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Skyward Sword Review(s). And some vids. Getting VERY good reviews.

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Here's Giant Bombs review which seems fairly level headed, they give it 4/5. Interesting how they specifially note:

"
Skyward Sword could not be more different. It’s not just the added fidelity from Motion Plus that makes the difference, it’s that your physical actions are truly meaningful when it comes to engaging in just about every combat scenario in Skyward Sword. The very first enemies in the game will beat your ass to the ground if you’re not reading their moves, and Skyward Sword quickly teaches players that “waggle” will not work here--period. To be successful in combat, reacting to the placement of each enemy’s hands is of utmost importance, and while one becomes extremely adept at taking out the early combatants after a few hours, from start to finish, Skyward Sword asks much of your wrist. When the credits rolled, my hand ached, and it felt great.
"

Whereas the Gamespot review specifically says:

"
It's only when you enter your first combat scenario that things begin to falter. Link's sword mirrors your hand movement, so whether you thrust forward or swing horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, you see your actions play out onscreen. In theory, this should open the door to a wealth of exciting possibilities, but in practice, there are enough noticeable issues to keep you from enjoying the sword-swinging fun. The most pressing of these problems has to do with the fact that the game doesn't force you to move with precision. The first time you face a lizalfos, you may circle around until you see an opening and then unleash a horizontal strike when it lets its guard down. Once it recovers from being dazed, the lizalfos charges toward you; once again you circle and dodge until it reveals a weakness. There is some satisfaction in a battle cleanly won, but going through this elaborate charade is both time consuming and ultimately pointless. Instead, you can parry its opening attack and then flail away at its prone body until it's vanquished. By either using a shield parry or landing one sword strike against most enemies, you can stun them and then proceed to waggle your way to victory.
"

I'm not taking sides in this yet but it will be interesting to see who is right at the end of the day.
 
several issues that bother me about skyward sword... initial impressions after skimming through the game's video walkthrough.

1) Why does Mario and Zelda for Wii have to be flying based? It probably fits better for the controller but they already did this world flying thing with the Mario Galaxies.

2) They REALLY turned Zelda into this melodramatic with anime influence. The bad anime. The character design for princess Zelda in this game is total overkill. I understand the romance angle, but every single glance of hers (and there are a TON) throughout the entire game screams for pity and blatantly contrived sentimentalism.

3) The garbled voices are also used too often, just like the annoying Midna groans of ecstasy ruined Twilight princes. Though, this may partly have been due to watching the Japanese version. Wind Waker was done in moderation.

4) There also appears to be a lot of inconsequential fetch quests that REALLY slow the game down to the mundane. You wonder, why does this have to be done here... at this point.

5) The music, save for the excellent opening village/Skyloft and romance theme, is unmemorable and an utter disappointment, especially compared to OoT and Majora’s Mask. I read somewhere Koji Kondo’s involvement was limited to one single track.

On the plus side, dungeons kick ass. Great as usual. Just like Twilight Princess was horrific emo but its strengths lay in being an excellent dungeon based title.

Bottom line I'm not happy with direction franchise has taken after Wind Waker at all, with Twilight and Skyward Link, the world he inhabits and the bland emo characters and bosses, and but am probably in the minority opinion along with gamespot.
 
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the_Industry said:
several issues that bother me about skyward sword... initial impressions after skimming through the game's video walkthrough.

1) Why does Mario and Zelda for Wii have to be flying based? It probably fits better for the controller but they already did this world flying thing with the Mario Galaxies.

2) They REALLY turned Zelda into this melodramatic with anime influence. The bad anime. The character design for princess Zelda in this game is total overkill. I understand the romance angle, but every single glance of hers (and there are a TON) throughout the entire game screams for pity and blatantly contrived sentimentalism.

3) The garbled voices are also used too often, just like the annoying Midna groans of ecstasy ruined Twilight princes. Though, this may partly have been due to watching the Japanese version. Wind Waker was done in moderation.

4) There also appears to be a lot of inconsequential fetch quests that REALLY slow the game down to the mundane. You wonder, why does this have to be done here... at this point.

5) The music, save for the excellent opening village/Skyloft and romance theme, is unmemorable and an utter disappointment, especially compared to OoT and Majora’s Mask. I read somewhere Koji Kondo’s involvement was limited to one single track.

On the plus side, dungeons kick ass. Great as usual. Just like Twilight Princess was horrific emo but its strengths lay in being an excellent dungeon based title.

Bottom line I'm not happy with direction franchise has taken after Wind Waker at all, with Twilight and Skyward Link, the world he inhabits and the bland emo characters and bosses, and but am probably in the minority opinion along with gamespot.
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We'll see 😉 But then I'm hardly a dispassionate observer here. I'll probably love the game regardless, unless, they REALLY manage to fuck something up which I highly doubt.
 
Tweak155 said:
I liked Twilight Princess but skipped Wind Waker (never did get a GC). Never finished Majora's mask as it didn't have the same appeal as OOT.

After watching the videos for this game though, I'm definitely getting it.
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Majora's Mask > Ocarina of Time
/dons flamesuit
 
Every game in the series since LttP > Ocarina. Just not a fan of that one. Tried to play through it several times, eventually just get bored. The overworld was a barren wasteland. The combat wasnt really any fun. The dungeons could be incredibly irritating (hello water temple). Graphics were awful even back then, although that had more to do with that entire generation just being weak.
 
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BD2003 said:
Every game in the series since LttP > Ocarina. Just not a fan of that one. Tried to play through it several times, eventually just get bored. The overworld was a barren wasteland. The combat wasnt really any fun. The dungeons could be incredibly irritating (hello water temple). Graphics were awful even back then, although that had more to do with that entire generation just being weak.
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Let's see OoT was release in 1998. Are you sure you weren't playing this in say, 2008!? Seriously the graphics were amazing for their time, the combat was stellar for its time, and the over world was expansive and epic "for its time". I have to say even now it holds up very very well! As for the dungeons? The water temple is the only one that I would say get's tedious and even then it's a joy to figure out once you do. The rest of the dungeons are fantastic! And I don't even know what to say to your last statement!? Are you seriously comparing the first generation of "finally realized, workable, playable 3D graphics" to the last generation of mature 2D sprite graphics?
 
zelda and metal gear solid games tend to be highly overrated in my experience, because they get the fanboy factor.

MGS4 was terrible, and MGS3 was far superior, and yet gamespot gave it a 10.
 
Locut0s said:
Let's see OoT was release in 1998. Are you sure you weren't playing this in say, 2008!? Seriously the graphics were amazing for their time, the combat was stellar for its time, and the over world was expansive and epic "for its time". I have to say even now it holds up very very well! As for the dungeons? The water temple is the only one that I would say get's tedious and even then it's a joy to figure out once you do. The rest of the dungeons are fantastic! And I don't even know what to say to your last statement!? Are you seriously comparing the first generation of "finally realized, workable, playable 3D graphics" to the last generation of mature 2D sprite graphics?
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Yes. I am making that comparison. I thought the mature 2d graphics looked better than the half baked 3D. I wished the first 3D generation had waited another 2-3 years until they could produce a system powerful enough that every game didnt look like a turd and ran like a slideshow. At the same time the ocarina came out, 3D accelerated PCs were coming into their own, and they blew away that 32/64bit generation on every level.

There's a few n64 games I hold dear to my heart....but OoT isnt one of them. I wasnt impressed by it on any level. I would have rather had another 2D zelda.
 
Tweak155 said:
I liked Twilight Princess but skipped Wind Waker (never did get a GC). Never finished Majora's mask as it didn't have the same appeal as OOT.

After watching the videos for this game though, I'm definitely getting it.
Click to expand...

Wind Waker was a great Zelda game. Most people skipped it because of the cartoonish gfx but it was a very good Zelda game.
 
Picked up 2 copies of the CE today, will hold onto both for a while, then sell one once eBay prices reach a high number. Will pick up a regular copy of the game later this week once my Wii motion plus adapters arrive.
 
Well even though I couldn't pre-order, walked right into Target and got a copy of the CE. Sweet game thus far. The sword controls are 100x better. Only got a little over an hour in but I'm sure I'll beat it in the coming months.
 
zerocool84 said:
Wind Waker was a great Zelda game. Most people skipped it because of the cartoonish gfx but it was a very good Zelda game.
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If I had a game cube it would have been mine. I have hourglass for gameboy ds which looks similar to me. Graphics don't bother me at all.
 
BD2003 said:
Every game in the series since LttP > Ocarina. Just not a fan of that one. Tried to play through it several times, eventually just get bored. The overworld was a barren wasteland. The combat wasnt really any fun. The dungeons could be incredibly irritating (hello water temple). Graphics were awful even back then, although that had more to do with that entire generation just being weak.
Click to expand...

Are you sure you aren't just saying that to be 'different'? I don't see how you could possibly think that.
 
I didn't know the game came out today :| Hit up gamestop, target, and walmart. No dice~

Granted, I went out at 8 pm to hunt for it 😛

The actual game is there, but no CE 🙁
 
TecHNooB said:
I didn't know the game came out today :| Hit up gamestop, target, and walmart. No dice~

Granted, I went out at 8 pm to hunt for it 😛

The actual game is there, but no CE 🙁
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CE appears to be sold out just about everywhere. Check eBay for the current going rate 😀
 
Dumac said:
Are you sure you aren't just saying that to be 'different'? I don't see how you could possibly think that.
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Nailed it. :thumbsup:

Some people will just always be contrarians by nature though.. I bet its the same type of person who will tell you The Beatles "suck".

I cannot believe that the new Zelda's reviews are ranging from 7.5 from Gamestop to 10.0 from IGN!!! 😱 Pretty shocking disparity there.
 
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