Skyward Sword SS. Why So Much Hate?

[MajorasMass]

So I'm new to the forums so don't completely go crazy on me. One thing that I keep hearing recently is how divisive people are about SS. I keep hearing it was too linear and how the dungeons weren't that difficult. Those all my be true but I think the story itself makes up for it in the long run. I have been playing Zelda all of my life I have fond memories of playing OoT with my uncle when I first started playing. But no Zelda game has ever made me so emotionally invested in its characters. The relationship with Link and Zelda, e evolution of Groose from an awful person to actually helping save Zelda, heck even Fi, who a lot of people complain about I enjoyed her C3PO-esque behavior had an effect on me especially at the end. I'm not afraid to admit that the ending made me cry. The music, the motion controls, the formation of Hyrule was an incredibly satisfying gaming experience and just as good if not better than OoT

 

[Salem]

My issues with it that I think are a much bigger deal than the linearity.

1-They are the cutscenes, there's too much of them.

2-Fi just stops the gameplay just to tell us redundant and useless information.

3-Treasure notification, whenever we shut of the game and want to play again, they come back.

4-Buying and selling is annoying, we can't just buy the quantity we want we have to buy a specific amount, also when we want to sell it's the same, the game doesn't even tell how much we have of that item to sell.

 

[JoeDeLait]

It doesn't matter how much hate it gets it's your own personal opinion that counts to you, my personal opinion of it is extremely annoying, Fi is terrible, I didn't want to catch bugs or get treasure because of how it told me each time I turned the Wii on what it was, but, great music, stunning visuals and good storyline made better by character development but SO much worse by cutscene after cutscene. I'm actually playing it right now....guess what? Yep. Cutscene.

 

[Beauts]

1-They are the cutscenes, there's too much of the.

Pretty much every Zelda game has too many cutscenes, dating right back to OoT, some may say.

2-Fi just stops the gameplay just to tell us redundant and useless information.

Fi is ignorable.

I agree with the other two points you made.

Personally, I like SS and don't see why it's flamed so much. My main and only real issues with it are, it doesn't live up to it's potential in aspects such as the overworld- particularly the sky- and difficulty in normal mode. The tutorial is also a bit too long, but then again, not as long as TP, so I don't consider it too much of an issue. I also disagree with the whole, emotional investment into characters. I liked the fact that Link and Zelda had real personalities and a real friendship etc, but it felt very fanficcy in places, which bugs me because I don't play Zelda for a love story to unfold.

 

[Aelic7]

I don't think it's a bad game, I just don't think it lives up to Zelda standards in almost every category except for story/character design and graphics. I found the music, while beautiful, to be quite unmemorable. The game design, aside from the dungeons, was also pretty lackluster, as the Sky was empty and barren and there were incredible amounts of backtracking on the surface. As Sroa Link mentioned, Fi was incredibly annoying (the worst companion yet in my opinion) and the treasure notifications made me wonder if Nintendo thought I had severe short-term memory loss. The items in your inventory, even though it was specifically shrunken down for this very purpose, didn't all get equal usage and some were barely used outside the item's dungeon. Some of the controls for the items are tedious, too; it's ridiculous that you can't Z-target and shoot your Slingshot; you have to aim it manually. The motion controls for the sword worked well, but the enemy design was lacking in variety, especially because almost all the enemies could be defeated with only your sword. I'm probably rambling by now, so I'll stop here, but these are the main reasons (besides linearity) that I think Skyward Sword is the worst 3D Zelda game.

 

[DarkestLink]

From my point of view, it all relies on the M+. If you don't like it, I don't think you'll like the game. If you do like it, it'll probably be great. SS is a game with a smaller middle ground. Fans seem to love it or hate it. It's tied for my favorite, but I can see why people don't like it even if they find the M+ "bearable". It's a very flawed title...and it was a step backwards in terms of graphics and story. Its difficulty was still too easy for most hardcore gamers, but too hard for most casuals, which made it appealing to so few.

I kinda view it as the opposite of my other favorite game, TP. To me, TP had few flaws...the fewest since OoT and it was a step up in many aspects. But the one issue I had with TP is the one thing SS really did right. TP expanded the combat, but didn't build the game around it, which, I feel, really choked its true potential. Doing this one thing in SS made it overcome all of its flaws and rise its way to the top for me. If we could just get a game that had the best of both worlds, I'd be content.

 

[Salem]

Pretty much every Zelda game has too many cutscenes, dating right back to OoT, some may say.

Fi is ignorable.

1-The point is OoT had less cutscenes.
2-No Fi is NOT ignorable, she buts right in and starts talking without any permission from me. If you're talking about when he face flashes on the screen? They don't always give you the option to ignore her.

 

[Hoff123]

First of all people like Zelda for different reasons, and there are a lot of different Zelda games(not talking about gameplay here, which is pretty much always the same), and since Nintendo likes to experiment a lot(especially with Zelda), a lot of different oppinions will arise .

Anyway, for me personally, I had HUGE expectations for SS, even though I didn't really like the art style(yes, despite that), and... I was very disappointed. Honestly it didn't really feel like a Zelda game to me. Yes, I know that doesn't make any since to any of you(probably not even SS haters), but that's how I felt. I kept hoping that some awesome surprise or at least an awesome song would arise that would "stick with me"(if you know what I mean). But...no. Also, I found the music pretty boring. Now all that does NOT mean I hate the game, but it's definitely not my favorite Zelda game. TP and MM are my favorite Zelda games, with Oot, and then WW following.

Pros:
* The controls - they were pretty cool actually
* Difficulty - more difficult than TP but easier then MM(except on Hero mode )
* The upgrade system - this was actually really cool, collecting certain things were annyoing though lol
* Orchestrated music

Cons:
* FI!!!!!!!!! - Come one, does this even need to be explained?
* Small linear world - 3 areas which you would have to revisit multiple times(does the sky even count? it was so empty lol)
* The treasure notification thing Sroa Link mentioned
* Chasing Zelda around in the first part of the game - I thought this was pretty stupid, wasn't impa enough? I still had to save her? Whatever...lol
* Boring music - just because it's orchestrated doesn't mean I have to like it


But honestly most of it is subjective. Like the art style, the controls, and the music. Just google around and you'll find a lot of stuff .

EDIT But does the SS hate even compare to the TP hate? It seems TP is universally hated .

 

[JuicieJ]

1-They are the cutscenes, there's too much of the[m].

Can you really argue that there are too many cutscenes? There's only about an hour's worth in the game, which is about half as much as you would see in most modern video games. It was very much a gameplay-driven game.

4-Buying and selling is annoying, we can't just but the quantity we want we have to buy a specific amount, also when we want to sell it's the same, the game doesn't even tell how much we have of that item to sell.

Wait... what?

 

[ihateghirahim]

I think it's a great game, but something soured it for me. Hmmmmm. . . What could it have been?

 

[JuicieJ]

I think it's a great game, but something soured it for me. Hmmmmm. . . What could it have been?

Uh... King of Red Lions?

 

[ihateghirahim]

Uh... King of Red Lions?

Yeah, that's it.

 

[Lewmonkaizer]

I kinda agree with you, i can't really understand why people don't like SS, i mean i can understand a little but not completely. Most of the sidequests surprisingly motivated me quite a lot, except for the bug catching that was lame. The music was pretty amazing, the story was awesome, and the final boss and ending was amazing. One thing i can disagree with you is Fi, every time i just go anywhere, she keeps telling me that batteries are low or that i need to do a certain thing, heck she was so annoying that she may have surpassed Navi's annoyingness. But all and all, SS was a great game, it really did deserve to be one of the Wii's last games. 2nd best zelda game for me, next to TP (which is another game i don't understand why people hate).

 

[MajorasMass]

I think a part of it could be how high the expectations were I preordered all the bonus stuff and everything at Gamestop and like 2 days before it came out IGN gave it a perfect 10 so that made me want it even more. It lived up to the hype for me just not everyone else I guess

 

[Salem]

Can you really argue that there are too many cutscenes? There's only about an hour's worth in the game, which is about half as much as you would see in most modern video games. It was very much a gameplay-driven game.

Well you got me there, I was judging based on previous Nintendo and Zelda games.

Wait... what?

I was talking about how annoying it is to deal with shopkeepers in this game, even with characters that I want to sell things to. Frankly this was supposed to be a new thread I wanted to start.