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As Vicas said, there are indeed a lot of nods to other games in the series, and it really added a lot of familiarity to the game without making it a rehash. Anything that is a repeat item is from pretty much every Zelda game, while anything from just one or two games has a new or different feature or use. I'd actually like to point these out if anybody is interested and it is OP-approved. I won't spoil anything, obviously. For example: Link's Living Space: Similar to OoT where all of his peers had their own space, Link begins his adventure like in OoT where he wakes up in his room. At the same time, the Knight Academy is just part of a larger town, like in Twilight Princess, where Link had no actual peers and was just a guy living on the edge of the settlement. Skyward Sword took both of those, put them together, and shoved the whole thing into the sky. Also, Link has never been in school before.
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| # ¿ Feb 21, 2012 21:56 |
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| # ¿ May 19, 2013 16:51 |
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Bruceski posted:Look at you guys, arguing whether Wind Waker or Skyward Sword looks better. That's like arguing about hamburgers vs tacos; who cares, they're both delicious. Also, they can both make you leave "Spirit Tracks" depending on your experience.
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| # ¿ Feb 23, 2012 22:24 |
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Edit: Moved For content, I really enjoyed all of the new stuff in Skyward Sword. The stamina gauge, for instance, is great for non-traditional puzzles, I left the game early on and came back to it after a month, having forgotten about the stamina gauge, and it made an extremely simple puzzle impassible. Magnatux fucked around with this message at Feb 24, 2012 around 04:22 |
| # ¿ Feb 24, 2012 02:18 |
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25 Years of References: Part One WARNING: The below wall of text may contain spoilers for any and all of the Legend of Zelda games up through the most recent Skyward Sword LP update. Link This incarnation of Link, like some other ones, starts out lazy. He gets out of bed at the urging of another character (more specifically, Zelda, like in LttP) to complete his tutorials. By the end of the tutorials, we magically have our tunic, as in WW and TP. This characterization and early pattern of items lets us know that we're playing a Zelda game. As has been pointed out, Link's tunic contains chain mail, which was started in Twilight Princess. Zelda This Zelda is a happy girl that apparently loves life. This has never been done before. In everything before WW, she's a serious princess with little to no character development. In WW, she's Tetra, and that's a lot of development. Additionally, The Helper  Navi, Tatl, Ciela, King of Red Lions/Tetra, Ezlo, Midna, and even Zelda have filled this part in the past, but for the first time, our helper is tied directly to our sword for the game. Throughout the series, the helper's attitude has gone from helpful but annoying to hateful to crazy old guys telling you about their problems and sadistic shadow people. The attitude this time is emotionless. Fi was told to do this by her creator, and she is going to carry out that task with or without the hero, it seems. Fortunately, Link is almost too eager because of the situation with Zelda and he joins up right away. In terms of game design, the sword blinking can be ignored, and maybe it's because I didn't have the sound on all the time, but I didn't hear an annoying repetitive sound or three every time Fi had something to say. If you really don't like Fi, just enjoy the statistics throughout the game, as Fi loves statistics. Also, guys, she's not a ghost. She's the spirit of the sword, that's why she's disappearing into it. The Groose      Clearly, Nintendo have perfected the ability to make the "bully". Before this game, the bully switched roles, but in LttP, OoT, MM, TP, and WW, there was somebody that was antagonistic without being a boss. In Link to the Past, this guy was actually called a bully, and kicked a ball around on Death Mountain. There were also thieves in the woods and dark Kakariko that would take your stuff, too. Although not a single direct character, these could be the foundation of the idea. Ocarina of Time had Mido, skeptical and accusatory because Link killed the Deku Tree. Tatl and Midna, while being helpers, also constantly berated their Links (at least at the beginning) until they bonded and realized the potential and abilities. Wind Waker had Tetra, who was more of a condescending "you're just a kid" type of person, but that quickly disappears as well. In Skyward Sword here, Groose has no reason to like Link, and consistently views him as competition for Zelda, and very closely resembles Ganondorf (it'd be mean to say he resembles Ganon). Will he be Ganondorf? Will he change? Is he, for the first time, a boss? Will he ever comb his hair down? Keep watching! Did you get all that?     Kaepora Gaebora the owl (Rauru the Sage in OoT) has been around. In fact, owls have been around a very long time. KG stopped by once in a while to give Link an overarching suggestion, and in OoT the helper filled in the gaps. Having been merged with the Helper to be Fi in this game, Kaepora Gaebora is just referenced through the instructors of the Knight Academy. Headmaster Gaepora and Instructors Horwell and Owlan are, I believe, a combined reference. To be honest, though, I have no idea how Horwell's name fits in. Sword Part 1    Honestly, this entire series' best supporting character is the sword. Let me explain. First, it's always there. Even if the items change from game to game, or the recurring roles change character names, and the namesake of the series itself is relegated to endgame with a few exceptions for character development, Link always has a sword, and his sword always improves at least once. The sword usually has its own legend or at least prestige associated with it, and there are always trials to get to the sword. With all of this in mind, and given that the title is about the sword, it stands to reason that the sword is the most important item in this game. As a result of this importance, the sword takes on several references on it's own. While most of these are still spoilers, we've got a very typical (but seemingly rushed) progression in the sword, and have ditched the training sword for the Goddess Sword. The immediacy with which we abandon the borrowed training sword makes it clear that we need the Goddess Sword for everything that isn't hacking through a little cave. While this may or may not be true, it seems odd that this pattern was chosen instead of having the Goddess sword come first. It seems that this would make the training sword more of a reference than actual game design. Then again, if Link had lost the race, maybe we would be talking about the how great Groose to the Past or Groose's Awakening were, but we aren't. Also, the Skyward Strike is a reference to the full-heart sword beam in other Zelda games, except Link can do it at any time. Skyloft Part 1  I already went over this earlier, but here's the idea: Ocarina of Time had a bunch of kids in their own places. Twilight Princess had a small settlement/town with Link living on the outskirts. These are both true in Skyward Sword, perhaps a nod to both games. Something about Skyloft that is a new thing is the bazaar. Mind you, I do not mean the presence of a bazaar, I just mean that for the first time, we have reason to return to the starting point at any time. Skyloft is clearly the best starting point ever. Sailcloth  Look familiar, Hero of Winds? I like to think that this sailcloth somehow ends up being the KoRL's sail in Wind Waker, but since we're avoiding timeline debate here (and there's an official one anyway so why debate anymore?), we'll just say it's a very well done reference, as it is used for something completely different while being essential to the travel method of the game like the sail in WW. To a lesser extent, you could say it is also a reference to the Deku Leaf from Wind Waker, but unlike the Deku Leaf, you can't functionally force air with it in game. Loftwing/Owl Statues Part 1   Given that these statues are meant for saving your game, these closely resemble the Owl Statues from Majora's Mask. While Owl statues are anything but rare in the Zelda series, saving at a statue is unique to Majora and now Skyward. Travel   Although there are several people out there including Epona in this comparison, I completely disagree with it reference-wise, as Link doesn't need Epona right from the start, while the King and Loftwing are both required to do anything past tutorial segments. Also, both games include "travel between islands", with their respective mediums being things Link can't overcome alone. Sparrot  If you look at the character design in for Sparrot, he's got two references going on. The first is that he's a fortune teller, a mechanic returning from many Zelda games. The second would be, well, look at the picture. Rupin   This is the guy running the gear shop, and they covered it in the video that he looks like the Happy Mask Salesman. I didn't realize this. Bird Names Sparrot = Sparrow/Parrot. Groose = Goose/Grouse. Owlan = Owl. Cawlin = Macaw. Stritch = Ostrich. Eagus = Eagle. Horwell = Horned Owl? I have no idea. You're on your own for the rest of them. Not all of the characters in Skyloft have bird names. Alright, that's enough for now. I need to do something productive. Magnatux fucked around with this message at Feb 24, 2012 around 18:37 |
| # ¿ Feb 24, 2012 04:22 |
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Shabadu posted:An upcoming monster kicked my butt until I figured it out. I have a feeling it's going to be a cyclical thing. Find new enemy, get owned til I discover the best way to kill them. General rule of thumb: Keep a shield with you at all times and learn to backflip fast. Also, for everybody, I want to know how long it took for people to discover the "skyward thrust", that is, charging a skyward strike and thrusting to shoot it straight forward. Personally, I didn't discover it until two bosses before the end of the game.
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| # ¿ Feb 29, 2012 05:06 |
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