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What Did You Think of the Shield Deteriorating in Skyward Sword?

Joined
Jun 14, 2011
I actually found shields useful when fighting against enemies since I just wait for them to attack and then defend to stun them. I do like the idea of durable Shield because it make things interesting when your shield breaks and you have pretty much no defence (unless you pull a trollface and pull out another shield xD) I hope this gets implemented in future Zelda games, it was quite a good feature.
 
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Curmudgeon

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I'm generally opposed to maintenance tasks in games. It's why I don't play the Sims. I already do the dishes. Having to ration shield use made me stop using the shield all together, because I wasn't sure when the critical moment I'd need it would arise.
 

DarkestLink

Darkest of all Dark Links
Joined
Oct 28, 2012
I thought about mentioning this earlier, but decided not to. I'm going to now.

Let's say Ganon's attack in OoT WEREN'T blocked by the shield. I'm willing to bet money you would say this was genius design due to it preventing you from being able to block his mighty attacks. Yet, with Demise, it's a bad thing to be able to not have your shield take damage?

Yes. If the shield is to be a weapon too, then fine, but severally punishing players for using the shield as what should be its primary function (defense), isn't right. It's backwards logic that using your shield as a defensive weapon causes it to break, but roughly shoving it into your opponents weapon won't hurt it at all. In fact, I would have been fine if it had been the other way around, that your shield had a meter of sorts that would deplete when you bash something with it and remained in tact when it was used as a defensive item. That makes sense. But this current method made no sense and destroyed the actual purpose of owning a shield.

Well, first off, the Sacred Shield was 500 rupees. That's a pretty steep price, don't you think? Second, it was -- here we go again -- an optional acquirement. It was there for those who were struggling to keep their shields from breaking. You didn't have to get it if you didn't want to.

No. It was there under the assumption that everyone would take it. Just because you are under the impression someone self challenged themselves and chose not to get it doesn't mean that's what Nintendo had in mind.
 
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Night Owl

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I used the shield fairly often, I found the shield meter nice because It made me get better at timing shield bashes.
I never had it break on my first playthrough, but I always made sure to have the shield repair potion with me.

I am on the fence about the shield meter returning in the future.
It was nice having it make me get better at using it; but I don't like the fear of it breaking during a critical moment, such as being low on health.
 
Joined
Apr 10, 2012
Yes. If the shield is to be a weapon too, then fine, but severally punishing players for using the shield as what should be its primary function (defense), isn't right. It's backwards logic that using your shield as a defensive weapon causes it to break, but roughly shoving it into your opponents weapon won't hurt it at all. In fact, I would have been fine if it had been the other way around, that your shield had a meter of sorts that would deplete when you bash something with it and remained in tact when it was used as a defensive item. That makes sense. But this current method made no sense and destroyed the actual purpose of owning a shield.



No. It was there under the assumption that everyone would take it. Just because you are under the impression someone self challenged themselves and chose not to get it doesn't mean that's what Nintendo had in mind.

And how do you know that? I mean I could see why someone might not like the sacred shield replenishing, but no one knows what Nintendo's intention was. I thought it was nice to have it replenish with such a low meter. I have come close to breaking it before during my playthrough but that's just me
 

Ventus

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And how do you know that? I mean I could see why someone might not like the sacred shield replenishing, but no one knows what Nintendo's intention was. I thought it was nice to have it replenish with such a low meter. I have come close to breaking it before during my playthrough but that's just me

Well I'm not DarkestLink, but I do believe that if a designer intentionally places an item in the game that they want players to acquire said item. I mean, why would I put an item that gives the highest strength in the game, but I don't want players to obtain it? That makes very little sense, dont'cha think? xD

As for the Sacred Shield and its line, I do think the "smaller" gauge was a bit redundant. I recall it actually taking more damage than one might expect, ignoring the rejuvenation, so it made the "small" gauge actually much bigger than it looks. Then when you factor that it auto-recovers, you get an almost OP shield which makes the shield meter useless on its own. :I
 

MsNerrrrd

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Hated it. I wanted the Magic Meter to replace it really, for more than anything.
But it did have it's good sides as well. You know, the whole ying yang- thingy? Good has it's bad sides, bad has it's good sides? Since the meter added a nice challenge to the game, and you could purchase Sacred Shields and all, if you wished to, and then there was the Hylian Shield as well, and all...
 

Castle

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I thought it was pointless.

A.) Shields are useless period, so
B.) why limit the use of something you'll never make extensive use of? and
C.) it isn't long until the divine shield becomes available then you don't have to worry about your shield breaking whether you use it or not.

regardless, having to constantly expend resources to repair shields is a time consuming chore.

It added no significant strategy or tactics to the game. Not enough to make considering how and when to use a shield worthwhile. Better off not using it as much as possible.

Still, in previous Zelda games it could be said the shield suffers from overuse. When you're not attacking you're defending. Most enemies can't harm you with your shield up so attacking is all about timing. Zelda games have always emphasized evasion as a means of defense, however, especially 3D titles, but in SS evading an enemies blatantly telegraphed attacks was the only sound combat tactic with no drawbacks.
 

Random Person

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And how do you know that? I mean I could see why someone might not like the sacred shield replenishing, but no one knows what Nintendo's intention was. I thought it was nice to have it replenish with such a low meter. I have come close to breaking it before during my playthrough but that's just me

When you play video-games, there are certain features that the game wants you to know is optional. Then there are those things that are optional, but the game wants the player to exploit. It's still the player's choice, but the game presents an atmosphere to get or it'd seem like you'd be playing the game "incorrectly". The upgraded shields were indeed optional, but with upgrading being a major factor in SS and shield bashing being a very distinctive and influential change (unlike in TP where it only let you do a couple of cool moves), it does seem as though the game wants us to get the best shield we can. Technically, only people who made the game can officially say whether or not they wanted something to be used, yet as human beings we are aloud to make logical deductions based on atmosphere, and based on the atmosphere, I agree with DarkestLink that the game was pushing us to get the best shield we could.

Honestly, I didn't include upgrading being "optional" in my earlier answer because...

A) I've already explained to the world why I Personally believe something being optional does not negate its effect on the game so I'd be repeating myself.
2) Everything about the shield is optional. Don't understand why I'd leave out one optional feature (upgrading the shield) when "getting the shield," "using the shield," "repairing the shield," and all other parts of the shield should be included into my argument.
 

JuicieJ

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Yes. If the shield is to be a weapon too, then fine, but severally punishing players for using the shield as what should be its primary function (defense), isn't right. It's backwards logic that using your shield as a defensive weapon causes it to break, but roughly shoving it into your opponents weapon won't hurt it at all. In fact, I would have been fine if it had been the other way around, that your shield had a meter of sorts that would deplete when you bash something with it and remained in tact when it was used as a defensive item. That makes sense. But this current method made no sense and destroyed the actual purpose of owning a shield.

First off, that makes no sense. I could just as easily say adding a health meter to a weapon would take away its primary function as an offense. Two, Skyward Sword only had one sword for us to use. Giving the sword a health bar would have been pointless. As for the shield, there was an infinite supply of multiple shields. You have your facts completely backwards.
 
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
I could see the point of the shield deterioration, but I personally hated it. It discouraged me from using the shield at all; after all, why even bother if it's just going to break? If they gave the shield a longer life, I would've liked it more.
 

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