Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Catch-All

I'm just before the end too. I just spent 2 hours finding Goddess Cubes. I really wish that I had marked chest locations when I did my aerial recon early on in the game!

spider_j wrote:

I'm just before the end too. I just spent 2 hours finding Goddess Cubes. I really wish that I had marked chest locations when I did my aerial recon early on in the game!

Aren't the chests marked though? They generally appear as the purple blocks with an arrow when you are flying around and take a look at your map.

Dominic Knight wrote:
spider_j wrote:

I'm just before the end too. I just spent 2 hours finding Goddess Cubes. I really wish that I had marked chest locations when I did my aerial recon early on in the game!

Aren't the chests marked though? They generally appear as the purple blocks with an arrow when you are flying around and take a look at your map.

Some are, some aren't it seems. I've definitely found some unmarked ones, and sent up way more than have been shown. Maybe the ones on larger island aren't marked? I wish I knew for sure, but I know they aren't all marked.

Sorry, what I meant is that if I knew how many locked chests I'd found, I would have a better idea as to how many more Cubes I needed to find.

I can confirm that not all chests appear on the map. Whilst leaping from Skyloft earlier, I found a chest that I had "unlocked" but it definitely wasn't on the map.

As it turns out, I wasn't as close to the end as I thought! Getting all of the gadgets doesn't mean that that the story is nearly over, apparently.

Finished 5th dungeon...

Spoiler:

pirate ship

. So many areas to go through almost feel like mini dungeons though. Really enjoying this game.

Now back to Skyloft for sidequest stuff before the 6th (final?) dungeon. Tonight could be the night!

I think someone here was asking about in-game things that tell you about locations of bugs?

My girlfriend just found something like that:

Spoiler:

Talk to the fortune-teller in the market

This game is so damn long!

I am in the process of securing some sacred healing water, which is (I think) just prior to the fourth of seven dungeons and I'm already at 25 hours played. I don't know where the time goes, I don't really go out of my way for collectibles or anything. My philosophy in these games is to wait until I have most/all of my tools so I can get all the side stuff done at once. Don't even have a damn hookshot or equivalent yet.

I really wanted to get through this by next Friday because I'm taking some time off but I don't think it'll happen. Zelda games are taxing on my brain in a way that makes playing for more than 3 hours a day hard.

I think you're about to get the hookshot.

But yeah, I'm at 34 hours or so. In what I think is the final dungeon of the main quests. But I assume there could be one more after this. Still have some sidequest items to find I'm sure. I'd like to beat it in less than 40 but the completionist in me may not let that happen.

Good Lord,

Spoiler:

Thunder Dragon's Boss Rush is hard. 9 bosses (quit after 4 for a heart piece, after 8 for Hylian Shield), no potions, no healing between rounds, only the gadgets you had when you fought the boss the first time. The Imprisoned 2 is irritatingly difficult, and I cannot find a way of beating the tentacle guy without taking at least 6 hits.

Just finished the game last night.

It may be the Shiny New Thing Syndrome, but I think this is my favorite Zelda title of all time.

Dungeon 6 was a bit of a let down for me, but the final dungeon and the lead up to the final boss was some of the most enjoyable Zelda moments I've had.

So I'm waaaay behind you guys, having just started yesterday. After beating the forest temple at 7:30 played, some impressions:

Man, Zelda is ugly. I haven't seen a Zelda this ugly since the sprite NES days. Who designed her? My wife even came in and commented that Link looked more like a woman than Zelda did. Ouch.

On the other hand, having an actual relationship between Link and Zelda is nice, instead of the usual OMG A PRINCESS!!!

This is my first game with the WMP remote, and I'm having a bit of a difficult time adjusting. It seems that many motions have a fairly specific speed they require, like flapping the bird's wings or something, and I often do things too spastically and get frustrated when they don't register. It's starting to click, though, and flying is pretty rewarding once you get it down.

On the other hand, I blame the designers for the very small window of advancement when you're trying to feint and swipe with your sword, whether the goblins or (notably) the first boss. The speed between "slash" and "rotate to slash from other side" and "rotate slow enough your enemy can adjust" is surprisingly small. This is rather off-putting.

Overall, I love the sky world/terra firma mechanic. The game shows a lot of little touches that the dev team cares, like the crudely-drawn portrait of Link on Groose's punching bag (which you certainly don't have to walk by). However...

...I'm ready to move beyond Ocarina of Time. Like, really ready. That game is, what, twelve years old now? But I feel like I'm playing the exact same thing. Sure, I have a bird instead of a horse, but everything from the game mechanics down to the musical cues and even Link's voice samples themselves are identical. First dungeon? Forest, of course. Plug the map in to see where I go next (pleasenotfirepleasenotfire)...yep, volcano world. Nintendo, OoT was definitely a crowning achievement, but you eventually have to move forward from there. I mean, can we at least get some new music and voices? This game is going to make a sh*t-ton of money; invest some of it to keep the franchise fresh! Mais, non.

Minarchist, look on the last page: I had pretty much the same complaint with regard to the Ocarina of Time. Almost word-for-word, really. However, things started to get mixed up a bit and evolve shortly after the fire temple. Eager to see more from there.

You are dead wrong about one thing, though: this Zelda is cute. My favorite design since Tetra in Wind Waker.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

You are dead wrong about one thing, though: this Zelda is cute.

Says the dude with an avatar of a tall blonde eating a horse's heart.

She's actually pretty short. But hey, now we know where heart pieces come from.

Touché.

I'm with Clockwork on Zelda's look. It didn't jive with me in screens/trailers but seeing how emotive the characters can be shifted me on her.

Does the visual theme of a dungeon matter much if the puzzles and layouts are always so wildly different? It doesn't bother me much. It's a fine line to walk for Nintendo with Zelda games, as it is with most of their franchises, appeasing fans that do want the traditional experience vs. critics.

I also think for whatever reason they are held to different standards than other developers. The differences between two Zelda releases are pretty vast in my eyes when compared to most franchises. I love the Modern Warfare games but they've made nothing but iterative tweaks since 2007, as is the case for most first person shooters. Uncharted, Gears/God of War, Assassin's Creed - I could go on. Part of the reason is those games are on one or two year development cycles, but even I think LoZ shakes things up more consistently.

Here's what I think it comes from: LoZ games have a lot of the same bullet points, and those points are what we remember long-term (because they get repeated every 5 years?). A lot of what comes in between gets lost to memory.

Maybe I'm just an apologist, maybe the long years between releases skews everything, but I never bought this idea that Zelda games are so formulaic that they need a huge shakeup. If Zelda games weren't like Zelda games anymore, what would be? Do we not need them anymore? Is Darksiders that amazing? I say no.

But Darksiders is pretty great.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I hate Girahim.

2nd fight with him probably took me 25-30 minutes. Burned through 2 fairies as well.

Spoiler:

Just cannot figure out the first phase. His hand grabs my sword no matter where I swing from. It's just like the first fight but worse. Every so often I somehow get a hit in then follow it up with several more while he's stunned. But for the other 10-15 minutes I just wail on him, he grabs my sword, and apparently waggle is the only way to get free before he nails you with those projectiles. I hate waggle. My arm is tired.

Stupid fight.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but damn, I've had enough for tonight.

Stele wrote:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I hate Girahim.

2nd fight with him probably took me 25-30 minutes. Burned through 2 fairies as well.

Spoiler:

Just cannot figure out the first phase. His hand grabs my sword no matter where I swing from. It's just like the first fight but worse. Every so often I somehow get a hit in then follow it up with several more while he's stunned. But for the other 10-15 minutes I just wail on him, he grabs my sword, and apparently waggle is the only way to get free before he nails you with those projectiles. I hate waggle. My arm is tired.

Stupid fight.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but damn, I've had enough for tonight.

Spoiler:

Having to Girahim a 2nd time (in mostly the same fashion) is one of the reasons that I didn't care for the 6th dungeon.

Thankfully, I figured out how to beat him a bit easier...

When he is holding his finger out at you, make circles with your sword. He will follow the point of the sword with his finger.

Stop your circle motion and reverse direction. His finger should remain in the same position. You can then slice him from the other side of where his hand is.

Wow... post-6th dungeon

Spoiler:

Sealed Temple Gate of Time

spoilers...

Spoiler:

No, Zelda, you didn't make me cry.

Damn man. Link pounding on the glass as his love is sealed away for centuries... Whew.

Again, the relationship is so much better in this than any other game.

Stele wrote:

Totally justified Girahim rant.

Spoiler:

I have fought every boss repeatedly over the last two nights. RoyalApe's method will work, but so does just changing the direction that your sword is pointing. After 3 or 4, he will not move his hand to mirror it. That's when you whale away at him! Shield to deflect his normal blows and the red darts, whirlwind when he surrounds you with darts. When he charges, just put a distance between you with dodge, and hopefully you will still be close enough to smack him when he recovers. If he jumps, 2 dodges should put you safe, but close enough to batter him.

I took him down without taking a hitin one minute twenty tonight!

I've also found great strategy for The Imprisoned.

Ah... so it's just...

Spoiler:

keep moving until he doesn't move with you, then attack?

Seems so simple when you put it like that.

*IF* the mechanics are the same as in the first fight, I found that

Spoiler:

if you let him get so close to you that he stops walking, he won't move his hand very quickly at all. It's when you're backpedaling and he's walking toward you the he seems to have omniscience. But let him close the distance and stop, you can swipe him pretty easily.

Doesn't make the rest of the battle any easier, but there you go.

Just stand in front of him when he is doing the hand thing, and move your sword slowly until he stops copying. As for the rest of the fight, 2 red potions++ did it for me! That's 4 complete heals.

Does anyone else find that the adventure pack, even maxed out, is annoyingly small? I have 2 bottles, 2 heart medals (seems daft not to use them) a rupee medal (I need to get rid of that, since there is nothing left to buy), a bug medal, a bomb expansion, and an arrow expansion in mine, but I have multiples of each medal, a few more bottles, other expansions and so on. It would be nice to be able to carry more bottles, at least.

[size=24]Game stopping bug alert[/size]

I haven't read the stuff in the spoilers tag as it evidently contains some spoilers. This is a qoute from a Nintendo customer service rep:

We have been made aware of the issue that results in being unable to progress in the Song of the Hero quest. If the game has been saved after completing the sequence of events, it will no longer be possible to proceed through the game on that save file. The only options at that point are to either start the game over or to use an earlier save file to continue.
Spoiler:

The situation is caused by performing the following sequence of events during the Song of the Hero quest:

1. At the beginning of the quest, go to Lanayru Desert to retrieve the song of the Thunder Dragon.

2. In the Lanayru Mine, speak with Golo the Goron.

3. Complete the Thunder Dragon's event, and receive his song.

4. Before heading to the forest or volcano regions, speak with Golo in the mine again.

5. At this point, the forest and volcano events will no longer occur, making it impossible to continue.

Solutions:

• This issue WILL NOT OCCUR if the Fire and Water Dragon songs have already been collected before collecting the Thunder Dragon's song. Talking to Golo in the Lanayru Caves will also NOT trigger this issue.

• If the game has been saved after completing the sequence of events, it will no longer be possible to proceed through the game on that save file. The only options at that point are to either start the game over or to use an earlier save file to continue.

I wish I had a better answer, but I'm afraid there currently is no other fix available. I can assure, however, that we are documenting all feedback we receive on this issue. Thank you for your patience and support.

Bummer. Glad that's been pointed out.

Makes me wonder, should that affect my GOTY rankings? God knows all the other games on my short-list probably had equally terrible game-breaking bugs, but the other systems are much better about patching that stuff out quicker.

For those of you who have made it that far, how easy is it to hit that bug? If it's a sort of counter-intuitive way of doing things, I'm not too worried about it. (I also managed to play through Other M without having any idea of its big game-breaking bug. I still have no idea what it is, honestly.)

Saw a topic about it on GameFAQs, but that post is a little more clear.

What I saw several people point out is that you receive that quest from the old woman in Sealed Grounds. So if you just go outside and do the part closest to you first, you should be fine.

Anyway, I've been keeping a copy of my save file in slot 3, as usual. So even if if does mess up on me, I shouldn't lose more than one play session.

I played through that part before the bug was found, In EXACTLY the wrong order, but thankfully I didn't

Spoiler:

speak to the Goron again

.

I think that I am close to the end now, but I have thought that before! I have found my least favourite part of the game so far:

Spoiler:

the room that ends with Din's part of the Triforce. Wait 30 seconds, jump. Wait 30 seconds, jump. c*ck it up, do it again. After 4 tries, I was ready to pack it in!

spider_j wrote:

I think that I am close to the end now, but I have thought that before! I have found my least favourite part of the game so far:

Spoiler:

the room that ends with Din's part of the Triforce. Wait 30 seconds, jump. Wait 30 seconds, jump. c*ck it up, do it again. After 4 tries, I was ready to pack it in!

Funny you should mention that. I failed that section at least 10 times. Each time, in progressively stupider ways. All in the first half of the section. I actually made it through the 2nd half in one try (by the skin of my teeth).

I was playing with my nephew during the section and the laughter as I kept getting worse just made things worse.

The worst was where I made the jump OK, but accidentally triggered a forward roll, stood up on the edge and stepped off.

I really made the game look bad.