Skyward Sword Silent Realms

[Zeldalinknavi]

I think we all know about the Silent Realms for items in Skyward Sword. What did you think about them? Did you enjoy doing them? Were they frustrating to you? What was the most difficult one out of them all? And did you do the Thunder Dragon's timed Silent Realm trial?

 

[Dio]

I did not find them frustrating. I only get frustrated when I fail more than one time.
I found them to be intense however and they were always a good challenge. I never felt that they were too easy or too hard. I have experienced a few close calls as I once stepped into a searchlight after collecting the final tear in Skyloft and Eldin and had to run all the way back across the whole area to be safe. Both were incredibly close calls, my heart was pounding fiercely by the end.

 

[Sydney]

I really enjoyed the Silent Realms. Yes, they can tend to be frustrating, especially when being chased by the guardians, but in all honesty they're really fun. I have tried the Silent Realms in the Lightening Round, and my best time is over 4 minutes. The most difficult one by far was Din's. On a level of difficult: Din's>Hylia's>Nayru's>Farore's. My favorite was Farore's Silent Realm, btw. ^-^

 

[Ventus]

I enjoyed them for what they were, though I'd definitely love to see totally DIFFERENT areas alongside the rehashed areas themselves. Of course, one could think of silent realms as an alternate area (don't talk to me about the reasoning behind that; I'm no theorist) so the rehashes would be justified.

I loved how Link could and is supposed to go through every land using only his parkour skills. Fighting the guardians would be a sweet twist (sword and shield only vs variety of items, anyone?), but definitely loved going through the realms. Silent realms or an idea similar to it needs to be in future Zeldas!

 

[Mangachick14]

I found them creepy as hell at first, but I soon started to enjoy the silent realm trials. I thought they added a good, tense feeling to the otherwise mellow game. This was the only time I felt a sense of urgency when playing SS, So it was definitely different from the rest of the game.
I really loved these parts of the game, I hope we see more things like them in the future Zelda games

 

[HyruleLove]

I wasnt a fan of them. To me they just felt like fillers... Idk, maybe I dont like feeling on edge and having my heart in my throat when I get caught. It was stressful! xD

 

[A Link In Time]

Personally the Silent Realms were an excellent evolution of the stealth elements present in the two DS titles prior. The Guardians were certainly intimidating at first but I personally familiarized myself with the spiritual environment quickly. The most difficult trail? It's hard to remember now but Lanayru perhaps. As for the Thunder Dragon's time trail, no I did not undertake the task for I feel very stressed under added pressure in videogames. I know that what I'm playing is merely a game but the stakes feel raised nevertheless.

 

[univpark]

And to think that I was just scared to death of the guardians...

 

[SkyloftZelda]

The Silent Realms were intense and pretty scary for me the first time through. However I'm actually enjoying them the second time around. I like Hylia's the most. I find Nayru's to be the easiest, mainly because it's so wide open and the tears were fairly easy to get to. Din's is the hardest for me. Overall I think the Silent Realms were a cool addition to the game.

 

[AnimeHat]

I found the silent realms mildly challenging and frustrating. One hit from a gaurdian and it was all over. I had the toughest time with the Lanayru Silent Realm.

 

[Ventus]

I absolutely loved the Silent Realms! The only problem I have with it, as Vanitas mentioned, is that they are merely rehashes of areas previously visited. I'd much rather have completely new areas!

The most difficult one in my opinion is either Lanayru Desert (sooo much running!) or Skyloft (trying to do like speedrunners do is incredibly difficult!).

 

[TheMasterSword]

I can't believe some people hated them! They were phenomenally designed, challenging, and fun to do! Especially the Thunder Dragon's timed version! SO much fun!

 

[Terminus]

They unnerved the hell out of me, and I would have preferred to fight the Guardians like Van said earlier. I love them as a concept, loathe them as an execution.

 

[Random Person]

This was something I actually enjoyed about the game, very much so. It was great to see the land in a new perspective and the misty way Nintendo did it really set the atmosphere. Rather than going from chaotic to peaceful, like TP did with most of its lands, it went from peaceful to mysteriously deadly. I was laughing at certain parts as I felt Nintendo was truly trolling me by making it very easy to get caught or putting a tear in the most inconvenient spot. I love times in games where I feel panicked, and this did a good job. The music was peaceful when you had time and when you ran out it was fast paced and terrifying. One hit made you start all over, really puts the nerves on to not mess up. Eventually through the Thunder Dragon's trials, I learned which tears to get first for the best results which better shows that Nintendo didn't just Randomly place these things anywhere. If I had any complaint about the silent realms, its the prize of the fire silent realm. (Seriously, earrings?)

 

[Heroine of Time]

Yes, I really enjoyed the Silent Realms. ^^ They certainly got my heart pounding, and they added a bit of strategy and stealth into the game (and, for whatever reason, I've always been rather fond of stealth missions, like the Eldin Volcano one). The only frustrating one was Farore's Silent Realm, since, you know, it was the first one and I had no idea what I was doing. I always thought you had to actually sprint to get away from the Guardians, without realizing that just plain running would suffice, so I kept running out of stamina.

Most difficult... probably Skyloft. I actually didn't fail any of them except for the first one, so I'm only basing off of my re-runs in the Thunder Dragon's Lightning Round (which I did out of complete boredom and the small hope of obtaining a Heart Piece). I'm not very good at beating the Skyloft one on a limit; I died four times before finally finding the last tear. Then I again, I didn't retry Eldin or Lanayru, so who knows...