For those of us who didn't like Skyward Sword...

[Spirit]

Sometimes I find replaying certain Zelda games i didn't enjoy much a few years later actually improves my opinion of the game. Perhaps nostalgia speaks volumes or perhaps I accept the games for what they are rather than what I wanted from them initially...

Its happened only a couple of times (namely the Oracle games and Spirit Tracks) and I thought, with it being a year or so since I last loaded it up, that my opinion on Skyward Sword would change...

Now, for those who dont know my opinion on SS; I find it to be the worst 3D Zelda game by a wide margin, and there are only two games (AoL and PH) that I think are worse than SS and would rather not play.

So, a year or so later, I load up SS and... I still really dont like it. I understand its purpose, I 'get' what its trying to do and I dont dislike the motion controls (I'd rather it was analogue but it wouldn't change my opinion).

From the Imprisoned, to all except one dungeon, Debby, Fi, the crap ending, Demise, the sky, the unconnected overworld, the story that feels like an unnecessarily padded out fan-fiction... I cant bring myself to like any of it.

The only thing indo like is young Impa, and even then I prefer her in Hyrule Warriors.

So how about those of you who, like myself, didn't like SS. Six-ish years later have you warmed to it? Like it any better? Look back on it fondly having not played it and then remember all the things you hated?

Where do you stand on SS now?

 

[Salem]

I never replayed SS, but I did replay TP long before the announcement of TP HD, it actually lowered my opinion of it.

In other words, I do not expect a replay of SS to improve my feeling towards it, in fact I tend to not change my opinion my video games I replayed, although I rarely replay games I don't like very much, I wouldn't know, I could like SS better if I replayed, I dunno, the thing it there's WAY to many annoying things in it, like Fi, annoying "you got item" every time you start the game, shopkeepers' bull**** etc.

 

[Dio]

Skyward Sword sucks.

I shall admit it is not such a bad game to play, even with the control issues, which I found to be minimal. I can understand why those who came in to the series, with it being their first experience in Zelda actually seeming to like it. Though I think the main reason for that is because they dont know the lore and how badly it ****s it up. When you know the lore of the games like I do, and you play SS. You realise it is a bad Zelda game.

Touted as a great sequel to Ocarina of Time (the most critically acclaimed game ever), a game that told us a story but left many mysteries that we Zelda fans have been pondering for years and desperately wanted answers to. Answers that we were in fact promised by the developers themselves. However Skyward Sword delivered in answering almost none of them. Those mysteries that it did answer, it did so in a way which was either unsatisfactory or downright insulting. One of the major problems with Skyward Sword is that the game revolves around forging the Master Sword itself. Something link certainly shouldnt be doing. Any long time Zelda fan knows the Master Sword is a weapon created by the ancient sages, as Stated in A Link to The Past, Twilight Princess and alluded to in Wind Waker. However Skyward Sword paints a different origin to what the series creators had clearly had intended before this game. The reason for the switch is Shigeru Miyamoto. He decided to stick his big proboscis in and upturned the original Skyward Sword project. Deciding it should be scrapped in favour of making a game revolve around Wii Motion Plus. The story was then made as an afterthought just so they could accommodate this new device which would make motion controls more invasive than they were in TP Wii.

The first disappointment though came before even playing and came with the very first trailer. I refer of course to the art style, which they changed from TP's more realistic palette. TP's style was loved by many more than those who didn't like it. One of the reasons TP actually sold 9million copies and was met with such thunderous applause at it's unveiling. Instead of just brightening things up they changed the designs a lot from TP and opted for a gaudy and ugly style, with many monsters looking like they had an extra chromosome.

Another disappointment is the music. SS features an orchestrated soundtrack with some great pieces including Kolotos's theme and Ghirahims theme. Unfortunately not many more than those. Most of the pieces are unmemorable or downright innapropriate. I already mentioned Demises unfitting into but when fighting a Stalfos a merry Waltz plays. Does the game want me to fight and kill this dangerous enemy or should I dance with it? Seriously a mood killer.

The over world is disconnected. Each area feels like something straight out of well...a game. Rather than creating a believable world, everything just looks designed to test the player rather than creating areas to entice them. This is a huge step back from Twilight princess and even Wind Waker where you could see things in the distance and actually want to go and explore them.

To top off the disappointment. The main villain appeared as a walking pinecone THREE times during the game. His unveiling in his true form, a great demon king. The source of all monsters, bearing a resemblance to a super Saiyan Ganondorf, was to the introductory music of Batreaux. A ****ing comedic character. To make matters worse he had mere minutes of screen time, creating no connection to the player and felt like someone simply there to be killed.

One last thing (Though I could go on, but I don't want to be here all day). It was a problem with the advertising of SS. They showed everything and I mean everything. Before reveal. By the time I played I felt I had already seen everything. On my first play through I felt pretty underwhelmed that I had seen all the areas before. However I found my second and third play through more enjoyable for some reason.

Ok one more thing. The game took 5 years to make, starting in 06 and releasing in 2011. Not only did it feel like another 06 game, not making any real advancement into the (back then) modern gaming scene (still going with no voice acting even though it was needed in TP, and character development was still not great compared with other games in similar genres). It actually only had the overall quality of a game with a 2 year development cycle. When we know Majoras Mask was made in one year and is as good as it is. It is ridiculous how long they took with SS and how long we had to wait for such a disappointment.

 

[DeactivatedUser2]

I replayed SS this summer to see if my opinion would change.



It didn't.

 

[Ver-go-a-go-go]

I've had a strange change of opinion when it comes to SS over the years. The result is me writing post after post of how the game is border-line broken and fails on every conceivable level as being not only a Zelda game, but a video game period.

When I first played it, I thought it was fine. The controls bothered me because they wouldn't work a lot of the time, and the graphics were super ugly on my HD TV, but I didn't think it was terrible or anything. Not my favorite 3D Zelda game sure, but it didn't have the same crippling design flaws of WW on the surface. I think I actually called it a well designed game on this forum in like 2011 or something.

I didn't even get past the first dungeon on my second attempt of a playthrough. It was then that everything came crashing down. The controls were broken, the "overworld" nonexistent and segmented into Mario-esque "levels", the process of going from point A to point B was tedious due to dowsing being pushed down my throat, the companion lifeless and intrusive, and the story a complete bore and insultingly contradictory to the rest of the series lore. I hated it will every gaming instinct I have.

For the longest time I wondered what triggered such a radical change in my opinion, but I think I figured it out - SS was the first 3D Zelda game I had played since 2007, and the first 3D Zelda game I ever had to consciously wait on. The novelty and hype was there - I wanted to love the game and forced myself to on the first go-around, and since it was all brand new, at least I had something unknown to look forward to on the game.

All of that was gone. The novelty of never having played the game was long past, and all that was left was to judge the game in both a vaccum and in relation to its spot among the rest of its 3D contemporaries. It was horrid on both those fronts.

I don't think I was alone either. SS finally exposed the cracks in 3D Zelda's "review-proof" armor, as we saw with a few "gaming journalism" reviews. It only takes one drop of blood to expose a god as a mortal, and that definitely happened with SS.

 

[Ventus]

I've had a complete 180 since my tirade against the game a few years ago. The adventure pouch is a wonderful addition to the series, the story is absolutely fantastic (And is bumped up with some supplementary fanfiction/headcanon), the gameplay is ¼ amazing and Å. Music is memorable and soul-piercing. Fighting the Imprisoned Three Times is not a bother anymore, and in fact I enjoy each battle more than the last.

My only complaint that has stuck with me, though, is how quickly Akuma comes and goes. Yeah, I get it, he's "there" the entire time and one could argue that he was "there" as Ghirahim...but for his actual appearance, he kinda shows up, goes into a portal, and then gets vacuumed into the Master Sword. Why didn't they have an additional scenario or two? Have him wreck **** on the surface?

 

[Turo602]

For all of you who didn't like Skyward Sword... you're all pieces of ****. See a therapist and reevaluate yourselves. What the **** is wrong with you people? Were you dropped on your heads or what? Did mommy drink and smoke too much during pregnancy or were daddy's swimming men just not strong enough to produce a functional human being?

You know what, I don't even ****in' care. Fight me.

 

[Justac00lguy]

For all of you who didn't like Skyward Sword... you're all pieces of ****. See a therapist and reevaluate yourselves. What the **** is wrong with you people? Were you dropped on your heads or what? Did mommy drink and smoke too much during pregnancy or were daddy's swimming men just not strong enough to produce a functional human being?

You know what, I don't even ****in' care. Fight me.

The prophecy was right.

JJ has returned

 

[the8thark]

Sometimes I find replaying certain Zelda games i didn't enjoy much a few years later actually improves my opinion of the game.

For me too. On GC release I could not have hated Wind Waker more even if I tried. Now I see it for what it is, a half decent game, worth playing but nothing more.

• I never hated Skyward Sword. I just hated certain aspecs of it.
• The broken motion controls
• Forced farming of RNG loot/materials (not rupees)
• Not using the shield for 95% of the game was better than bothering with not having it break always when using it
• Silly Super Mario styled spirit realm fetch quests
• Questionable aesthetic choice

Even after all of this I didn't hate the game. It's certainly not my favourite Zelda game ever, but it's not too bad.

 

[DeactivatedUser2]

For all of you who didn't like Skyward Sword... you're all pieces of ****. See a therapist and reevaluate yourselves. What the **** is wrong with you people? Were you dropped on your heads or what? Did mommy drink and smoke too much during pregnancy or were daddy's swimming men just not strong enough to produce a functional human being?

You know what, I don't even ****in' care. Fight me.

 

[MW7]

I loved it at first despite some minor complaints about the controls, but now I don't like it quite as much. A problem for me beyond the design of the game is that the Wii Motion Plus is the first Nintendo controller I've ever had break/malfunction. I bought the controller with Skyward Sword and a mere 5 years later and it's unplayable. Now in retrospect I'd never want Nintendo to give us a fancy controller ever again. My NES, SNES, N64, and GC controllers all work perfectly to this day. As for the game itself, from what I remember it had some great parts such as the Sandship and Sky Keep as well as the Silent Realms. There were also parts that seemed like dumb design choices to me such as fighting the Imprisoned three times, having to bring back what you get from a dungeon to the Goddess Statue/Thunderhead after every dungeon, and the forced linearity of sections of the game. Overall it was a great game but not the best in the series.

 

[Mipha]

I played it again recently, and now I actually kind of like it. It used to be one of my least favorite games, but now it's one of my favorites.

 

[the8thark]

For all of you who didn't like Skyward Sword... you're all pieces of ****. See a therapist and reevaluate yourselves. What the **** is wrong with you people? Were you dropped on your heads or what? Did mommy drink and smoke too much during pregnancy or were daddy's swimming men just not strong enough to produce a functional human being?

You know what, I don't even ****in' care. Fight me.

 

[Ventus]

Haha honestly though have anyone inserted a bit of handcannon to spruce the game up? SS has a lot of rich connections that can be made richer with a bit of reaching here and there haha

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

man i still need to replay skyward sword again,even though i was disappointed i greatly enjoyed my first time playing it,2nd time w/ hero mode i thought it was a'ight
i do wonder if a 3rd time would change my opinion for the better or worse,but more than anything i just wanna play through it again