Zero Punctuation: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

[Mr. Omega]

I did agree with a lot of his points. The sky was empty compared to the Great Sea, the 3 boss battles against the Imprisoned was unneeded, and while I don't think it was nearly as padded as he says, the quest for the Song of the Hero was the most padded piece of padding in a game I've played in a long time (Fuck you Water Dragon!).

That being said, I still loved the game. The combat was good and responsive, the puzzles were some of the best in the series, and most of the little tweaks were well appreciated (radial menu, stamina bar, ect.) The story was pretty good, and really, the only time I minded the fact that there were only three areas to explore was during the Song of the Hero thing, because every other time you were going to a new part of that area.

The game was a little longer than it should have been, and the bird-riding was really pointless except for one point in the game, but I think the good far outweighed the bad. Great video, funny as always.

 

[Kenkaku]

Nintendo doesn't care what you think...

I'm pretty sure that Nintendo, just like any software company, cares what their customers think, it's just that whoever has criticism has no idea how to properly state it, and thus get ignored. Now is the perfect example: anyone that has played Zelda, including those that made the games, knows that not every game is 'exactly the same,' so when someone criticizes the series for that, why should they feel the need to listen to that person?

The closest I've seen to actual criticism was a 10 point list by a Kotaku editor on things that Skyward Sword fell short in, but titled it "10 Stupid Things Terribly Wrong with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword", and then proceeded to write the article in a way solely to incite nerdrage. The writer admitted that it was just supposed to be all in good fun and I agreed with most of his points, but fact of the matter is, the way he wrote that article is not going to make any of the fans of the game, nor Nintendo itself, agree with what he was trying to say.

I think it would be more apparent that Nintendo, and any other game company at that, would be willing to listen to fan and critic feedback if they acted with more class over it. There are a lot of areas that Skyward Sword can improve in, but who is Nintendo going to listen to: the fans claiming it's probably the best Zelda game ever made, or those that say it's a bad game because it's exactly the same as every other Zelda game?

 

[LordXel]

.... _> 0_0 I DISAGREE BUT I RESPECT YOUR OPINION! Yes I loved the game, yes I'm a Zelda fanboy, yes the game has its moments that annoy me but its supposed to be, the Zelda games are like abusive husbands or wives, I always come back for more. OK that went out poorly.

Yes Fi is annoying, so much so that she should take an arrow to the knee. YOU SEE HOW ANNOYING THAT JOKE IS?! FI ISN'T AS BAD AS THAT!

But again, I digress. Still loved this review because what I come here for is to see Yahtzee rip apart my favourite games. BUT, yes Zelda games reuse the same shit but it is NEVER as bad as Call of Duty.

BUT, AGAIN I DIGRESS! Still I'm surprised Yahtzee didn't complain about Dowsing or centering the cursor. Well I'm off to play it some more even though I should pay Okami attention. Why have I not played much of Okami you ask? Maybe its because its too Japanese for me. But isn't Nintendo Japanese? ................ Hypocrite for the WIN!

XD

 

[Xman490]

stun/electric prods? like in Dead Rising 2: OTR and it's time-paradox downloadable predecessor?
stepping in water waking up monsters? like in Amnesia: The Dark Descent?
forest, desert, and volcano dungeons and crawling text designed only for new players? like in EVERY SINGLE 3D ZELDA GAME BEFORE?

It's a good thing I dismissed the "OOH, LOOK! Swing the Wiimote in a certain direction like this is a Wii Sports title!" and "OOH, LOOK! You can collect bugs and stuff to upgrade your weapons along with your wallet!" trailers. The main villain looks interesting, and Susan Arendt showed that he reads (as in still no voice, just text) interesting, but I can watch Youtube cutscene compilations for that.

 

[Qitz]

"I've found a plot hole! NURSE!"

Wonder who Yahtzee's nurse is? Jim Sterling maybe? Cause that would be funny as hell.

 

[The Great JT]

I want to say something that comes out as, "I knew Yahtzee would have given a great big 'meh' toward it," and not come off like a smug jackass, but I realized that such is impossible. As far as I care, let him tear Zelda to pieces, I honestly do not care. If I wanted to pick up a Zelda game, I would and I would judge it on my opinion instead of his. The fanboys do that and it seems to work out well for them. Even so, I see where Yahtzee is coming from on this, Link is near-totally devoid of personality, Zelda is barely any better, Ganondorf doesn't seem to have any real motivation besides, "he's evil," and the games tend to be pretty paint-by-numbers. Does that mean the games can't be fun? Not at all.

 

[Miitan]

Normally I laugh along with Yahtzee's rants on the latest games, but it's quite sad when everything he says completely matches everything I've experienced when playing the game.

Skyward Sword was a step back for the Zelda series in my opinion and the fact that Nintendo have stated that this is the direction they're looking to take for future Zelda games is worrying indeed.

 

[BX3]

Then which one is the worst?

Aside from the CDi versions? Well, in my personal opinion, Wind Waker. Was pretty fun for a bit, but got frustrating to play around the halfway mark looking for those gems.

Like I said, though, I've only ever played 2 Zelda games, so my opinion on the franchise means shit, at least until I try out Skyward Sword and get OoT for the 3DS.

 

[YodaUnleashed]

'Hitchhikers may be escaping patients'- I'm sure that's a reference to one of Halo's chapter titles that pop up during levels. That or an unintended conincidence.

 

[Shameless]

I think this wasn't just a critique of SS, it was a critique of how Nintendo worship Nintendo to the death and think Miyamoto is a God, granted Nintendo and Miyamoto had a huge impact on this industry but come one !

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Still hating this new layout.... this was so hard to find...

You couldn't have been looking very hard then. I came on the main page and it was the first thing I saw, and I wasn't even looking for it.

The fact that I got the first post, 9 minutes in, on a ZP video, no less, should show how "easy" it was to find.

Spoiler

I have a hard time seeing how that was hard to find.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

For those talking about Yahtzee calling it the worse Zelda game ever, I think you misheard him. He called it the worst Zelda game -he's ever played- which, considering the little graph he showed, is about 5. And aside from Phantom Hourglass (which I haven't played), I'd pretty much agree with his comparison to those other games.

Yahtzee has a good habit of summarizing all my criticisms of a game (albeit not mentioning some positive things I find) in one concise video. This review did not disappoint. The combat system as a whole took a considerable step back from WW and TP, largely due to the game's fetish for motion controls. The dungeons were shortened and time was replaced by continual returns to the three areas, which felt a whole lot like padding. Fi was a terrible helper, and made me miss Midna like no other. The fights with the Imprisoned were stupid and annoying, so of course they had to make us do them three times.

Of course there were things I really enjoyed about the game (good puzzles and while it didn't work out all the time, I liked the fact that they tried something new with the item system and the dungeon items), but this felt like more of a slog than TP did, which in turn felt like more of a slog than WW did, which in turn felt like more of a slog (well, mainly just ONE part of the game--you know which) than OOT did.

Know what's even worse? I missed Navi after I played SS.

 

[radioactive lemur]

This will probably never happen as there are about a zillion more popular games in recent and upcoming releases, but I would love to hear his take on Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection.

 

[scorptatious]

I actually really like the game. I can kinda agree that the game does seem to be a bit padded out by the time I have to search for the different parts of the Song of the Hero though. Plus the multiple fights against the Imprisoned were just annoying.

I liked the rest of the game though, I felt it's one of the better Zelda games I've played. The motion controls are really good and made combat very fun and interesting. And the orchestrated soundtrack is absolutely beautiful.

This game has also somewhat changed my opinion on motion controls. If they can be this good, then maybe there could be a future for them.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

What an awesome vid to start the day(yea I just woke up 30min ago!).

Thanks Mr.Croshaw for this and have a Merry Christmas!*



*And that goes to every other escapist.

 

[PlasticTree]

I'll just give my opinion then, since displaying your opinion on things seems to be what people are supposed to do on the internet:

- Yes, all your points are valid.
- Yes, it's not as good as The Windwaker or MM or OoT for that matter.
- It does have some aspects that are great improvements to the Zelda 'formula' though; especially the motion controls. Not only does it work (no really, it does) but it also made fighting regular baddies truly fun and satisfying, and the same can be said about a lot of items. The whip was useful in tww, but now it suddenly scores high on your 'grafitication' scale as well.
- The dungeons and most bosses are not revolutionary, but they can definitely be counted among the best of the series. Which means they're about as good it gets.
- The overall quality is just very high. People tend to forget to mention this in reviews, since it's the case for about all Zeldas, but that doesn't make it less true.
- Not 'essential' but still worth mentioning: the game and its art style are gorgeous.

Overall, does this make Skyward Sword a brilliant 3d Zelda? No, it only beats Twilight Princess. And does this game allow lots of frowning for still using the same mechanics it used 15 years ago? It's justifiable, but sure, go ahead. However, does this make Skyward Sword not one of the best games of the last few years? Certainly not.

 

[Madmanonfire]

A few points were accurate (like not having much to explore in the sky), but most criticisms were pretty off. Good thing these aren't meant to be taken seriously.

 

[Xman490]

Still hating this new layout.... this was so hard to find...

You couldn't have been looking very hard then. I came on the main page and it was the first thing I saw, and I wasn't even looking for it.

The fact that I got the first post, 9 minutes in, on a ZP video, no less, should show how "easy" it was to find.

Spoiler

I have a hard time seeing how that was hard to find.

Yes, but videos take a while to show up on the front page, and slightly older videos are bunched on the front page with the other new content. Finding even older videos requires digging into the entire set by a tab instead of a list of shows that has a "newest episode" link for each.
Also, the site is now really slow.