First off, this is not a hate thread. I've already done that before and do not plan to do it again. This is a thread to analyze Skyward Sword and things it could've improved upon.
'kay, with that outta the way, onwards with the discussion. What do you think SS could've done differently? I personally thing it could've added many more sidequests, things to do in The Sky, differing Tunics and many more items/potions. A Magic Meter would also be a welcomed substance, in addition to spells and much more aggressive enemies.
Sidequests
Believe it or not, SS DOES have sidequests. However, they're not all that great due to the fact that the majority of them are fetch quests and expanded fetches at that. If the game could've presented quests revolving around things like stealth missions, battling hordes of tough enemies to save someone, or simpler things like defending a carriage a la the Cremia sidequests in Majora's Mask, I think it would be a great boon to the game's playability and replayability.
I mean, think on it a bit. Would you rather have a quest about going to an island, talking to someone, returning the hub, gathering materials then returning back to the island for some measly 5 Gratitude Crystals, or would you rather a quest about going to the Surface, finding a fellow of Skyloft who somehow pierced the Cloud Barrier and is deep trouble of death or otherwise pain due to several Bokoblins being...what they are? I personally would take the latter, because it is much more exhilarating and immersing on Nintendo's part.
The Sky
Yes, the Sky where we travel aloft on our Crimson Loftwing. Remeber the Great Sea in Wind Waker, how there were many an island with naught to do? Well, in the Sky we have few an island with naught to do. I mean, there are bombable crevice with who knows what inside (most like a silver rupee in a chest!), but those are few and far between. This could go along with sidequests, but if there were many more things to do in the Sky, such as battles (though those would be hard to implement, I admit) or...well, more than just finding the occasional chest spawned by a Cube, the Sky would be a better place to be and more enjoying.
Tunics and Items/Potions and Magic Meter/misc
You likely remember the different tunics in Ocarina of Time, the Zora/Magic armors in Twilight Princess, and the three charms of Minish Cap (if not, don't worry – they're great but you probably won't care for them). They allowed us special properties, such as ability to survive in excessive heat, breath underwater, be invincible at the cost of rupees, increased attack power and much more. We even had awesome looks, to boot! Skyward Sword omits these tunics and charms, the basis of which I presume to be of "unimportance and causes lag". Were the game to include tunics and charms, there would be many more collectibles to collect and thus could artificially lengthen game time required for a 100 percent run, and maybe even make it far more epic than it currently is. Artificial length really isn't all that great, I know, but being able to survive heat with just a pair of earrings sounds...ridiculous. A tunic or some fancy armor of some sort makes much more sense.
Items. Items, items, items. We all know what they are to the Zelda series: important. Skyward Sword features a number of equipment items (mitts, shields, bug net, etc), but only eight, count 'em, eight combat centric items. Nintendo could do better than that, and still make them applicable to the game. If I recall correctly, Ocarina of Time featured 10+ items across Young and Adult Link to be used on puzzles. They were neither used too often or too few. Twilight Princess had many more than 10 items, and while they weren't effective to the game, they had fun uses that definitely could've been changed to be more...applicable to the game. Skyward Sword truncates all of that to just eight, alike that of Legend of Zelda (NES). The items of SS undoubtedly are used in many situations. However, their variance is only for the fact that there are eight of them. The game could've done much more, with status effects like "flip foot – being tossed into the air and stunned momentarily", "freeze – frozen, unable to move" and much more. Many more items could've been added and we know for a fact that Nintendo could make them relevant to all of the game.
Magic Meter and misc. This isn't required, but it makes the game much more engrossing. Rewards like the double magic meter aren't exactly important to the general playstyle fo the game, but they provide limitations and fun challenges to be used. Skyward Sword didn't manage to land that, unfortunately, because there are too few items and they are mostly mechanical rather than magical in use. Again, we know that Nintendo could implement a magic bar and make it relevant to the game. If we can get simple upgrades to dowsing by way of story elements, so too can we get upgrades to the magic meter by similar means.
Another things, and this is miscellaneous, are things such as double defense (that upgrade that was forced on us from the beginning of Twilight Princess by way of chainmail, the upgrade at endgame of Ocarina of Time, and other similar situations). Little things like DD, tunics, spells and the like definitely could've found a place in Skyward Sword. For a story to be so centered around magical elements, the game is much more mechanical than one would expect it to be. Yes, earrings giving complete defense to magic is magical, but it isn't alike that of Zora Armor in TP. Something just seems to be missing. Starting off with six hearts makes the game more easier than it needs to be. Three has been the way to go since the series' inception, and while change is sometimes good, six hearts definitely isn't. Had SS had these extra little things, surely the reception would be 11/10 rather than 10/10.
Aggressive Enemies
This is nitpicky, I know, but enemies do nothing in this game but block or so it seems. I was walking around in Skyview waiting to be killed, but enemies sit there waiting for me to strike just so they can block that attack...but they don't follow up. It takes a LONG time for them to even strike – if I had my back turned and put the controllers down, a Bokoblin would take approximately 2-3 minutes to kill me, check my figures becuase I know I'm wrong. The problem is that enemies are too lenient on allowing you to attack them, and they don't fight back. I don't want to fight a cinderblock. I want to fight a fellow swordsman who can attack me just like I attack them (a la Dark Link from AoL/OoT). Skyward Sword could've done better than that.
'kay, with that outta the way, onwards with the discussion. What do you think SS could've done differently? I personally thing it could've added many more sidequests, things to do in The Sky, differing Tunics and many more items/potions. A Magic Meter would also be a welcomed substance, in addition to spells and much more aggressive enemies.
Sidequests
Believe it or not, SS DOES have sidequests. However, they're not all that great due to the fact that the majority of them are fetch quests and expanded fetches at that. If the game could've presented quests revolving around things like stealth missions, battling hordes of tough enemies to save someone, or simpler things like defending a carriage a la the Cremia sidequests in Majora's Mask, I think it would be a great boon to the game's playability and replayability.
I mean, think on it a bit. Would you rather have a quest about going to an island, talking to someone, returning the hub, gathering materials then returning back to the island for some measly 5 Gratitude Crystals, or would you rather a quest about going to the Surface, finding a fellow of Skyloft who somehow pierced the Cloud Barrier and is deep trouble of death or otherwise pain due to several Bokoblins being...what they are? I personally would take the latter, because it is much more exhilarating and immersing on Nintendo's part.
The Sky
Yes, the Sky where we travel aloft on our Crimson Loftwing. Remeber the Great Sea in Wind Waker, how there were many an island with naught to do? Well, in the Sky we have few an island with naught to do. I mean, there are bombable crevice with who knows what inside (most like a silver rupee in a chest!), but those are few and far between. This could go along with sidequests, but if there were many more things to do in the Sky, such as battles (though those would be hard to implement, I admit) or...well, more than just finding the occasional chest spawned by a Cube, the Sky would be a better place to be and more enjoying.
Tunics and Items/Potions and Magic Meter/misc
You likely remember the different tunics in Ocarina of Time, the Zora/Magic armors in Twilight Princess, and the three charms of Minish Cap (if not, don't worry – they're great but you probably won't care for them). They allowed us special properties, such as ability to survive in excessive heat, breath underwater, be invincible at the cost of rupees, increased attack power and much more. We even had awesome looks, to boot! Skyward Sword omits these tunics and charms, the basis of which I presume to be of "unimportance and causes lag". Were the game to include tunics and charms, there would be many more collectibles to collect and thus could artificially lengthen game time required for a 100 percent run, and maybe even make it far more epic than it currently is. Artificial length really isn't all that great, I know, but being able to survive heat with just a pair of earrings sounds...ridiculous. A tunic or some fancy armor of some sort makes much more sense.
Items. Items, items, items. We all know what they are to the Zelda series: important. Skyward Sword features a number of equipment items (mitts, shields, bug net, etc), but only eight, count 'em, eight combat centric items. Nintendo could do better than that, and still make them applicable to the game. If I recall correctly, Ocarina of Time featured 10+ items across Young and Adult Link to be used on puzzles. They were neither used too often or too few. Twilight Princess had many more than 10 items, and while they weren't effective to the game, they had fun uses that definitely could've been changed to be more...applicable to the game. Skyward Sword truncates all of that to just eight, alike that of Legend of Zelda (NES). The items of SS undoubtedly are used in many situations. However, their variance is only for the fact that there are eight of them. The game could've done much more, with status effects like "flip foot – being tossed into the air and stunned momentarily", "freeze – frozen, unable to move" and much more. Many more items could've been added and we know for a fact that Nintendo could make them relevant to all of the game.
Magic Meter and misc. This isn't required, but it makes the game much more engrossing. Rewards like the double magic meter aren't exactly important to the general playstyle fo the game, but they provide limitations and fun challenges to be used. Skyward Sword didn't manage to land that, unfortunately, because there are too few items and they are mostly mechanical rather than magical in use. Again, we know that Nintendo could implement a magic bar and make it relevant to the game. If we can get simple upgrades to dowsing by way of story elements, so too can we get upgrades to the magic meter by similar means.
Another things, and this is miscellaneous, are things such as double defense (that upgrade that was forced on us from the beginning of Twilight Princess by way of chainmail, the upgrade at endgame of Ocarina of Time, and other similar situations). Little things like DD, tunics, spells and the like definitely could've found a place in Skyward Sword. For a story to be so centered around magical elements, the game is much more mechanical than one would expect it to be. Yes, earrings giving complete defense to magic is magical, but it isn't alike that of Zora Armor in TP. Something just seems to be missing. Starting off with six hearts makes the game more easier than it needs to be. Three has been the way to go since the series' inception, and while change is sometimes good, six hearts definitely isn't. Had SS had these extra little things, surely the reception would be 11/10 rather than 10/10.
Aggressive Enemies
This is nitpicky, I know, but enemies do nothing in this game but block or so it seems. I was walking around in Skyview waiting to be killed, but enemies sit there waiting for me to strike just so they can block that attack...but they don't follow up. It takes a LONG time for them to even strike – if I had my back turned and put the controllers down, a Bokoblin would take approximately 2-3 minutes to kill me, check my figures becuase I know I'm wrong. The problem is that enemies are too lenient on allowing you to attack them, and they don't fight back. I don't want to fight a cinderblock. I want to fight a fellow swordsman who can attack me just like I attack them (a la Dark Link from AoL/OoT). Skyward Sword could've done better than that.
