Do You Think Skyward Sword Lived Up to the Hype, the Reviews, and Your Expectations?

[Major]

I think Skyward Sword has had the most hype of any Zelda game, maybe of any Wii game ever. Its received great reviews, tons of previews, and many have said its their most anticipated game ever. Prestigious game outlets such as Edge, Eurogamer, and Gameinformer have given it 10/10. While I loved the game, I was slightly let down by certain aspects. One is the ability to have only one item out at once. While the item wheel is streamlined from previous games, I... just didn't like it. I also don't like the shield durability meter. That really let me down while playing. The final boss was kinda underwhelming in difficulty and length. The fight before him was more well-done. Fi I thought was less annoying than Midna for me, but her lack of emotion and development but her behind Midna as a character.
Don't get me wrong, I don''t want to look like some whiny troll, I would give it a 10/10, but I'm not jumping up and down screaming 11/10 or 100/10. I know some may not agree, but what do you guys think?

 

[Ganondork]

I've never really been a huge person to scream out "11/10!" but I have been thoroughly impressed by Skyward Sword thus far. I turned on my Wii saying "This better be better than Assassin's Creed Revelations or Assassin's Creed will become my favorite series," and by the first dungeon, I was already saying it was better than Assassin's Creed. Definitely it received hype for good reason; it has been a very good game so far. I haven't beaten it yet, but I've found it to be quite a good Zelda game. It's actually broken my top 3 favorite Zelda games list - right behind A Link to the Past and Oracle of Seasons.

One is the ability to have only one item out at once

I actually enjoyed this aspect. There were some open slots perfect for more items, but just tapping B felt more natural, and I'm so used to it from 2D Zelda games that I hardly even noticed it. I suppose that it could arouse complaints, but I really don't see any that I may have. I don't really see what's so terrible about having to quickly swap out items, because you want to spend less time switching items? It takes more or less five seconds, and that's just if you take a second to point at the item with your remote.

I also don't like the shield durability meter.

I suppose that this can always be argued, but I've found that using the shield isn't really needed. I'm at about the halfway point and my shield hasn't broken once. Perhaps this is just my style of playing games, but I felt that it was quite a good addition. They still kept it like old times though; the Hylian Shield was indestructible. Although it took a bit more effort to obtain it, it seems well worth the effort; it's so much better than even the sacred shields. I felt the meter added a new level of difficulty to the game too. It made you need to be conscious of what exactly you were doing when blocking attacks; one hit and your shield might break. It made you have to pay attention to more than just the area surrounding you.

Fi I thought was less annoying than Midna for me, but her lack of emotion and development but her behind Midna as a character.

I'm not entirely sure what you wanted them to do with Fi. She was created by the Goddess in a more technological period of time; she was basically a robot. The scrappers also lacked emotion, but you didn't talk about them. Fi is basically similar to the Scrappers, except she was specially crafted by the Goddess for Link. She's meant to lack emotions, and there's not really much development to be done; she's mechanized through and through.

I don't see much to complain about in Skyward Sword, but that just might be me. I guess I might just be too willing to play almost any game under any condition, unless it's an obvious bad game, which Skyward Sword is not.

 

[geek4887]

This is probably the wrong thread to say this, but I haven't really played Skyward Sword yet. But I didn't come here just to say that. I wanted to ask if is Skyward Sword really as hard as it seems? I mean six hearts at first, that's really different. Even more so than AoL. So, is it terribly challenging?

 

[Ventus]

Wait, this isn't a Skyrim expansion!
That left me in giggles

-The below is mostly sarcastic...mostly. I was disappointed slightly in the game, but nowhere near as the theatrics I am pulling make it out to be.-

Anyway, to me Skyward Sword did not life up to the hype or the reviews, but it did live up to my expectations.

The Hype
Every single Zelda fan to date that I've been in contact with has been head over heels in love with Skyward Sword, going so far as to skip school occasionally (or frequently for the more drastic fans) just to hear news or watch the latest trailer. They all claimed that it'd beat Ocarina out of the water [which, to be fair, it got very close to doing IMO], saying it'd be the best Zelda ever. I found them to be terribly wrong. I could pull out all the nitpicks I'd like, but at the core I was incredibly disappointed with the Surface, it's enemies and especially the final boss among all the other things. The surface was terrible in that we had three areas that never EVER changed, not even a bit. The whole dungeon aspect as in "oh, you get to see moar everytime!!one11!" was not appealing at all, because there was no diversity. The enemies were incredibly weak – with 1:1 gameplay they leave their flawed AI out there like a sitting duck; they wait for you to beat their brains in with comfort! And the final boss...well, I won't even comment. I saw through the illusion that was the beautiful graphics and found that the story was naught but Twilight Princess', only slightly upgraded. All of the NPCs (well, most of them anyway) seemed to me to be copies of TPs, not only in their uselessness but also in their usefulness. They're around for a sidequest or two (or none at all!) they they disappear into the mists that are forgetfulness. Disappoint ridden everywhere. Despite all the hype surrounding Skyward Sword, I didn't find as many improvements as fans told me.

The Reviews
Firstly, I do rate Skyward Sword a 10/10, that's not what I'm complaining about. What I AM complaining about, however, is the fact that the reviewers claimed that SS ushered in a new era for Zelda. Like the hype surrounding the game, I found the reviews to be completely false. I noticed the same mistakes [though they were covered up with beautiful graphics and amazing music, coupled with the best gameplay in the Zelda series to date] just as they were found in Twilight Princess. We still have only three (give or take) characters with any semblance of character development, the story is still incredibly linear as is the overworld [really, if you fans thought that Hyrule Field (TP) was linear, wait till you see The Surface (SS)]. Such a waste of review time if they were going to tell me something that I found to be otherwise.

My Expectations
I expected a game that was better than Twilight Princess, that's what I got when I played SS. I expected a game that had amazing gameplay, that's what I got when I played SS. I expected sidequests, meanings behind rupees, and puzzling puzzles. Guess what, that's what I got when I played Skyward Sword. Despite it's shortcomings in my eyes, I still give the game a 10/10 because it tried and succeeded in the goal that I personally thought it was trying to go for.

 

[Batman]

Skyward Sword exceeded its hype. It was better than what I was expecting and better than what it was put up to be. I really loved the game. One of the very few video games I would call perfect.

 

[Dio]

This is probably the wrong thread to say this, but I haven't really played Skyward Sword yet. But I didn't come here just to say that. I wanted to ask if is Skyward Sword really as hard as it seems? I mean six hearts at first, that's really different. Even more so than AoL. So, is it terribly challenging?

I have completed the game, most of the time it is not terribly challenging. You need the 6 hearts though because enemies take off one or two hearts each hit. The solution to that problem is to not get hit and it is not too difficult to avoid that if you are prepared to jump backwards out of the way or raise your shield at the right moment. I only died a few times and most of those were in the first Ghirahim fight because he broke my shield and it is hard to dodge his charging attack. Demise was hard, avoiding his attacks was challenging and he took my hearts down quickly. Regular Bokoblins are not much of a challenge, I thought and throughout the game that is what you fight allot of. I would say it's generally harder than TP's combat, enemies are tougher and you need more strategy but they are pretty slow and not very aggressive. Of course you might find it harder or easier than I did.

If you want to ask me anything about the game you can send me a PM if you want




Id best post something relevant to the thread, so I will say that SS was also not the 11/10 I was hoping for, but it was definitely a 10/10 and not only second on my list of favourite zeldas but also second on my list of favourite games EVER! I wanted things like Volvagia to be expanded on and more sheikah stuff and well just more things relating to OOT which most of us theorised about and we found were never even mentioned. I was hyped for that kind of stuff and got none of it. It does not take away the fact that the game was great though.

 

[zack125]

I'm not really that far ahead in this game so my opinion may change. I'm currently at the Elden Volcano. The challenge has definitely improved, due to the 1-on-1 combat. There is one small complaint I have, though. It seems like when I'm trying to do certain things, the motion controls can pick up something you did not intended to do. For example, when I'm trying to roll a bomb, I sometimes drop it to swing my sword instead. I may be giving a better opinion once I'm further into the game.

 

[Driorianos]

(Ahaha, I totally didn't know this was so long until I entered it...)

I thought the overall game was beyond expectations. I slaved in front of the TV until I couldn't keep my eyes open, and then some. It exhilarated me, and I loved playing as Link.

Granted, a good portion was sitting, but there was this one fight with Ghirahim where I was just loosing loosing loosing, no matter how much I was using my previous shield->slash technique, so I totally stood up to fight him. The angle difference of actually using my body showed me just how awesome the controls were. I think it focused my mind a little better about angle and direction, because I was going from where Link was, and could pay more attention to cues. So I did that for a lot more of the game.

I loved how involved the side characters are, not just Zelda and, god forbid, Groose. Fledge comes to mind with real character growth. Karane and Pipit as well, because they are serious and lovesick and in love, but then there's the other sides, like how Karane is actually a little cruel, almost, with how she's unthinking of how her opinions affect others, and Pipit who is actually stressing and worrying about his mother, who he both wants to support and keep close and let the ties go because she's weighing him down.

Some characters, though, I would have liked to see more of. Orielle and her brother, I found them very interesting because they're not trying to be Knights but are actually more observant than anyone else. No one else notices things going on around the island, the storms and darkness from the tower of light and Link stepping into the silent realm, or when the foundation of the Isle of the Goddess crumples. They could have had more character to them.

But this game really got to me. I laughed and cried and totally saw things important in a Zelda way, like that bird statue with the missing eye that turned towards the isle of the goddess at night. And oh, the puns of Horwell, "Feather or not" indeed. I cried when the old hag turned out to be Impa, and then she died. Like Groose said, she was one tough old cookie, and you grow fond of her.

So overall, a great game. One I'll replay again and again. It wasn't as long as I thought it would be, thirty six hours and thensome first playthrough (complete) and the only thing I needed to look up was when I got ungodly frustrated with that frigging stupid Funfun island game! But the next Hero mode game is kicking my butt, and it makes up for that.

Honestly, I was only honestly disappointed that you couldn't explore the past. I think it would have been fascinating to see how things had changed. And Link would have had to travel over ground, too.... but I suppose that would have made it under the category of too big.

But this is totally a set up for a WW/TP style sequel, because... we know that one timeline of the two leads to Ocarina of Time. Because that was totally a paradox, killing him in the past when he existed in the future and yaddayadda. Even if the timelines met at certain angles, there was still too much discrepancy for it to really meld.

 

[Clash]

Judging by all the good reports I've heard from other members, I would say it has lived up to all the hype. However, the views of us members may be affected by our extreme Zelda fandom.

 

[JuicieJ]

Skyward Sword has definitely lived up to expectations. It fell short of none of its promises and actually delivered a bit more than I thought it would, which was an insane amount. I held this game to the highest expectations I had any Zelda game before, even Twilight Princess (I was stoked for that game)...and I was nowhere near disappointed. Skyward Sword is inarguably the best Zelda yet. There's just no way any of the other Zeldas can stand up to it. I don't care what anyone presents to oppose that statement. It's just not possible for any of the other Zeldas out to beat Skyward Sword. That's a very bold statement, I know. But I know it's a correct one. Skyward Sword is the new Ocarina of Time, and Zelda WiiU is going to have more than its fair share of work cut out for it to beat this game (although I believe it can do it).

 

[HFReviewCentral]

The Best Zelda EVER

I've been noticing some people are saying Skyward Sword didn't quite live up to expectation... I think they are wrong. Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time was my first Zelda game. When I first picked it up, I played one hour, got frustrated at the room with the slingshot in the tree (Didn't know to light the torch), and put it down for the next 24 hours. Thats the example of 1 of many tales I could tell you from my expieriences with OoT. With Skyward Sword, they really raised the bar so high, that I could hardly place my fingers on it. The thrill I had pulling the sword from the pedestal was absolutey magical, and by then I knew this to top OoT, TP, and WW! The character development of the thrillingly new and interesting characters of Skyloft brought me to prefer it even over MM's fantastic array of characters. The game had no visible faults on the surface, the only interior ones being calibration, which only needed to be adjusted maybe twice during the course of my 52 hours of main quest (Kind of regret not doing sidequests now). As of right now, I am 100 percent completing the game with only sidequests, heart pieces, and goddess cubes left to find, and the game is still giving me more thrill. The games diffuculty level does not lay in the dungeons themselves, mainly the diffuculty of the bosses, much harder than any other bosses in the series. By the time I reached the final battle with the Demise, my sword charged with lightning, I was still having fun! Some may complain that SS has none of OoT's Water Temple, MM's time limit, WW's Triforce hunt, or TP's Snow Mansion Thing, however, it manages to top all of that with diffuculty in the long run.
This game and Pokemon Red Version now reign supreme at the top of my favorite game list. OoT, the beloved adventure it is, still grabs second of course Overall, this game definelty exceeds my expectations and I hope this game has touched you where you've never been touched before (In a school apropriate way of course )

 

[darklord21]

i find this game not only live up to the hype it got, it overblow them.

first off as a zelda fan this has bit of every good zelda game aka MM OoT, WW tp etc, a open world were you can just muck around aka the sky, like who wouldn't want to jump 50 in the air and sky dive to a place you need to go and another think it fun to see link faceplant the ground on some of those area.


second the story line so far meeting my expectation if not going even fruther than that

third the character each have their own personality. just like MM another good game but like MM some have boring personality and other have wierd one but still it good they have personality and you even see some of them grow.

4th the control are great, sitting down or standing up you just move your arm to get the starting point of your slash and just move quickly. the only time the control aren't follow you is when you a waggle the controls, too close ot the screen (for some item it get annoying but it easiy fix.) or moving to quickly and not letting the machine follow. like I tend to quickly slash down so I quickly get my arm ready and only to find that instead of doing the slash I want I done something different.

the bombs can be annoying but it not like yoru force to use them all the time.

the mini games are alot of fun but they reply on luck but then again only one need to be done to get a heart pices and take alot of getting use to. but still they alot of fun but I wish they add some shooting gallerys that would have been cool

and as a non zelda game I just going to say the artwork, visuals and the feel and easy to use control and the icon popping up to show you how to use item or the ending blow and really helpful.


I can see why this game getting so much well earn prases. it a great game. for me it a 9.5 a great game but some tiny annoynence

but personality they didn't break one promise, when I went to the silient realm I nearly freak out. it was like "how long till those guards show up, got move move move oh now I got to run." and it felt the silient realm was just like they said it was.

 

[GoldenGengle64]

This is probably the wrong thread to say this, but I haven't really played Skyward Sword yet. But I didn't come here just to say that. I wanted to ask if is Skyward Sword really as hard as it seems? I mean six hearts at first, that's really different. Even more so than AoL. So, is it terribly challenging?

It's hard! In past Zelda games, I almost never got a game over, though now I find myself getting them all the time. No, it's not terribly challenging. Part of why I keep dying is because I don't always have my shield equipped... and I'm not a skilled gamer either. SS is a hard game, but a very fun one! The difficulty level is just right. It's not easy, but its not challenging that you have to be an insanely skilled gamer to get anywhere.

 

[knowlee]

In two words: HECK YES!! =D

Granted I avoided any major spoilers and have been playing the game with a relatively spoiler-free mind, I have found SS to be everything I hoped it would be and more. I haven't beaten the game yet, but I'm highly anticipating it and I can't wait until I get there. And from what I've played of it, it's an awesome game and I'm not quite sure where it'll be placed in my top five favorite Zeldas, but I'm pretty sure that after I'm done with it, it will be one of them.

 

[captainchew2]

I liked it and thought it was alot of fun. But i didnt really care about any of the side characters and the story didnt connect with other games like i thought it would. Not as good as MM and Oot for me. but thats just my opinion.