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I am not a smart person
DarkMaster is offline
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Ok I beat it. So I just want to say, that the only reason I'm bothering with all these detailed impressions is because I'm super passionate about the Zelda games. OoT and Wind Waker are in my top games of all time, and we only get one of these like every 5 years, so to me this release is like an event, and I'm sure it is to many other people as well.
This game is such a mixed bag for me. I understand the general consensus is that people are either completely in love with it, or are hating on it. Whatever, popular games always receive this kind of feedback, it's to be expected. It does suck that any Zelda game ever released will always be compared to OoT and will have to live up to an impossibly high standard. It's the Zelda curse, I guess. Anyways, I don't care about comparing the games or ranking them. I just want to express these few points on the game.
Let me get the negative out of the way first. This is going to include some SPOILERS, but it seems like most people in here have beaten it anyway. Just a warning regardless.
-Fetch quests and general filler. Going back to the mountain for a pinwheel. Going through the first dungeon again for some water. Escorting that stupid robot up the mountain ARE YOU KIDDING ME. There was so much pointless running around that added nothing to the game, except time on the clock. I have no doubt in my mind that the developers were pressured to make the game as long as they could, but who can say that Skyward Sword wouldn't have been 10 times better if it was 25 hours long instead of 35, and with all the bullcrap collecting and running around removed? I think time will show that with repeated playthroughs. I know for me, when I replay Wind Waker, every single time I quit when I get to the triforce hunting.
-Exploration. 3 areas is not enough. If the forest and mountain were as diversified as the desert, I think I would've been fine with it. But the mountain was terrible, I honestly hated the first time going through it. And guess what? I hated it sooo much more the fourth time I visited it. The forest was really nice but I wanted more of it. After you went through that area the first time, you really pretty much seen it all. The water part of it added absolutely nothing, and I was very dissappointed it wasn't fleshed out more.
-Silent Realms. Fuck them. They sucked in Twilight Princess when you had to collect the stupid light drops or whatever it was, and while they suck less in this game, they still suck. Maybe some people don't hate them, and I can appreciate that, but let me ask you this: wouldn't you have preferred a sort of mini-dungeon to get those gifts of the goddess (like the Well in OoT to find the Lens of Truth, or the ice cavern where you get the blue fire)?
-General disappointments. I was really upset that the sky area was basically empty, and you do almost nothing significant there. When Wind Waker came out, I thought of a Zelda game where you would have an airship and explore a Sky world, like WW's ocean overworld. I was so excited for this game to fulfill that dream, and damn it for letting me down. Maybe it's my own fault for having expectations, but I don't give a shit. There was so much potential here to develop a rich and deep sky world, with tons of cool places to explore and discover. There wasn't even really a proper sky dungeon. BAH FUCKING HUMBUG
-A few control issues. Stabbing with the sword was ridiculous and never seemed to work properly. Rolling bombs sucked. The harp was utterly pointless. And I hated swimming, HATED IT.
-The issue with the collectable items coming up every time you load up the game, good god that annoyed me. Like Angrist was saying, I would intentionally avoid items just because I didn't want to be bothered with a stupid game interruption.
-Fi, was a lousy ass character (if you can even call an emotionless robot a character), and was so damn annoying pestering me with "advice" all the time, or repeating an objective for me as if I'm not smart enough to figure it out. We've come a long way since the annoying days of Navi, so why is this bullcrap still plaguing these games? At least give us the option to turn her advice off so we don't have to be bothered.
I know this is a hell of a lot of complaints on my part. The point I'm trying to make is that there were many, many times throughout the game were I was incredibly frustrated, and there was even one point in particular (tadtunes...) where I almost just quit the game for good. A Zelda game is always such a magical experience for me, but this one had by far the most aggravating moments throughout, and like I said earlier, I don't even know if I could ever make it through a replay.
Now that I've got that aggression out, I want to say that the good parts of the game, were fucking GREAT. Like some of the best shit the Zelda series has ever known. All the dungeons were awesome, unique, varied, and had different layers to them. They were smart, well designed with great shortcuts, and had you using all your tools instead of just the one you would get in the dungeon itself.
I loved upgrading items, but I think it could've been pushed even further, like upgrading armor. It's a good start anyway, and something I hope they keep and expand upon in future titles.
The art style was great, if not hindered by the Wii's capabilities. I think they've nailed the visual style for the series, so I'd love to see a new Zelda for Wii U that utilizes this style with high-res textures, more dense foliage, and bigger, more populated areas.
So in the end, it was a good journey with a lot of missteps that totally screwed with the pacing. Subtract all the filler and I would replay this game in a heartbeat. I am dissppointed with the sky world and a lot of other things, but overall I was happy to be playing a new Zelda game. When the credits were rolling and the original Zelda theme came on, I was definitely feeling happy.
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