Skyward Sword: Perks and Quirks ("Post Yours" Thread)

[JuicieJ]

As you may have guessed with the title, this is a generic thread about the good and the bad of Skyward Sword. Mine are listed here. Feel free to share yours!

Perks :yes:

• Motion controls - fun to use and deadly accurate
• Art style - beautifully crafted and fit the tone of the game perfectly
• Upgrade system - allows items to be used more efficiently, and provides a break-off from the main quest
• Bug catching - a fun little way to break off from the main quest and allows potions to be powered up
• Item involvement - all items are used equally and innovativally
• Rupee use - rupees are constantly used in the bazaar throughout the game (never a point with too many rupees and nothing to spend them on)
• Goddess Cubes - fun to seek out and hunt down the treasure chests they unlock
• Lightning Challenge (Boss & Silent Realm time challenges) - reliving boss battles and the Silent Realms is just plain fun
• Gratitude Crystals - hunting down stray Crystals and helping out people to get them provides a good challenge and break-off from the main quest

Quirks =\

• "C-look" - first person mode faces where the camera is instead of where Link is (annoying for me to re-learn) -- personal nitpick
• Night - nighttime only available in the sky, and flight not available during it -- minor nitpick
• Saving - no saving at will (save points are efficient but must be sought out when needing to save quickly)
• Recalibration - needs to be done more often with extended times of play, and occasionally gets off for no apparent reason (easily fixed by flailing the sword for a few seconds, but still slightly annoying, especially when using the Beetle or swimming)

All in all, far more positives than negatives, and most of the quirks are just little nitpicks from what I've noticed. Opinions vary, though, and that's what this thread is about.

 

[MartDiamond]

Perks
-Upgrade system
-Treasure collecting/Bug catching
-Medals
-Limited inventory
-Integration of temple into outside world
-Some great inventive and original ideas in temples (Lanayru Mining Facility)
-Kikwi race
-Transformation of sword
-Swordplay
-Beetle
-Revisiting of areas
-Also need to mention the road to Sandship
-Amount of minigames and quality
-Day night sequence in Skyloft
-Trials
-Bamboo slicing
-Increased difficulty of temples upon returning
-Ability to bag bomb flowers
-Probably some I forgot


Quirks
-Art Style does not fit the story (Hyrule is supposed to be overrun with monsters but it's all cheery and colourful)
-Emptiness of the Sky
-Shortage of sidequests
-Even with upgrades, Beedle etc. you still have way too many Rupees without anything to spend the on
-You can't fly at night
-Some motion controls(swimming, playing the harp)
-Overall difficulty of temples
-Overall difficulty of bosses
-Lack of skydiving
-Land below not connected
-Saving only at fixed points
-Automatic sailcloth
-Receiving clawshots upon completing second trial
-Probably some others I forgot

 

[MW7]

My biggest pros for Skyward Sword:
1. The Dungeons- IMO the Sandship alone was worth the price of the game. I loved the dual theme of the Ancient Cistern and the Indiana Jones boulder from the Earth Temple. Also I think Sky Keep might have had the best dungeon concept in the whole game which is saying a lot.
2. The Controls/Swordplay- I knew going into the game that this would be really enjoyable, and I still managed to be completely blown away. Now that the Wii is winding down in its lifecycle I think it's apparent that the system and its controllers were designed with this particular game in mind.
3. Music- I don't usually care much about video game music, but this game had some beautiful music in it.

Cons:
1. Little things- I feel like the limiting of flying to the daytime was kind of pointless. This wasn't a big deal at all but just bothered me a little. Something that bothered me about Wind Waker is present in this game as well- the spacing of islands. I feel like I wasted many minutes every playthrough just flying from place to place. I would have enjoyed the game more if either all the islands in the sky were a little closer or if the speed boost islands were more plentiful or in more convenient places.
2. The Harp- Easily my least favorite instrument from a Zelda game. I really liked the ocarina, the wind waker, and howling from the previous 3d games, and I think it has to do with actually having notes whereas the harp was entirely about rhythm.
3. Needless linearity and backtracking- When you begin searching for the flames to power up your sword, why do you have to go to the thunderhead 3 times to learn songs. Why can't you just learn all 3 songs at once and then choose which area to return to first. The story wouldn't be majorly affected, and very slight changes to the dungeons would have allowed for nonlinearity (for instance there are some clawshot targets in the Fire Sanctuary).

Obviously my pros greatly outweigh the cons since my pros are much more substantial, and this was truly a great game.

 

[illmatic]

Here are some of mine off the top of my head:

Pros:
-Story - Best story in a Zelda game in a long time, maybe even the best. I like how they were able to tell a story that wasn't influenced by past games, but still made references to it
-Rupees matter - Rupees actually matter in this game. You can carry over 999 and aren't limited to 200 in the beginning like OoT and some other games
-Save system - I much prefer this way of saving and hope it sticks around for future games
-Sword controls - Although it took a while to get used to, by the end of the game I was in love with the controls. There were times though where it annoyed me to the point of profanity being screamed at the TV
-Swimming controls
-Bug catching
-Hero mode and Boss fight mode - Glad they included these features

Cons:
-Automatic sailcloth
-Dialogue interruption every time you start a new game and get new loot or bugs
-Fi - I hate how she spoils the solution of some puzzles for you when you don't ask for her help. I also found her robotic personality and talk of percentages about everything annoying.
-No hearts lost when you fall off a cliff or drown - Why??
-Too easy and linear - I was never in danger of dying throughout the game, and the game's difficulty remained the same from the beginning to the end
-Upgrade system - A cool idea, but it wasn't implemented well. I hope they do a lot more with it for the next Zelda game
-No night flying - I kept thinking this would be unlocked later in the game but never happened
-First person view switches to where the camera is pointed instead of where Link is looking like previous games
-The sky - Flying was fun, but the sky was too small and empty. I thought they should have had more islands like Wind Waker where there is something to do on each island.
-Not enough variety of enemies - All dungeons seemed to have the same enemies over and over. I got sick of fighting bokoblins, blobs and bats

 

[Post-organic]

Pros:
controls worked like a dream (centering the cursor was hardly a gripe)
nice art style
memorable characters
interesting plot
great music
upgrade system (I like this for items themselves, but I'd rather have great fairies for bomb/arrow/etc. capacity increases)

Cons:
meh final boss (better than TP Ganbndorf, in my opinion)
day and night cycle (I wanted to explore the surface at night)
lack of substance in the sky (I would have loved to see more islands with towns, and possibly a proper dungeon or two)
harp had little use
returning to the sky all the time was tedious

Overall, Skyward Sword is a great game, but like every game, it has its flaws. Luckily, the good outweighs the bad in my opinion.

Edit: I agree with illmatic on these as cons:

-Dialogue interruption every time you start a new game and get new loot or bugs
-Fi - I hate how she spoils the solution of some puzzles for you when you don't ask for her help. I also found her robotic personality and talk of percentages about everything annoying.

 

[JuicieJ]

What is up with people saying the automatic sailcloth is a con? I know this is an opinions thread, but I don't see how that matters at all. It's only when you drop down to the surface and Skyloft.

Cons:
-Fi - I hate how she spoils the solution of some puzzles for you when you don't ask for her help.

Fi gave the most generic hints imaginable. "Look around in all directions." That's basically the only thing she ever said about puzzles. The Sheikah Stone is what spelled things out.