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Twilight Princess vs. Skyward Sword

Joined
Aug 20, 2015
So i just borrowed Skyward Sword from my friend. Can you not use a gcn controller?
 
Joined
May 4, 2014
Location
California
Graphics -TP, they're both very pretty in their own way, SS reminds me of a water color painting, some of its elements though, were really weird. Like leaves for example. I prefer TP's lush, beautiful world better. It looks more realistic, but still cartoony enough to age well.

Sound/Music -Tie-They both have some amazing, memorable tracks, some godawful ones too. The sound effects are about the same and work just fine.


Overworld -TP-SS felt fragmented and empty and frustrating. TP had lots of hidden secrets for you to discover as both Link and Wolf Link.

Characters - SS-Fi is pathetic, Midna is awesomely snarky, Zant is cold and calculating, Girahim is disturbing and entertaining, I like Skyloft's residents better and I like the fact that you can say stuff and get them to change their responses to you. There's also character development depending on the actions you take.


Story-Tie, eh. Neither of them is anything special. But then Zelda game stories never are.


Combat -TP has superior combat. The sword skills are fun, the controls work as they were intended and don't feel forced and awkward and the bosses and mini-bosses were very good. SS has awkward, forced controls that don't work well, there aren't any skills to learn because the player knows them and I have yet to find a single boss fight that makes me say, I wanna fight you again!


Dungeons - Tie, this is subjective both have some clear winners, like the Ancient Cistern and Arbiter's Grounds. Both have some awful dungeons like, Lanayru Mining Facility and Lakebed Temple. Both have some unique elements too, like the time stones and the spinner.

Pacing - TP starts slow but picks up the pace quick. SS...I can't explain why but its pacing is awful.
 
Graphics - TP
Thinking about it at its time it looked absolutely fine. Games with TP's direction of art style don't age well but it looked fine for its time. SS goees too far with its corner cutting like the mottling effects.

Sound - TP
SS may have had an orchestra but I only like three tracks, the jingles aren't as fun or pleasing to listen to. TP may have been midi but the music felt as if it complimented everything much better than the music in SS did.

Overworld - TP
TP may have a lot of open spaces but SS's three provinces weren't enough, it also didn't have a connected overworld and thus lost a potential sense of scale and moving from one province to another was laborious if you were in a hurry. TP had a good sense of scale, i don't think its as empty as people deem it to be, its nice to have freedom, something SS didnt have with its puzzle-like overworld approach.

Characters - TP
Midna was great, Zant was well done if you were paying attention, Ganondorf was at his most evil. The likes of Queen Rutela were far more interesting than the likes of Levias and the dragons from SS. SS's characters may have had some nice designs (sometimes) but TP's characters were far more interesting.

Story - TP
While i liked SS's opening chase which lasted three dungeons it then caved into filler and practically stopped to crowbar in as much filler as they could with the song of the hero and forging the Master Sword. Having a Master Sword origins story was something we didnt need to begin with. TP's story was more interesting for me, i liked the invasion idea, i liked how desperate things were, i liked how Midna's back story and the realm of Twilight wer things you could give a damn about. It has pacing issues but which Zelda doesn't at least it didn't feel as if the story stopped primarily for filler.

Combat - TP
TP because Gamecube, because button control because better than motion controls and nothing against motion controls but SS's whole combat design was damned from the start because of its inclusion.

Dungeons - TP
TP's dungeons were bigger, more abundant, more complex, more labyrinthine, more daunting and were more intricately designed.

Pacing - TP
SS starts well but caves to filler, TP had filler but SS's filler feels wholly pointless and feel like an xcuse to force you back to locations you're already very familiar with. and the Silent Realms were horrible.
 
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
This what I think.

Graphics - equal

The graphics were equally good and detailed in both games.

Sound - TP
The best epic music is in Twilight Princess.

Overworld - TP
The Skyloft may contain more people to talk with in a small village area. But the huge and magnificient nature combined with good music in Twilight Princess was wonderful. I like a totally connected overworld as in TP and not different sections to jump into such as in SS.

Characters - TP
Midna and Fi did an equally good job guiding Link. But the other characters in Skyward sword were too cartoonish for my taste. I like the more realistic people, gorons, zoras, enemies and worm-blobs in Twilight princess.

Story - TP
In SS Zelda was kidnapped and the task was to look for her and save her in the future. In TP it was about saving other people in different vulnerable situations and being brave. So TP:s was more in "the present" than in "the future". It was a bit nagging to see Ghirahim appear before every boss-fight in SS.

Combat - SS
The fights were more difficult in SS than in TP and that is a great plus. Most of the enemies was very easy to defeat in TP except the aeralfos and darknuts. The tougher, the better.

Dungeons - TP
TP's dungeons were bigger, more abundant, more complex, more labyrinthine, more daunting. SS's dungeons were ok but less thrilling and more monotonous. Many times the dungeons were just a simple large room or a large area.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
Graphics - TP
Mainly because Skyward Sword's graphics looked awful even when they came out. They feel lazy, lacking TP's textures and immersion as well as lacking tWW's vibrant colors.

Sound - TP
I don't care for Orchestration, personally, and regardless of sound quality, SS's soundtracks were horribly forgetable.

Overworld - TP
Transportation based overworlds are awful, though I will say SS did it better than tWW.

Characters - TP
SS had Groose...and that's it. You barely saw him too.

Story - Tie
Zelda's never really been a story based series, though I'll say SS and TP have done the best job. But, like many Zelda games, they suffer from plotholes and points that just don't make sense.

Combat - SS
This is where SS truly shined. While I feel TP reached the peak of potential in the series combat, it was underutilized and mainly see in the Cave of Ordeals. While the Hidden Skills were unfortounately optional, SS's new layer to combat was present throughout the entire game.

Dungeons - TP
Honestly, I'd say TP stands second in dungeons in the entire series next to OoT.

Pacing - SS
SS's segments were better paced IMO to give a better sense of progress, all while keeping the same basic Zelda structure.
 

CrimsonCavalier

Fuzzy Pickles
Joined
Mar 27, 2015
Location
United States
Gender
XY
So i just borrowed Skyward Sword from my friend. Can you not use a gcn controller?

Sorry bud, no. You're stuck.

Graphics - TP

Even if isn't HD, and even if the textures are muddy and the colors drab, it was still a better-looking game than SS. Especially the character models. The SS character models were pretty bad. And I hate the enemy models in SS. They don't look menacing. Especially the bokoblins. They just look like fat old men.

Sound - TP

Aside from the orchestration, TP wins. The pieces themselves are far superior to SS's.

Overworld - TP

To call the Sky an overworld is to use the word lightly. It barely qualifies as an overworld. Just a bunch little islands in the sky that serve no purpose. They're worse the WW's islands/ocean/sailing.

Characters - TP

Midna, Telma, Zant, and Malo were all more interesting than anything SS offered.

Story - TP

My biggest complaint with SS's story is that it changes everything. By itself, as a stand-alone game, it wouldn't have been bad. But it just didn't go with the rest of the series.

Combat - TP

Not even close. There was nothing fun or unique or engaging or immersive about Skyward Sword's broken controls.

Dungeons - TP

Eh, this one was closer. SS at least had some interesting dungeons, I'll give them that. But TP still had some of the best in the series.

Pacing - SS

Just because of the beginning of TP. Those first 30 minutes were brutal. I kept waiting for the story to pick up, and it never did. SS did a better job at getting you into the action, although I have to take points away for hand-holding, which really broke the immersion of the game a lot.
 
Joined
Jun 30, 2014
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Graphics- TP

SS had obviously the greater quality-- there's no dispute there- but I prefer TP's artstyle. Not even simply its art style, its look, too-- its aesthetic. It seems to me so much greater thought was put into the arrangement of space, the lighting, the colors, the scenery, in that game.

Sound- TP

TP's soundtrack is my favorite in the series, by far; and, I'd say, the greatest musical achievement of the series thus far. What a fantastic score. SS did have orchestration, though.

Overworld- N/A

SS didn't really have an overworld, did it? There was a central hub town-- some empty space-- and thick, labyrinthine regions. TP, meanwhle, took the conventional "town and field" approach. Contextualized to their own games, they both functioned fine. I guess I prefer TP's approach, but it can'r really be said which overworld is "better."

Characters-TP

No contest. In terms of major characters, let's be real-- Midna, Zant, Ilia, Colin, Zelda, Renado, and so on, are by far more original and fascinating creations.

As far as supporting characters go, those in SS, taken both individually and collectively, are one-dimensional, weightless, and excessively quirky. They were funny, sure, but they added nothing to the world or story. They were all just chilling in Skyloft, the whole gaggle of them. They all wore the same clothes, lived in the same houses, spoke the same way, had the same friends; they all went to the lumpy pumpkin, all coexisted in the same social class, all were equally approachable, all carried their petty problems on their sleeves helplessly.

There were certainly less supporting characters in TP, but they were far more varied, all far more interesting and gritty. Very little time was wasted on quirky one--shot sidequest bait goofs. They could be taken seriously, and they all coexisted with n a staggered and far-reaching society. There were disconnections, realistic issues and social ills between them. Their dress, personality, profession, could be attributed to far more than what overbearing archetype they fulfilled among a plethora of wack job characters.



Story-TP

TP's story is the best of any Zelda game thus far, unquestionably.

Combat- Tie

At its best, TP"s combat is very fluent and rewarding. But it requires that the player, and their proficiency with the hidden skills, be tested against challenging enemies; and let's be real, that rarely happens.

SS' combat is the backbone of the whole game, and... it's definitely fun. But is falls into the pitfall of "this is where the enemy is unguarded, swing here," simply because the the controls weren't varied enough, too 2-dimensional. But it was definitely more challenging than TP.

Dungeons- Eh

Sometimes, dungeon rankings don't make sense to me. You can judge based on concept, aesthetic, gimmick, but the dungeon at its heart is a puzzle, and that's always been, room-by-room small obstacles and combat, with fairly obvious cues as to what to do next.. I don't think the quality of this system decreased at any point from TP to SS.

Aesthetically, They both had some original ideas. TP usually always had an original theme or flair, SS mostly.

Pacing- TP

They both drew themselves out and open toward the second act; where the player felt pressed for time in the first, their objectives are now more complicated and open-ended. But playing SS toward the end felt like watching a human get stretched out like taffy. ****ing tadtones
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2017
Gender
Male
Skyward Sword Hands down. Thou they both share a similar problem. The overworld is too blan. Skyward Sword had no areas to explore when veering away from the the main quest. Twilight Princess look amazing and was a sight to see but just like Skyward Sword it was boring venturing around the mainland.
 
Joined
Sep 21, 2014
Location
Michigan
Pacing - SS

Just because of the beginning of TP. Those first 30 minutes were brutal. I kept waiting for the story to pick up, and it never did. SS did a better job at getting you into the action, although I have to take points away for hand-holding, which really broke the immersion of the game a lot.
Sometimes I feel like I'm quite literally the only person who genuinely enjoyed the beginning of Twilight Princess.
 

Jamie

Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out...
Joined
Feb 23, 2014
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Don't worry, I did to.

Skywards Swords beginning was way slower and had waaaaay more hand holding than TP idk how you can even compare the two.
I don't know I felt they were both pretty close. TP had that whole mess with bull wrangling and then the first significant portion of the game you weren't even human Link. I think it depends on how much you like or dislike wolf link on how you feel the intro was, but I am thankful to see botw will have none of that. Whichever one is slower aside, I'm tired of long intros in games in general. Even Wind Waker had a lengthy intro imo and it was shorter than TP and SS. One thing I can give to OoT is getting the sword and shield takes like 5 minutes. Not a big fan of OoT overall but it was well paced.
 

Jamie

Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out...
Joined
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I don't really feel like the wolf segment counts as the intro but I guess that's just my opinion.
Even without it it would appear that the wolf segment begins at about the hour 30 mark or after, it has it at about the 2 hour mark before you start doing the first actual important **** as a wolf (before that you are just seeing princess zelda). Even if you are generous and say as soon as you become a wolf the intro is over, which I think is a bit of a stretch given the menial **** you have to do as a wolf at the beginning like going to the castle and escaping the prison, that still puts it at roughly the same length of SS when SS allows you to be human and go right to the first dungeon fairly quickly. It's pretty hard to argue that TPs intro is shorter given on the short side it's roughly the same, and it can be argued it's anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour longer. I think it's pretty extreme to have such a long time in between starting the game and actually being able to start heading towards the first dungeon. Like I said even WW has a long intro and it's comparatively much shorter. Any game with an intro longer than an hour is much too long.
 

BoxTar

i got bored and posted something
Joined
Apr 13, 2009
Location
Pacific Northwest
I aint gonna list specific categories cuz I'm just gonna repeat what others have already said.

I'll just say that SS is a ****ing trash babby game for trash babbies.

Now, obviously, if you enjoy it, that's fine, I'm just being a lil **** and using extreme hyperbolic humor for the sake of rustling jimmies.

But I cannot stand SS. It infuriated me. Its controls sucked. Its story was bland. Most characters were thin as paper. The overworld was one of the worst Zelda has ever offered to date.

Music was nice though.

TP may not be my favorite Zelda by any means, but its stuck more in my mind with more positive vibes than SS ever has.
 

Jamie

Till the roof comes off, till the lights go out...
Joined
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No wonder you think the intro is long if it takes you an hour and a half to turn into the wolf
To check times, I just looked at a random let's play on YouTube. It took them about an hour to become wolf, an hour and a half to be human. I have a hard time justifying that wolf isn't part of the intro, I think most people would consider that first wolf bit to be intro. But even without it, that's an hour. Too long. At best SS and TP are roughly the same length in terms of their intros. More hand holding for SS for sure but they are both too long.
 

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