Skyward Sword

[VanillaBean]

Wow, they really got to you this time eh?

And I think for that reason I refuse to play this game. I honestly like the Zelda series but Yahtzee's review really had me suspicious and now after this I believe that there is no possible way this game could be fun.

And that's not even including the fact that the game uses motion controls.

 

[Zeetchmen]

Totally agree, I only made it past the first dungeon before the terrible motion controls and quite possibly the worst first boss fight had me quit it for good.

Back to Skyrim!

 

[scorptatious]

I do agree with some of your points Yahtzee.

By the time I started doing the Song of the Hero questline, I felt the game was padding itself out quite a bit. Also I did kind of wish there were more places to go to in the Sky.

As for Fi, I actually didn't mind her. The only thing I disliked about her was that compared to the other companions in Zelda games, she didn't really have much of a personality. She was basically an emotionless robot.

If given the choice I would have one of the Kikwis as my sidekick instead of her. I like those little guys.

Still though, her farewell scene moved me a little bit.

Finally, the motion controls. Yes, there are some instances where sometimes the game wouldn't register your movements correctly, but for the most part I didn't have any trouble with them. In fact, as I've stated previously, they sort of made me think that perhaps if worked on a bit more, motion controls could have a future in gaming.

So overall, I really liked Skyward Sword. It's pretty much my game of the year.

 

[Allwing]

Is it possible to completely agree with this and still like the game?

I certainly hope so, because I do agree, and I do still enjoy the game.
Everything Yahtzee's mentioned is true, but I felt it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the game.
Different strokes and all that.

 

[KingCrInuYasha]

About Yahtzee's complaints on motion controls: The main problem is not the concept itself. The problem is that there have not been many good games involving them to justify further use in many gamers' eyes. Skyward Sword should have been a flagship title that showed the potential of motion controls. Instead, it's released at the tail end of the Wii's lifespan.

Other points Yahtzee mentioned:

1. Just completed the second dungeon and the controls haven't been too much of a problem for me, at least for now.

2. Not too many problems with backtracking, though I wouldn't be surprised to encounter them sometime after the third dungeon.

3. I can see what Nintendo was trying to do with Fi's character, however, I can't say I'm impressed. I don't hate her, but I highly doubt I'll put her in my list of best Zelda side characters.

 

[Dr. Face Doctor]

My major problem with Skyward Sword is that there's basically one town in the whole game. Sure there's populations of various things in each of the zones but there's little in the overall game to build context. In games like Wind Waker or Ocarina of Time, it really felt like I was trying to save all of Hyrule because as I played I got to KNOW all of Hyrule. There were so many towns and characters scattered about that it was hard not to take in the personality of each region.

But what am I fighting for in Skyward Sword? One small fucking town in the fucking sky, and some random dudes just floating around on rocks, and a bunch of creatures that don't seem to give a damn whether or not I even exist let alone if I'm helping them out. Oh and I guess Zelda too, but she got about the bare minimum of characterization before she was whisked away by a monster.

I guess what I'm saying is that on the context scale, I'd rade Skyward Sword pretty low. It's like link is just going around and doing one thing after another because there's really nothing else to do. It's the same problem I had with Alice: Madness Returns which felt like the middle portion of any God of War game, only stretched to the length of an entire game. Like I'm sort of tossed into this world that just doesn't give a fuck.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Having a different opinion is one thing, but saying nothing but the meanest and cruelest insults imaginable is another.

There's a common saying where I come from, it goes something like: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Constructive criticism is one thing, but spewing hatred and bile is another thing entirely, and it certainly isn't comedy.

Imagine that I verbally ripped everything you hold dear to shreds. How exactly would anyone in their right mind find that funny?

Mother of god, do you even know what a fanboy is and how you might come off as one in every single one of your posts in this thread?

You act like by criticizing your preferred piece of entertainment, let me repeat that, your preferred piece of entertainment, we're kicking your dog and harming a beloved family member.

I mean, did you really miss where the beginning of this article pretty much directly addressed people like you?

"If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" was something used to keep five year olds from fighting. As far as real world application, it's up there with people saying you can't criticize an athlete because "you couldn't do that". Christ, without critics and criticism, nothing would ever advance.

Or should we always be 100% happy with everything all the time? If he found to be lackluster, he has a column in which he is paid to voice his opinion and name the reasons. All you've done is go "NUH UH THAT WASN'T A FLAW! IT'S A GREAT GAME!"

A masterful defense.

 

[commasplice]

Without exaggerating I can name about 20 or 30 flaws in Skyward Sword including some and even more of what Yahtzee mentioned.

Name them.

The "flaws" that Mr. Crosshaw mentioned aren't flaws at all, because I did not notice them and they did not hinder my enjoyment in any way whatsoever.

If you didn't notice them, that doesn't mean that they don't exist. It just means you didn't notice them, or didn't consider them to be flaws. Because you're a different person. Who has different opinions. That are different from Yahtzee's. Which are also different. Because you're different people.

Having a different opinion is one thing, but saying nothing but the meanest and cruelest insults imaginable is another.

There's a common saying where I come from, it goes something like: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Constructive criticism is one thing, but spewing hatred and bile is another thing entirely, and it certainly isn't comedy.

Imagine that I verbally ripped everything you hold dear to shreds. How exactly would anyone in their right mind find that funny?

Cool straw man, bro.

Anyway. I'm a Zelda fan and I really enjoyed this game, but Yahtzee's right. The game has a lot of flaws. Here's the thing, though: the flaws in this game aren't so much an indication of how far the series has fallen, but how the industry has fallen.

I'm just going to come out and say it: I don't think Nintendo has any idea what they're doing anymore. They have some idea about what's fun, but I don't think they really know why those things are fun in the first place. To a certain extent, I think this is applicable to every other major Nintendo franchise (particularly Pokemon), but it is very evident in Zelda.

What I'm saying is this: because of the exponential growth of the games industry and the amount of money that is at stake each time a big-name game is released, developers are now forced to make games that they think we would like to play, as opposed to games that they would like to play.

So, we end up with a game that, in order to be considered part of the series, copies wholesale the staples of said series. Then, in order to put to rest the complaints of "sameyness," we take the major gimmicks of the console and dial them up to 11, so there can be no question that this game is different and new. To stifle the complaints of thin gameplay based on gimmickry, we guarantee that there will be hours of fun by making the players backtrack all over the same area, instead of just making a larger, more extensive world.

I know this is mostly just speculation, but I think that if Skyward Sword had been the next Zelda game after Ocarina of Time, it probably would have flopped pretty badly. But here's the thing: in a world where Modern Warfare has, for all intents and purposes, become the face of gaming, people like me, who never enjoyed Call of Duty, will CLING to games like Skyward Sword because, at the end of the day, shit Zelda is better than no Zelda.

All-in-all, I've got mixed feelings about this. I don't think that the game should get a pass for all of its mistakes, but I don't think that it should carry all of the blame, either.

 

[duchaked]

I enjoyed Ocarina of Time, and loved Wind Waker. Twilight Princess, much to my regret, is one I never got around to finishing it.
Skyward Sword...gahh I have to agree with Yahtzee's review. My friend just bought a Wii and Skyward Sword, and...smh

 

[Trishbot]

I will now prove you wrong, Yahtzee.

I loved Skyward Sword and none of your complaints about the game proved detrimental to the fun and enjoyment I derived from the game.

And, gasp of gasps, my opinion is just as equally valid as yours is. Not saying you're wrong, or I'm right, but many of the flaws of the game I either felt were so insignificant as to be nothing more than nitpicks or I felt were mechanics that I felt I enjoyed.

You criticize the motion controls? I love them. You criticize the art style? I love it. You criticize the characters and story? I found both fantastic. I felt the world, while not quite as diverse as, say, Koholint Island, was still bristling with stuff to do, games to play, treasures to find, enemies to battle, puzzles to solve, terrain to navigate, items to use, secrets to discover, and much, much more.

You criticize the "sameyness" of Zelda, and I attest that Skyward Sword is more fresh than Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Halo, Saints Row the Third, Uncharted 3, Gears of War 3, and so many others, even Skyrim. You say it doesn't change, yet I see a game with a totally new control scheme with motion-control that no other game, not just Zelda games, remotely has that's similar. I see a new world, with new characters, a new story, with new puzzles, dungeons, enemies, items, music, overworld layout, mini-games, bosses, RPG mechanics, a stamina meter, more robust item upgrading, a flying mount, a new save system, and even a totally fresh new final boss. Even the ART STYLE (whether you like it or not) is totally new to the series and extremely unique amongst games in general.

I fail to see how you can claim the game is still so similar when it's by far more fresh, original, and different compared to nearly every other game franchise and their sequels on the market.

 

[MasterDS]

I agree, I think Skyward Sword is padded to shit and basically any time spent in a Questing Area you've already visited feels like a total waste of time every time they do it. Plus I couldn't help but feel like the world at large felt simple and basic. I mean basically all 4 races' main issue is "There are bad guys over there! We live here so we don't like that." I mean compare that to my favorite game of the series, Majora's Mask. In that Clock Town's Residents were freaking out because the fucking moon was falling, the Swamps' waters were poisons and the Dekus were torturing a monkey to find out why, the Gorons of the mountain were freezing to death due to a never-ending winter, and in the canyon all the dead had risen. In that everyone was in Crisis Mode, which made is super fun to discover their problem and, ultimately over the course of some adventuring, work out how to lift their curses.

To me, that's really what I want from a Zelda game. I want to discover a world in crisis and vanquish foes to end the crisis. Majora's Mask was of course better suited to do this than any other because, due to the fact the world would always reset when you traveled back to day 1, saving the day could have serious ramifications without making side quests undoable in the process.

I will say though, overall, I liked Skyward Sword and though it was terribly padded, the world sort of fizzled out, and it really delivered some major let downs (I was hoping Gaebora would sacrifice himself early on and reincarnate as the owl later in the game. Instead he did nothing the entire game. Also there's the fact there's a huge missed opportunity in that you never get to explore a certain somewhere I won't spoil. It's only in the game for plot purposes and a final boss fight, which was really shitty.) I still thought the dungeons were really something and most of the stuff that wasn't revisiting was pretty fun, especially the desert.

 

[Lavi]

So... Skyward sword is to Zelda franchise as eight Triforce pieces fetching is to Wind Waker.

 

[gyroc1]

Again, I think the motion control lag could be because of his tv. In my experience, some newer tvs can't play video games well because of input lag or something. Others know more then me about this.

And again, I agree that Fi is more annoying then Navi and that the bad guys weren't very effectual. The good guys are so slow in being emotional that I, in my genre-savy jadedness, expected Ghirahim to suddenly appear or for something bad to happen. But nothing happened. (Maybe the writers were messing with tropes)

 

[Danny91]

This is the Extra Punctuation that seems to have finally answered for me the question of whether Yahtzee reads (some) of the forum responses on his Zero Punctuation videos...because that thread ended up especially vitriolic and this now seems to be largely a response to some of it.

 

[I forgot]

Yahtzee resorting to middle school antics with "if I don't gush it with praise, zelda's fanboy army will attack me" is really fucking pathetic. Use your brain for a minute. People aren't mad because you "pointed out a flaw" but because it's actually horseshit that isn't really a flaw, one you contrive or one you don't explain. You've been doing this for how long and you can't accept criticism yourself?

 

[collegestudent22]

BUT, I really hated Fi in this one. I don't want to change my goddamn batteries, for fuck's sake!. And yes, I know how to drink a freaking potion half-way through the game, thank you.

I almost miss Navi. Almost.

It seems almost like Nintendo asked themselves what fans liked about Ocarina, and could only come up with "annoying sidekick", so did that again. Just like Sega adding more characters to Sonic because, apparently, they felt that Tails was the only reason people played those games.

 

[TownTattle]

meanwhile at IGN...


Agree with everything said here.

 

[Lost In The Void]

I will now prove you wrong, Yahtzee.

I loved Skyward Sword and none of your complaints about the game proved detrimental to the fun and enjoyment I derived from the game.

And, gasp of gasps, my opinion is just as equally valid as yours is. Not saying you're wrong, or I'm right, but many of the flaws of the game I either felt were so insignificant as to be nothing more than nitpicks or I felt were mechanics that I felt I enjoyed.

You criticize the motion controls? I love them. You criticize the art style? I love it. You criticize the characters and story? I found both fantastic. I felt the world, while not quite as diverse as, say, Koholint Island, was still bristling with stuff to do, games to play, treasures to find, enemies to battle, puzzles to solve, terrain to navigate, items to use, secrets to discover, and much, much more.

You criticize the "sameyness" of Zelda, and I attest that Skyward Sword is more fresh than Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Halo, Saints Row the Third, Uncharted 3, Gears of War 3, and so many others, even Skyrim. You say it doesn't change, yet I see a game with a totally new control scheme with motion-control that no other game, not just Zelda games, remotely has that's similar. I see a new world, with new characters, a new story, with new puzzles, dungeons, enemies, items, music, overworld layout, mini-games, bosses, RPG mechanics, a stamina meter, more robust item upgrading, a flying mount, a new save system, and even a totally fresh new final boss. Even the ART STYLE (whether you like it or not) is totally new to the series and extremely unique amongst games in general.

I fail to see how you can claim the game is still so similar when it's by far more fresh, original, and different compared to nearly every other game franchise and their sequels on the market.

Wait; so you proved his subjective opinion wrong by replacing it with your own subjective opinion? ...Seriously; that is your big defence, your big comeback to the mean critic bashing your game? Come up with something better please, subjectivity is not 'proven wrong' by more subjectivity.