Don't get me wrong, I love Skyward Sword. Despite some of my complaints, it really does manage to be one of the most entertaining games of the series and it's certainly my personal favorite. That said, out of all the (generally brilliant) items, I kinda... totally hated the Whip. -.-
I mean the central mechanics of it are plenty fun, but swinging it around is pointless unless it does something. Within the Ancient Cistern, there are really only three types of puzzles with it, all incredibly basic and can be done in other ways:
So essentially, with 1, the whip is a glorified key... one you only need to collect once. With 2, it's just the "do normal things from a distance" item. And with 3, it's the same as the bombs; with the bombs, you can only use bomb flowers in pre-set areas until you get the bomb bag. So the whip is your... vine bag.
None of this is impressive, creative, or terrible fun. I didn't enjoy flicking the whip at switches. Swinging, however, was handled pretty well I'll admit, but there was only like 2-3 whip swinging sequences in the entire game. This is a function that could have been played up more. The whip also had virtually no combat application.
I think the whip could have been better if they had:
The whip was the most useless item of the game as-is, I thought, which is weird since it did a lot more in ST. What do you think?
I mean the central mechanics of it are plenty fun, but swinging it around is pointless unless it does something. Within the Ancient Cistern, there are really only three types of puzzles with it, all incredibly basic and can be done in other ways:
- Flip unique whip switches with a flick of the whip.
- Flip a normal switch or grab a key with the whip from a distance.
- Swing when there isn't a vine there already.
So essentially, with 1, the whip is a glorified key... one you only need to collect once. With 2, it's just the "do normal things from a distance" item. And with 3, it's the same as the bombs; with the bombs, you can only use bomb flowers in pre-set areas until you get the bomb bag. So the whip is your... vine bag.
None of this is impressive, creative, or terrible fun. I didn't enjoy flicking the whip at switches. Swinging, however, was handled pretty well I'll admit, but there was only like 2-3 whip swinging sequences in the entire game. This is a function that could have been played up more. The whip also had virtually no combat application.
I think the whip could have been better if they had:
- Put in more swinging puzzles.
- Put in more moments where the whip flipped unique switches with special motions, requiring timing and skill.
- Have also function like TWW's Grappling Hook, allowing you to climb it up to ledges.
- More puzzles of PULLING STUFF TO YOU, like grabbing the key from the Bokoblin, or fetching far-off objects. Perhaps it could be used to grab bomb flowers or distant treasures?
- Some more creative stuff like in ST with the Snake Whip (and before you say the Snake Whip was different because it was a snake and could bite, the Whip in SS had the sticky orb. Why didn't they do cool stuff with the sticky orb?)
- More combat applications. I propose swinging overhead to whip an enemy's head to stun, underhand to grab their legs and yank them out from under them to trip them. Whipping from the left or right would allow you to aim at their hands and snatch their weapons. These would allow the whip to function as a harassment tool in combat, giving you time and openings. Perhaps this would allow you to pick up enemy weapons like against Koloktos and like in TWW... but it only really works with the whip. This would make the whip awesome. What if the whip pulled off the arms of Cursed Bokoblins, helping to neutralize them?
- Only underwater weapon? Yeah it's a whip, but it had the magic sphere so they could have made it a magical whip. Since it's a water dungeon, they could have made the whip into the only item that worked underwater, somehow. Perhaps underwater puzzles involving the above themes? Pulling you to things, pulling yourself out of water currents, and maybe even swinging off objects to change your direction while maintaining high speeds.
The whip was the most useless item of the game as-is, I thought, which is weird since it did a lot more in ST. What do you think?