Skyward Sword Disappointing????

[thefloydios]

Was it just me or was skyward sword one of the most disappointing zelda games ever. I had so many issues with it, that i couldnt consider it a great game in the series. I felt it did nothing to make the series better( except the fabulous controls). here are the problems I had with it and why.
1: PUZZLES TOO EASY

the entire game was devoid of challenging puzzlez. In previous Zelda's I always found myself stuck at some point, but with this game I always knew what to do and was never really challenged. Even in newer titles such as TP, i was challenged by its puzzles and design. I wish they made the puzzles harder.

2:DUNGEONS TOO SHORT

The dungeons in the game were over as soon as they began. most of the dungeons were greatly designed but they were much too short. the Sky Keep was the only exception, this dungeon was satisfying and challenging. No dungeon really got me thinking and it was over just as it was getting good.

3: SMALLER EMPHASIS ON EXPLORATION

What happened to the sprawiling world of previous zeldas. In those games there were so many places to explore and so many new places to see and people to meet. In skyward sword you always know where to go (fi tells you) and the areas are much smaller. there was no huge overworld to explore and not enough secrets to discover. In this game you dont feel like you are on an adventure because the games areas are so amall. my favourite part of zelda is the nonlinear aspects of its exploration, in this game I didnt feel the spirit of exploration.

4: BORING GAMEPLAY

The worst part about this game is the boring and repetitive gameplay. This game had way too much filler. I hated the fetchquests and filler in this game. I hated finding key pieces, tadtones,fetching water, and many other boring overworld missions. I thought these quests were boring and I didnt have fun playing them. The best parts were the areas before the third dungeon (in the desert) and the areas leading up to the Sandship, basically the desert.

these factors make the game a 7.5-8 for me and I cant understand how it got a 10 on ign. I loved the controls, story, and skykeep/ lanyru mine. please tell me if you had the same issues and if you love the game id love to know why. I am open to all opinions and i hope the next zelda will fix these issues.

 

[MW7]

1. I agree overall that the puzzles weren't that challenging. They were creative though.

2. No denying this at all. I thought Lanayru Mining Facility and the Fire Sanctuary were the only ones with decent length. Sky Keep wasn't short, but for its placement as the final dungeon I expected it to be longer than it was. Skyview takes half an hour as does the Sandship. The Ancient Cistern takes about 40 minutes, and the Earth Temple I literally can beat in 19 minutes (I did time myself- I think it's the shortest 3d dungeon since the child dungeons of OOT). The dungeons were really short relative to Twilight Princess which had long dungeons.

3. Linear dungeon progression was pointless IMO as it didn't even tie into the plot most of the time. In terms of exploration I think SS was an improvement from Twilight Princess but still didn't feel like a true Zelda game to me.

4. I thought overall the gamplay was excellent. There were a couple of things that could have been improved (tadstones, repetitive bosses, fetchquests) but the areas leading up to dungeons were excellent.

I'd give the game a 9.5 out of 10, but by Zelda standards it's around Wind Waker's quality. I mean that IMO it's clearly better than Twilight Princess but not up to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, ALTTP, or LoZ.

 

[thefloydios]

1. I agree overall that the puzzles weren't that challenging. They were creative though.

2. No denying this at all. I thought Lanayru Mining Facility and the Fire Sanctuary were the only ones with decent length. Sky Keep wasn't short, but for its placement as the final dungeon I expected it to be longer than it was. Skyview takes half an hour as does the Sandship. The Ancient Cistern takes about 40 minutes, and the Earth Temple I literally can beat in 19 minutes (I did time myself- I think it's the shortest 3d dungeon since the child dungeons of OOT). The dungeons were really short relative to Twilight Princess which had long dungeons.

3. Linear dungeon progression was pointless IMO as it didn't even tie into the plot most of the time. In terms of exploration I think SS was an improvement from Twilight Princess but still didn't feel like a true Zelda game to me.

4. I thought overall the gamplay was excellent. There were a couple of things that could have been improved (tadstones, repetitive bosses, fetchquests) but the areas leading up to dungeons were excellent.

I'd give the game a 9.5 out of 10, but by Zelda standards it's around Wind Waker's quality. I mean that IMO it's clearly better than Twilight Princess but not up to Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, ALTTP, or LoZ.

thanks for your opinion. the earth temple was so short, your right! also i disagree about twilight princess. i thought it was a great game for dungeons, exploration, and puzzles.but i can see why you cant see it as a true zelda game. alttp is the true zelda game.

 

[MW7]

thanks for your opinion. the earth temple was so short, your right! also i disagree about twilight princess. i thought it was a great game for dungeons, exploration, and puzzles.but i can see why you cant see it as a true zelda game. alttp is the true zelda game.

Thank you also. Twilight Princess was a great game, but I felt like there wasn't much choice in terms of what you could do, especially early on in the game. Like how you cross the bridge of Eldin and then the bridge disappears and you have no choice but to move forward. Stuff like that never happened in the 2d games or really in any other game in series. I definitely agree that ALTTP is THE game.

 

[Azure Sage]

For me, some of the puzzles stumped me. I found a lot of them to be decent actually. The dungeon lengths were all right, as well. Those are really the only two points I have to disagree with you on. I haven't finished it yet (I'm almost up to the final boss) but I still agree with you on the fact that it is disappointing. It was like Twilight Princess all over again.

First of all, Skyward Sword is pretty much Twilight Princess 2.0, which ruins a lot of fun. The game repeated many of the same flaws, such as nonlinear progression and barricades to exploration. The overworld was too small and too condensed. Zelda went from too large with not enough in it and too small with not enough places to go. At the very least, Skyward Sword's overworld is beautiful.

Zant and Ghirahim are a lot alike, in that they are each trying to free their imprisoned master and both are a bit "unstable". At the very least, Skyward Sword let you in on the existence of another enemy behind the scenes at a good time. They did not wait too long to tell you, unlike Twilight Princess. Ganondorf's late and unsatisfying introduction ruined Zant for me.

Swordplay in Skyward Sword is incredible. I really love the motion controls. They have never caused a problem for me. However, gameplay is a little lacking. Too many fetch quests part of the main quest, and too many distractions that get you going in circles before you can actually progress.

The characters, on the other hand, are some of the best characters I've seen in a Zelda game. Groose, Ghirahim, even Zelda herself, all are interesting and colorful people. Fi is a good partner, although she can get a bit obvious at times. But it is not to the extent where verbal complaining is acceptable, so it bugs me to see people hate on her.

All in all, Skyward Sword is disappointing, but it's not really that much of a bad game. It's not as bad as Twilight Princess, which still holds the title of "Worst Zelda Game Ever' in my book. But Skyward Sword is more disappointing than Twilight Princess because of the repeated flaws. It seems Nintendo did not learn from enough of their mistakes with Skyward Sword. As I played it, I couldn't help but think "Twilight Princess". Skyward Sword gets major points for swordplay and story; both of which are very good. However, when it came time to put them into a game, Nintendo just couldn't deliver as well as they could have. With all of the flaws Skyward Sword repeated from Twilight Princess, the game stacks up to be a pretty big disappointment. All of this said, Skyward Sword still makes it into my Top Five list of favorite Zelda games, at number five, just under Spirit Tracks. Topping them of course is Wind Waker at three, Majora's mask at two, and Ocarina of Time at the tipity top. Skyward Sword sadly could not measure up to those other four games for me. It is over all a good game, and I still like it, but it's a major disappointment. It's not as bad as it could have been, though. If the gameplay was as gimmicky as Twilight Princess's, and had a story as lazy and terrible as Twilight Princess's, it may have done the impossible and ranked lower than Twilight Princess. But it managed to avoid that.

So, in conclusion, I like Skyward Sword a lot. But it is still a pretty big disappointment.

 

[Ventus]

Earth Temple can be ran in around 10 minutes, it's an incredibly short dungeon. Even Dodongo's takes more time and can actually confuse you!

1) I think the problem here, and I'm only speaking personally, is that SS used too many puzzles from previous Zeldas, all of which (vets) were entirely used to in their capacity of playing Zelda. That switch you hit with the bow? We've seen those since day 1. Take out that ridiculously easy enemy? We've seen this since BEFORE Zelda. And so on. SS had no really "new" kinds of puzzles. They seemed new, because of course the object and item used look totally different, but it's always the same thing. Too repetitive and too easy, but it's my opinion.

2) I can't explain how much I agree with this. Not only were the dungeons short, but they were WAY too small imo. Not enough things to do inside of the dungeon – no longer is the dungeon an arduous troublesome ordeal, it's just a freaking fetchquest for the most part. Nintendo could try harder.

3) This again I agree with! Exploration, in my opinion, isn't "oh look I'm in a forest I wonder how much farther I can go INTO THIS SAME FOREST". Exploration is more like "oh look I'm in a forest I wonder what other areas of the world exist!". I realize what I first said *is* what exploration is. But, think of real life terms. Did explorers really want to go deeper into Europe despite it being their own land, or did they want to go over to the Americas (the New World) to get claims over the fabled riches?

4) I agree with the topic itself. I loved the swordplay, best Zelda has ever seen. However, all of the enemies of this game are stale and boring. I take no enjoyment out of beating the tar outta Ghirahim, because he uses the SAME tactics every single time. Koloktos is a joke, whip him then slash at him (I loved his last phase though; BFG ftw and phases are definitely awesome). I don't even want to talk about the other bosses.

Other problems I had were the characters. Some of the most boring characters ever. Nintendo tried to do character development in this game just like they did with Majora's Mask but failed due to the fact that MM's storyline WAS CENTERED AROUND the characters whereas Skyward's is just the same rehashed "OMGHEROTIME" we've gotten since LoZ.

The items were disappointing in their usage. Combat items were dry because the sword is overemphasized (thereby creating dull, repetitive enemies), puzzly items were dry because we got the same puzzles over and over again, no diversity.

Do I really need to comment on the sectioned Surface? That was one of Nintendo's WORST moves since releasing Twilight Princess.

Overall, SS is just TP2.0 with prettier colors and better swordplay. Everything else was the same IMO. Disappointment everywhere because I didn't get the Zelda vibe outta Skyward.

 

[thefloydios]

Thank you also. Twilight Princess was a great game, but I felt like there wasn't much choice in terms of what you could do, especially early on in the game. Like how you cross the bridge of Eldin and then the bridge disappears and you have no choice but to move forward. Stuff like that never happened in the 2d games or really in any other game in series. I definitely agree that ALTTP is THE game.

ya i agree. from all the positive reviews and perfect scores I thought this was going to be the next LTTP/oot/majoras mask but it wasnt. yes Lttp is The game. i was just playing it.

For me, some of the puzzles stumped me. I found a lot of them to be decent actually. The dungeon lengths were all right, as well. Those are really the only two points I have to disagree with you on. I haven't finished it yet (I'm almost up to the final boss) but I still agree with you on the fact that it is disappointing. It was like Twilight Princess all over again.

First of all, Skyward Sword is pretty much Twilight Princess 2.0, which ruins a lot of fun. The game repeated many of the same flaws, such as nonlinear progression and barricades to exploration. The overworld was too small and too condensed. Zelda went from too large with not enough in it and too small with not enough places to go. At the very least, Skyward Sword's overworld is beautiful.

Zant and Ghirahim are a lot alike, in that they are each trying to free their imprisoned master and both are a bit "unstable". At the very least, Skyward Sword let you in on the existence of another enemy behind the scenes at a good time. They did not wait too long to tell you, unlike Twilight Princess. Ganondorf's late and unsatisfying introduction ruined Zant for me.

Swordplay in Skyward Sword is incredible. I really love the motion controls. They have never caused a problem for me. However, gameplay is a little lacking. Too many fetch quests part of the main quest, and too many distractions that get you going in circles before you can actually progress.

The characters, on the other hand, are some of the best characters I've seen in a Zelda game. Groose, Ghirahim, even Zelda herself, all are interesting and colorful people. Fi is a good partner, although she can get a bit obvious at times. But it is not to the extent where verbal complaining is acceptable, so it bugs me to see people hate on her.

All in all, Skyward Sword is disappointing, but it's not really that much of a bad game. It's not as bad as Twilight Princess, which still holds the title of "Worst Zelda Game Ever' in my book. But Skyward Sword is more disappointing than Twilight Princess because of the repeated flaws. It seems Nintendo did not learn from enough of their mistakes with Skyward Sword. As I played it, I couldn't help but think "Twilight Princess". Skyward Sword gets major points for swordplay and story; both of which are very good. However, when it came time to put them into a game, Nintendo just couldn't deliver as well as they could have. With all of the flaws Skyward Sword repeated from Twilight Princess, the game stacks up to be a pretty big disappointment. All of this said, Skyward Sword still makes it into my Top Five list of favorite Zelda games, at number five, just under Spirit Tracks. Topping them of course is Wind Waker at three, Majora's mask at two, and Ocarina of Time at the tipity top. Skyward Sword sadly could not measure up to those other four games for me. It is over all a good game, and I still like it, but it's a major disappointment. It's not as bad as it could have been, though. If the gameplay was as gimmicky as Twilight Princess's, and had a story as lazy and terrible as Twilight Princess's, it may have done the impossible and ranked lower than Twilight Princess. But it managed to avoid that.

So, in conclusion, I like Skyward Sword a lot. But it is still a pretty big disappointment.

thanks for your opinion. I agree with the carachters, theyre awesome (and the story). i see you dont like twilight princess. Everyone is entitled to thier own opinion but I loved that game. I really loved the large world of Hyrule (even if there wasnt alot to do) it was still a realistic world to explore, unlike skyward sword. But ya if you didnt like it thats fine by me, but I loved it. yes the fetchquests are ***. And im also wondering have you played A link to the past for the super nintendo? its my favourite game ever. check it out on Vc.

Earth Temple can be ran in around 10 minutes, it's an incredibly short dungeon. Even Dodongo's takes more time and can actually confuse you!

1) I think the problem here, and I'm only speaking personally, is that SS used too many puzzles from previous Zeldas, all of which (vets) were entirely used to in their capacity of playing Zelda. That switch you hit with the bow? We've seen those since day 1. Take out that ridiculously easy enemy? We've seen this since BEFORE Zelda. And so on. SS had no really "new" kinds of puzzles. They seemed new, because of course the object and item used look totally different, but it's always the same thing. Too repetitive and too easy, but it's my opinion.

2) I can't explain how much I agree with this. Not only were the dungeons short, but they were WAY too small imo. Not enough things to do inside of the dungeon – no longer is the dungeon an arduous troublesome ordeal, it's just a freaking fetchquest for the most part. Nintendo could try harder.

3) This again I agree with! Exploration, in my opinion, isn't "oh look I'm in a forest I wonder how much farther I can go INTO THIS SAME FOREST". Exploration is more like "oh look I'm in a forest I wonder what other areas of the world exist!". I realize what I first said *is* what exploration is. But, think of real life terms. Did explorers really want to go deeper into Europe despite it being their own land, or did they want to go over to the Americas (the New World) to get claims over the fabled riches?

4) I agree with the topic itself. I loved the swordplay, best Zelda has ever seen. However, all of the enemies of this game are stale and boring. I take no enjoyment out of beating the tar outta Ghirahim, because he uses the SAME tactics every single time. Koloktos is a joke, whip him then slash at him (I loved his last phase though; BFG ftw and phases are definitely awesome). I don't even want to talk about the other bosses.

Other problems I had were the characters. Some of the most boring characters ever. Nintendo tried to do character development in this game just like they did with Majora's Mask but failed due to the fact that MM's storyline WAS CENTERED AROUND the characters whereas Skyward's is just the same rehashed "OMGHEROTIME" we've gotten since LoZ.

The items were disappointing in their usage. Combat items were dry because the sword is overemphasized (thereby creating dull, repetitive enemies), puzzly items were dry because we got the same puzzles over and over again, no diversity.

Do I really need to comment on the sectioned Surface? That was one of Nintendo's WORST moves since releasing Twilight Princess.

Overall, SS is just TP2.0 with prettier colors and better swordplay. Everything else was the same IMO. Disappointment everywhere because I didn't get the Zelda vibe outta Skyward.

you took the words right out of my mouth bro. The puzzles are old and we all know how to solve them. but they are made easier than before, and the new puzzles are pretty boring. I liked the carachters but i see what you mean. The bosses were great and were a huge + for this game. I actually think the bosses were the best part. thanks for agreeing with me. Theres a guy at my school who wont stop obsessing over this game, and we get into debates all the time. But i loved twilight princess.

 

[zeldafreak101]

To me SS felt like lot like Metroid prime with the need to find that one door to progess not like a Zelda game. SS is a great game, but the motion controls bothered me and took something from the expierence.

 

[Koosholts]

I'm surprised a lot of people are agreeing with the OP since all the reviews claim it to be one of the greatest games of all time and better than Ocarina of Time.

I agree with all of the OP and I'm not going to elaborate and be redundant, the posts above this one explain my ideas quite well.

However I'd like to mention one thing and maybe go a bit further into why I think Skyward Sword wasn't that good at all, and this is all opinion. The overall general fun factor wasn't there for me. As soon as I got it, it was great. I loved how it opened up with a GREAT story showing awesome character development between link and zelda, and when i got to the first area of the game, the forest area, I was stoked to get things started.

After the first area though that's when things whent downhill FAST for me. I realized that after the first place I had to go to the next place, the Eldin Volcano... To me, it got extremley tedious of how the overworld was like a dungeon or a temple, and than after you're done with the overworld you had ANOTHER dungeon to go to. It got tiresome and I didn't want to do it. To me an overworld is supposed to be about exploration, adventure, and things to collect. I think Wind Waker achieved this the best although OoT was great as well. You could argue that the surface wasn't the overworld and that the sky was, however it was such lack luster that after I flew around it once I knew I didn't want to do that again. Another thing that bugged me was that the three surface areas weren't connected. It felt like each one was isolated and separate from the world, like they were separate states and not one big country I suppose. The beautfy of overworlds like OoT and Wind Waker is that everything was one big world where you could freely go from one to the next, and that I think is what an overworld should be.

So finally after you're done going through the tedious, annoying, and repetitive first three surface areas you finally think you're getting somewhere. Zelda goes through that portal thing and it's a real climax to the plot. However, you find that you need to...... charge your skyward sword........ only one thing I knew that could ment. MORE COLLECTING AND DUNGEONS WOOHOO!!!.....(sarcasm)

I literally felt like just throwing my controller on the ground and nerd raging through my house. Having to go BACK the the forest area and do a WHOLE new temple it drew me insane. After FINALLY getting to the Ancient Cistern Cavern and going through a pathetically bad dungeon I still knew that there were two more to go. After that I turned the game off and played Portal 2 and Skryim, and haven't picked it up since. I know this means that my argument isn't TOTALLY valid but I don't see how it would be influenced if I actually finished getting the three sacred flames. Maybe the game will get better after I retrieve the master sword which I know is inevitibly coming but idk, I just don't have the motivation. I guess after writing this I might get back to it but in my own time. I'm not going to force myself to play a game just so I can validate my opinion, I play them because I think they're fun.

That's all.

 

[OHAI]

"MORE COLLECTING AND DUNGEONS WOOHOO!!!" I know you were being sarcastic, but dude, have you NOT played a Zelda title before?

 

[MW7]

To me SS felt like lot like Metroid prime with the need to find that one door to progess not like a Zelda game. SS is a great game, but the motion controls bothered me and took something from the expierence.

This is kind of how I feel as well. I've been replaying most of the games in the series over my winter break from school, and I'm realizing that really since A Link to the Past that no game has really been a Zelda game and that they've just been "like a Zelda game." The N64 games were better from my perspective than the more modern games because they were closer to what Zelda games actually are even though those games weren't perfect. That game (ALTTP) is the one of the few in the series in which almost every dungeon is open so you need to figure out where to go as well as what to do. Zelda dungeons haven't really been mazes since that game, and it's really just been find a way through the only available path. I usually complain about the dungeon progression being needlessly linear in the modern games, but the dungeons themselves have been getting more linear as well and it's making things much easier than they should be. Of course there are exceptions along the way like the Water Temple in OOT and Sky Keep in SS of excellent nonlinear dungeon design, but for the most part it's more and more of find that one door to progress as you said.

I think the series hit its low point in this regard with Twilight Princess, but Skyward Sword wasn't much better. At least several of the dungeons had multiple subgoals that could be tackled in multiple orders (Skyview, Sandship, and Sky Keep) and optional stuff but I think dungeon design is still way too streamlined to make it easy for beginners. The motion controls didn't bother me with the swordfighting and item usage, but I think having to use it for pretty much everything was overkill. I didn't like flying with it much and I despised having to use it for swimming. Couldn't the game designers give some options? It's the same stubbornness as in the DS Zelda games. They have cool ways of using touch controls (drawing on maps and using certain items) but force you to use touch controls for virtually everything when clearly not everyone would prefer to do so.

 

[ZeldaPokemon25]

I'm surprised a lot of people are agreeing with the OP since all the reviews claim it to be one of the greatest games of all time and better than Ocarina of Time.

Simply put many like me thought it did a lot of things right then OTT or TP tried to do.

However I'd like to mention one thing and maybe go a bit further into why I think Skyward Sword wasn't that good at all, and this is all opinion. The overall general fun factor wasn't there for me. As soon as I got it, it was great. I loved how it opened up with a GREAT story showing awesome character development between link and zelda, and when i got to the first area of the game, the forest area, I was stoked to get things started.

Usually I wait to play the game twice to see how I rate it and I personally will have to disagree about it not being good. Its sounds like some of your taste is changing which is bound to happen sometime to a series with a player.

After the first area though that's when things whent downhill FAST for me. I realized that after the first place I had to go to the next place, the Eldin Volcano... To me, it got extremley tedious of how the overworld was like a dungeon or a temple, and than after you're done with the overworld you had ANOTHER dungeon to go to. It got tiresome and I didn't want to do it. To me an overworld is supposed to be about exploration, adventure, and things to collect. I think Wind Waker achieved this the best although OoT was great as well. You could argue that the surface wasn't the overworld and that the sky was, however it was such lack luster that after I flew around it once I knew I didn't want to do that again. Another thing that bugged me was that the three surface areas weren't connected. It felt like each one was isolated and separate from the world, like they were separate states and not one big country I suppose. The beautfy of overworlds like OoT and Wind Waker is that everything was one big world where you could freely go from one to the next, and that I think is what an overworld should be.

I have to extremely disagree with this and making the overworlds have a purpose by offering them different challenges in terrains and puzzles to make them levels is what the series needed. I could only think of a few Zelda games where the overworld had a purpose and Skyward Sword delivered that. I personally found roaming Hyrule field and The Great Sea in OOT, TWW, and TP be very repetitive. Yeah a sense of exploration was there but what's the point when there are just enemies, heart pieces, and caves on overworlds. I found this form of design of overworlds having purpose to be more refreshing and more entertaining then an overworld that lacks a purpose considering the warp spells in the other games. If anything I would say the overworld in OOT and TP was lack luster and SS improved this in a great way. You enjoying exploration and the overworld being one big world are preferences and should not be confused with technical flaws.

So finally after you're done going through the tedious, annoying, and repetitive first three surface areas you finally think you're getting somewhere. Zelda goes through that portal thing and it's a real climax to the plot. However, you find that you need to...... charge your skyward sword........ only one thing I knew that could ment. MORE COLLECTING AND DUNGEONS WOOHOO!!!.....(sarcasm)

Lol you just discovered this formula after 20 years? It's been a staple to series for a long time. So you had no problem doing the same thing ALTTP(3 pedants and 7 crystals), OOT (3 emeralds and 5 medallions), TWW (3 orbs and 8 Triforce pieces), and TP (3 fused shadows and 3 twilight mirror parts). Yet this is somehow a problem in SS where have to do and find (3 sword charges and 3 parts of the song of hero)? I guess this confirms further that your taste towards the series has differently changed. I don't have a problem with this as long as level design and its challenges vary from each other.

I literally felt like just throwing my controller on the ground and nerd raging through my house. Having to go BACK the the forest area and do a WHOLE new temple it drew me insane. After FINALLY getting to the Ancient Cistern Cavern and going through a pathetically bad dungeon I still knew that there were two more to go. After that I turned the game off and played Portal 2 and Skryim, and haven't picked it up since. I know this means that my argument isn't TOTALLY valid but I don't see how it would be influenced if I actually finished getting the three sacred flames. Maybe the game will get better after I retrieve the master sword which I know is inevitibly coming but idk, I just don't have the motivation. I guess after writing this I might get back to it but in my own time. I'm not going to force myself to play a game just so I can validate my opinion, I play them because I think they're fun.

That was the purpose and it was to go back to the same areas but for different purposes like exploring a different area. I'm sorry but I completely disagree that Ancient Cistern was a pathetic temple and it designs were actually quite unique. I thought it was lacking when I first played through it but after my second play through it was great level and was more enjoyable. As for your argument not being valid (something you claimed in the bold) well I suggest you play the game thoroughly like twice before your form an opinion. I have made this mistake twice of judging game based off just playing it with OOT, MM, and Kingdom Hearts II and not experiencing it for what it has and offers. Problem is you just played SS and didn't experience it and that's what is causing you not to enjoy it. I think you need to come to terms that the series might not be for you anymore and really there nothing wrong with that.

 

[Koosholts]

Simply put many like me thought it did a lot of things right then OTT or TP tried to do.



Usually I wait to play the game twice to see how I rate it and I personally will have to disagree about it not being good. Its sounds like some of your taste is changing which is bound to happen sometime to a series with a player.



I have to extremely disagree with this and making the overworlds have a purpose by offering them different challenges in terrains and puzzles to make them levels is what the series needed. I could only think of a few Zelda games where the overworld had a purpose and Skyward Sword delivered that. I personally found roaming Hyrule field and The Great Sea in OOT, TWW, and TP be very repetitive. Yeah a sense of exploration was there but what's the point when there are just enemies, heart pieces, and caves on overworlds. I found this form of design of overworlds having purpose to be more refreshing and more entertaining then an overworld that lacks a purpose considering the warp spells in the other games. If anything I would say the overworld in OOT and TP was lack luster and SS improved this in a great way. You enjoying exploration and the overworld being one big world are preferences and should not be confused with technical flaws.



Lol you just discovered this formula after 20 years? It's been a staple to series for a long time. So you had no problem doing the same thing ALTTP(3 pedants and 7 crystals), OOT (3 emeralds and 5 medallions), TWW (3 orbs and 8 Triforce pieces), and TP (3 fused shadows and 3 twilight mirror parts). Yet this is somehow a problem in SS where have to do and find (3 sword charges and 3 parts of the song of hero)? I guess this confirms further that your taste towards the series has differently changed. I don't have a problem with this as long as level design and its challenges vary from each other.



That was the purpose and it was to go back to the same areas but for different purposes like exploring a different area. I'm sorry but I completely disagree that Ancient Cistern was a pathetic temple and it designs were actually quite unique. I thought it was lacking when I first played through it but after my second play through it was great level and was more enjoyable. As for your argument not being valid (something you claimed in the bold) well I suggest you play the game thoroughly like twice before your form an opinion. I have made this mistake twice of judging game based off just playing it with OOT, MM, and Kingdom Hearts II and not experiencing it for what it has and offers. Problem is you just played SS and didn't experience it and that's what is causing you not to enjoy it. I think you need to come to terms that the series might not be for you anymore and really there nothing wrong with that.

1. To your first argument, yes, more than likely my taste for the series is changing. Also, like you said, there is nothing wrong with that.

2. To me, an overworld is a place where you have time to relax and enjoy a side of the game you sometimes don't take into account when constantly going through dungeons and battling monsters. You focus more on the gameplay, puzzle mechanics, etc. in dungeons, and to me you focus more on the scenery, graphics, music, etc. when going through the overworld. The overworld is my favorite area in a Zelda game because personally I love when you can just get lost for hours in a wide expansive area looking for things to collect and see. The overworld in Skyward Sword if we're refering to the surface is extremley linear, a hassle, etc. To me it's not fun as it lacks a sense of exploration which has been in the Zelda formula since the very beggining, and that's what my whole post was about, the game lacking a sence of fun for me. I wasn't rating/reviewing the game, merley posting my opinions. I didn't like it, and you did which is great for you.

3. I agree I should've expected doing something along those lines after playing Zelda for 10 years. The only thing that's is different in this game than let's say WW, OoT, or TP is that you go BACK to those same original places. I emphasized the fact that after running around searching for Zelda for the first three dungeons that the annoying part was going back to the same original places that I just got done going through. To me it would've been nice if they gave you three completley new spots to enjoy a completley different scenery, and not just the same thing. I understand why they didn't do that and I'm not saying it's a completley atrocious idea, it just didn't tickle my fancy.

4. The temples that I find fascinating and that you find fascinating are again completley different and opinion based. I agree that it's a good idea to play the game twice and I assure you that I will. I agree that maybe my taste for the series is lacking and maybe that's skewing my judgement but for now my judgement stands by.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Skyward Sword is a bad game by any means. I understand why people say it could be better than OoT and make it to be their favorite game, however to every ying there is a yang and I don't find the game quite enjoyable. As you can see everything I stated was opinion based, and you're entitled to your opinion too. I wasn't rating the game soley on this, I wasn't giving it a score, I was simply stating what I thought of it. And you make excellent points as well.

 

[Ronin]

Just going to be stating my opinion. If I seem a little vociferous, then know that I'm only endeavoring to get a point across.

1: PUZZLES TOO EASY

the entire game was devoid of challenging puzzles. In previous Zelda's I always found myself stuck at some point, but with this game I always knew what to do and was never really challenged. Even in newer titles such as TP, i was challenged by its puzzles and design. I wish they made the puzzles harder.

Here I agree with you...to a degree. A lot of the puzzles were very easy to pull off, if only by revolving the sword to confuse the eye locking a door, or flying the Beetle into a Crystal. All these were simple. Yet it should be remembered that this is our first adventure upon very new waters, figuratively speaking. Many aspects of the old Zelda titles appear to have been modified somewhat. For example, the layout of pretty much each area outside a Dungeon is designed to look like a Dungeon, or in other words a very huge field of puzzles. I should mention early on that, with the rise of the motion controls, much of this was experimental.

2:DUNGEONS TOO SHORT

The dungeons in the game were over as soon as they began. most of the dungeons were greatly designed but they were much too short. the Sky Keep was the only exception, this dungeon was satisfying and challenging. No dungeon really got me thinking and it was over just as it was getting good.

In thought of my highlighted point, could it have been due to playing through an entire game that was intended to be as a Dungeon throughout? I can understand it in that respect, because our minds would automatically attune themselves to the unvarying degree of sameness. It felt like we were exploring a Temple almost the whole time. That could explain why the game never really got us thinking.

3: SMALLER EMPHASIS ON EXPLORATION

What happened to the sprawling world of previous zeldas. In those games there were so many places to explore and so many new places to see and people to meet. In skyward sword you always know where to go (fi tells you) and the areas are much smaller. there was no huge overworld to explore and not enough secrets to discover. In this game you dont feel like you are on an adventure because the games areas are so amall. my favourite part of zelda is the nonlinear aspects of its exploration, in this game I didnt feel the spirit of exploration.

Once again referring to my point on the Dungeon-design. The exploration did seem cut back since we needed to think of what had to be done next in order to proceed. Basically Fi gave us an instruction and it was up to us to see that through. Although I didn't mind that at all personally, I am sort of ready to return to a sprawling world like in Twilight Princess, broad and full of places to find and things to do. Nevertheless, Skyward Sword's layout was made as such to make good use of the motion controls by utilizing the items in various ways. That balances out the rough edges of lacking exploration, if only for me.

4: BORING GAMEPLAY

The worst part about this game is the boring and repetitive gameplay. This game had way too much filler. I hated the fetchquests and filler in this game. I hated finding key pieces, tadtones, fetching water, and many other boring overworld missions. I thought these quests were boring and I didnt have fun playing them. The best parts were the areas before the third dungeon (in the desert) and the areas leading up to the Sandship, basically the desert.

The sidequests and fillers were meant to add more content and in turn lengthen the game. I've tried most of them and enjoyed them, even the fetching parts mostly to garner Gratitude Crystals. I think Nintendo packed much more into this prodigious project for the 25th Anniversary as well as the fans. No, everything in it's not going to be for everyone, but I try to enjoy what I can do there, and that takes away any possible boredom that may have resulted. On my second playthrough I'll be looking for the things you broached, though.

 

[TF/HH]

I agree with all Thareous said above. Much of your complaints are due to the fact that the whole game is set up like a dungeon, so I partially agree with you.