Silent Realm entrances were easy. Big platforms with glitter and butterflies. I never used dowsing for them, as they were just that easy to find. The water was obviously at the end. It's the only water that could even be considered sacred. The Sandship wasn't hard either, just keep shooting your cannon or run into it. I found it like that on my second playthrough. You're exagerrating how difficult these things are to find without dowsing. You have no idea where the hookshot is in OoT, and you have to explore. You have to explore to find pretty much anything in LoZ, AoL, and LTTP. Dowsing is there as an option, in case you don't want to explore as much. Besides, finding things in SS without dowsing is child's play compared to finding just about anything in LoZ, AoL, and to some extent, LTTP. Even OoT had exploration where you had to search like that. Dowsing is never forced, and it's not too difficult to find things without it.
Skyward Sword ZD Community Gives No Love to SS? :(
- Thread starter LinkIRL
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Silent Realm entrances were easy. Big platforms with glitter and butterflies. I never used dowsing for them, as they were just that easy to find. The water was obviously at the end. It's the only water that could even be considered sacred. The Sandship wasn't hard either, just keep shooting your cannon or run into it. I found it like that on my second playthrough. You're exagerrating how difficult these things are to find without dowsing. You have no idea where the hookshot is in OoT, and you have to explore. You have to explore to find pretty much anything in LoZ, AoL, and LTTP. Dowsing is there as an option, in case you don't want to explore as much. Besides, finding things in SS without dowsing is child's play compared to finding just about anything in LoZ, AoL, and to some extent, LTTP. Even OoT had exploration where you had to search like that. Dowsing is never forced, and it's not too difficult to find things without it.
JuicieJ
SHOW ME YA MOVES!
It's possible that he did use dowsing, but if he didn't, the answer is in his post. Exploring.
I agree with others here in regards to dowsing; it is at least 95% optional (and I say 95, because there were microscopic bits of the game where its usage was mandatory). However, I sure as hell can't agree with those who think that dowsing - in and of itself - made the game any easier (at least not always). Seriously... did any of you not have trouble finding that one key piece on Eldin Mountain? I can't speak for everyone, but I personally could not find it with just dowsing alone. Kudos to everyone who did...
DarkestLink
Darkest of all Dark Links
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2012
Platforms? Those didn't appear until you finished the song. The glitter and butterflies were easy enough on Skyloft, but you truly mean to tell me you turned each of the three lands upside down in an effort to find some butterflies (which are...everywhere) and some barely noticeable glittery fog?
It all looks the same...
Vid or it didn't happen.
What are you talking about? I was told directly it was in Kakariko, I knew Dampe had a treasure, there are guys saying Dampe is dead and went floating in his grave with the treasure.
Dowsing was a game mechanic the developers intended everyone to use.
Stone of Agony.
JuicieJ
SHOW ME YA MOVES!
It's not a difficult thing to do. All he had to do was search. See, that's a little thing we had to do back in the old days back before the Zelda games became linear in design. We classic Zelda fans thrive on exploration in the series, which is why we keep begging Nintendo to bring it back.
The water was sparkling and there were fairies around it. Pretty sure there wasn't another part of that spring like that.
Wow, you're really stubborn, aren't you?
Ah, you have killed all of your arguments with this. See, that's a little thing called investigating. Again, something we had to do in the old days and something that was missing in Zelda ever since The Wind Waker (until Skyward Sword came along).
They also intend for everyone to collect the Heart Containers after a boss fight. Doesn't mean we have to.
1) You needed a Rumble Pack for that.
2) You still had to explore to find an area where the controller would rumble.
3) It was an optional item to collect.
We already know it's in one of the lands, and which land it's in. The areas were in very obvious locations. In Faron, it was near the entrance to the deep woods, right next to the viewing platform, out in the open, and in plain sight. I teleported to Faron Woods, and I didn't even have to look for it. It was right there. In Lanaryu Desert, it was right next to the Mining Facility, out in the open, and in plain sight. The group of butterflies is very noticable, as well as the fog. If you go near the area, you'll see it. I didn't have to turn the lands upside down. Their locations were apparent, and were easy to find. With a little bit of exploring, they are all found very easily.
It's highly unlikely the developers would just put the water in any random place. I suppose it is somewhat needed here, but it's still very possible.
Are you calling me a liar? I did do it, and even if I were to get back to that section of the game, I wouldn't even know how to take a video and post it. I coould look around on Youtube and find one, I suppose, but I assure you I did do it. If you don't believe me, then whatever.
How would you have any idea that the treasure was the hookshot? When I first saw that, I was almost positive it was a sidequest, and i'm sure many others did to.
Maybe it was intended, but it was rarely nessacary. Almost all parts of the game were easily done without it.
What about it?
Maybe dowsing is somewhat nessacary, but only for a very small portion of the game. Is that really that bad to you? Is it really that bad for dowsing to be used in a very small part of the game? Do you hate it that much?
JuicieJ
SHOW ME YA MOVES!
I'm just gonna say this. There's a difference between having the dowsing used for things in the main quest (like finding the Sandship) and using it in the sidequests (like finding the Goddess Cubes). When I'm talking about the dowsing being an optional feature, I'm generally talking about the latter of these two. It's still an optional feature the entire game, but especially so in the sidequests. It's never even suggested for them. It's just there as a feature.
Random Person
Just Some Random Person
So... about dowsing... I think the original discussion of it has been forgotten.
LET'S REVIEW, SHALL WE!?!
Against: Dowsing makes game easier and provides less exploration.
For: Dowsing can't be used as an argument for negative things about the game because it is optional
Against: While certain optional features in games can be ignored, Dowsing being optional does not void its effect on the game because it was meant to be used.
For: The game does not force the player to use it in any situation and therefore it is not meant to be used.
Against: There are many components that video games do not force players to use, yet the games make it clear that they were meant to be used. Dowsing is also one of them.
I think this is where the actual argument ends and things started jumping around.
LET'S REVIEW, SHALL WE!?!
Against: Dowsing makes game easier and provides less exploration.
For: Dowsing can't be used as an argument for negative things about the game because it is optional
Against: While certain optional features in games can be ignored, Dowsing being optional does not void its effect on the game because it was meant to be used.
For: The game does not force the player to use it in any situation and therefore it is not meant to be used.
Against: There are many components that video games do not force players to use, yet the games make it clear that they were meant to be used. Dowsing is also one of them.
I think this is where the actual argument ends and things started jumping around.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2012
The Story of Skyward Sword was fantastic
The WiiMotionPlus and The Map were the only reasons I disliked the game.
The WiiMotionPlus and The Map were the only reasons I disliked the game.
JuicieJ
SHOW ME YA MOVES!
Motion controls I can understand, as they're not everybody's cup of tea, but what was wrong with the map? It was relatively interactive and had the beacon feature for those who needed it. What's not to like?
DarkestLink, just the world "exploring" completely beats any of your arguments, seriously. Have you ever played any of the older Zelda games? Or just TP and SS? I think even If SS didn't have dowsing It would most likely have less exploration than OoT.
Trust me, without dowsing It would be much harder, specially because you wouldn't really have a clue of where It is, dowsing sometimes gives you some confusing direction, but It's still a good enough hint to give you an idea of where the item is. Still, that's an exception, most of the times It gave away the location very accurately.
Sorry, but those arguments are so freaking weak. An optional feature that's just there for the sake of pointing you into the right direction reducing the need of exploration just doesn't fit Zelda, which used to be a game filled with exploration. Being optional doesn't make It okay. If we get an item that makes us skip to the final boss, would you like It? I mean It's optional, but that doesn't make It any less ********. We could go on this forever, but I can guarantee you there is quite a bit of argument I can come up with to defend why I think dowsing shouldn't be there.
It lacked the diversity other Zelda games had (specially older ones such as alttp and OoT). There were just 3 places and you had to return to each of those thrice (not counting the silent realm), I kinda thought we would see dekus and zoras too for some reason. Also, the world wasn't connected, I found that to be very disappointing.
JuicieJ
SHOW ME YA MOVES!
If he's talking about the overworld, that's one thing. I thought he was talking about the MAP, though. Like, the MAP map. The one you use to view where you are.
It also doesn't lack diversity. It's not extremely diverse, but it's not without it. You return to one of thee provinces, yes, but like in Metroid, you return to them to visit previously blocked-off locations which are DIFFERENT than before.
Cfrock
Keep it strong
You also do different things in them too, like swim through the woods or sneak around an enemy camp or sail on a desert (that one still gets me
)While different, It's still the same province, so we had 3 different dungeons using that same desert look. OoT on the other hand, had what, 5~8 dungeons looking completely different with very different puzzles, that's what I meant by diversity.
JuicieJ
SHOW ME YA MOVES!
The provinces are just the encompassing area. There are multiple areas within each that both look different and have different gameplay functions. It's just a different way of going about it. Some of the execution of this was flawed, sure, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with the concept. If you disagree, then you're gonna have to take up issue with the entire Metroid franchise, and I wouldn't consider that a wise idea, given how successful it is.