Slingshot -_-

[rockercjathere]

As you have seen in the first trailer, the slingshot makes a return in SS. Along with the bow.

Now, in Twilight Princess, the slingshot was one of the first items you get, and up until the Goron Mines, its very useful. That is until you receive the bow. The bow is more powerful, has a higher range, and can also be combined with bombs. Once you get the bow, the slingshot is rendered useless unless you need and/or want to conserve arrows, or you run out. There is no specific mini game or anything (as far as I know) where you only use the slingshot. So there is virtually no need for the slingshot when you have the bow.

How does this relate to SS? Well, as we see in the trailer, the slingshot and the bow make an appearance. This begs the question, will the slingshot be as useless as that in TP, or even after you get the bow, will it still serve a purpose other then a back-up for your arrows?

What do you guys think, would you like to see the slingshot serve a greater use? Maybe have some minigames or enemies that require its use.

I hope it isn't a dungeon item, seems like a waste to me. I would like it introduced the way it was in Twilight Princess. What do you think?

(I apologize if this was already a thread :S)

 

[Sasuke Uchiha]

I think that the Slingshot is a TOTAL waste in Zelda games. I never used it in Twilight Princess. I just used my sword until I got the Bow and Arrow.

 

[Beeker]

While the slingshot is quite a waste in Twilight Princess, it could change in Skyward Sword. From what I've seen from gameplay videos, the bow takes a while to get out and prepare, though it is powerful and can shoot a long distance. The slingshot looks to be something you just point and shoot at a closer range. So who knows, maybe the slingshot will be more useful this time around.

 

[rockercjathere]

I think that the Slingshot is a TOTAL waste in Zelda games. I never used it in Twilight Princess. I just used my sword until I got the Bow and Arrow.

Exactly what I did. It was a total waste of time collecting all those rupees just to use it once in TP

While the slingshot is quite a waste in Twilight Princess, it could change in Skyward Sword. From what I've seen from gameplay videos, the bow takes a while to get out and prepare, though it is powerful and can shoot a long distance. The slingshot looks to be something you just point and shoot at a closer range. So who knows, maybe the slingshot will be more useful this time around.

I noticed that to. Hopefully the slingshot will be a good item to us when fighting Keese and other similar enemies close range. Hopefully, like you said, it will be a point and shoot weapon, to get the job done quick and easy.

 

[Justeazy]

i think the slingshot should be used as a tool more than anything, since it's pretty much nothing compared to the bow. (With the exceptions of timing constraints, as mentioned earlier and personally observed.)

For one, have you ever fired a real bow? Have you ever tried attaching something to one of the arrows and THEN firing it? Good luck firing with any accuracy and consistency. It would be much easier and more realistic to lob a bomb with the slingshot, for more accuracy and/or distance than simply throwing it. Also, perhaps slingshoting the Beetle into a place it cannot fly (as it's wings make it's total size greater, and would not fit in a gap just small enough for the body itself), and solving puzzles that way, or... shooting money into a toll booth to raise the gate.... xD

Anyway, basically my opinion is the Bow should be more of a weapon and the slingshot should be able to be adapted as much more of a tool, more realistic and all around useful, as this would go well with the realism in the 1:1 swordplay and such.

 

[rockercjathere]

i think the slingshot should be used as a tool more than anything, since it's pretty much nothing compared to the bow. (With the exceptions of timing constraints, as mentioned earlier and personally observed.)

For one, have you ever fired a real bow? Have you ever tried attaching something to one of the arrows and THEN firing it? Good luck firing with any accuracy and consistency. It would be much easier and more realistic to lob a bomb with the slingshot, for more accuracy and/or distance than simply throwing it. Also, perhaps slingshoting the Beetle into a place it cannot fly (as it's wings make it's total size greater, and would not fit in a gap just small enough for the body itself), and solving puzzles that way, or... shooting money into a toll booth to raise the gate.... xD

Anyway, basically my opinion is the Bow should be more of a weapon and the slingshot should be able to be adapted as much more of a tool, more realistic and all around useful, as this would go well with the realism in the 1:1 swordplay and such.

I have to admit, I never thought of that before! Thats an excellent idea, and if they incorporate that in the game, I will be completely impressed. Thats a really excellent idea, and I hope we see the slingshot used that way in the game, as well as future games it may be in.

 

[dadude1200]

maybe there is a certain enemy or mini-game where you will need the slingshot.

it boggles the mind!

 

[Master Kokiri 9]

To be honest, I don't think it's a waste at all. The Bow, while powerful and having much better range as seen in the trailer, takes a long time to get out. It is a sniping weapon for faraway enemies.

The Slingshot, however, is a much quicker (albeit, less powerful and less ranged) weapon to use, and really I can see it being used a lot in areas where there's a lot of small enemies around.

If they don't put enough swarms of enemies in the game, then yeah, I can see it going to waste since that seems to be the only logical use for it (and the only use we've seen for it up to now), but who knows, maybe they'll make the Slingshot useful in this game. To be honest, I think it would be AMAZING if they did an Oracle of Seasons approach to the Slingshot and gave you the option of different seeds for different things (like setting things on fire, blowing stuff away, etc, kinda like the elemental arrows from the other games).

 

[Cuju]

I believe that this will be in no way an issue in Skyward Sword, Why? Because in Twilight Princess, the slingshot was a less powerful version of the Hero's Bow, in Skyward Sword however, the bow is a really powerful, yet slow weapon (you can kill a bokoblin in 1 shot), but the slingshot is less powerful, but way quicker to use. You'll be able to pick off foes from a distance with the bow, or get up-close and personal and stun enemies with the slingshot, to finish them off with the sword. Hope this gives you some hope...

 

[zeldafan123]

I think that the Slingshot is a weapon that is mainly a less power, faster reload and fire weapon then the bow. I also think that it is just meant to be used as practice until you get a more powerful projectile weapon.

 

[Djinn]

To me the slingshot always had few uses outside of stunning the occasional enemy and triggering certain traps or switches. That was about it, anything else done with it could be better accomplished with the bow. Even if it was slightly more of a hassle to use, the extra utility made it worth the effort. And normally when I wanted to accomplish any of these I would just use the boomerang and not have to worry about having enough ammunition or aiming. The hookshot/clawshot is also better for these purposes making the slingshot even less useful later in the game.

Now I have always thought the slingshot could be made into a much more useful item if they added a few more things for it to fire. Clearly deku nuts are not powerful enough to harm anything but the weakest enemies. But if other things could be collected and shot from the slingshot like small bombs, nails, or magical items that create small fires or freeze the things they are shot at it would be a lot more useful for different situations. This might also give a use for bomblings if they could be fired over a distance at an enemy. Even include some mystery items that could have any unusual or random outcome when fired like a captured poe soul, magic beans, shadow crystals, or pinches of magic powder. The Oracle series had a little bit of this with the various mystical seeds that could be fired, each one having a different elemental property. And who wouldn't want to fire a pocket cuccoo at something if given the chance?

The magic beans could be fired causing vines to wildly grow in one spot ensnaring enemies or making a place where Link could climb up a wall. It could also create a spot that could be gripped by the hookshot. The magic powder could have some of the same uses from ALTTP where it would transform certain enemies into weaker versions, or cause hidden things to appear. Or for just a greater damaging attack some kind of spiked ball, or at least a natural occurring item like a seed or nut that resembles one, could be fired for a mid range attack instead of needing the bow.

With just a few more applications the slingshot could transform from the least used item in the game to the most useful multi tool for any situation.

 

[baga jr.]

To me, Nintendo never really intended for the slingshot to be a useful item in Twilight Princess. It was a TUTORIAL item. However, it would be better to have a tutorial item that is also used throughout the game.

It could be anything, as long as it doesn't get replaced and it just sits in your inventory. If they do keep the slingshot in the final version, it could actually be very good at this because it's a really simple tutorial item and it could have many more uses later on. I won't get into those many uses because people in this thread have already given excellent ideas and descriptions for this so I don't want to get repetitive.

 

[pupairo12]

Well, I think the slingshot will be important in SS because I've heard rumors that the bow fires exactly like the one in Wii Sports Resort. If that's the case, firing the bow will be awkward and shooting close range with the slingshot would be like heaven. Also, Slingshot pellets killed bulblins in TP in one shot, just like arrows.

 

[JuicieJ]

It wasn't useless, it just wasn't used for long.

 

[DuckNoises]

Djinn, that's the kind of thing they did in OoS; although, to be fair, the Oracle games didn't have a bow. The slingshot had different types of ammunition, and each ammunition had different effects that really made a useful combat weapon. It's not dissimilar to the Fire/Ice/Light Arrow concept. They could easily make it a viable weapon in SS by providing multiple types of ammunition. In OoS, there was an upgraded version of the slingshot that shot three projectiles at once in slightly different directions; if we see an upgraded slingshot in SS, then it could very well be a viable alternative to the bow.