Skyward Sword: The Worst 3D Zelda Title

[Ventus]

They are and that's a fact if you view them from my perspective. If you're an adept Zelda player, you'll notice that SS is far easier than the average player makes it out to be. If you're not so adept, then SS will be harder for you, that's just how it is.

No reason at all besides the typical Zelda fan reaction of "anything talking bad about Zelda is pure evil and makes no sense at all, even though I've never read what the article is talking about". I didn't even comment and it got around 70-somethin' initial responses flaming me for even thinking about the negativities that Skyward Sword could have brought. At that point, Axle tried to lessen some of the hate, telling the fans to direct their hate to him rather than me as I had started on the article approximately two months ago. I then told him that none of it is his fault and more of it is mine as I was the one who started on the article in the first place. But enough of that, this isn't the place to discuss that sort of thing.

 

[4815162342]

I think that if u hate skyward sword, thats fine, i have no prob with that, but i just want to state a few flaws with your reasoning. One, Skyloft is HUGE compared to castle town in oot, clock town in mm, and probably a bit bigger than castle town in TP. Two, i think that the dungeon designs are simpler, sure, but it is easier because u cant get lost so easy, which is soooo frustrating! three: I think that when u posted this, u knew that people were going to say things like this, so why did u do it? to me, it just seems annoying.

To begin with, I don't hate Skyward Sword. I just didn't like it as much as the others.

I would still like to argue my point about Skyloft vs. Clocktown. Clocktown, although it may not be physically larger, has so much more to do than Skyloft, and is far more intricate and detailed. That is a fact, not an opinion.

I am a fan of massive, intricate, and challenging dungeons. I found that not a single dungeon in Skyward Sword fit this bill. Sure, some of them (Ancient Cistern and Sand Ship) added creative elements to the series that I very much enjoyed, but as a whole, I found to be the dungeons in Skyward Sword designed to appeal to the less-hardcore Zelda players.

I knew very well that I was posting about a controversial topic when I put this on the forum, but I felt like it was something that needed to be discussed. That and I didn't want to be the only person who didn't love Skyward Sword. I know some may find it annoying, but my intent in posting this was not to annoy people at all, and I'm sorry if it did.

 

[Majora's Cat]

I would still like to argue my point about Skyloft vs. Clocktown. Clocktown, although it may not be physically larger, has so much more to do than Skyloft, and is far more intricate and detailed. That is a fact, not an opinion.

That is opinion. I don't think you realize what fact is.

I am a fan of massive, intricate, and challenging dungeons. I found that not a single dungeon in Skyward Sword fit this bill. Sure, some of them (Ancient Cistern and Sand Ship) added creative elements to the series that I very much enjoyed, but as a whole, I found to be the dungeons in Skyward Sword designed to appeal to the less-hardcore Zelda players.

Skyward Sword was intended to be made easier to play, but dungeons really didn't lack any sort of content. As was Nintendo's goal in crafting Skyward Sword, the dungeons are compact and all the gameplay is crowded into one or two floors. Although this doesn't follow the precedent sets by previous games (which means multiple floors and smaller rooms), SS is able to make a name for itself by being different. I believe that as long as the dungeons keep you occupied for a good two hours, which they did for me, and are still as riveting as they should be, there isn't anything to complain about when it comes to them.

The entirety of Skyward Sword follows the same formula, which is why Hyrule isn't quite as "majestic" as before. You have to admit that the overworld was just packed with enemies, secrets and new things to discover. The reason that many gamers felt like the overworld was lacking was because the area was decreased in size, giving the player the impression that the world is too straightforward and not as spellbinding.

In the end, what makes a good Zelda game is the gameplay, controls and dungeons, and SS not only redirects the Zelda series but is actually bold enough to ditch some the aspects of older Zelda games that you either adored or despised. Whatever the case may be, some fans will be understandably bitter.

I found this bit to be of interest:

I found to be the dungeons in Skyward Sword designed to appeal to the less-hardcore Zelda players.

What would be the point of designing a Zelda game that only appeals to hardcore fans? The point is to appeal to a broader audience, and Skyward Sword did just that. After all, developing a game a certain way specifically to be enjoyed by die-hard fans of a franchise is a death sentence. Nintendo accomplished its goal and did so while pleasing most of the more hardcore fans of Zelda.

 

[JohnFC]

That is opinion. I don't think you realize what fact is.

No its not. Clock Town had the three day cycle. Charcters had agendas. The game had to track all of those characters in this one town throughout the entire 72 hours. There are two instances in Skyloft where you can make choices that could affect NPC's lifes in multiple ways. Clock Town had several, some with more than two possible outcomes. And then there are all the mini games that change with every day of the cycle.

Clock Town was much more dense, intricate, and layered than Skyloft. There was much more to do. That is not an opinion. It is a cold, hard fact.

As far as dungeons being easy goes, you can't deny that they are more streamlined. There are no branching paths or optional rooms. They are also shorter. So that right there has an impact on difficulty. Obviously difficulty is a matter of opinion, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a Zelda with easier dungeons besides Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Phantom Hourglass. Just because the dungeons are well designed doesn't mean they can't be on the easy side.

 

[Ventus]

First of all, "That's a fact if you view them from my perspective" is an oxymoron.

Anyway, no. Skyward Sword's dungeons are on average harder for me than previous Zelda titles (except for Majora's Mask). They were honestly completely baffling sometimes, much more baffling than any other Zelda game (again, excluding Majora's Mask) on my first playthrough besides the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time.

So basically, yes. You shrugged it off and said "they just don't like my opinion". You're pretty much using some other explanation to cover that. I don't really like how you labeled all of the people who didn't like your article as basically mindless Zelda fans just because they didn't agree with you.

Oxymorons are okay, people use them in literature ignorantly or not all the time

That's from your perspective. I on the other hand found the dungeons to be too simple. A perspective thing.

It wasn't because they didn't agree with me. Axle disagreed with me, he clearly isn't mindless. Several other fans disagreed with me, they aren't mindless. What made those certain "fans" mindless was the fact that they jumped the gun and started flaming me (meaning, cursing me out and such)...not for the content of the article, but because the name was "5 Things That Could Go Wrong With Skyward Sword". I'll give you a snippet of what they said:

Why would skyward sword does not need 1:1? The whole point of the game was to make people feel like they were actually fighting with the enemy... amd you also say 1:1 is not needed? Were have you been all these years... On aMW3 website? Well I think you are just an Oot fanboy that just likes to smash buttons and not change at all.. you have got to know the gaming industry is changing and sooner or later you are going to have to accept motiom controls.. So stop trying to make skyward sword seem so negative!

I personnel hated this article because why is this person thinking of ways to ruin our ideas about Skyward Sword? Listing 5 bad things bad about it is just plain STUPID!!!

Pessimistic article is pessimistic.

Wow is this guy really ignorant or just stupid? Why would you even think of posting an anti-Zelda/SS post on a Zelda website? Leave that stuff gamespot man.

Now please, tell me again that I went "they just don't like my opinion".

AxletheBeast 86p · 1 week ago
For the record, a more skeptical look at the game isn't an invalid opinion. I think it was refreshing of Vanitas to look at the game that way even if I do disagree with him.

The issue here is the timing, and that is my fault not his; he wrote this like months ago. Be pissed at the Axle, not the Vanitas.

And that came from Axle himself.

 

[Majora's Cat]

No its not. Clock Town had the three day cycle. Charcters had agendas. The game had to track all of those characters in this one town throughout the entire 72 hours. There are two instances in Skyloft where you can make choices that could affect NPC's lifes in multiple ways. Clock Town had several, some with more than two possible outcomes. And then there are all the mini games that change with every day of the cycle.

Clock Town was much more dense, intricate, and layered than Skyloft. There was much more to do. That is not an opinion. It is a cold, hard fact.

As far as dungeons being easy goes, you can't deny that they are more streamlined. There are no branching paths or optional rooms. They are also shorter. So that right there has an impact on difficulty. Obviously difficulty is a matter of opinion, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a Zelda with easier dungeons besides Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Phantom Hourglass. Just because the dungeons are well designed doesn't mean they can't be on the easy side.

Dictionary definition of fact: "something that actually exists; reality; truth."

A fact would be "Clock Town's walls are the color beige" or “Clock Town has a clock tower in it". It is your opinion that Clock Town is more intricate than Skyloft and that there is more to do. Anything that involves a description of anything that is not a solid fact (determined from observation of things that can be classified as factual). It can't even be considered a fact that Clock Town is physically smaller than Skyloft unless there was a unit of measurement to compare the two, and if Link's size counts as a source of reference.

Point is, you also do not understand what fact is.

As far as dungeons being easy goes, you can't deny that they are more streamlined. There are no branching paths or optional rooms. They are also shorter. So that right there has an impact on difficulty. Obviously difficulty is a matter of opinion, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a Zelda with easier dungeons besides Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and Phantom Hourglass. Just because the dungeons are well designed doesn't mean they can't be on the easy side.

I agree that dungeons don't have to necessarily be difficult. I found the design to be excellent, despite the fact that they weren't as complicated as dungeons from previous games. However, I do believe that this is a plus. Skyward Sword's rooms are large and better conceal the way to get to the next room than former installments.

 

[Ventus]

No, I didn't. A) it IS a fact. Were you to have my brain and went and played Skyward Sword, everything would be easy. I've no proof as of late, but it's really whatever at this point. Who cares, I'll drop that.

You're the only one misunderstanding as of now. I'm sorry, perhaps I should make my posts clearer.

 

[athenian200]

Let me begin with the positives: The controls were solid, the story wasn’t terrible, the graphics were as good as can be on a Wii, and for the most part, it was the Zelda I was used too. The absolute most genius part of the game was the use of timeshift stones – those were one of the most innovative gameplay elements I have seen in a long time. But there were so many things that I thought didn’t work.

I can agree with you about the timeshift stones, actually. I've always fantasized about a dungeon that relied on dynamically shifting time as a gameplay element, ever since OoT. I wanted more of what we were seeing there in a small way. I'm very pleased with how this was implemented.

Skyward Sword lacked a majestic over world full of things to do – sure, the sky was majestic enough, but it was entirely void of gameplay. Spotted islands – one of my issues with The Wind Waker - are nowhere near interesting enough to compete with the vast over worlds of Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and Majora’s Mask. I was hoping for something of that style to emerge beneath the clouds – some sort of Hyrule or Termina Field, but unfortunately nothing of the sort emerged. I believe that this element is essential for Zelda games to succeed.

I kind of agree, I would have liked to see a unified overworld. But however, I feel that the density and size of the areas around each dungeon makes up for the lack of this somewhat. I do not think the islands and/or the sky were really intended to be anything more than a treasure hunting area and a new combat dynamic for use at key points in the game. The situation isn't ideal, but I don't feel that it's a game breaker in the least.

The next issue I had with Skyward Sword was the dungeon design. Except for the Ancient Cistern and the Sandship, I felt that many of the dungeons were stereotypical Zelda dungeons that could’ve been designed by a 5th grader – they lacked many innovative elements that had been present in previous dungeons – and none of them were anywhere near as good as the Stone Tower Temple from Majora’s Mask or the Spirit Temple from Ocarina of Time – two of my favorite dungeons.

I disagree with you here. I feel that Lanayru Mining Complex also had a lot of innovative elements. The hand switches, the timeshift stones you mentioned yourself, the Gust Bellows, the whole minecart thing, the rocket-launching enemies... all of this seemed pretty innovative to me. Your also forget the use of the beetle, and the new way you have to use your sword in combat. It requires more attention to movement, and it is well-balanced enough to add to the game. What about that Fire Sanctuary puzzle that involved the use of water? The digging areas, for goodness sake. You are really reaching here, IMO, and I don't understand your reasoning at all. The dungeons were as difficult as any previous Zelda title, and certainly more difficult than Twilight Princess.

Another issue I had was the use of the harp. The Ocarina in both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask was a musical instrument that I felt like I was playing. The harp was a joke. The sad thing is I have always wanted to play a harp in a Zelda game, and I was ecstatic when I learned the Harp was the musical instrument of Skyward Sword. Playing it is an unfortunate chore that I tried to avoid at all costs – like something out of Wii Music.

I also disagree with this. I found the idea of playing the harp using rhythm and timing to be an interesting dynamic. It was different from how we've played instruments in all other Zelda games, and challenges you in a new way. It also has the advantage of not requiring you to commit the songs to memory. Finally, the songs played on the harp sound quite beautiful, in my opinion. The only thing that bothers me is that we didn't have more uses/songs for the harp in-game, but I see no point in harping on that subject.

The next thing I felt this game lacked was a bustling metropolis. Ocarina of Time had Castle Town, Majora’s Mask had Clocktown, Wind Waker had Windfall Island, and Twilight Princess had Castle Town. All Skyward Sword has is Skyloft – a tiny city compared to the biggest ones in other games. I was hoping for a large city beneath the clouds, but no city was there to meet my wishes.

I might be willing to concede that Clock Town in Majora's Mask was a much busier place, but I feel that Skyloft was far busier than any of the other places you mentioned. It definitely had more to do than Castle Town in Twilight Princess, and seemed to be on par with Kakariko Village and Castle Town in OoT. Windfall Island might have had a little more to do, but not that much. In other words, it falls above average, not below average.

Because Skyward Sword lacked so many different elements that make Zelda great, I have decided that it was the worst 3D title – not the worst in the series, but nowhere near the top.

I couldn't disagree more. Skyward Sword is my second favorite Zelda game, right after Majora's Mask. I think it has brought back many elements of what makes Zelda great, elements that were lost in Twilight Princess. It mixed seriousness with playfulness, it gave you a sense of exploration, Fi was there to help you analyze but not take the spotlight... it was almost perfect. Certainly there are some minor gripes, but I don't see how they ruin the game. ALL of the games have things I can pick on.

This brings me to my next point – I just can’t see how people are calling this the best Zelda game when it is nowhere near as good as any other 3D Zelda title? Am I the only one who thinks that Skyward Sword was a disappointment? Or is everyone else jumping on the perfect score bandwagon?

It may not be the best Zelda game ever, but you do have to admit that it's above average. It's a very good game, and it's definitely better than most of the recent efforts in the Zelda series.

 

[MW7]

No, I didn't. A) it IS a fact. Were you to have my brain and went and played Skyward Sword, everything would be easy. I've no proof as of late, but it's really whatever at this point. Who cares, I'll drop that.

You're the only one misunderstanding as of now. I'm sorry, perhaps I should make my posts clearer.

I'll second you buddy. Skyward Sword didn't challenge me much at all either. I beat the game in 35 hours- found every goddess cube, did 65/80 of the gratitude crystals, and needed about 6 more heart pieces for full heart containers. I felt like I was taking my time with the game and actively went out looking for sidequests. No puzzle in the entire game took me longer than 30 seconds to mentally figure out. I did come close to dying a couple of times early in the game, but that was mostly because of my refusal to ask Fi for help on enemy weaknesses. In the final battles I used one red potion and that was all I needed to beat them.

Having said all that, it was still a very, very enjoyable game. Not quite my favorite ever but easily my favorite Wii game. Also I was reading some the posts back awhile, and I'd like to point out that flaws and nitpicks are the same thing IMO. Nitpicks are just a subset of flaws that aren't that critical to the overall game experience. They still detract from the experience though but no game is perfect anyway. No one really complains about this but me, but my biggest complaint was that Skyward Sword had a strictly linear dungeon progression. I was expecting a slightly more nonlinear game because I felt that linearity was what led Twilight Princess slightly astray. Once again as the OP said, expectations come into play a lot.

 

[RoBirk29384]

Skyward Sword is in an entirely different league. My brother is playing Twilight Princess as I have slowly completed Skyward Sword, and I can say, there are quite a number of elements in Twilight Princess that I sorely miss in Skyward Sword. As you mention, this does include a vast overworld filled with numerous sidequests and large caves off the beaten path, as well as that staple large town filled with shops, mini-games, and people that always had something interesting to say. And how could we forget the ability to turn into a wolf, attach bombs to arrows, and throw a ball and chain.

HOWEVER,

Skyward Sword contains gameplay elements previously unseen in any game, let alone a Zelda game. Directional swings in the sword make each battle unique, whether against a lowly Bokoblin or a gargantuan boss. We were prompted to return to previous lands and dungeons that often revealed new areas and enemies to encounter. While more condensed, every area visited is vibrant, unique, and filled with content. To top it off, we get the origin story we've been waiting years for, told in a manner that touches the player in ways no Zelda game has before.

It being a prequel, I understand the lack of civilization, but Skyloft did disappoint, particularly considering it was previously compared to Majora's Mask's Clock Town in the spirit of the everchanging needy community that would feed our sidequest needs. Unfortunately, these turned out to be somewhere around 12 fetch quests that rewarded us with gratitude crystals that replaced Ocarina of Time's Gold Skultulas or Twilight Princess' Poe Souls. As expected, we're rewarded with a piece of heart, rupees, and larger wallets.

That said, we were introduced to numerous goodies spread across the surface, such as Goddess cubes that encapsulated the spirit of Treasure Charts in Windwaker, as well as treasures used to upgrade your equipment and an improved bug collecting effort that rewards the player with tools to infuse potions, as opposed to rupees. The sidequests seen on Skyloft are little detours compared to the vast amount of content experienced on the main quest, which arguably adds more than a dozen dungeons outside of the more traditional dungeons, thus removing any notion of an empty overworld with alternate paths and caves.

Skyward Sword is a fantastic game filled with many new elements while recycling some of the most memorable aspects of previous games. As mentioned by Aonuma and Iwata, the limited time and people involved with the project limited them on the number of things they could try as far as meshing classic and new Zelda mechanics for a perfect Zelda experience. For a future HD title on Wii U, I'd like to see the lessons learned in Skyward Sword's brand new elements incorporated into a world similar in size to Twilight Princess' Hyrule, filled with more life, more NPC interaction, and more paths to travel as detours to the main quest, as a true "best of" montage.

This is the world that the fans want, and as Nintendo moves into the next generation of graphical prowess, it's what needs to happen to make Zelda credible next to other revered action-adventure HD games such as Assassin's Creed and Fable.

 

[JohnFC]

Dictionary definition of fact: "something that actually exists; reality; truth."

A fact would be "Clock Town's walls are the color beige" or “Clock Town has a clock tower in it". It is your opinion that Clock Town is more intricate than Skyloft and that there is more to do. Anything that involves a description of anything that is not a solid fact (determined from observation of things that can be classified as factual). It can't even be considered a fact that Clock Town is physically smaller than Skyloft unless there was a unit of measurement to compare the two, and if Link's size counts as a source of reference.

Point is, you also do not understand what fact is.

If I wrote down a list of everything you can do in Clock Town and everything you can do in Skyloft, Clock Town would have the bigger list. There are more things to do. How is that not a fact? All of the sidequests, mini games, and secrets are all things that actually exist. You cannot deny that they aren't there. And if you count them, there are more in Clock Town than Skyloft. I don't see how this could be any clearer....

 

[MW7]

If I wrote down a list of everything you can do in Clock Town and everything you can do in Skyloft, Clock Town would have the bigger list. There are more things to do. How is that not a fact? All of the sidequests, mini games, and secrets are all things that actually exist. You cannot deny that they aren't there. And if you count them, there are more in Clock Town than Skyloft. I don't see how this could be any clearer....

For instance in the gratitude crystal sidequest there are 13 component quests whereas the Bombers' Notebook has 20 entries in it. Some of those entries took place outside of the city limits, but the same occurred in Skyward Sword as well. Also most characters have at least 2 activities in the 3 day cycle of MM (with exceptions of course like the banker) but a few have very intricate routines (the mailman for example). In Skyward Sword most characters were in one place during the day and one place during the night but that's about it. There are some exceptions of course for some sidequests I think. So I'm saying at best for Skyward Sword, some NPCs have as many activities as the average Clock Towner. However, some individuals in Clock Town have as many unique activities as several average residents combined.

One way of measuring the size (not the best way perhaps) of the cities would be the amount of time to cross the diameter of the towns. In this respect I confidently assume Skyloft would take longer to traverse, and therefore by my shaky logic would be larger.

Also just in numbers of NPCs alone I'd guess Clock Town has more. Also many characters in Clock Town have absurdly many different lines of dialogue. The Happy Mask Salesman has at least 20 for sure for each normal mask. The curiousity shop owner is secretly racist if you wear the right mask, and there are so many lines of dialogue that would go unnoticed unless you literally tail an NPC for the entire 3 day cycle.

Yes Skyloft is comparable, but by sheer numbers Clock Town has more things to do. I'd say that is a fact on the basis of the number of sidequests/minigames, NPCs, and lines of dialogue- all objective criteria. Saying it's more intricate is opinion though because intricacy is intangible and hard to define operationally.

 

[Majora's Cat]

If I wrote down a list of everything you can do in Clock Town and everything you can do in Skyloft, Clock Town would have the bigger list. There are more things to do. How is that not a fact? All of the sidequests, mini games, and secrets are all things that actually exist. You cannot deny that they aren't there. And if you count them, there are more in Clock Town than Skyloft. I don't see how this could be any clearer....

You did not specify before, thank you for clearing that up. It is possibly to say that there are more characters and sidequests in Clock Town, but it is still inaccurate to claim that it is more intricate than Skyloft, because the word "intricate" covers a much broader spectrum of aspects of both metropolises.

I'd say that is a fact on the basis of the number of sidequests/minigames, NPCs, and lines of dialogue- all objective criteria. Saying it's more intricate is opinion though because intricacy is intangible and hard to define operationally.

This is exactly what I meant, as I've explained above.

It's all a matter of opinion (once again), because intricacy can mean a lot of things. If you're talking about architecture, then most gamers will definitely say Skyloft. Even that is not provable as a fact, because nothing is being measured. Since there is no basis of which intricacy can be measured, there is no way that it can be considered a fact. Moving on, lots of people here are arguing that Skyloft isn't as well designed as other metropolises. I have to disagree, because not only is the interaction with characters brilliant, but there are just so many houses and buildings in the sky city to keep players busy.

In contrast to the excellent daytime version of Skyloft, it seems as if Nintendo hardly invested any effort in making the nighttime experience more enjoyable. There just isn't anything to do at night, which is quite the disappointment. Even Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time featured collectibles that could only be found when the sun drops behind the horizon - namely Poe Souls and Golden Skulltulas. But most gamers won't even discover the nighttime feature, so it isn't very significant when it comes to evaluating the sky city's design.

There is still fun to be had collecting Gratitude Crystals, which serves as SS' Golden Skulltulas. These sort of items have become a staple of the franchise and are a fresh change from the enemy forms of both the Poe Souls and Skulltulas. Instead of having to defeat enemies to gather these collectibles, Link must show kindness and compassion to earn Gratitude Crystals. It may seem pretty lame, but it's certainly a nice side attraction for the player to get away from the constant action that goes on in Skyward Sword.

 

[Chris073]

I have to say that I totally disagree.

However, unlike most, at first, I did not expect much from SS because I was disappointed that the TP style did not return (which I loved)
But after seeing trailers and screenshots I indeed began to expect more of it, and it really lived up to my expectations.
The story was great, the graphics were beautiful, the controls were amazing.

There was just one thing I found curious; I expected a real neglected and destroyed world underneath the clouds, because there were so many monsters and war etc.
And falling out of the sky and entering the Sealed Grounds, that kind of was my idea of Hyrule at that time, with the old temple and so on.
And later on I entered a sort of a 'Alice in Wonderland' kind of forest, with the idea: Well was this the world that was so horrible to live in that all the people had to be send to the sky (even after Demise was imprisoned).

Still in my opinion (and I didn't know it could be possible) Skyward Sword surpassed Ocarina of Time (just by an inch)

 

[MW7]

In contrast to the excellent daytime version of Skyloft, it seems as if Nintendo hardly invested any effort in making the nighttime experience more enjoyable. There just isn't anything to do at night, which is quite the disappointment. Even Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time featured collectibles that could only be found when the sun drops behind the horizon - namely Poe Souls and Golden Skulltulas. But most gamers won't even discover the nighttime feature, so it isn't very significant when it comes to evaluating the sky city's design.

There is still fun to be had collecting Gratitude Crystals, which serves as SS' Golden Skulltulas. These sort of items have become a staple of the franchise and are a fresh change from the enemy forms of both the Poe Souls and Skulltulas. Instead of having to defeat enemies to gather these collectibles, Link must show kindness and compassion to earn Gratitude Crystals. It may seem pretty lame, but it's certainly a nice side attraction for the player to get away from the constant action that goes on in SKyward Sword.

I never thought about it that way about how there isn't much to do at night besides get some gratitude crystals. On the surface the gratitude crystals do seem lame, but I liked it just on the basis that it seemed in the same vein as Majora's Mask. It's odd how if someone asks you to take the trash out in real life, you don't want to do it, but in a video game if someone wants you to deliver a letter, you suddenly get excited because you discovered something new to do in the game.