You're essentially contending that Nintendo created a perfect device AND a perfect game to go along with it completely independent of each other.
Lolwut?
And I DID master the controls, they weren't difficult.
I don't believe you. The fact that they kept getting out of calibration indicates that you were doing something wrong.
Nothing about the game was difficult.
Take note that I never said the game was difficult. All I ever said was that it's a game with a decent challenge level, one that's not too hard, but not too easy. The problem here lies in that you're not taking into account how much more experienced as a gamer you are now as opposed to when you were younger -- hell, even comparable to just 5 years ago. Games are naturally going to seem more or less difficult than they actually are depending on one's skill level. As a child, the difficulty of a game is going to seem magnified, as your mind isn't very developed yet and your skill level is low. As an adult, it's the complete opposite.
Do you think I struggled in any way playing SS with this in mind? Because I didn't. However, I could tell that it was a massive step up in challenge level from the GameCube games, and I could just as easily tell that there was a very high degree of creativity and originality in just about every challenge the game had to offer. I hadn't seen that level of quality in the series since Majora's Mask, actually, and was that ever a breath of fresh air after waiting over a decade. MM is the superior game overall, no doubt, but still.
the game was tedious because of (A) overuse of certain mechanics and (
excessive backtracking
(name ONE other Zelda game that requires you to redo a temple/dungeon).
The Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks. (Oh, I'm sorry, did you only want one other game mentioned? My bad.) Let's also not forget that the vast majority of Zelda games have backtracking, the 3D ones. Remember Ocarina of Time? How you had to go back to a lot of the places Link went to as a kid after he became an adult? Remember having to reset everything in Majora's Mask and go back through Clock Town every time? The Wind Waker, having to revisit multiple key islands? Twilight Princess, having to trek through Lake Hylia four times? Oh, but it doesn't matter in those games, of course, because they're not Skyward Sword. How silly of me.
You also never attempted to explain why a game having an overarching mechanic is a bad thing. That doesn't exactly bode well for your standpoint, as it indicates that you don't have a proper reason for thinking such.
As for me having priority issues, according to the blurb about you below your name, I've been playing Zelda games since before you were born. Don't tell me WHY I should play them. You prefer the gameplay, I prefer the story. I don't dislike the gameplay. I don't discount the gameplay. I usually find the gameplay to be engaging and quite good. I prefer the story part of the games. I found that SS lacked in both areas.
Because age
totally matters in this situation. /sarcasm
You're using a cop-out argument. It's pretty much undeniable that Zelda's never had strong storytelling (outside of Majora's Mask), and as such, has put a ridiculously heavy emphasis on its gameplay. Many recent entries have attempted to bring the story to the forefront more so than usual, with SS being the most extreme example, but the gameplay is still more important to the Zelda series in spite of this. This isn't a situation of who prefers different things, it's a situation of you playing a series for something that's very basic and predictable, which, of course, is its story. Judging the Zelda series by its story to begin with is really petty as a result, especially with how absolutely absurd its timeline is.
That said, I don't understand what your problem is with SS's story, really. It wasn't at, like, Metal Gear Solid level (what a shock for a Zelda game), but every single one of the characters was highly expressive to such a degree that their personalities were identifiable & fleshed-out just by their body language. Nearly every character left no question as to what their traits were upon merely being introduced to the fray for the first time, and all the major characters had well-executed development across the events of the game, especially Groose and Ghirahim. SS was also the first Zelda game where I actually cared whether or not I saved Zelda, and in addition, it was the first Zelda game to make me cry -- and it wasn't just once, but twice. I know everyone's different, but I'm having a hard time seeing how you could say that SS was lacking in the story department. Was its plot a masterpiece? No. Was it heartfelt? Absolutely. Honestly, on multiple occasions, it felt like a good Disney movie, even more so than TWW did.
You're right, though. SS was full of oversimplification (swing where they aren't blocking, you win! walk forward, you win!, "I calculate a 99% chance that I'm going to tell you exactly what to do now." you win!)-I guess if you like your games being spoonfed to you, it wasn't terrible.
No, no, see, YOU'RE the one oversimplifying things -- and you just did it
again. Oh, wow, having to actually read and react to an opponent's defenses and swing your arm precisely as opposed to mindlessly mashing buttons, HOW SIMPLE OF A CONCEPT IN COMPARISON!
What are you even talking about with "walk forward, you win!"? SS is chock-full of obstacles to overcome nearly the entire journey. "Walk forward, you win!" is how the GameCube games operate.
Fi literally
never tells you how to solve anything. She's annoying as ****, absolutely, but all she ever does is offer her intake on a situation at hand... you know, like someone given the role of being an aid
should do. Nothing's ever spoonfed to you in SS, especially when you compare it to all the so-called "AAA" shooters and sandbox games most 3rd party companies crap out in this day and age (and, yes, the GameCube Zeldas).
Again, SS is
not a hard game, but considering that it's a
Zelda game, it doesn't need to be. Zelda's a franchise that's aimed at all audiences, and as such, it's designed to be a series that both casual and hardcore gamers alike can sink their teeth into, and I can't stress enough that SS does this extremely well. It has a very in-depth combat system that inherently takes a certain level of skill due to the controls, creative level design with concepts and ideas that had never been seen in any prior Zelda game before (and in the case of the Lanayru province, in no other video game period),