Skyward Sword and Nostalgia

[Spirit]

A simple question that hopefully spawns some decent answers.

We all know that skyward Sword was an amalgamation of gameplay elements clustered together from throughout the history of Zelda.
The most notable of these elements was the sky which held strong similarities to the Great Sea of Wind Waker, the inclusion of a 'pawn villain' in Girahim also called to mind the relationship between Zant and Ganondorf in Twilight Princess.

Other references such as the hand in the bathroom of the Knight Academy in Skyloft would make fans who had played Majora's Mask smile, Levias in the Thunderhead section of SS also called to mind the Wind Fish of Link's Awakening, and those who have played ALttP would almost feel a familiarity with the dash technique in that it could be seen as having on-demand Pegasus Boots.

These references and more were rife throughout SS because of its regressive nature towards the series as a whole but is this what helped SS make such a connection with fans who seem to love it when so many others were disappointed?

In the same way that a Zelda fan who played OoT for the first time in 1998 would still have a place in their heart for it even now due to nostalgia, are the references and the inclusion of pseudo-gameplay elements from previous games a reason why SS is so loved? Did these inclusions create a sense of nostalgia that made the game feel genuine, alive and whole for the players who loved it and thus enhance the overall experience of it?

 

[JuicieJ]

I never really felt any rushes of nostalgia. SS felt fresh, like a whole new experience, so it's hard for me to imagine how the game could feel nostalgic like TP was. Unless you count the "It's a secret to everybody" references.

 

[A Link In Time]

Skyward Sword was a fascinating way to cap off 25 years of Zelda. I wouldn't have had it any other way. It refined elements present in previous installments while alluding to their curious quirks but also greatly progressed the franchise forward. The stamina gauge and shield meter, upgrade system, adventure pouch, real time item switching, and dungeon like overworld forever change the face of Nintendo's most endearing series.

Nintendo should learn from the innovations replete SS in advancing the franchise on 3DS and Wii U. The control outputs of these systems should not only be utilized to their fullest but longevity expanded through the Nintendo Network. Creating dungeons and sharing them with others over the Internet would appease anxious players during the extended development periods of contemporary installments. Yes, the nostalgic references permeating Skyward Sword kindled my heart but above all it was a dynamic new view on a gaming veteran and this strategy should be endorsed by the Kyoto based company in the future.

 

[Random Person]

This post makes me think about Skyward Sword in a more positive light. (A rare moment. Thank you very much) SS did indeed have a lot of references to other games, but it didn't really bring too much nostalgia for me and let me explain why. While it did have a lot of references, like JuiceJ said, it felt like a new experience. I said this before, it didn't really feel like a Zelda game but rather a game with "the Legend of Zelda" as a title. The way the references were brought up were made things feel new. Again, like JuiceJ said, TP is a better example of nostalgia because it brought references from OoT in ways that made you remember similar feeling you had while playing OoT

 

[Ventus]

I didn't find too much nostalgia worth mentioning in Skyward Sword. Like the above users stated, SS felt like a totally new experience for me. I mean, yeah, the references were there, but none of them made me think "haha, I remember that from way back when!". All the references served to do is make me want to shut off the game and play the older games from...way back when. So no, personally, the nostalgic moments didn't lend themselves to my opinion of SS.

 

[Sir Quaffler]

Yes, there were many moments reminiscent of other games, and I liked the references made like the toilet hand and the Wind Fish. But overall Skyward Sword was the freshest and most original Zelda experience for me.
The basic gameplay was far and away the freshest thing for me. For the past few years I've stuck with traditional controls in my gaming and viewed the motion controls of the Wii as nothing more than a cheap gimmick meant to appeal to easily-amused people. SS changed that, and made it the most involving and intuitive game I've ever played.
The story was another area that felt new in many ways. Yes, we were still looking for McGaffins half the time like in every other Zelda game, but the underlying motive was entirely different. Everything in the main plot was aimed at getting your childhood friend back. And you really felt this throughout the game, and at least for me I never lost sight of my overall goal. (the closest thing I can think of is getting Aryl back in WW, but that went off to the wayside at the halfway point, a real shame IMO.)
And the bottle and equipment system is a breath of fresh air. Sure, I'm aware that other games implement similar systems in their games and are more in-depth and extensive, but SS's system is, idunno... the most fun of them.
So for me Skyward Sword stands on its own two feet as a solid experience (while dropping allusions to other games in the series).

 

[HyruleLove]

I guess it did have some nostalgic effects in some places. I especially loved the hand in the toilet xD . I dont know, if people did like SS, Im sure those are good points , but not the only reason why they liked it. SS was not a bad game (if you didnt have super high expectations for it before it was out). It was a VERY different Zelda game, and different in a good way. It truly is unique and fun to play.

 

[Azure Sage]

Actually, all these references to past Zelda games turned me off. This was one of the things I didn't like about Skyward Sword. Sure, it's like a piece of every Zelda game, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I didn't like it. It didn't feel like the game was its own entity, like it wasn't its own special thing. References are okay, but in Skyward Sword, it was just too much in my opnion. There's a limit, and Skyward Sword crossed it. It got to the point where some things in the game didn't even feel new to me anymore, even though I was playing a brand new game. Any nostalgia I may have felt was buried beneath the feeling that there was too much old being brought back and not enough new being brought in.

 

[Dio]

I never really felt any rushes of nostalgia. SS felt fresh, like a whole new experience, so it's hard for me to imagine how the game could feel nostalgic like TP was. Unless you count the "It's a secret to everybody" references.

I totally agree with JuicieJ's comment. I rarely felt nostalgic. I found the game was not similar enough to other titles to make those kind of connection. It was intended to be a Prequel to OOT so I expected many of the themes presented in that game to be expanded on and reused, and whilst SS did have a fire area and a forest area they could not have been more different from OOT's counterparts in the case of the fire area I believe SS improved greatly upon OOT. I will not be playing through the earth temple in SS and think about the old fire temple, SS made their fire area so different there is hardly a connection.

These references and more were rife throughout SS because of its regressive nature towards the series as a whole but is this what helped SS make such a connection with fans who seem to love it when so many others were disappointed?

I was dissapointed at the lack of connections. I wanted the unexplained mysteries of OOT to have been explored and they just weren't. There were references to other games such as the 'It's a secret to everybody' quote and tingle on Zelda's bed, they were nice little things which were fun to come across but overall they did not improve the game.

 

[Ganondork]

This post makes me think about Skyward Sword in a more positive light.

This.

I actually did not feel the least bit of nostalgia when playing Skyward Sword, because I didn't even notice most of these similarities. It seems like everyone above me seems to have noticed these aspects, and yet for whatever reason, I missed just about every single one of them. With this kept in mind, I really can't say much concerning my thoughts on these features that I suppose were added to create nostalgia as I played through the game, but I can definitely express my opinion on them now that I have been enlightened.

The most notable of these elements was the sky which held strong similarities to the Great Sea of Wind Waker

I definitely noticed this one. Kind of hard not to when both require a red-colored organism to help propel you through that environment. With that being said, I really didn't get very much nostalgia from this. See, I enjoyed the controls for the Loftwing more than the King of Red Lions - thank goodness for motion controls in this situation - but Skyward Sword should have followed Wind Waker's lead and fill each island with plenty of content for you to get your hands on. I didn't quite get nostalgia from one another, but I do think Nintendo could learn by comparing the two.

the inclusion of a 'pawn villain' in Girahim also called to mind the relationship between Zant and Ganondorf in Twilight Princess.

Found this situation to be rather interesting, seeing as though my feelings towards the two "pawns," were entirely reversed from the beginning, and the end. What I mean is simple; I adored Zant from the start - he was among one of the coolest-looking villains in Zelda - but I hated his temper tantrum he threw towards the end of the game. However, I despised Ghirahim initially - he seemed to me like one of those stereotypical little guys with a big punch-type characters - but became one of the most intriguing villains in the entire game with the emergence of his true form. Had he been like that from the start, then maybe I wouldn't have disliked him as much as I did. Zant's true form wasn't half as appealing to me as his helmet was.

Other references such as the hand in the bathroom of the Knight Academy in Skyloft would make fans who had played Majora's Mask smile,

And Oracle of Ages. Don't understand why people always seem to forget that ??? was in Oracle of Ages as well. With this kept in mind - and due to my adoration for the Oracle Series - ???'s appearance was more than likely the closest thing I felt to nostalgia. With this being said, it still wasn't very notable, but I did enjoy the little cameo that it played in this. I'm not too sure if I'm happy with what they did with ??? in Skyward Sword though; I liked it being only in the toilet, rather than leaving it, depending on how you handled the quest ??? was involved in.

Levias in the Thunderhead section of SS also called to mind the Wind Fish of Link's Awakening

I actually didn't notice this, at all. I can see the two being somewhat comparable, but I could never see them correlating. Whether this is what you're getting at or not, I really didn't notice this, and I don't think this would have a profound effect on me in the least bit.

those who have played ALttP would almost feel a familiarity with the dash technique in that it could be seen as having on-demand Pegasus Boots.

Enormous A Link to the Past fan here. I didn't see it quite like that, at all. I love the Pegasus Boots so much, and I would love to see them in a 3D Zelda - Hover Boots just don't cut it - rather than the sprinting. Sprinting provided a number of things that kept me from noticing this similarity to the Pegasus Boots. For one thing, the parkour aspects that it offered once one hits a surface like a wall reminds me more of a Prince of Persia/Assassin's Creed-type feature rather than a something similar to the Pegasus Boots. Do keep in mind the Pegasus Boots actually forced Link backwards if he hit a surface such as a wall.

Unless you count the "It's a secret to everybody" references.

Those references actually did absolutely nothing for me. I don't think the original quote really meant much to me, even now. I don't usually find references interesting, unless they are from another series, and are relatively subtle, and harder to find. One good example is in a Fable III quest, you can find a tombstone with a wooden sword in the grave. On the tombstone it says, "It's dangerous to go alone. Take this!" Small things like that have a much more profound effect on me than "It's a secret to everybody" being used in another Zelda game.

Creating dungeons and sharing them with others over the Internet would appease anxious players during the extended development periods of contemporary installments.

See, I don't care for this idea. It would be just like creating a stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl; you'd have dungeon puzzles, formats, and enemies made beforehand that you'd choose, not your own unique creation. To force someone to make their own puzzle would take a very long time, and no doubt be too complicated for some people. I can only compare it to making a very advanced piston in Minecraft. Not to mention, if you learn each puzzle's solution, then the dungeons created won't be remotely difficult, since Nintendo is giving you x amount of already made puzzles.

SS was not a bad game (if you didnt have super high expectations for it before it was out)

I greatly beg to differ in this. I didn't have half the expectations that some people did, and I was far more disappointed than some of those other people. One great example - sorry to use your name, buddy - is JuicieJ. He was far more hyped for it than I was, and he ended up being far more satisfied with it than I was. It all depends on your opinion, not your expectations. For instance, I personally love 2D Zelda more than 3D Zelda, not because I had more expectations for the 3D Zeldas, but because the 2D Zeldas just feel like they capture the series' essence better to me.

Please excuse all of my quoting of people - and subsequently going way off track - but I did feel that there were some things that I personally disagreed with. I feel that Skyward Sword was a very original game, despite its borrowing of themes in other games - many of which I have just noticed today.