Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Catch-All

mrtomaytohead wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Needs more frequent save points. /ihaveatoddlergrumps

This is not what I wanted to hear.

/ihaveaninfantgrumps

Thankfully, this seems to mainly be an issue with the cutscene-heavy beginning. Having gotten past that, save points haven't been so far apart.

My this game is pretty. Really liking the way they handled the draw distance "fog". I think someone said it doesn't look right on Dolphin, but I imagine they'll fix that. Probably some sort of shader which isn't emulating properly.

cyrax wrote:

Finished up today doing a couple side missions before I head to the second area. It's good to have Zelda back even if I did get quite frustrated with the controls. But, the Loftwings flapping controls can die in a fire. I constantly lose my direction because the something can't interpret up and down as separate from titling the wiimote slowly. :(

I seem to recall the flying sections in Galaxy 2 and Twilight Princess having similar issues.

I'd love for the next-generation to allow people the option of using "normal" controls for sections where the motion stuff flakes out.

I've had zero problems with any of the motion controls, for what it's worth, including the Loftwing flapping.

I quit for the night at the entrance to the first temple having done a bit of exploring the islands in the sky. I'm really, really enjoying this so far.

So far my favorite song on the soundtrack.

I did not get to play TOO much tonight, but I managed to make it to the Woods. I have to agree the flying controls for me were AWFUL. I am not sure how I beat it. I sat at the bottom on the clouds for at least 10 min before I could figure out how to get any altitude.

IMAGE(http://www.gonintendo.com/content/uploads/images/2011_11/tumblr_luvomvqMH51qzp9weo1_1280.jpg)

I caved, traded in some games yesterday and bought this. I had to buy a separate Wii Motion plus attachment since the special editions were all taken, but that's fine by me. It still comes with the music CD.

I'll be giving this a try later today.

Also, my favorite part of that image is that it is Link to the Past Link. Which is clearly the best Zelda game ever.

Dominic Knight wrote:

So far my favorite song on the soundtrack.

Grah, I forgot to bring the CD to listen to at work today! /fail

A few longer thoughts now that I'm not on a phone:

  • Between skydiving, flying, and sword fighting, I'm starting to feel like this game is an action-adventure version of Wii Sports Resort. This is not a bad thing at all, as Wii Sports Resort is a fantastic collection of games. It's just very interesting to see so many of those technical ideas getting put to use in a "real" game.
  • They pulled some neat tricks to wring nice, smooth performance out of the hardware. My favorite is the way that objects seen at a distance are vague, stipled paintings that get more detail and shape as you near them. The best place to see this in action is in the Knight Academy at the beginning. Look at one of the flower bouquets on the walls, then walk away from it. The geometry will smoothly disappear and be replaced with a nice painterly texture.
  • Even where the motion controls don't match 1:1 with the on-screen movement, Link's animations do a good job of suggesting a kind of match. I noticed this first with the shield. There's not an obvious connection between shaking the nunchuck and brining out the shield (or doing a shield bash), but Link's animation for both has him sort of flicking his left arm out and then back in. When I noticed this, I found that I subconsciously started just flicking my left wrist inward to bring up the shield, almost like the shield were a coin on the back of my hand I was flicking up to my knuckles.
  • They've done some neat things with the directional cutting. There's the obvious example of the plants that need to be slashed in the direction of their mouths, but there are some more subtle uses. At one point, there are some ropes tying up some boards that need to be slashed in the right direction, and there's a blob-like enemy that has to be divided vertically into two smaller blobs in order to be defeated; if you slash it horizontally, the top blob pops up and then falls back down into the bottom blob to reform as the one big blob.
  • The beginning is a bit slow and cutscene heavy. I wasn't bothered by it except that it lasted longer than my toddler's naptime, so I had to turn the game off during a cutscene. However, I was encouraged that when I replayed it I noticed a save point I'd missed earlier, and I found that you can skip cutscenes with the 2 button. By skipping the conversations, I was back to where I had left off fairly quickly.

So far, I'm really in love with this game. But that's not really that surprising (blind loyalty, right, Jonman?).

I don't remember where I heard/read it but quite a while ago someone described Wii Sports Resort as the training ground/proof of concept for Skyward Sword and I thought that was an awesome idea.

Up to the Deep Woods... I've had to buy 3 shields already! Anybody know when I get a metal one?

Spoiler:

I didn't see the vertical/horizontal mouths on those first plants you fought. So instead, I pulled my shield out and shield bashed them. That stands them up, and you can cut their stems. But apparently if you don't shield bash them but just shield from their bite, it eats up 1/3 or so of your shield. Just like that, after 3 or 4 of those guys my shield was gone.

Also the uh... octorok? Their projectile attack almost demands a shield. But if you block the attack it damages about 1/5 or 1/4 of your shield. If you shield bash the projectile back at them, no damage. But still it only took a handful of those for my shield to be gone again.

Luckily I got the slingshot right after that, and was able to stun the rest of the octorok's on my way to the temple. But Fi warned me I didn't have a shield when I got outside, so back up I go to buy my 3rd one before the first temple.

ccesarano wrote:

Also, my favorite part of that image is that it is Link to the Past Link. Which is clearly the best Zelda game ever.

Indeed.

This was the exchange Sunday morning after my wife came home from the mall.

My Wife: "Do you want your Christmas present now, or do you want to wait?"
Me: "That depends. Does it start with a Z?"

I have no willpower. None at all.

Strange question - how can you get this far without having a Motion Plus attachment? We got ours when they first came out with Wii Sports Resort, I think, like two years ago. Is the list of games that require it so short it didn't drive sales?

We had a hardware problem, but it was a Nunchuk that has been through four or five PAXes and then apparently had it's cable pinched in the door of the entertainment center. I don't think there's any saving it. I didn't throw it away; it deserves a Viking funeral.

momgamer wrote:

Strange question - how can you get this far without having a Motion Plus attachment? We got ours when they first came out with Wii Sports Resort, I think, like two years ago. Is the list of games that require it so short it didn't drive sales?

I'd have to check, but I think the list of M+ games is less than 10. I still haven't picked up Sports Resort despite loving Wii Sports at launch. I'm just finding most of my friends would rather play boardgames instead of the Wii lately.

Unlike Zelda, Sports is primarily a multiplayer experience so if you want to play Sports Resort you needed $20 x # of remotes. Or you had to convince your Wii owning friends to pick up a copy as well or get the dongles for when they brought their remotes to play. It's the same issue that killed the GBA->Gamecube connectivity, just with slightly less money involved.

momgamer wrote:

Strange question - how can you get this far without having a Motion Plus attachment? We got ours when they first came out with Wii Sports Resort, I think, like two years ago. Is the list of games that require it so short it didn't drive sales?

We had a hardware problem, but it was a Nunchuk that has been through four or five PAXes and then apparently had it's cable pinched in the door of the entertainment center. I don't think there's any saving it. I didn't throw it away; it deserves a Viking funeral.

Easily, most people dismissed the one good real game to use it, Red Steel 2. Everything else has been the minigame stuff / not worth the time of day / Tiger Woods Golf.

So anybody been to the Pumpkin Bar yet?

Spoiler:

Found a customer at night that mentioned skydiving over the bar and something good happening. So I tried it. Very much visions of WSR skydiving. Think I earned 50 rupees for that jump. ;)

Day/night stuff is pretty interesting overall. Got to remember to check both when I head back to town each time.

shoptroll wrote:

It's the same issue that killed the GBA->Gamecube connectivity, just with slightly less money involved.

I had the connector cable. 2 of them, in fact. I might have possibly had three, I can't quite recall, but definitely 2. Used them for Zelda: Four Swords Adventures and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. It was a brilliant concept that wasn't used to its full potential. Having secret information on your GBA screen added an extra element to gameplay, and encouraged teamwork.

I think I'll have to head out and see if anywhere still has the special edition. Otherwise I'll have to grab an M+ remote as well. I already have to find some new cables, as I haven't plugged in my wii since I bought my new tv last year and only have the red/white/yellow cable which was fine for my old tv.

I had 3 of those GBA things and my roommate at the time had one. We managed to get two 4-player sessions a couple times when we invited his brother and one of our work friends over. Those were a lot of fun, but way too much effort.

Anyway, first Temple finished. Died on the boss once. I blame the sword controls. :p At least it let me skip the cutscene when repeating it.

Still annoyed there isn't a speed text option. Even holding down the A button all the time, the stuff still scrolls too slow for me. Whatever happened to pressing the B button and the text box would be full and then you could press A to move to the next one? I swear some of the games had that... maybe it was the Capcom GBA ones?

Before I plop this down rather than giving it to my fiancee for my Christmas list, is the gold wiimote bundle definitely preorder only?

Nintendo's e-mail ads say "limited edition" on the bundle. Walmart's Black Friday ad shows the bundles for $10 off this Fri (or maybe Thurs night at 10pm?). Should still be some out there this week, but not sure how much after that...

momgamer wrote:

Strange question - how can you get this far without having a Motion Plus attachment? We got ours when they first came out with Wii Sports Resort, I think, like two years ago. Is the list of games that require it so short it didn't drive sales?

Easy answer. You list every game that requires it, and I'll tell you how it's a game that didn't have any interest in my house. I mean, that list isn't exactly chokka-block with must-have titles, is it?

Zelda is the first one.

Also, we invested in 3 Wiimotes early on in our Wii ownership. Had we only had 1, it would have been easier to drop some bones on another one with M+ built in.

Wow, only 5 that require it.

I have 5 wiimotes now, although only the one with Zelda has M+ built in. I forgot the other day or I would have traded one of those in for Zelda as well.

You mean The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna wasn't a must have?

It's funny that with a list so small, Nintendo went ahead and put it in all their new controllers. My guess is that they're future-proofing for the WiiU. I should probably get some new controllers with M+ built-in. I don't like how the adapters rattle a bit with vigorous shaking. (OOCT)

gregrampage wrote:

You mean The Garfield Show: Threat of the Space Lasagna wasn't a must have?

Space Lasagna would be rubbish. It's cold in space. Who wants cold lasagna?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

My guess is that they're future-proofing for the WiiU.

That's my assumption as well. Actually, looking at Amazon the Wii Remote Plus is currently cheaper than Wii Remote + Adapter, so I guess there's something to be said for shrinking chips, yields and all that. Might as well pass the savings on to the late adopters.

shoptroll wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

My guess is that they're future-proofing for the WiiU.

That's my assumption as well. Actually, looking at Amazon the Wii Remote Plus is currently cheaper than Wii Remote + Adapter, so I guess there's something to be said for shrinking chips, yields and all that. Might as well pass the savings on to the late adopters.

If they didn't build it in then a fully functioning Wii controller would require 3 separate purchases, which is pretty absurd. I think building it in was a pretty necessary evolution.

4, if you want Classic Controller option too.

Related PA comic today.