Zelda Wii Thread: Speculation, Rumours, Flight Mechanics

[Luketheman5]

Yeah they had that in Twilight Princess too. It's like "cool, I've got 5 of those, do I really need to know what it is?"
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Now playing: Binary Domain
Now Replaying: Mass Effect 2

[Jarrod]

Yeah. My feelings (after Skyward Sword too) are that every 3D Zelda is still a great game, and does something superior to Ocarina of Time, but the some total of parts are always dragged down by something stupid in the design.

That being said, I still don't consider Ocarina of Time as the best 3D Zelda. And not to discredit anybody's personal taste, but I also believe for many people Ocarina wont ever be topped.
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[Michael Kontoudis]

For my money, Ocarina is still the most cohesive 3D Zelda title. Sure, Wind Waker is more charming, and Majora's Mask is probably most imaginative, but as a total experience taking into account visuals, narrative and formal design, Ocarina is a towering achievement.

[Jarrod]

That's more or less how I see Ocarina. In terms of pacing and consistency of quality across all branches of game design Ocarina is, in my opinion, the best of the 3D Zeldas. Pacing is especially important as I feel this is the weakest aspect of the following games.

But that being said Ocarina is, by large, a bit too simple in the dungeons and questing for me to hold it on too much of a pedestal. Simply by nature of being the first 3D Zelda a lot of the ideas have been developed and expanded in the other games, as Ocarina was literally the first. Wind Waker is the only 3D Zelda game I'd rate as having worse dungeons than Ocarina, otherwise Majora's, Twilight and Skyward offer more for me.

I'm not sure how Skyward Sword will fit into my rankings of the games, but to be honest I'm not sure if I even have a ranking, just a series of points that I feel each game does better than the others, and equal points for what they do worse.
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[LeonJ]

I wish I had finish Skyward so I could join this conversion. 15 hours in, @ desert temple.....

Back to it.
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Shin J Leon.

XBL - LeonJ
PSN - LeonJ

[Michael Kontoudis]

I've got to say, though, that Skyward Sword's rendition of Link is my favourite. He's amazingly expressive by virtue of the art style.

Such a frustrating game, simply because it would have benefited greatly from some judicious editing. It's one of those cases where excising content would have added to the game's overall impact.

On the upside, my mind is seized by The Ballad of the Goddess. Best new Zelda theme on years.

[Jarrod]

That's my long and short of it. Skyward Sword's biggest con is the pacing, or more specifically the padding. And Fi. I'll elaborate more on what I mean some other time, as at the moment Mario 3D is occupying all my thoughts.
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[WarAdept]

I believe the problem with Fi (along with every single other NPC in the game) is from an actual game design element aka that stupid stupid 3rd grade text scroll speed. Yes, she is captain obvious and has some seriously poorly written dialogue, but she does give weakness and hints/statistics for the player when called upon. The problem it takes a good 10-15 seconds to explain one text box.

I think Link's familiar thing (Navi/Tatl/Midna/Fi) is a source of unneeded padding to the story. The primary role of these characters is to give the player feedback on enemy weaknesses and objects, all of which can be done from a quick info box of some sort (or some way that is nice and streamlined). However Nintendo has the need to embody text descriptions of objects into something that can comment and think serve no purpose other than to extend the life of the game by arbitrary means. And it's really starting to annoy the crap out of me.

[Jarrod]

My problem with Fi is she is the worst qualities of Navi and the owl from Ocarina combined. She serves no purposes other than intrusively pop up and offer 'advice' and 'analysis' of the situation, which often boils down to spelling out the obvious, spoiling puzzle solutions, and simply being more of an annoyance than help.

I quite like Link's usual companions (Minda especially), and have no beef with Fi as a story element, but as a gameplay mechanism she is, without a doubt, the worst hand holding element Nintendo has put in any of the 3D Zeldas. Her excessive pointing out of the obvious hurt my enjoyment of the game, and I really, really hate having to say that because its such a simple thing that sapped joy from my play time. Something that no other Zelda has done as bad, and is actually quite unlike Nintendo.
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[admeister]

I think that Midna is by far the best companion that Link has had. Firstly, she ties into the story very nicely, and secondly, she's not too intrusive.

Fi is the complete opposite. She has almost no relevance to the story, and seems to pop up every five minutes to tell Link something which is already painfully obvious. Skyward Sword has enough hand holding as it is (save points in a Zelda game? starting the game with six hearts? Shiekah stones?) so this really annoys me. I also feel that the temples are too short.

I'm 15 hours into SS, and I'm certainly enjoying it though. I really like exploring the new areas and temples in the underworld, and there's a fair bit to see and do while flying around in the sky. I just completed the second temple, which was surprisingly easy.
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"The first person to prove that cow's milk is drinkable was very, very thirsty." - Fact Sphere.

[Jarrod]

I don't see how save points are hand holding given other Zelda games allowed you to save anywhere. They simply cut the fat of having to needlessly backtrack whenever you quit mid dungeon. Same goes for Shiekah stones, given you don't ever have to use them.

And don't worry about the temples. First two are pretty simple and straight forward. The third is when it really starts to feel like a dungeon, and from then on they're great. Dungeon four in particular is incredible.
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[Luketheman5]

Since enemies do 1 heart's worth of damage each hit...imagine NOT starting the game with 6 hearts
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Now playing: Binary Domain
Now Replaying: Mass Effect 2

[LeonJ]

I actually feel the game to a non-gamer would be pretty tough. Some of the puzzles in the third temple made me stop and think (just finished it). And a couple of the things are a little bit off path. I could see people getting stuck.

I highly enjoyed the first 3 temples. I think they are the perfect length and had some nice unique puzzles.

I do love the way they have finally evolved Zelda into a meaningful currency and RPG type element. Sure none of updates or extra are needed, it's still nice to have money to spend and play with things.

The combat while not overly difficult is still a challenge. I haven't died yet though but have been close a couple of times. It's probably the toughest Zelda is a long time so far. WW/TP was a joke. I don't think I even died in those games.
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Shin J Leon.

XBL - LeonJ
PSN - LeonJ

[admeister]

Skyward Sword is now the fastest selling Zelda game ever!

[Bronze]

[WarAdept]

To me, the Zelda series is stuck. Stuck in it's silly archaic designs that shot it towards stardom in the 64 days and it feels like Nintendo don't know what to do with the standard Zelda dungeon crawling formula.

Or it maybe a case of Nintendo don't want to change the formula that kept people buying every Zelda iteration released. Why change something when fans lap it up regardless, and they make lots of money out of it (if the sales of Skyward Sword are anything to go by).

I used to be a very big Zelda fan, and I distinctly remember my first Zelda game as Zelda II, the most obscure one out of the whole lot. And it was fantastic. 13 years or so down the track from the 64 days, it still feels the same as OoT. I was very cautious with the announcement of Skyward Sword last year and I wasn't impressed with the demos from E3. However, all press releases enforced that it was a "different" Zelda so I gave it a shot.

I play Zelda for the sake of playing it nowadays, but the fun and enjoyment of playing a new Zelda game has long gone.

Super Mario 3D land on the other hand...

[LeonJ]

21 hours in and just got the swimming ability (no idea how much is left, at least 2/3s I'm guessing). I don't know what you guys are talking about, I want to suck it ALL up. I haven't had a dull or annoyance moment yet (OK slight delay on the motion controls does annoy me). I want to explore everything and completely in love with the world. When I play this game hours fly by and every area I want to get every single secret.

Are guys are describing Twilight Princess to me, which was a complete copy and paste of OoT with a few bells and whistles. I struggled through the game and was ultimately jaded by the Zelda universe because of it. But I'm finding Skyward to be a bold new direction in the Zelda world and it works very very well. Everything feels fresh and new (except for the harp, I hate that).

I agree Zelda was stuck in the past but I really do feel Nintendo has made some bold new steps with this title. The control scheme (not perfect) adds a LOT, new puzzles/structures, upgrade/money system and stamina system really mix up the tried formula.
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Shin J Leon.

XBL - LeonJ
PSN - LeonJ

[Esposch]

[Esposch]

[Jarrod]

[LeonJ]

Nintendo should add a difficult option to the series. Just a normal vs hard combat should do it.
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Shin J Leon.

XBL - LeonJ
PSN - LeonJ

[Jarrod]

Ironically Skyward Sword has a hard difficulty mode, but it's locked until you beat the game.
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[LeonJ]

Really? Why do Nintendo do this? It's like OoT 3DS where you have to complete the game to unlock Master Quest. This blew my mind because wouldn't most people want to play Master Quest straight up?
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Shin J Leon.

XBL - LeonJ
PSN - LeonJ

[Jarrod]

It's called Hero Mode. Hearts don't grow on plants, enemies deal ~twice the amount of damage, so you're likely to have to rely on keeping potions with you and upgrading stuff. It doesn't remix dungeons like Master Quest, but like that it is locked off until you complete the game.

It doesn't really make any sense since it is, quite literally, 'hard mode'. Had it been available from the start I would have been all over it.

Note that I still loved Skyward Sword (I'll post my complete thoughts later), but yeah, it was way too easy with the solution to that ease burred under an entire first run. Nintendo is stupid sometimes.
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[LeonJ]

Do you think the CEO of Nintendo is really a 12 year old that never grew up? Sometimes I feel like this is true.

Some of their decisions are just childish.
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Shin J Leon.

XBL - LeonJ
PSN - LeonJ