[flv:The_Legend_of_Zelda_Skyward_Sword_Launch_Trailer.mp4 550 310] Launch Trailer

42 hours in 2.5 days: Done. 🙂

I still have 5 Heart Pieces to get and 25 or so Gratitude Crystals to collect, but I was trying to get through the game as quickly as possible so I can get back to blogging. I’m tempted to go through the second playthrough on Hero Mode though. I love challenges.

The resounding impression I have of Skyward Sword is that it has excellent story, unique gameplay, and world/temple design. The adventure is very story-driven, reminding me of the epicness in Wind Waker, and the world map is reused in clever ways so that the entire game feels like a dungeon — not just the temples. There’s a lot of debate over an official series timeline but Skyward Sword clearly comes before Ocarina of Time, as it depicts the origins of both the Master Sword and “The Legend of Zelda”. Very very cool.

I’ll probably update this post with more impressions in the upcoming days (and bump it), but for anyone who’s played/playing it, feel free to discuss. Please put spoilers in tags as usual.

Note: In case anyone’s wondering for the sake of discussion, The Legend of Zelda titles I’ve played/beaten are:

  • The Legend of Zelda (NES)
  • The Adventures of Link (NES)
  • A Link to the Past (SNES)
  • Link’s Awakening (GB)
  • Ocarina of Time (N64)
  • Majora’s Mask (N64)
  • Wind Waker (NGC)
  • Twilight Princess (Wii)
  • Phantom Hourglass (NDS)
  • Spirit Tracks (NDS)
  • Skyward Sword (Wii)
  • Also, I wasn’t using a walkthrough (I find they ruin the experience), but I did refer to one during the late stages of the game for the Gratitude Crystal side quests.

    148 Comments

        1. I think games are fair game for review and I’m guessing it’s refreshing to review something other than manga and anime once and a while.

          And it’s not like first time Divine has reviewed/commented on a video game – I think there was a Final Fantasy XIII review. And if that isn’t enough of a precedent, Omni did one or two video game reviews/previews/commentaries.

          Michiko
        1. But I like those buttons.. it’s fun to see viewers kill comments from time to time. Like in the 1st comment.. XD

          Please Dislike this comment too. I would like to see it hidden. (Not a reverse psychology trick, I would really like to see this hidden.)

          MrRei
      1. With the Wii MotionPlus, the controls are pretty precise and responsive. To stress the degree of control you have over Link’s sword, there’s less emphasis on the number of encounters and more on the quality of encounters. i.e. You can’t just randomly swing your sword around and hope to kill enemies. I did have some qualms with very quick tilting motions, but this was only a problem in the high-speed mine cart mini-game.

      1. So there was this elfin dude named Link and and he saved some princess with the help of his trusty Master Sword that was once the Skyward Sword that was another princess….

        Damn, Link, teach me how to score some royal babes too. XD

        The Moondoggie
      2. Alright, but be warned. This is a bit long and has all the huge franchise-redefining bits.

        Show Spoiler ▼

        1. Not quite.

          Show Spoiler ▼

        2. Oh I forgot to mention:

          Show Spoiler ▼

      1. I’m very in control of my swinging thank you very much. I don’t use the strap or the rubbery grip. 🙂

        I did however bump my Wiimote and Nunchuck together on a couple of occasions doing Link’s whirlwind slash. >_>

    1. I agree, this game is great in that you don’t just go from temple to temple where the overworld is just something you traverse to get from point A to point B. In Skyward Sword, just getting to the temple by itself is a challenge. The only big problem I had with SS was how often I had to recalibrate/center the WM+. When everything is working, the controls are fantastic, but when they get off, the game is practically unplayable since everything relies on motion controls. It didn’t happen that often, but just enough to get on my nerves. I haven’t 100%’d this game yet, but so far, it may be the best console Zelda yet.

      Also, Divine, if you have time you should play Minish Cap. Definitely one of my favorites.

        1. In the spirit of recommending, I’d also like to throw out the names of the “Of Ages”, “Of Seasons” games that came out on the GameBoy Color ages ago. The mechanic involved in either was quite a bit of fun, though at times also quite a bit of frustrating. The best part, however, is that once you complete the games you can combine them into one of the largest games possible.

          Still, though, as fantastic as SS has been, I have not found a replacement for my favorite thing in any Zelda game thus far: Ogre Deity Mask. Show Spoiler ▼

          Vena
        2. I second Vena’s recommendation 😀 Oracle of Ages and Seasons were both really great Zelda games and you can even wield the Big Goron’s sword again when you’ve completed both games!

          Beedle
    2. Nice! Glad you’re enjoying the game Divine….I was wondering why there was no early Naruto post as usual…Now I know why!

      I’m dying to try this game for myself…I’ve heard all sorts of things: IGN says it’s the best Zelda game ever; GT says it’s proof that Zelda is finally starting to show its gray hairs, that it needs to move on.

      I enjoy these (rare) videogame posts…They are a real refresh from the usual anime and japanese news (ironically these games are made in Japan, but oh well, ha ha…).

      **************BY THE WAY, DIVINE! I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this if possible**************

      How about a live show sometime? Yeah, a live show; or better said, a live podcast-audio thingy.

      I dunno, it’s just that one of my favorite videogame podcasts (EpicBattleCry) just had their fiftieth episode…And to celebrate, they held a live show in which they actually received calls from their fans and answered their questions. And it was awesome.

      The sole experience in that moment of actually getting a chance to talk to the people you really like & follow, and sharing your thoughts even if briefly, is a very satisfying feeling.

      And in the other case, the sole experience of getting to talk to your fans (sometimes including many people from many places across the globe), and interacting with them live for the first time…Is a real beatiful sensation.

      Maybe you could arrange a time slot with another blogger(s) from the site and together make this show…There are countless internet sites that enable you to do this live-stuff.

      Maybe when a certain milestone is reached for the site, like X number of views or something, you could talk about a certain topic/show/news that you found interesting to discuss, and with another writer talk about these things…Maybe as a celebration, maybe as a cool thing to try. At least for me, that’s be something neato and refreshing.

      If it’s live, you could even make a calling section where we, the fans, could get a chance to call you guys (via phone or Skype, whatever) for a brief question or something.

      If it’s not live…Then I guess it’s much more simple: you talk about stuff with the writers or something, and then post the audio in in this site.

      …Anyway, I thought I’d throw this at you to see if you like the concept or anything. I just think it could be an awesome thing to try even if it’s just once.

      **************BY THE WAY, DIVINE! I’m finally finishing this unnecesarily long post**************

      …Getting more on-topic, Enjoy the game Divine, take a much-deserved break from the blogging and come back when ready! Thanks for your continued blogging.

      Justinnnnnn
      1. You also get the limited edition Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony CD *__* though it doesn’t have all the tracks from the actual performance 🙁

        I want Koji Kondo’s piano arrangement of Grandma’s Theme from Wind Waker that he played as a surprise number D8

        Beedle
    3. Won’t be getting this game, no matter how good it is. The lack of a left handed option urks me especially if the player is left handed and how it relies heavily on motion. Changing the handedness of a legendary character just to make it more convenient to right handers while once again keeping left handers in the dark (which is the reason why I admire Link so much) also leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

      Kazemon15
    4. :)) I’m getting this tomorrow, totally pumped. I don’t think it’ll knock Ocarina of Time off the top of my list of favorite LoZ games though.
      Either way it’ll be a great time, and this post is definitely reassuring. And while I wait for tomorrow I’m gonna bust out my Zelda OSTs playlist. Yeah.

      Monik3r
    5. I didn’t even knew it was out already, games take ages to arrive here. If it’s for X-mas, it would be awesome but I doubt it. Last year, it took KH: BBS two months to be available in stores :C. Anyway, I’ve only played a bit of Ocarina of Time and Mayora’s Mask but I’m familiar with the Gameboy ones. Link’s awakening and Oracle of Ages/Seasons (you should try them!) were the only reason I could stop playing Pokemon Yellow/Crystal and I’m a big Pokemon fan so it matters.

      haitechan
    6. Well, I have one thing that just hit me. Even though Zelda games were very popular, all of them fail to become an anime. Unlike most japanese games that become anime later on, despite their popularity, none of the Zelda games even tried to become an anime. I guess it can’t be helped, since they are all inconsistent.

      L002
      1. Of course, if you ask me, the best part of Link by far was the gamecube part where he was actually part of the Soul Calibur games. They really need to make Link part of a game like that, I don’t really have the best IQ in the world, and games where you go through dungeons and find the boss’s weak points is pretty boring when in the Soul Calibur game, Link just go straight into the fights.

        L002
      1. 2.5 days, so that’s about 60 hours.

        42 hours in the game, plus some extra time for dying on the last boss a couple of times until I figured it out, and then 5-6 hours for watching and blogging Gundam AGE. (It took an abnormal amount of time because I couldn’t focus and wanted to get back to Skyward Sword).

        I’ll let you do the math. 🙂

    7. Alass! I beat them all the way up to twilight princess where I went 360 over wii since I thought itd be a flop(which I hold true beside the zeldas and brawl, but that’s just me…) so now I have to mooch! I hear good things so far though. I like the idea of the sprint. Went to the symphony in LA, it was AWESOME! I have to get my hands on this.

      Relic
      1. I haven’t, since it never came out here. I haven’t looked into “other means” of playing it either.

        Incidentally, Patrik was playing it and telling me about how cool it is (…except the graphics). I loved Xenogears (still own a copy of it), so I was tempted to make time to play Xenoblade.

        1. You should try Xenoblade 😀 I’ve been juggling playing both Xenoblade and Skyward Sword since Skyward Sword came out just because I can’t tell which one I enjoy the most xD admittedly,it’s my fault for not finishing Xenoblade in time but damn, I feel like it’s ending and I don’t want it to D;~

          Beedle
      1. I already preordered the Japanese version, even though the North American one only comes out a month later and the Collector’s Edition with a unique in-game outfit for Sera and a 4-disc OST is cheaper. I’m willing to pay a premium for Japanese voices. (Kotobuki Minako stars this time!)

    8. Ordered the limited edition with the zelda wii motion plus online 3 days ago, I’m very tempted to cancel and go buy it at gamestop so i can get my fix since it won’t arrive for about 2 weeks. 🙁

      Alex4life
    9. So you played and beaten every Legend of Zelda game across different platforms, Divine? If so, Kudos to you, I mean man, I do get hooked in a series, but unfortunately there are only some game series that I actually played almost all which is Resident Evil for PC, I’ve played them all, but never in any other platforms like Wii, etc. Now I wonder if you have played and beaten all Final Fantasy games Divine? That would be crazy, I dont even know how many titles they have now…

      Kazuma
      1. I haven’t played every Zelda title (i.e. Minish Cap, Four Swords, Four Sword Adventures, and Oracle of Ages/Seasons), nor have I played every Final Fantasy (particularly the remakes of the unreleased ones of Famicom). I also have some “gaps” because I watched my brother play some titles and never played myself, most notably FF8 and FF9.

        Final Fantasy titles I’ve played/beaten are:

        – I (NES)
        – II (SNES), i.e. IV
        – III (SNES), i.e. VI
        – VII (PSX)
        – X (PS2)
        – X-2 (PS2)
        – XII (PS2)
        – XIII (PS3)
        – Legend II (GB)
        – Legend III (GB)
        – Adventure (GB), i.e. Seiken Densetsu I (Secret of Mana I)
        – Crystal Chronicles (NGC)

        I was a pretty big gamer growing up (and was fortunate enough to have parents who were willing to spend their hard-earned money to buy me the latest consoles for doing well in school), but that’s drastically dropped off in recent years. All my free time is devoted to anime as my main hobby now. I don’t see myself getting heavily back into games unless I retired from blogging. It simply takes up all my free time (…and then some).

    10. @divine: are you considering blogging Final Fantasy XIII-2? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts when there’s so many changes and improvements that the sequel is seemingly making. I preordered the Crystal Edition and can’t wait to get my hand on the whole OST! (:

      Yin
        1. @divine: oh ok! I’ll be looking forward to your opinion if time does favor you! xD

          @Serapita: I agree. There wasn’t really any choices that you can make in the Crystarium unless you were trying to managed your CP earlier on.

          Yin
    11. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!! This is so awesome! No wonder I follow RC. I never expected a Zelda post. Im dying to buy the game on Black Friday. While avoiding speculation and spoilers like the plague, Im relieved your post sounds positive! Cant wait to play the prequel of OOT. Looking forward to the coverage.

      Chloesong
    12. You’re missing form the list n64-dd Master Quest…
      you probably didn’t even know it existed lol…

      I haven’t played any of them since the snes days myself, didn’t like the n64 one and haven’t played any of them since.
      Fav is zelda 1 and 2 for nes.

      I recommend checking out Golden Axe Warrior for the sega master system, it’ll likely surprise you a bit.
      Played and beat it long long ago, it’s ALOT like zelda 1 for the nes.

      NEOAethyr
        1. Yep, the gc ver is the only one that was released since the n64-dd died out to quick.
          The rom it’s self for the n64-dd was on that gc disc ver, weird they did that but cool non the less.
          I had gotten it long time ago when people found out about it and ripped it off the disc.
          Thought it was pretty cool to have it lol, I’m a collector, I don’t have it on my drive though, I must have it on a dvd somewhere :\.

          I never got into the n64 games zelda wise, just seemed to childish but I have a buddy loves it so whatever I guess lol.
          My fav has to be zelda 2, even though it broke away form the traditional gameplay, it was still pretty good.
          Once I got into the golden palace without all the crystals setup in the previous dungeons.
          I jumped into it, and since it lets you continue from that point, I kept trying until the gateway thingy pushed me through it, died ont he other side but… it ontinued form there lol.
          Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t figure out how to find the boss, the link shadow char.
          Beat it long ago before that, but in that instance I wasn’t able to figure it out, just went in circles lol.

          This new game, for the wii, looks like it might be alright.

          NEOAethyr
        2. You never played Ocarina of Time? *gasp*

          That was one of the best Zelda games of all-time, right up there with A Link to the Past.

          I love Link’s Adventure and played it to death — most recently on an NES emulator on my phone — but OoT and ALttP trump it.

    13. woah! so u mean, the Links and Zeldas of each game are more likely different characters and are reincarnations? Cool! i didn’t know that, actually. All I thought is it’s just one Link and Zelda throughout all the stories. Zelda games are the best! =)

      Ash
      1. It should have pretty obvious since at least Wind Waker that most of the Links and Zeldas are different people (what with Ganondorf outright saying that Toon Link reminds him of Ocarina of Time’s Link). Hell, it’s mentioned in Zelda II’s manual that its Zelda is an ancestor of the first game’s Zelda.

        Whatisusername
    14. I have played so far 18 hours of the game. For me this is the best Zelda game of all time. I have always loved Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of Time, but this game take’s first place in my book.
      And I really appreciate you taking time writing about this game, it’s nice watching other opionen, and it’s always fun reading what you have to say

      Pera
      1. Or.. and a Wiimote. I heard it was like the same thing. :p
        I wouldn’t recommend buying a Wii now because the Wii U is backwards compatible anyway, so that means it’s a counter-investment. Of course if you’re collecting consoles then go ahead. 🙂

        MrRei
    15. I have played almost the same games that you have, and i have the skyward sword but cant play it XD, im being punished by my parents since they believe that i wasnt studieng at all and they hide the game from me (it was the special edition too)… i really want to play as much as you do XD

      Treyon
    16. divine, do you play anything on PS3? I’d love to add you to my PSN friend list, if you wouldn’t mind of course. ^^

      I’m so bad with wii games so I doubt I’ll ever play this. The only game I actually beat on wii was “NO MORE HEROES”.

      Do you think this game will be the game of the year?
      To me it seems like Skyrim and Zelda are really appreciated games but I still wish for Portal 2, Assassin’s Creed Revelations and Batman Arkham City to be on top. ;_;

      teri
      1. Not really. The last PS3 game I played was Renegade Ops and that was just because I was playing co-op with a friend. Between RC, work, and other real-life priorities, I simply don’t have time to get into too many games. I know a lot of people playing Skyrim at the moment, but I’m not one of them. I have been playing some Counter-Strike Source now and then though. It’s an easy game to just pick up for short spurts at a time (and one I played a lot of back in the 1.6 days). The next PS3 game that I’ll be putting some serious hours into is FFXIII-2. The Japanese version comes out in December, a month ahead of the North American release.

    17. Imma be hitting this game up soon thanks to the black friday sales. From what Divine says, it seems it’ll be worth that wait in line. I’ll re read this post once I’m done with the game 🙂

      Pride
    18. >Skyrim
      >150 hours and still playing.
      I’m curious divine have you even given Skyrim a chance? I had a friend who cared nothing about it and only wanted Skyward Sword. After watching me play Skyrim and trying it himself he went out and bought it and is having trouble putting it down to play Skyward Sword.

      I’ll be waiting till the holidays to play Zelda myself.

      Twist
      1. No DIVINE! Skyrim will ruin your life! You won’t be able to blog if you start! There was this guy who is in UTW subs, they postponed Idolm@ster subs just because of it XD. My friend didn’t go to work today due to that game!

        Skyrim is like drugs, only more awesome. It’s not good for your health(sic).

        The Moondoggie

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