I just finished Zelda Skyward Sword. I'm probably not going to start it over again for a while, but that doesn't mean I didn't like this game.
I think this game is amazing.
I'm totally satisfied with the origin story and I was blown away by the storytelling and the character relationships.
There are many, many nods to all things Legend of Zelda in this game, and I won't go into detail, but suffice to say that despite any criticisms I may have had about it before, it is still a fantastic piece of gaming history.
Up next, I continue the clean up of the list and proceed to Devil May Cry 3.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Take Back Anything Bad I May Have Said
I just got to THE CONVERSATION in Zelda Skyward Sword. The game isn't over, but I am amazed by its storytelling. There is such an amazing truthfulness to the relationships in this game and the honest emotions that it got me to feel just by having progressed through it are amazing. I have not cried like this in a Zelda game in a long time.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Skyward Sword Detail
The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword for the Wii is the latest game I've been playing on this quest. I haven't really given very much updates on it, but I'm ready to do so today.
This is a very pretty game visually speaking. It's colorful. It has some very interesting filters when it comes to drawing things in the distance. I really haven't seen anything quite like it. It's almost as if it turns objects that are far away into water color paintings. Things that are close-by look like any other video game of its kind, crisp, clear, sharply defined, but it's the things that are far away that kind of get you.
Unlike other Zelda games of late, this game feels a little limited in the areas you can visit. Since the plot of this game revolves around a sort of civilization that develops on floating islands, completely isolated from the world under the clouds, as well as this culture's domestication of large birds, there is a lot of flying about. The flying is interesting even though it takes some getting used to. You take your bird and go visit some places on terra firme, but there is where the limitation starts to be felt. There are (at least up to where I've gotten, which is about 75%) only three lands to visit. Now, granted, these three areas get bigger and bigger, and you visit them repeated times, each time you get to a different area than before, the fact remains that there's sky, forest, volcano and desert and not much else. The sky is littered with tiny floating sky islands, but this is very reminiscent of the sailing in The Wind Waker (with the added bonus that flying your bird is, in general, pretty fun.)
I started playing this game a while back and I still haven't finished it. This is mostly because I haven't been working really hard at it until the last two weeks, when I've done most of the progress.
The big thing for this game was that you can control Link's sword slashes much more accurately. Horizontal slashes, vertical slashes, diagonal ones, as well as sword thrusts mean that different enemies will need to be slashed at in very specific ways. At first I was very excited about this, and with some enemies it is indeed really fun. However, the problem comes when fighting goblins, the most common enemies, who hold some kind of sword and they have a habit of holding it in certain positions (over the head, on their right side) and as these positions change, the challenge is to strike at them where they are vulnerable; an enemy blocking the left can be hit from the right. This sounds like it has a lot of gameplay potential, and for the most part it works, but these goblins are everywhere and fighting them is mostly a chore. I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole. These mechanics work great with boss battles and many other enemies, but I find that when I'm fighting goblins I mostly rely on defense rather than offense. If you wait for the enemy to strike, you can raise your shield and with the right timing perform a shield bash, which stuns enemies and allows you to get some good strikes in.
As I said, more bad than good. The only other thing that I can really complain about is the character of Fi. Fi is a new character and she lives in your sword. She is a sort of emissary from the gods and your guide and relays information about your quest. She is interesting visually, but here's the problem: she speaks like a computer. Zelda is not a game about robots and computers. There is much that Zelda can get away with: cameras, boats, mystical technology, even ancient flying contraptions. But this is just ridiculous. She sounds like a robot in her speech and her dialog. I wouldn't mind her being a kind of ancient robot left behind by a crazy advanced ancient civilization, but don't make her speak like a modern day computer. Swords and sorcery, magic and armor, castles and princesses, knights. These are things that belong in Zelda. Fi, however, will make statements that sound like, "Master, there is a 95% probability that the item you are currently seeking is in the vicinity. Scans indicate traces of materials with similar chemical compositions present." You see what I'm saying? She sounds like a computer. I mostly just put up with her. I really want to finish this game soon.
This is a very pretty game visually speaking. It's colorful. It has some very interesting filters when it comes to drawing things in the distance. I really haven't seen anything quite like it. It's almost as if it turns objects that are far away into water color paintings. Things that are close-by look like any other video game of its kind, crisp, clear, sharply defined, but it's the things that are far away that kind of get you.
Unlike other Zelda games of late, this game feels a little limited in the areas you can visit. Since the plot of this game revolves around a sort of civilization that develops on floating islands, completely isolated from the world under the clouds, as well as this culture's domestication of large birds, there is a lot of flying about. The flying is interesting even though it takes some getting used to. You take your bird and go visit some places on terra firme, but there is where the limitation starts to be felt. There are (at least up to where I've gotten, which is about 75%) only three lands to visit. Now, granted, these three areas get bigger and bigger, and you visit them repeated times, each time you get to a different area than before, the fact remains that there's sky, forest, volcano and desert and not much else. The sky is littered with tiny floating sky islands, but this is very reminiscent of the sailing in The Wind Waker (with the added bonus that flying your bird is, in general, pretty fun.)
I started playing this game a while back and I still haven't finished it. This is mostly because I haven't been working really hard at it until the last two weeks, when I've done most of the progress.
The big thing for this game was that you can control Link's sword slashes much more accurately. Horizontal slashes, vertical slashes, diagonal ones, as well as sword thrusts mean that different enemies will need to be slashed at in very specific ways. At first I was very excited about this, and with some enemies it is indeed really fun. However, the problem comes when fighting goblins, the most common enemies, who hold some kind of sword and they have a habit of holding it in certain positions (over the head, on their right side) and as these positions change, the challenge is to strike at them where they are vulnerable; an enemy blocking the left can be hit from the right. This sounds like it has a lot of gameplay potential, and for the most part it works, but these goblins are everywhere and fighting them is mostly a chore. I feel like I'm playing whack-a-mole. These mechanics work great with boss battles and many other enemies, but I find that when I'm fighting goblins I mostly rely on defense rather than offense. If you wait for the enemy to strike, you can raise your shield and with the right timing perform a shield bash, which stuns enemies and allows you to get some good strikes in.
As I said, more bad than good. The only other thing that I can really complain about is the character of Fi. Fi is a new character and she lives in your sword. She is a sort of emissary from the gods and your guide and relays information about your quest. She is interesting visually, but here's the problem: she speaks like a computer. Zelda is not a game about robots and computers. There is much that Zelda can get away with: cameras, boats, mystical technology, even ancient flying contraptions. But this is just ridiculous. She sounds like a robot in her speech and her dialog. I wouldn't mind her being a kind of ancient robot left behind by a crazy advanced ancient civilization, but don't make her speak like a modern day computer. Swords and sorcery, magic and armor, castles and princesses, knights. These are things that belong in Zelda. Fi, however, will make statements that sound like, "Master, there is a 95% probability that the item you are currently seeking is in the vicinity. Scans indicate traces of materials with similar chemical compositions present." You see what I'm saying? She sounds like a computer. I mostly just put up with her. I really want to finish this game soon.
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