Tag: Axle

Now that we’re past the first four dungeons of Skyward Sword, which I generally have endless praise for (or in the Ancient Cistern’s case, endless praise mixed with endless criticism), these Skyward Sword Dungeons posts should be on the shorter side in comparison, because oddly enough I don’t have as much to say about the game’s later dungeons. As I wrote near the beginning of my analysis of the Ancient Cistern, I think Skyward Sword’s second half has some problems,…

Alright, time for the fourth Skyward Sword Dungeons entry. Now it’s time to cover the Ancient Cistern, and depending on whether you’ve watched enough of my mailbags and other videos, my opinion about this dungeon may surprise you. This dungeon was the one I anticipated the most before the game came out. When Nintendo first announced the dungeon, my first thought was “meh, it’s just a pretty temple”, though I was pleased that it wasn’t actually identified as yet another…

Hey guys! In this video I’m talking about a concept that I don’t feel like people talk about much… and that’s having a sense of exploration and almost… “treasure hunting” in a Zelda game. I think that a lot of Zelda games have an increased focus on finding chests, OR just finding the next dungeon, and aside from Twilight Princess and perhaps to a lesser degree The Minish Cap and The Wind Waker, modern Zelda games have less of this….

In the last post I went over the Skyview Temple, talking about how it was a very traditional type of dungeon but with a thicker atmosphere and more detail put into the concept than ever before. In some ways the Earth Temple is a direct opposite: It’s quite unlike pretty much every other dungeon in the series, but its atmosphere isn’t nearly as thick. In the past I’ve praised Skyward Sword for having some of the most unique and original…

This is the first of a series of articles which will discuss elements Zelda has drawn from various mythologies from around the world, as well as elements that they simply have in common. The first one we’ll cover is Arthurian Legend (part of Celtic mythology), because it has the most similarities to the Zelda series, as well as the fact that it contains the legendary sword Excalibur; The Master Sword’s similarity to Excalibur is one of the most recognized mythological…

This will be the first of a series of editorials discussing the dungeons of Skyward Sword, each going into detail and discussing multiple aspects of the dungeon. We shall begin with the first dungeon of Skyward Sword, the Skyview Temple. At first glance this dungeon appears to be pretty standard-issue. Like most first dungeons in Zelda games, it is located in the woods and is forest-themed. It is yet another “temple”, and it’s a ruined structure. It even resembles the…

Hey, do you remember these? You know, the big rocky underground places that appear in some Zelda games? Of course, by some games I mean, like, pretty much all of them. Hell, do you remember the original Legend of Zelda? The very first location you were supposed to visit was the cave where you get the sword. By caves, I’m talking about the Zelda tradition with them. In Zelda games caves are small sub areas that are used for a…

Got a new discussion video for you guys. This time around I’m going to talk about Twilight Princess and its “wild west” themes. This is the stuff you see a bit in Kakariko Village or (as commenters on YouTube have pointed out) in Link’s rancher background, and even with the spurs that are used to tell you how many speed boosts you have left on the horse. But of course, it’s most obvious in the Hidden Village. Either way, there…

Starting with the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, water-themed dungeons in the Zelda series have developed a special reputation for being challenging or frustrating dungeons. Because of the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, the term “water dungeon” came to be used for more than just identifying the core element or theme of a dungeon: It carries other connotations as well and always makes people think about difficulty or design. It’s become, in the eyes of some, a title…

Last week I talked about people who say Skyward Sword’s motion controls were unresponsive and put forth my own arguments against that. This is something of a follow-up, but it will be a bit different: I’m going to list solutions to some of the control problems I’ve heard of. Don’t worry, this is a one-time thing; I won’t be talking about Skyward Sword’s motion controls this much in future posts! As I said in my last post, Skyward Sword’s controls…