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[Glaiel-Gamer]

Iwas actually hoping for a new game+ where you play as zelda, she goes on her "own quest" after all in the beginning parts of the game, a perfect opportunity there for an additional 3-4 dungeons (reused) with some twist to them.

[Ego_Shiner]

The game looks beautiful from the videos I've seen, but I probably wont pick it up yet. I checked out Zero Punctuation review, which you can't really take as gospel, but as per usual I'd probably dislike the game for the same reasons Yahtzee does.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5148-The-Legend-of-Zelda-Skyward-Sword

i agree with just about everything he says (with the exception of arbitrary motion control hate) but I don't think it utterly destroys the game as he seems to. Yeah, the flying mechanic is utterly wasted despite how much fun it could've been. There definitely could've been a lot more exploration and stuff like that. Still, the combat is, imo, the best in a zelda game yet, the levels are really well designed, the items are fun to use for the most part, the story is definitely one of the best in a zelda game, and the aesthetics are gorgeous. No, its not as great as wind waker, but its still a great game and improves on a lot of aspects of the zelda formula.

[Derek]

I really disliked having to return to the forest temple to pick up sacred water for the water dragon. It felt really lazy, cheap, and unnecessary (they just add some new enemies and force you to search everywhere for a new key).

I'm at the second flame and the game's starting to feel too long...

[Bree]

Perfection.

[moi]

so did they take inspiration from "back to the future" for the new zelda or what?

[s0]

Perfection.

4chan is a lot things but it sure as hell ain't "perfect"

[smashboy]

I'd like to go ahead and drop my two cents in here, as I was salivating for this game for months (if not years) in advance of its release.

First, the cons.  I was not overly disappointed, but I was somewhat.  The flying system seemed weak and gimmicky, as did the crafting system.  It seemed like the crafting system they had put in place had so much potential, and it fell flat with extremely limited upgrades.  The hook beetle upgrades were amazing, however, which seemed to be the only exception to the rule.

The pouch system was also a good one, but if you acquired everything (which included all of the extra pouch space), you realized that you had way more items than you would ever need. Five bottles was overkill and I hardly used any of the tokens.

The pros, however, were tremendous.  The graphics were breath-taking, the combat system only had minor flaws and the puzzles, unlike previous Zelda titles, actually deviated from the norm.  I had to think outside the box a few times, which I loved.  Since I had virtually no help whatsoever, I was figuring out monster and boss mechanics on my own, and it felt good every time I took down a boss.

The story actually made me shed a couple of tears, and Link -- even though he never spoke -- was so emotive this time around.  What do you know?  Link had feelings!  It was easy to get immersed, and all of the characters and environments made it easy to fall in love.

I was able to beat the normal version in less than four days.  Picked up the title and started playing that Thursday morning, head it beaten by mid-afternoon on Sunday.  The heroic version took me about eight total days.  But I also sank some hardcore time into that game, so that's probably not typical.  It has definite replay value, as I intend to play the game again with NO UPGRADES OR EXTRA GEAR!  And I look forward to doing that, but I don't often get to play games for two weeks straight with no interruptions.  LOL

I loved this game so much.  It had its flaws, but what game doesn't?

Oh, has anyone else beaten heroic Demise yet?  I'm a raider on World of Warcraft and I like doing this whole "stats comparison" thing.  lol

[SirNiko]

Which puzzles did you feel were "Outside the box"? That bit requires some elaboration.

Unlike Derek, I thought the return to the first temple was a clever puzzle. To get the key, you have to return to a room you've already explored but was "hidden" when you filled it with water. I looked around that part three times before it dawned on me where the passage was hidden. I thought it was brilliant.

I was actually hoping that they'd reuse the other dungeons, but similarly alter the puzzles to make it a short but fresh challenge.

[smashboy]

Which puzzles did you feel were "Outside the box"? That bit requires some elaboration.

Unlike Derek, I thought the return to the first temple was a clever puzzle. To get the key, you have to return to a room you've already explored but was "hidden" when you filled it with water. I looked around that part three times before it dawned on me where the passage was hidden. I thought it was brilliant.

I was actually hoping that they'd reuse the other dungeons, but similarly alter the puzzles to make it a short but fresh challenge.

As a major example, the Spirit Realm challenges were something new and innovative (to me).  I remember the first time I ran the forest challenge... wow, my heart was racing!  As I did not quite understand how to do it yet, and wasn't sure of the placement for all of the objects, one false move really got the blood pumping.  I one-shot the first and third challenges, but needed two attempts on the others.

Additionally, some of the temple puzzles were intriguing.  I really liked the Sandship puzzles, and I, too, had hoped a revisit to each of the dungeons was forthcoming, but was slightly disappointed.

I particularly enjoyed figuring out how to kill the monsters.  Discovering tricks to stun or kill things, knowing when to dodge and when to block, knowing just how to slice and when.  Certain places had some fast-paced action, and if I didn't react quickly enough (especially on heroic mode... WOW), I was simply TOASTED.

Like I said, I beat both versions in about 12 days.  The only shame was that I played the easymode version first -- I would have loved to have played heroic AS I was learning the game.  Talk about a challenge.  Heroic only made monsters hit harder and removed hearts from drop tables... *sigh*.  THAT was a huge let-down, they should have made some real tweaks for optimum challenge.

[Derek]

Unlike Derek, I thought the return to the first temple was a clever puzzle. To get the key, you have to return to a room you've already explored but was "hidden" when you filled it with water. I looked around that part three times before it dawned on me where the passage was hidden. I thought it was brilliant.

It just felt lackluster to me... getting sacred water is a trite quest to begin with, and the boss of the dungeon is just THREE of those skeleton guys to fight, which is not at all harder than fighting one skeleton, but takes three times as long. I also got slightly confused by the fact that the mogma appears right on top of a digging spot. I thought maybe he was sitting on top of the key or something, I don't know.

As part of the main quest it felt like a time-extender.

In general, I have been enjoying the game and thought a lot of the puzzles were clever. They could have cut out a bunch from the main quest and it'd be a much better experience, though, imo. And yeah, the motion controls can be quite frustrating at times.

[s0]

But, the game has shortcomings that put it a lot under OoT: excessively recycled settings and lack of epic.
And with epic I mean that feeling you get when you first set foot in the Hyrule Fields, that sense of wonder and hugeness and being lost and exploring and whatever.
That you don't get in SS because everything is carefully crafted, tight, polished, or downright too easy. It is engineered to make you do things. You are on rails. To put it straight, sometimes it plays like an huge iphone game. And this is bad.

Yeah exactly. And because I don't really play Zelda for the combat or puzzles (there are better games than Skyward Sword in both departments imo) but for that sense of getting immersed in a world, I didn't enjoy this game much.

It's well put together, but it lacks the charm of other Zeldas. Everything felt really formulaic and calculated to me. The pre-dungeon areas are more like obstacle courses than an organic part of a world and I found Skyloft pretty dead and most of the NPCs boring.

[vinheim3]

I guess you can say the root of the main problems of SS is how linear the whole game is. It seems like they've removed the element of exploration in this game.

[gimymblert]

Now the hype is down, I would say it's ironically TP + WW both in failure of success combine of those game.

Everything new is mostly right and great, what is great is truly great.
But failure and boring part cheapen the game.

I also feel that it's time to end the series or to lose the fundamental the new team don't really "get". Exploration notably, it was a staple of zelda series but it's been a while since it mean nothing more than "empty space filled with collecting crap busy work". On the other side "Obstacle course" are really really great, it feel almost mario like and is mixed with the "old puzzle but not quite".

[gimymblert]

Anybody interested in the official non canon manga prequel to SS?

[JobLeonard]

Yes, my body.

[gimymblert]

http://historyofhyrule.com/publications/manga_ssprequel_jp/001.html

Your body is ready

edit:
English translation update
http://www.glitterberri.com/skyward-sword/himekawa-sequel/skyward-sword-manga/

[Geeze]

I watched few videos showing how to access Water Dragon's place using some "glitches", so I'm going to try to test what happens if I speak to water dragon before doing Skyview temple for the first time. (I'm hoping for triple skeletons + Ghirahim, but that probably will not happen)

Gimmy cool manga. Only if I could read japanese. 

[SirNiko]

Oh man, I'd love to see a glitchtastic run of this, tool assisted or otherwise.

[gimymblert]

If some fan are interest in, the translation of timeline's text is out
Some mysteries are no more
Yep, the ghost in TP is the hero of time

http://forums.zeldainformer.com/threads/hyrule-historia-translations.8624/

Also gossip stone lied for rauru and Kaepora Gaebora in oot

scan of the artbooks
http://historyofhyrule.com/publications/book_hyrulehistoria/003.html


(open image in a new tab)
http://historyofhyrule.com/publications/book_hyrulehistoria/louisa_hairline.jpg

[s0]

(open image in a new tab)
http://historyofhyrule.com/publications/book_hyrulehistoria/louisa_hairline.jpg

the only zelda timeline that matters