Spoiler Were the Silent Realms Actually Challenging?

[Sydney]

I wouldn't go as far as to call them 'scary', but they definitely had my heart racing. That being said, they did have some challenge to them. The only time it ever felt tedious or even close to boring was during the Thunder Dragon's Lightening Round. It's optional, but if you choose to do it, it could get rather tedious/boring very quickly. I never felt that I was dreading the next upcoming trial, if anything I was anticipating it.

 

[Ronin]

Each of the Silent Realms have a variegated amount of difficulty to them. Although the goal was the same every time, the terrain offered assorted challenges that tested our promptness and sense of judgment. We had to gather all the Light Tears in about a minute and thirty seconds, and at times they were very cleverly hidden and out of the way of the other Tears. There were a few things that allowed us to track down Tears quickly (the Light Fruit specifically, which triggered a temporary beacon above the Tears' locations). Unfortunately we couldn't use items to reach the luminous objects, such as implementing the Beetle to scout out the areas, because they would have made the search way easier. I think they would have been useful in these alternate worlds set up by the goddess Hylia.

In addition to all this, tons of obstacles were strewn across the Realms as well. Watchers patrolled the designated areas, and Link had to be careful to avoid them or else, when fully bathed in their late, they would awaken the their earthbound brethren. It's hard to describe the sensation that comes over me when a Guardian comes to life. It's as if I knew that I had to avoid them at all costs, not only for fear of failing the trial and having to restart, but fear of my life. Running out of time or accidentally stepping into Waking Water also set them off. In short, collecting Tears is essential to getting out of there...ASAP.

Compared to TP's Twilight areas the Silent Realms were indeed a challenge, and possibly one of the most challenging sequences in the Zelda universe. They gave off a sense of urgency that many Zelda fans seem to crave. Perhaps something similar should be in order, only with different objectives each time. Thing is, collecting the titular Tears in any game can get old after awhile, but I agree that urgency could be crucial to a good game experience. Just like the Silent Realms managed.

 

[Kupsacker]

One of the greatest experiences in the game in my opinion. And yes, they were challenging the first time, especially Din's. And then the Skyloft one can be tough too; BAM waking water out of nowhere.

 

[MsNerrrrd]

Oh yes. Oh YEEEES. The Eldin Volcano. Don't even start about it. I had only one tear left, but I was caught off guard by those flying Guardians, and it was aaaaaaall over again =_=

 

[TrueChaos]

At first I wasn't impressed, just seemed like they ripped off the tear collection parts of Twilight Princess, but I warmed to them and having the statues coming after you makes it really intense (though do we really need to see them waking up EVERY TIME?)

 

[Sir Quaffler]

Yes, they are challenging both on the first time through when you're just trying to collect the tears and get out, AND when you go back in the Thunder Dragon's challenge to beat them as fast as you can.

The first time I went into Faron's Realm I got there, took one look around, and thought "Oh great, another Tears of Light section. How boring. Might as well get this over with and HOLY S*** WHAT THE F*** IS HAPPENING RUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!!!!!!!!" So yeah, they scared the piss out of me the first time through. The time limit made an otherwise boring fetch quest a very stressful endeavor for me, and it's because of this extra tensity that I made some stupid mistakes that made it even worse for me and caused the Guardians to rush over to my position STAT. Made me very nervous and ecstatic to face them every time; I would hold the Goddess Sword over the portal for like a minute or so to settle my nerves and steel myself before entering. When playing these levels in the story now, my main challenge is to never be seen at all; quite a good stealth section this game has made.

Now, though, when going through trying to make best time, they are challenging of a different type. I know how to avoid the Guardians now so I don't concern myself with the Watchers as much anymore; in fact sometimes I will purposely go into a Watcher's path if it means the shortest route to the next tear. The music still gets my blood pumping, which is good for trying to speedrun it. But I still haven't beaten the best times on any realm, so there's still quite a bit of challenge for me there.

 

[PokemonGanon]

I thought the Silent Realms were too easy of challenges. What they did was scare me, but they did not provide the challenge I was looking for. 3 out the 4 in the game were rediculously easy and I thought they could have done better.

 

[HowlChild]

It was in the middle for me....they were easy, but freaked me out....so it took me like 2-3 tries for each realm......

 

[Gemquarry]

Silent Realms for me were really nerve racking!

Faron wood's Silent realm was nothing compared to the Lanayru one! Din's was CRUEL, but Skyloft's was...was...WORSE
(AHG! Guardians everywhere!).

The first one I did (Faron Woods) I didn't die once, but my eyes were wide, my fingers were shaking, my heart was pounding...

And I couldn't wait to do it again XD!

 

[sailormars109]

For me (being horrible at first time play-throughs), I found them not challenging, but just a pain in the ***.

Spoiler

The first Silent Realm caught me off guard because I thought it was going to be just like finding the Tears of Light in Twilight Princess. Instead, I jumped in the waking water and was chased by the Guardians for a while.

That gave me a slight adrenaline rush.

The second one was the worst for me. I couldn't figure out how to get the tear out of the tree and ended up being chased by Guardians for literally about 10 min.

The others went pretty smoothly after that. Although, I was just terrified for the last two.

 

[athenian200]

I'd say it was mostly just an anxious experience. As I collected more tears, I became more anxious about making a mistake and having to do everything all over again.

The challenge mainly comes in the last sections, when you have to avoid a large number of watchers close together, with fewer hiding places and tons of Waking Water. Even then, it's not really that much of a challenge once you know where all the tears are, it's just really frustrating if you have to start over when you have one tear left.

It might be both challenging and EXTREMELY anxious if the tear locations were randomized, but let's not give Nintendo any ideas here.

 

[MiniMouseofPyru]

I didn't think the Silent Realms were all that hard. The first time I played through the game, the Faron Woods Silent Realm was kind of difficult and the Lanayru Silent Realm was really challenging for me. It tool me over 5 tries to beat it. The Eldin and Hylia Silent Realms were a lot easier for me.

 

[Trio the Punch]

Well, "challenging" is a subjective term of course, but I personally didn't have any real trouble with the Silent Realms. For a little while the intimidation factor prevented me from doing especially well, but once I got over that I realized that there wasn't really much in the Silent Realms that I found difficult. I actually only got killed in a Silent Realm once, during the Eldin Volcano one, and that was entirely due to a stupid mistake on my part.

 

[Sorreltail]

Silent Realms

I found the Silent realms pretty challenging the first time through. But as I played the game a second time, I found it rather easy. It was still really scary for me, but I didn't awake any of the guardians. I still think that the Lanayru Silent realm is the hardest, though. I could never find my way around, although, I never could, even out of the trial. lol .

Do you agree???

 

[Guest_1]

Each of the Silent Realms have a variegated amount of difficulty to them. Although the goal was the same every time, the terrain offered assorted challenges that tested our promptness and sense of judgment. We had to gather all the Light Tears in about a minute and thirty seconds, and at times they were very cleverly hidden and out of the way of the other Tears. There were a few things that allowed us to track down Tears quickly (the Light Fruit specifically, which triggered a temporary beacon above the Tears' locations). Unfortunately we couldn't use items to reach the luminous objects, such as implementing the Beetle to scout out the areas, because they would have made the search way easier. I think they would have been useful in these alternate worlds set up by the goddess Hylia.

In addition to all this, tons of obstacles were strewn across the Realms as well. Watchers patrolled the designated areas, and Link had to be careful to avoid them or else, when fully bathed in their late, they would awaken the their earthbound brethren. It's hard to describe the sensation that comes over me when a Guardian comes to life. It's as if I knew that I had to avoid them at all costs, not only for fear of failing the trial and having to restart, but fear of my life. Running out of time or accidentally stepping into Waking Water also set them off. In short, collecting Tears is essential to getting out of there...ASAP.

Compared to TP's Twilight areas the Silent Realms were indeed a challenge, and possibly one of the most challenging sequences in the Zelda universe. They gave off a sense of urgency that many Zelda fans seem to crave. Perhaps something similar should be in order, only with different objectives each time. Thing is, collecting the titular Tears in any game can get old after awhile, but I agree that urgency could be crucial to a good game experience. Just like the Silent Realms managed.

You've pretty much summed up my thoughts on this matter. I found them very challenging and hair-raising myself, especially when I got to Hylia's Silent Realm (and tripped a watcher while trying to get back after getting all of the tears). Then, there was that time in Din's Silent Realm where another watcher almost caught me through a wall while I was climbing. Despite this, I thought it was still a pretty fun sequence, even if you were vulnerable during the entirety of it. I for one would love to see more stuff like this.