My Skyward Experience

Before I begin writing this segment I would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year. I hope this year finds you all well and will find growth for this blog.

I am currently in my lunch break in the middle of the voir dire process of jury duty selection so if at some point is seems like my thoughts have shifted slightly, that likely has to do with my inability to write this in the allotted time before I have to go back. For what it's worth jury duty (or at least this part of the process) is almost enjoyable if not just quite boring at times.

Warning: Slight spoilers

So after finishing off my semester I finally cracked open my collector's edition of Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (which I promptly finished on New Year's Day after playing for 15 hours straight in that sitting). At first this game struck me as just another game of the illustrious Zelda franchise and for the most part I was right. It fits into the same mold as some of its predecessors such as Ocarina of Time, Windwaker and Twilight Princess. Some differences to note are:

1) I felt the controls were clunky and not very intuitive (I think I finally figured out the full extent of the controls in the second to last boss battle and I even had a hard time selecting items in the menus and the constant centering of the pointer was irritating to say the least) and I felt that that took away from the enjoyable experience (I can't remember the last time I want to chuck my controller at the TV, in fact I don't think it's ever happened).

2) There is actually a different story behind this game (compared to Ocarina of Time, Windwaker and Twilight Princess). In fact, unless I wished something, they did not even mention the names Hyrule and Ganon(dorf). There is a relatively intricate storyline that puts a different spin onto the game (although with the announcement of an official chronology of the series it makes sense seeing as how this game preceded all other iterations of the Zelda franchise.

3) There were some difference in the item system in that you do not have full access to all of the items at any given time.

4) The game is MUCH harder than almost any other Zelda game (at least when comparing it to Ocarina of Time, Windwaker and Twilight Princess). Not only is the game actually harder (enemies do more damage compared to other games and you even start with six hearts, which you need. The only saving grace is that you do not lose any hearts for falling off a cliff, into lava, etc.), even some of the puzzles are quite confusing and some of the boss battles get quite difficult (especially two bosses you fight three times). That being said the final boss dishes out a ton of damage if he can land hits but other than that he is quite, and maybe almost too simple.

The gimmick to this game was the ability to fly around on a Loftwing (a giant bird), very much akin to the Kind of Red Lions, Linebeck's Ship and the Train (can't remember the name), in their respective games. Unfortunately I did not feel this gave anything extra to the game, rather I was annoyed every time I had to schlep across the map to get treasure or go somewhere. 

Also instead of having multiple regions to go to (most notably in Ocarina of Time and Windwaker) you return to the same 3 areas (not including your home island of Skyloft) that you travel to multiple times over the course of the game and while each time there is usually some new area of that place that you gain access to with each trip, it still gets a bit boring.

Many people were annoyed at Navi from Ocarina of Time (and I suppose Tatl from Majora's Mask was more or less identical). The guiding force in this game is a spirit(?) named Fi. The problem does not come from some annoying exclamation yelled at you every other minute. Rather the issue comes from the constant dialogue from Fi telling you what to do, where to go, etc. but at the same time giving some statistic (the saying 90% of all statistics are made up comes to mind here) about something you can easily extrapolate from the situation. I don't think I ever actually called on Fi for help while playing.

In all fairness most of my real issues came from the controls and what I learned at the end of the game was that it was my fault for not investing the time to either research or figure out the controls. So overall the game is another very solid addition to the Zelda franchise, does not disservice to the series and is probably one of the better ones (I'm not going to state my opinion because I don't know how I'd rank the console Zelda games from Ocarina of Time onward, although I will say Majora's Mask is likely my favorite); however, I do not agree with Famitsu's rating of 40/40 (my own personal belief although I can understand why they gave it a perfect score). I agree more with Nintendo Power's rating which (surprisingly enough) was a 9.5/10.

So there you have it, a rather basic review of my experience with this game. I hope to be able to give more full reviews in the near future. But for now I have to finish up my voir dire soon.