What Would You Rate Skyward's Uniqueness of Areas

[kizo]

Rate, post, and discuss

 

[Vanessa28]

It would be great if you add a bit text in your post and tell us what you think yourself.

I rate it around 6. It was great but not that unique. All though I must say the Sandship was really wicked and cool

 

[Sydney]

I'd give it a 6, or 7.
There was nothing too unique in that game. If anything, several concepts in Skyward Sword reminded me of Twilight Princess. I won't deny that areas such as the Sandship, and Sky Keep were rather unique. While other areas seemed too basic, and lacked unique features that could have made them stand out more.

 

[kizo]

I would rate it a 7 because of the fact that you weren't really done exploring the area until later in the game so it was intriguing but it did lack. I prsonally really liked the forest out of the four.

 

[Ghirahimiscool]

I think it was great. It has good provinces.

 

[A Link In Time]

The areas are a 7 in my book. Average and nothing more. I was disappointed to see Skyward Sword's bare bones approach by including solely a forest, volcano, and desert region. The new races alleviated some of this staleness but it nevertheless felt like already trekked ground. Only Lanayru broke from the mold with its timeshift stones. This puzzle mechanic was especially refreshing when sailing the sand sea and observing it transform into water before my eyes. With respect to the dungeons, Nintendo tried to alter the traditional formula with pure forest and water dungeons out of sight, however, the problem was compounded by the redundancy of fire themed temples. Sky Keep was the sole dungeon to break from the norm with its alteration of layout. It's a shame Nintendo limits this dynamic and refreshing approach to final dungeons. This was also the case with Hyrule Castle in Twilight Princess. That dungeon featured a branching pathway, bonus room, and large optional area.

 

[kizo]

I concur but I felt that the continual exploration did make up for the lack of terrain diversity.

 

[Dio]

It was a 6 in terms of uniqueness. There were a few original ideas to be sure, yet the first area was a forest and had a forest temple and that's really unoriginal, it's been done before. The volcano and desert have also been used in other games all though neither have been implemented in the way that they were in SS. The Desert of course had many time shift stones that let you change the areas and getting to the volcano itself has never been a challenge before only a quick walk, there is a fully functioning area full of obstacles and puzzles for you to do before you can access the volcano itself.

Dungeon wise, there is a forest and a fire temple which have been done before, there were a few unique dungeons though like the Lanayru mining facility and sand ship. Ancient cistern was original in the way that it combined elements from undead areas and water areas. A problem with being the 15th Zelda game is that allot of ideas will have been used before. They could have tried to be more different, however in this case they did not and decided to improve on some of the old stuff whilst adding a few new things.

 

[kizo]

Adding things to a an old concept can work and boost interest IF that old concept is broken and needs a touch up. Just like the saying, if it aint broke, dont fix it.

 

[JuicieJ]

I'd say about an 8. They weren't very unique in terms of "ZOMG, I'VE NEVER SEEN THIS KIND OF TERRAIN BEFORE!!1!" -- then again, Zelda's never really had those sort of areas outside of places like the Dark World, Twilight, and Silent Realms -- but they're pretty stinkin' unique in terms of what was done with them. The environments were used in incredibly diverse ways that really challenged us to think and use our inventory wisely. It's not so much the concept itself as what was done with the concept. That's ultimately what separates SS's areas from the rest of the series.

Can't say the dungeons weren't unique, though. The Fire Sanctuary was the only one that I would say wasn't "typical" Zelda (even though the Sandship was somewhat standard).

 

[Ventus]

Ooh, accidentally clicked zero. Oh well, let's roll with that.

I rate it zero because everything I've seen in SS felt rehashed from some previous game. Fitting for a 25th Anniversary Zelda, but more variation outside of previously seen elements couldn't hurt. Not asking for a Space level, that would be a bit (exaggerate the bit) unreasonable, but something beyond forest fire and sand plz.

 

[:Zelda:Druggie:]

I rated a 4

I really felt that Skyward Sword did re-use too many ideas. The forest, the volcano, the desert, we've seen all of that. Of course new things were brought in and there were new fun experiences, however I feel the location really has an impact on the enjoyment of these things.
That being said, although it lacked uniqueness, would I have wanted it any other way? Probably not. I like the forest, I like the volcano, it works. The Zelda series has worked hard to build up this standard and I think it's fun to see what they do with it each time. What I do give Skyward Sword major credit for in terms of trying something new is the Sandship/Lanayru Desert area. The Timeshift stones introduced an amazing element to the series, as well as a lot of mystery. It was cool and refreshing to see a sort of "high-tech" area, something not too many people would normally expect in a Zelda game. Other than that, we saw refurnished versions of old areas, however I'm not saying that was necessarily a bad thing.

When it came to dungeons, I once again believe themes were overused in terms of the location/feel of the dungeons. From trees to lava to water, nothing really new here (except once again for the introduction of the electric-type dungeons). Although I do think Skyward Sword did shine in terms of introducing newer puzzles and adding a bit more sophistication at times. I personally think of Skyward Sword as a fairly moderate game in terms of difficulty; I saw a lot of new head-scratchers and tricky puzzles in the various, once again, played out dungeons.

I give Skyward Sword a 4 for it's uniqueness because it really did not give us too many new elements. We saw reused items, dungeons, and locations. That being said, it's these very things that make us come running back to Zelda game after game, so I can't really complain

 

[Heroine of Time]

I voted nine, because I was thinking about the whole game, but I guess you're just talking about areas. Whoops. XD

I think... that would be a seven. It's not like there's anything creative about a forest or a volcano or a desert. Even the floating city has been done before in the series.

 

[kizo]

I guess its how you look at it.

 

[Spirit]

I'm hitting 4.

I've seen a forest, a desert and a volcano before numerous times in Zelda games while SS's were nicely thought out and rather enjoyable i hated seeing them again and again and again, there were new areas to explore but a desert is still a desert, a volcano is still a volcano, the music didn't change dramatically for new areas, there were no new elements and the enemies stayed the same.
I didn't enjoy the timeshift stones, an it sucked that the game waited until Lanayru desert to bring them in, they were nothing but a gimmick to me but gimmick nonetheless, i'dve liked the other regions to have a unique gimmick too. The Sand sea didn't wow me with the sand changing to water, it just didn't look or feel impressive to me.

As far as the dungeons go, they did look unlike many Zelda dungeons that i've seen, however this wasn't a good thing, large circular hubs branching off into smaller hubs and intil you hit a boss door. There were no defining elements either, the overworld acted like an outdoor assault course, the dungeons operated the same way but indoors with keys needed to progress, the dungeons didn't do anything differently than the overworld did which made things boring.

There weren't enough areas either, case in point; Faron woods - which had to pull double time as a temp water region. that really annoyed me.

SS had such potential when we take its story into consideration; it could have had places we had never seen before; We could have had a region that had been decimated by Demise's battle with Hylia, full of redeads and cursed enemies, cracked scenery with broke when you interacted with a number of times which would force you to find another way around, it could have been exclusive to the past too beyond the Gate of Time, just to make all the time travel lark worth it. (Thats another thing, it'd have been nice to go to the other regions while in the past...) We could have had Hylia's palace of worship, she was bound to have more than one while the people were still on the surface we could have had a dungeon in there...

In fact blow SS wide open, why couldnt we have 3 different and exclusive provinces in the past? that would have been wonderful.

I should hit 3 now...