ShareThis
 |
| [display_podcast] |
Summary
Before putting DSG on hiatus, Noah and James talk about the latest reasons to get a 3DS and some of the more critical reactions to Skyward Sword. Plus: Epic Fan Fiction Conclusion!
You can send in feedback to showmail at nintendojo dot com, facebook.com/nintendojo or twitter.com/nintendojo! You can also leave a comment below!
Recording Date
November 21, 2011
Hosts
Noah and James
Contents
00:00:00 Introduction
00:03:02 What We’re Playing
00:13:19 Ocarina 3DS and Skyward Sword Backlash
00:38:16 Warm Fuzzies Feedback and FAN FICTION FINALE
00:52:12 Conclusion
00:52:43 Credits
00:54:31 Total Length
Links
No. Skyward Sword is definitely NOT the Best Game of All Time, which seriously disappoints me, cause I was so looking forward to it. It had a lot of potential. I am liking the controls, though. They have a couple bugs, but they do work pretty well, all considered. The only major problem is the cursor, which is based on Wii Motion Plus (hey! We have a sensor bar for a reason!), but at any rate, the game’s playing pretty good. Now I’ve only gotten to the second dungeon, so it hurts to hear about this repetition. I’m loving the upgrading items and potions, reminiscent of the JRPG. But going back to the same three areas over and over? After keeping us waiting 3 years? They should have done better.
I have to disagree about the sensor bar. That thing is crap, in all honesty. It’s extremely finicky and easily disrupted by obstructions and just about anything else. Pointing at the screen is also a chore. Using the gyro to handle the aiming makes the whole thing seamless and allows me to play in a more relaxed position. There is a very, very slight learning curve in realizing you need to twist your wrist more than point, but after the first 30 minutes or so, everything’s perfect. Ugh, I’m feeling irked just from thinking about all those times my cursor wandered off the edge of the screen in other games that relied on the sensor bar. Never again!
Ah. It sounds like James isn’t to the part where Chrono Cross tosses out the previous hours of character development in favor of stuffing the game with almost 40 characters. Then it goes for stretches of absolute horrid writing to a section near the end where they literally spit out exposition at you in an attempt to tie up loose ends in an extremely clumsy way. Chrono Cross also didn’t work very well at all with Chrono Trigger initially. They finally tied everything up properly on Chrono Trigger DS. I think Chrono Cross would be an excellent candidate for a remake.
As for the music, they honestly used way too much of the same music from Radical Dreamers in Chrono Cross. I appreciate remixes though. Chrono Cross is pretty good game, although it has way more plot holes and dropped plot threads than Chrono Trigger. I’ve deconstructed Chrono Trigger to death and I loved the Heinlein and Lovecraft references just spattered wonderfully through Chrono Trigger. Chrono Cross is much less intelligent in it’s references. They even go on to ruin the *spoilers* Lavos, Schala, Janus plot thread from Chrono Trigger.
Skyward Sword is a good game, but really it’s best if you are into Link’s Awakening. Skyward Sword is really tied into Link’s Awakening.
To clarify the repeated boss situation in Skyward Sword, they are part of the story, and each occasion is probably best described as a different form. They’re just spread out throughout the course of the game, although I have to say that one is particularly irritating to have to keep killing.
But it’s not like boss battles have never been repeated in Zelda before – Ocarina of Time had Phantom Ganondorf, and there’s always a kind of tutorial boss scenario to prepare you for the final boss, usually involving a game of dead man’s volley… These repeated boss battles are no better or worse than these previous examples.
Sad to see the show go. I was glad to be the James defense force. I’m looking forward to the new podcast. Hope it will be fun and filled with familiar voices.
There is soooo many other new details brought into this Zelda than just the 1:1 motion controls. Also, there’s no way you could possibly make this game so that it gives you the choice of control-type as not only are bosses and puzzles designed with the 1:1 motion controls in mid, but ALL enemies are. It really makes fighting all enemies rewarding now.
Also, Wii U will still use Wii Remotes, so who’s to say they won’t just use the same control scheme?
Welp, I’m about 33 hours into Zelda right now, and soon heading into the 5th dungeon. At this point I am really, really enjoying it on many levels. Here’s a bulleted commentary of some of the commonly cited aspects of the game:
1. Controls – Swordplay: There’s definitely a learning curve here, but I think the key is patience. The game rewards you for not waggling. I’ve noticed that sometimes you can get away with waggling at enemies, but it will generally result in losing some health and getting knocked around a bit. The trick is to anticipate enemy movements and plan your attacks in advance. Once I got the hang of this, the combat became extremely satisfying. But even aside from that, just plain old swinging your sword around in 8 directions is a lot of fun. I can sort of imagine it being possible to accomplish most of these feats with a right analogue stick, but one thing I can say for certain: It would feel a hell of a lot more cumbersome. MotionPlus makes it very intuitive.
2. Controls – Flying: I’ve heard some people hated this, but apparently that might be because the game doesn’t do a great job of teaching you how to fly. It just kind of tosses you into the fray and hopes you figure out the nuance. Simply, press A for a burst of speed; flick the Wiimote down to gain altitude, and tilt to steer. It’s pretty engaging and I definitely think it’s better than Wind Waker’s sailing. Faster, too.
3. Backtracking: So far, where I am in the game, I’m not entirely decided on how I feel about the backtracking. In a way it provides a really interesting Metroid-like dynamic to the story progression, wherein you return to old environments to perform different tasks and then open up new areas that you couldn’t previously explore. It’s interesting, for sure, and I can definitely say the non-dungeon environments themselves are spectacularly designed. Far, far more interesting and packed with content than in any other Zelda game, in my opinion. Still, I can’t help but feel that it might have been more exciting to visit entirely new environments throughout the game.
4. Dungeons: Of the four I have played so far, the third absolutely blew me away with its ingenuity. The second and fourth were also very well done, although the first was a bit simplistic. Even so, it was probably still more interesting than the first dungeons from many other games in the Zelda series, so I won’t complain too much.
5. Bosses: So far, the bosses have been awesome. I won’t spoil any of the details, but the fourth boss in particular was unbelievably epic. Can’t wait to see more.
6. Exploration / The Sky: One of my only real gripes is that the sky is unfortunately a little bit barren. There are definitely a few places to go and people to meet, but in general there’s just not a whole lot there. Fortunately one of the mechanics of the game encourages you to roam around the sky to pick up loot, and that’s fun, if a little uninteresting because you’re always directed where to go. There’s not a whole lot of incentive to just explore the Sky and discover things on your own, which is unfortunate.
7. Music: I LOVE THE MUSIC. I have nothing else to say! It’s amazing!
8. Characters: The townsfolk of Skyloft are almost all great. There’s a lot to love, and as you would expect, many of them are chock full of charm. I’d also go so far as to say Skyward Sword’s version of Zelda is the best to date. She’s just an awesome character that I at least really cared about by the time the game really got going.
9. The opening hours: Slow. There’s no doubt about that. And yet, I was drawn into the story and the characters and the setting, so it was deeply enjoyable for me. I, unfortunately can see all too well that anyone who doesn’t get enchanted immediately by those things will find the first few hours of the game a slog. One thing’s for sure though, it’s tonnes better than Twilight Princess’s opening hours. In part, I think that’s because, unlike with TP, I really felt like I was doing things of consequence, instead of awkwardly doing silly quests that had little, if anything, to do with the overarching narrative.
That’s all I got! All in all, it’s a brilliant game. Probably up there with the best in the series, I’d say. I just played Ocarina for the first time in June, and while I loved it to bits, I think Skyward Sword has it beat, overall. But, of course, I have a ways to go yet.
Being able to play two awesome Zelda games for the first time within the space of a year must be totally fantastic! Really glad you had that opportunity :)
Yeah, I’m definitely not complaining! :D
To be perfectly honest, in the past I have *started* Ocarina multiple times — both on the N64 and GameCube — but never quite managed to pull myself through it. For some reason, I always lost interest at some point after Dodongo’s Cavern. I remember when Twilight Princess came out, I was determined to beat OoT once and for all, but as usual, I stopped at around the same point as before.
I’m glad Nintendo decided to re-release it on 3DS because the updated visuals and novelty of 3D managed to keep me going. Once I got past that rut, it quickly turned into something I couldn’t put down! Now I just need to dig out that copy of Legend of Zelda Collector’s Edition and play through Majora’s Mask. :)