Spoiler Ghirihim's Brilliant Game Design

[ThatCreepyGuy]

I was in my dad's car earlier tonight, and I was thinking about how awesome Ghirihim and Skyward Sword is, but how many people hate how you have to fight him so many times. Well, I think the game design on this is amazingly well thought out. The first time you hear his infernal theme, you just think to yourself "who's this weirdo?" The next time you see him, the second temple, you don't want to have to deal with him again, but your relieved when he sends a low level minion after you... ok, maybe not "low level", since it is a boss.

Now, once you find him in the Fire Sanctuary, it's time for him to die... right? wrong, you defeat him, but he gets away.

WARNING!! THIS NEXT PART HAS MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!!

Once you defeat Demise from rising again, by crushing him with the goddess statue, you think that's the end of the game, because everything's back to normal. And then you hear his theme... one... more... time. Ghirihim steps out from behind a pillar, and takes zelda back to the past so he can revive the Demise from the past.

Right now, your probably angry... like, super angry. You eagerly go back through the big portal thingy, and to the past. You see Ghirihim down at the bottom of the spiral thingy, and he's messing with yo' lady! He's cast some sort of sleeping spell on her, and is reviving his master! Oh snap, this is where stuff gets real, man!! He summons a TON of bokoblyns, and your so powerful now, with the master sword, most of them die in one hit. You feel like a boss, and that you're going to kick Ghirihim's butt, once you get down there.

So, you finally get down there, and you're ready to fight. You know that only one of you is going to live from this fight, and it's not going to be him. He raises the two of you up into the air, and you kind of lose your cool. You thought it would be like last time, and easy fight on the ground, with similar attacks! however, you don't even care at this point, all you want to do is kill him, for putting you through all the troubles and challenges you've faced.

Once you defeat him, you feel so good! you feel like you're the king of the world!! And then it hits you... He tells you the ritual with zelda has still been going on THE ENTIRE TIME!!!! He revives his master, turns out to be a spirit of Demises sword (which is kinda like the master sword on steroids), and you're even motivated with anger, then before. Good luck!

 

[ihateghirahim]

Actually fighting him is cool, as for every other aspect. . . . look at my name.

 

[ThatCreepyGuy]

I wasn't trying to imply I didn't like fighting Ghirihim, I just felt like it was a grudge match against him. Also, I think that Ghirihim and Skyward Sword get enough hat as it is, so this post was just trying to change people's minds who don't like him... I guess that didn't work out...

 

[Ventus]

I didn't feel like Ghirahim was effective. I was never angry at what he did; I was angry that he existed. He seemed like a clown/jester more than a threat, to be honest. It wasn't that he whisked Zelda away, it was that he was taunting me without any base. It's interesting to hear that people were angered...some even mortified at what the quoteunquote demon lord had done. I just don't feel it.

 

[JuicieJ]

Yeah, pretty much everything you said is right on the money. Ghirahim is most definitely an incredible character and boss that performs his roles flawlessly. The story behind him isn't very deep (although it's deeper than any other Zelda villain's so far), but his presentation is still top-notch and carries a lot of weight. Love him or hate him, I think it's pretty hard to deny that.

 

[Spirit]

I didn't like him, didn't like his design (prefer Vaati), didn't like fighting him (it felt too close to fighting Bokoblins and he can be beaten the same way), he didn't evolve through the game either, he started angry and ended angry, always talking about murdering and hurting Link, his presence bugged me and i think TP with Ganondorf felt like a better grudge match than Ghirahim did at any one point. I could go on but i'm not going to because i'll get torn down enough for what i've said already.

 

[Random Person]

I dislike characters like Ghirahim in general, but let's look past that. Ghirahim is a pretty decent character. He's a change to Zelda villainy that many Zelda fans found to be a breath of fresh air. He is more active than certain other villains, and people have testified their pleasures of fighting him multiple times and feeling more powerful each time.
My gripe against him is that he gets a bit too much praise for what he is. Because of being in a family friendly game, Ghirahim can't really be the full psychopath that he should've been. He's called "brilliant" when characters like Kefka and the Joker were of similar design, but left a much better impact. People say that his character development is so much better than past villains due to his changing throughout the game but I just flat out disagree with that. Not saying his character development was bad, but a character who changes throughout the events of the tale is not automatically better in design than a character who keeps the same Personality. And then there's Ghirahim as a villain in general. I find him more annoying than I do threatening. Rather than a challenge who keeps appearing, he's simply a nuisance that slows me down and sticks his tongue out while doing so. With the exception of the Horde Battle at the end, I never felt like I had to stop Ghirahim. His plans were rushed and he would do things like threaten to kill me if I didn't give him information, and then leave without... well... killing me. I'm still a bit unsure as to why he was in the Ancient Cistern.

Ghirahim is a decent villain, but I'm not sure he deserves to be called more than that.

 

[Justac00lguy]

I wouldn't agree with that he has "brilliant game design"....

I'm gonna start with the positives of Ghirahim: I have a lot of problems with Skyward Sword but I don't mind this character himself, he was definitely unique. Maybe a bit too out there but giving a character this much detail makes him certainly one of the most memorable characters in the series. One thing I also liked was that he acted as Links rival throughout the game, we saw him at many points throughout the game and this certainly built up towards the final battle. This also worked in the character development of Ghirahim, we see him change his attitude and emotion towards Link through each encounter.

Even though this character had some positives he did in fact have many negatives. For one he took the role of Main Villain throughout the game, now we can compare him to the likes of Zant from Twilight Princess. These characters really contrasted in many ways....Zant seemed to have this sense of mystery, we only heard snippets of information and tales of his seemingly unstoppable power up until the 4th dungeon. Now this lead to a great build up of a Villain however with Ghirahim we encountered him pretty much straight away, we even battled him. Now even though he stated he was merely toying with Link I got the feeling that he was very weak, I mean he was an easy boss and we defeated him with the sword in it's weakest form. We even encounter him many times and battle him once again, each time coming on top. This really halted the sense of fear when finally encountering him and he lost all momentum, of course his role was to be Links rival but (Spoiler) Demise really didn't do justice as the main Villain and tbh I expected more from him as Demise made him look incredibly weak as did Link throughout Skyward Sword. Truth be told I never saw Ghirahim as a threat he seemed more like a joker with a flamboyant personality, sure he was unique and of course we will remember him but for what a Villain should indefinitely be? No.

 

[JuicieJ]

Not saying his character development was bad, but a character who changes throughout the events of the tale is not automatically better in design than a character who keeps the same Personality.

Of course not, but that's not the entirety of the reasoning. Demise and Majora are proof of this, as they have a lurking presence throughout the entirety of their games, and once they surface, they deliver a huge impact. But Ghirahim developing the entire time isn't the whole picture. Most past villains didn't have much of a presence. They were just kind of there. (In the case of Zant, it was due to his presence dropping the entire second half of the game until his boss fight.) Ghirahim, on the other hand, constantly appears and carries lots of weight in his presentation every time he does so.

I've also noticed that many people (such as yourself) seem to misunderstand his role in the story. Intimidation wasn't the main goal of the developers. It was certainly a factor, but only a minor one. The main intention behind Ghirahim's character was to drive us forward to finding Zelda so we could prevent him from getting his hands on her and find out what exactly was going on. His role was to create a sense of mystery to the main plot, evidenced by him constantly referring to his master, the Demon King. He also had an air of comic relief to him among all this (he's referred to as "fabulous" by fans for a reason). There's much more to his character than simply being a villain, which is something that can't be said about nearly every past villain. That's what makes his villain status superior.

 

[Sir Quaffler]

I really liked what they did with Ghirahim. He was a nuisance and a thorn in your side throughout the entire game. Everything else was going according to plan, except for the monkey wrench that Ghirahim turned out to be. Hylia couldn't have prepared for Ghirahim and so he ends up unraveling all that you had worked to accomplish in the game, forcing you to fight on his terms at the end. He actually succeeds in his ultimate goal, something I can't say can be said for any other villain in Zelda. (even though I still consider Ganondorf from OoT to be the most effective villain in the series, he still failed in his ultimate goal to get the Triforce in whole, unless of course you consider the Failed Timeline...)

He also serves as the proper example of psychotic-henchman-serving-badass-villain in the Zelda series, something that Zant failed on. (Honestly with Zant, though, I think he should have been standalone; I honestly feel Ganondorf's presence hurt the game more than it helped, and I think that Zant, rather than Ganondorf, should have been the final villain of TP. But I digress.) We know he is an extremely flamboyant fellow who flirts and taunts Link from the first time we see him, but we also see that he's somewhat unstable. Throughout the game we see the further unraveling of Ghirahim, and that comes into full fruition at the end when he just loses it and goes uber against you. (Actually it's the end that made me appreciate Ghirahim more; first time through I was just really put off by the fact that Ghirahim was more than a little gay and was repulsed by him, and it wasn't until he swooped up Zelda at the end that I was truly enraged by him.)

Although I'll still assert that, a far as being a psychopath on his own terms, he ain't got nothin' on Kefka...

 

[Ghirahimiscool]

I think Ghirahim is more awesome than anything else. I really liked fighting him.

 

[Alex]

Honestly, i didn't like him a lot. The last fight against him was nice thought.

 

[A Link In Time]

Ghirahim isn't my favorite villain in the series but he's certainly different from the rest. I appreciate Nintendo's experimenting-first with Zant in Twilight Princess, then with Ghirahim in Skyward Sword.

Nintendo took too few opportunities to develop Ghirahim's character, however. He only left an impression on me during his first appearance in the Skyview Temple, the cutscene on the bridge after the Lanayru Mining Facility, and at game's end in the Sealed Grounds. While I enjoyed fighting him especially the third time through, Ghirahim struck me as a forgettable character-a popular Internet meme nowadays, nothing more.

 

[DarkLink7]

I. Love. Ghirahim. I love his attitude and I love everything about him.

 

[Vanessa28]

There is nothing about Ghirahim I like. I hate every aspect of him. His voice annoyed me, his looks and his moves. I was happy when he finally disappeared forever and I really hope we never ever see him back.
Now let's look for something positive about him. At least he showed more emotion than Fi did and the fact you battle a villain more than one time ore two times is pretty cool as well. Even though it's more the concept of the game about that I like and definitely not Ghirahim.
Brilliant game design? Definitely not