Featured Thread: In-Game Help for Skyward Sword?

The forums have been buzzing and lot of the topics are on Skyward Sword, which I know every Zelda fan is excited about and can hardly wait for. There have been a few topics flying around the forums about it, but one of these revolves around the idea of in-game help for Skyward Sword. View this in our topic, and the featured thread for this week, Would You Like In-Game Help in Skyward Sword? I know that difficulty has been a prime concern of many Zelda gamers lately, so what if they took it up one step? What if they added some sort of toggle feature for game help, or made a sidekick that answered more questions and revealed more secrets? Do you even want any form of help at all? Sign up on our forums to participate in all of the discussion it has to offer about Skyward Sword and more! Here’s some of the thoughts that have been circulating around the topic.

“Heck no. As much as I love Midna, she was an annoying helper in TP because she would randomly pop up and say, “Hey, do this!” That takes all the fun and the feeling of accomplishment out of the game. Sword-spirit girl needs to stay quiet. If I really needed any help, I’d look it up in a guide. But I don’t do that either. I love figuring things out on my own, so I’d rather not have help from my sword.
However, as mentioned earlier, something like Navi’s ability to give you information on enemies would be nice. It’s good to know what I’m up against.”
     – disturbed42

“I would hate to see any kind of help feature whatsoever. Personally, I would also like a minimal HUD, with no hints/help tips at all, and no tutorials of any sort, that way you’re immersed in the game and have to figure things out for yourself.”
     – Kitsu

“I think the in game help is a brilliant idea, but not for the Zelda series. Personally, I think if the games got so linear you had Zelda running around doing the dungeon while you watched, the series popularity would plummet. I would rather keep to the exploration and discovery type things. You know that feeling when your in the water temple and FINALLY find that one blasted small key? I’d rather not lose that feeling of triumph.”
     – ThatRandomGuy

So, obviously, we have a lot of mixed opinions on this matter. There are a lot of people who seem to be turned away by the idea of a form of help system in Skyward Sword, and they think back to Mario. In New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Wii, they had a help system that allowed players to see how a certain world is completed. Some users get this idea when they think of a help system, while others think of some added tips or possibly a helper that gives you a little more advice than usual, or may even give things away if you fail so many times. Even helpers are out of the question for some of our users, though, and they would prefer to see almost no form of help at all. Many have been thinking that the Zelda series is getting too soft with the difficulty nowadays.

In my own opinion, I believe that the idea of a help system that you can toggle on and off wouldn’t be such a bad idea. It would provide the help that some newer and more inexperienced gamers need while allowing some of the other gamers that prefer a more hardcore gaming experience to have their own fun. Then there’s another question, though. If we had a help system that we can toggle off, should we even include an advice-giving sidekick in the game? A lot of people are annoyed by sidekicks, and some just don’t want one at all because they want the games to be harder; that includes eliminating help naturally within the game. I personally don’t care either way, but one thing that I most certainly don’t want to see is a sidekick that gives too much help. I think where we are right now is pretty good, and they should keep it similar to this. Some people have different opinions, though. We already know that we have some form of “sidekick” in Skyward Sword, but should this sidekick actually give some advice, or keep it at a minimum? Go ahead and register on our forums to participate in the discussion and voice your own opinions on the matter.

Related: Skyward Sword Walkthrough