Life and Death According to Zelda :)

It took me 35 hours to beat and I did not one side quest (I did look for goddess cubes) because they are have always been kind of pointless, to me at least, to beating the game. A side note to that, I wish I had did some side quests to get more bottles because more bottles would of helped a lot in this game.

I must say Zelda is one of my favorite series, I’ve played every game during their original releases. Skyward Sword does a few things that are the best in the series, and some things that are the worst in the series.

Best:

Dungeons

puzzles

challenge/difficulty

stuff to buy with rupees 

bosses

mini-bosses

pre-dungeon stuff*
There is this part where you obtain a small key in a certain way. Simple but very cool “Only Nintendo” moment.

*There are a few exceptions here that will be hit or completely miss with some players. Like the swimming for music notes part. That part is complete trash, partly because the point it comes in the game and mostly the controls. But, for the most part I thought the variety was refreshing.

Worst:

Navi-like helper (Fi)

The amount of hand holding and repeating stuff that stops the game dead in its tracks. Basically, unnecessary padding *

Music (its great, but not catchy like you would expect from a Zelda game)

Overworld; while mostly fine in the context of the game, it makes the seamlessness this series is known for non-existant.

NPC quirkyness

Villain

*Sometimes you are reminded in three different ways via cutscene, NPC, and Fi. But then a few times you get the classic LoZ/LA/LttP puzzle hint that is vague and cryptic that tests if you were paying attention; 30 hours ago in one case lol. I love the latter because it’s classic Zelda. Otherwise, some stuff truly does pad the game, even though it can still be considered fun. An example would be the Silent Realm with an explanation each time and a reminder when you picked up an item you have already gotten. But I think Nintendo made this game with their non-hardcore Wii audience in mind because it would be less annoying to someone who plays games 2 hours a week as oppose to 8 hour a day stretches.


About controls:
Now the controls are mostly fine if you have an optimal setup for them. The intro may be a little too long for veteran Zelda players, but they had to make it that way because they are forcing a new control on everybody. You are suppose to take your time and play around with it. With that in mind the intro is fine and certainly better than Twilight Princess.

Swimming is ass. It works until you get in a narrow space and need to turn. The jumping out of water onto a platform is stupid most of the time. Phil will hate this, I think. The music note part especially.

The game is really challenging though. Most of the game I was running around with 1 to 4 hearts because I got wrecked. Not Dark Souls difficulty of course, but challenging enough to keep you on your toes. That reminds me of another thing. Drop rates for hearts, rupees, and arrows are low in this game. So collecting rupees is fun because there is stuff to spend them on they will actually help you out like potions. Can’t wait to play the harder difficulty where enemies do more damage and there are no heart drops to save your ass. The boss rush in the harder difficulty will be insane.

Mostly when you consider the challenging puzzles along with the combat. Not to mention heart drop rate is very low in this game. Yeah at the final boss, and I have to go back to town to bring proper equipment and potions. Never thought I would ever have to do that in a Zelda game.

Hero mode seems like its going to be a pain in the ass. Can’t wait!

Geez! Took me a while to beat him. Have not fought a boss this tough in a Zelda game since A Link to the Past. I think this boss was harder though.

That had to be the most creative ways to obtain a small key in any of the Zelda games! It’s one of those simple things that hits you a moment later and you can’t help but note how freakin cool it was.

I was so doubtful after the first few hours, but man does it pick up.

My first impressions of Skyward Sword after two hours. More later when I play further.

I just spent 10 minutes rolling pots across the floor! LOL! Loving the motion controls.

It comes with the silly Wii-mote condom attached.

My body is ready!

Cowboys vs Redskins! LOL naw! The next installment of Zelda comes out tomorrow. I will be playing mostly all day, and doing some videos for my youtube channel. Most likely first impressions of each new area, maybe Heart piece and Goddess Cube locations. Originally was going to do a full playthrough, but that crap takes too long and everybody on youtube does playthroughs anyway.

Not to mention playthroughs do not pay that much on youtube unless you spam a crap load of videos. Not to mention the copyright issues if you are not doing constant commentary; and there will be lulls.  But really, who actually sits there and watches someone play through an entire game that he or she should be playing themselves?

What pays on youtube is to make content out of the game footage that no one else is doing, which is tricky.

I’ve done only two videos so far for Skyrim and made some money because it got waaaaaaaay more views than my all playthrough videos combined. So yeah 100+ videos at 15 minutes each which accumulate to an entire game playthrough is not worth it. Especially when compared to a single 2 minute video that can achieve far greater success.

Speaking of Skyrim and youtube, I should be working on my next video. I have to finish my outline, then film and commentate more gameplay. But, I have Zelda on the brain to the point I have not had the urge to play some more Skyrim.

I guess I’ll try to chip away at that.

Link does the moonwalk! Skyward Sword glitch.

For PC or Mac.

Basically after beating Skyward Sword you are able to start a second playthrough that is a lot harder. I’m very excited about this. I will record a full playthrough of this and upload to youtube.

A full normal mode playthough just does not seem as interesting to me since most people will be playing the game in that mode anyway. I will still capture any interesting side quests or heart container locations as well as first impressions of the game.

• Enemies do double damage
• There are no heart drops or heart flowers (unless you have a particular medal equipped which gives you a very small chance of getting a heart drop)
• The Sheikah Stone gives you all the hint clips from the beginning
• A bunch of NPCs acknowledge the fact that you’re playing in Hero Mode and let you skip certain tutorials/explanations

Good stuff though. Especially about the double damage and no heart drops. If you do not already know, Skyward Sword enemies take off a minimum of one heart damage. This is unlike in past 3D Zelda games where enemies would deal a quarter to a half heart of damage. The damage dealt to Link in Skyward Sword is so much greater than previous Zelda games that you start out with 6 hearts instead of the standard 3. The minimum health was changed to keep the early game balanced and feel the same as earlier Zelda games, but also allow the game to remain somewhat of a challenge as you gain more heart containers.

One of the problem of enemies taking a quarter heart of damage in past Zelda games is, while the early game felt fine in difficulty, the later parts became trivial at about 12+ hearts. Thus there is no incentive of getting 20 hearts, unless you are a completionist or beating Cave of Ordeals in Twilight Princess.

Also, there is no ability to pause the action via opening menus like in past Zelda games. Selecting items and potions in your inventory is done in real time.

Speaking of potions, the game does not freeze enemies during the drink animation. Therefore, drinking a potion is risky because you are venerable to enemy attacks.

There is an item upgrade system and potion crafting in Skyward System, so this Hero Mode could prove to add quite amount more depth and replay value to the game.

There is so much potential in hero mode to make it more challenging. For example, since there is no heart drops, you could do a one heart (take damage until you are at one heart) and no potion challenge with no deaths. Stuff like that.

Can’t wait. Skyrim will keep me busy until then!

Want!