have their place and can offer plenty of enjoyment. I will say that I don't think Zelda works best when it's deliberately courting that style of game though, it's a series that has (for me) always been about making you feel like you are on your own adventure, with a certain amount of independent discovery, exploration and freedom to dictate your own progress within that. That's why I think I've always enjoyed those entries in the series that have been a bit more hands off with the player.

Just to be really clear - I've been very much enjoying my time with this, it's a very accomplished creation and one that I'm glad I've finally had the opportunity to experience and say I've played. It hasn't changed my life or made me think long and hard about re-evaluating any "best of all time lists" but it's been a fun journey.

I think that's part of the issue, and it's an expectation problem to a certain extent. This is Zelda FFS! The big daddy of adventure games! It shouldn't just be good, or competent, or "well put together" - it should be exemplary, ground-breaking, life changing, genre expanding!

Of course it is too much to ask that every entry in the series meets that bar, but it still feels like a new "mainline" Zelda should be one of those things that strives to do just that and (for me) I'd argue that it stumbled quite a bit at doing that since probably Majora's Mask up until BOTW. This is one of the games from that era where to me Zelda felt less essential, where a new release was not something to clamour after and suffer massive FOMO about not playing but just a case of "oh yeah, another Zelda that looks decent - I'll get to it eventually"

Jenuall wrote:I think that's part of the issue, and it's an expectation problem to a certain extent. This is Zelda FFS! The big daddy of adventure games! It shouldn't just be good, or competent, or "well put together" - it should be exemplary, ground-breaking, life changing, genre expanding!

Maybe like the gold standard for motion controls outside of a party game?

For as much good as they've done the motion controls have added an equal number of negatives in my view.

Arguably motion controls that are as good as they are bad could still be a high-bar for motion controls in the industry...

True

I've returned to Skyloft after doing the Sandship to see if I can progress any of the individual stories there and claim some more gratitude crystals. I do like this part of the game, it's fun to nudge things forwards and see the lives of people in the town progressing to an extent. That said it does all feel like a worse version of some of the stuff from Majora's Mask - here it feels very trite and I don't find myself particularly caring about any of these people in the way that MM managed so effortlessly.

Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD | NSW | Out now!

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