I can't wait to bomb some dodongos! (Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sord)
 

I just got Zelda: Skyward Sword, and not only am I confident that Skyward Sword should be the next great slang for boners, I'm excited to find out if this Zelda lives up to the hype. (It won't.)

I got the special edition with the gold Wiimote with Motion+ and a soundtrack.

I was also the least excited person in line! Aw yeah! Let's do this thang!

We shall eagarly await your judgement, Liz.

If my uncle does end up picking this up this week I'll be trying it out myself.

However, you were certainly the most fabulous in the line, Nonsy.

I have heard nothing but praise and hype. Also that there is a surprising amount of little details in the game.

This is actually part of why I'm so worried hahaha

EDIT: I like the dialogue choices. Also, you can make Link sit on a toilet. I half-expected that to be how you save.

This never occurred to me, and now that you said it I am sad it isn't so.

Now that I'm almost done with the tutorial segment, I think I know enough to sum up the game's premise in one sentence.

Skyward Sword is a game about a teenage boy getting a robot maid who helps him save his magic girlfriend from monsters.


Intro is a few hours long, which is fine, but really makes me wish they'd cave and just add voice acting already. As it stands, all the dialogue and stuff is just a bunch of words to read, which doesn't hold my interest as well as people just fucking talking.

Now that Link has dialogue options, it really makes no sense for him to be a silent protagonist. There's one scene where it's clear he's actually talking and explaining what happened to someone else, but it doesn't show what he's actually saying, because God forbid Link have actual dialogue.

The no voice acting bothers me more than Link having no dialogue, but I'd like to see both change as neither really work.

Anywho, this has been another episode of Liz bitching about stuff that nobody else seems to agree with her on. Join us next time when she complains about how heavily the game pushes the Link x Zelda ship compared to every other Zelda game ever.

Phew. I got two-day shipping on this game for once, and I was worried that I might get it before everyone who cares had already finished it. Good to see the tradition is holding up.

About to head out the door and pick up my pre-order from the store... And then head to work. >.<

It's gonna be a long 8 hours...

I can't get my pre-order until Wednesday.

Still hyped for the pre-order stuff. Even if I wasn't extremely excited for the game itself, I'm getting a golden wiimote and a Zelda music CD out of the deal.

Actually i think they could solve this by going the Sims route and simply adding Gibberish talk to the dialogue. It's not the "Nobody is talking" thing that annoys me, it's the "Silent Reading" that annoys me. the do it for My Sims, they could do it for Zelda. It's a faraway land, just give them some gibberish language !

Like with Midna in Twilight Princess?

I'll get it on Christmas, then I continue my quest to find a Zelda game I like as much or better then Majora's Mask. (I won't)

Legend of Ramary: Comparable Game

My favorite part of any adventure game is the exploration. I just have to get every last collectible in every corner of the world to find satisfaction. If a heart piece or upgrade was missed somewhere, I will slice, dig, climb, and dialogue my way through every town, rock, tree, cave, cliff, watery spot, and patch of grass until it is found, retrieved, and inventoried.

Cuz that's how I roll!

3 exams on a single day? What could possibly go wrong?
 

I have the special edition on preorder, I'll go and grab it in a couple hours ^_^...then I'll just watch the box for 2 weeks because the next 2 weeks are full of exams T_T

So YOU'RE the asshole they keep doing this for.

I've spent ALL my money on Christmas gifts for my family so I won't be able to play this until January. Stupid family...

The worst subtitle for a work of fantasy since Lord of the Rings: The Tome of Mediocre Pacing.

I just want to say, until it releases here on the twenty fucking fifth I hate all you foreign devils.

You guys are all welcome.

Look on the bright side, you're still getting it before assholes like me who'll never buy a Wii.

Keep doing what? I mean, I'd prefer a shorter intro if they aren't going to add mouthwords so it's not like they're doing long intros for me, and it's not like they've added voice acting to any other Zelda game ever.

Halfway through my work day. This game burns in the back of my mind, its siren call beckoning... Beckoning.

Soon... Soon...

prefer this one

HEE HEE LISTEN!
 

http://i.imgur.com/ISYYS.gif

I think he means stuffing often terrible VA into games just because people expect VA. Just reading is fine, and voiced Zelda would be fucked it's a tradition.

I am waiting until Christmas for it (Mainly since people are complaining that I keep buying things that they would give me for Christmas), so I hate you all.

My copy should be arriving tomorrow! I can't wait. But I have so much homework this week. Everything sucks!!

"It's a tradition" is sort of a poor reason for not doing voice acting. Just as much as "most games have voice acting" is a terrible reason to try and include it. If they can put voice acting in in a way that enhances the experience, then bring on the dialogue! If they can't, keep that shit outta the game.

I ended up with family and then friends over today, so my playtime was severely limited. Still, got as far as getting my green duds. (I'm gonna go with that not being a spoiler, 'cuz duh.)

My initial impressions:

Pro list: I love that you can move around while being in Look mode; I can't help but feel that that's a function we should have had since, like, WindWaker. I really dig this take on Zelda. I don't think I've ever had a thing for her before. I like that they spend the time to make you kind of care when she gets captured. (Again, no spoiler tag 'cuz duh.) It's a great improvement on what they did with Ilia in Twilight Princess. I like being able to dash, even though I feel like that stamina counter is going to be used to great effect against me later in the game.

Con list: I don't like that I can no longer swing my sword while running around. That was one of my favorite additions in Twilight Princess, and I'm sad to see it go. And worst of all: too many locked doors! How am I supposed to Hero if I can't go into people's homes and look in their cupboards and smash up all of their pots and steal their rupees and other valuable items? Do they want darkness to cover all the lands? No? Then they should leave their doors goddamn unlocked.

Tradition is a dumb excuse for Zelda stuff since they've changed a fair amount since then. They still stick to the basic formula, but I don't think Nobody Fucking Talks is a vital part of that formula. If they're going to the effort to have presentation this strong in a game and have this much talktalktalktalktalktalk, they should work on improving the presentation of the dialogue as well. There's nothing about Skyward Sword's presentation that invites a nostalgic feel sufficient to excuse the lack of mouthwords. The top-down games? Sure, go ahead and leave them mouthwords free. There not having dialogue fits the rest of the presentation. Skyward Sword? SUBSTANTIALLY less so.

Just popping in to say the game is good as fuck. That concludes my posting for seven more months.

"Thanks, Mantis-Face! I mean that in a good way."

I personally think VA almost always detracts from the experience. And Nintendo is especially bad at it. So no I don't want them going anywhere near Zelda with it.

I dunno, me and Issac shouting the same expletives in tandem while playing Dead Space 2 was pretty rad

Why aren't you shipping no-o-o-o-o-w?!

If that's a line that actually happens in the game, then all my waiting will be worth it.

Okay, let's stay away from voice acting, but can the game be narrated by the dude that narrated Bastion?

Can everything be narrated by that guy?

Is this a relatively accurate take on the mechanics?

I don't want to be "that guy," but sometimes we do things we don't want to. Anyway, all the complaints I've read about the controls boil down to "I have to move my wrist this sucks" and "I'm waggling the remote, why aren't the monsters dying?" the former being in your linked tumblr and the latter being in the article she links. Here's a video of a guy picture-in-picture playing. He does not seem to be having issues.

And thus I've fulfilled my "defending a game I've never played" quota for today.

Just put the package in the mail box, Amazon! Why are you doing this to me what did I ever do to you?!

I mean every other shitty game with shitty voice acting that makes me want to murder my ears because the dogshit that passes for words in games gets even worse when some asshole tries to say it out loud.

Putting aside the fact that saying something should be a certain way because it's tradition is generally a fucking terrible thing to do, the problem with the traditioncentric argument against voice acting in Zelda is it's basically saying that any video game franchise that became culturally well established prior to the popularization of voice acting must remain silent forever.

I don't think Zelda should have voice acting, but that's because the dialogue is all charming and what not when it's in text form, but then when my roommate's gone and I start reading all that shit aloud in silly voices I realize it's kinda garbage, although I keep doing it anyway because I'm bored and I like coming up with accents for the different species and nobody can hear me. The silent text is undoubtedly awkward though, and I'd be all for some Hylian gibberish voice over.

ANYWHO, I'm not sure if I mentioned it here, but my main reason for complaining about the lack of voice acting was how painfully slow the intro/tutorial felt for a Zelda game, and I felt like VA would have gone a long way to alleviate that. Now that I'm actually in the game part full of dungeons and shit, VA seems less needed. I mean, games have a lot more talky talk nowadays, and Zelda seems to have embraced that without embracing ANY OTHER changes other games have made to make that work.

I've never understood the whole but VA's are quicker than reading the text thing. Am I the only person that when presented with both dialogue in written and audioble format read the text far faster than it makes sense for the VA's to do so?

I didn't mean it would make it go faster. I meant it would feel less tedious having all those wordswordswordswordswordswordswords.

Everytime I have to read a unicorn dies.
By which I mean I go out and murder a unicorn.

Haha, you're a lot nicer to your roommate than I am!

Seriously, the voice I do for Zelda's dad....

Also, all red text is to be read in the most dramatic voice possible.

Have you played any of the Golden Sun Games? Specially the first 2 :P

Also, it seems the special editions got delayed in the shop where I preordered my game. Heh, I've already spent most of my money in the last week anyway, and I got a couple of crazy exam weeks ahead >_>

There exists only one spoken line which Link truly needs:

So, now that people've played it a bit more:

Any stupid to use items ( stupid fan from spirit tracks, I'm looking at you )? Any new good items?

And, now I'm going to point it out, what I'd have pointed out earlier but I was waiting for someone to notice and make a drawing, but I guess that ain't going to happen.

The SKYWARD SORD..... it's so crappy, Link can barely hold it! Come ON!

Muum did a drawing pointing out the (intentional) misspelling, and there are already pics on Tumblr of Link holding the Sord if you look for them.

I wouldn't say there are any crappy items thus far, but learning to control some things can take some getting used to.

In fairness to voice acting I'd hate it less if they'd just ALSO put the words in text down there at the bottom of your screen and let you push a button to skip past the shitty voice acting but so many of them DON'T let you fucking do that for no sane reason I've ever been able to figure out.

Your wit eludes me. Explain it in spoiler tags so that others aren't incommoded by my ineptitude.

vvEdit: :(

Reference to MSPA. Dave makes a shitty sword picture into an actual item called the "sord." Also, Dave is the Knight of Time, if I remember correctly, so going from that to Hero of Time is a pretty small jump.

"Helping people feels good!"

"It's a secret to everybody!"

OH GODDAMMIT NINTENDO

Also, John is the Wind Waker.

It's him.

I'm not going to be able to play anymore until, like, Monday. Six hours wasn't enough.

First boss though, man, that was something. Even though I've seen that fight a million times, wow.

I originally read your post as this and wondered why the hell you would play a game titled Skyward Sword if you had issues with swords.

First boss is easymode"I ain't even trying to win" Gihirahim, right?

complainin'
 

I'm having difficulty with these newfangled interfaces. Rather, I know what to do, but I can't make myself do it instinctively, even almost 12 hours in. I kept having my ass handed to me by freaking Skulltulas. I died in the first boss"easymode" Ghirahim fight twice. I am beginning to fear that I've passed my "teach an old dog new tricks" point when it comes to video games.

I find the size of the game discouraging. The last Zelda game I beat was Majora's Mask. I just don't think I have the attention span anymore. And it doesn't help that I slow down my own gameplay because I'm so OCD about exploring Every Little Nook and Cranny.

Also, my wrists hurt. I have to flick the Wiimote much harder than I'd like to get a sword strike; I wish there was a way of calibrating that. Some of us don't have the most... durable joints. Starting to really yearn for some old fashioned buttons to press.

Not gonna stop playing though. Not just yet.

It is indeed. Trying to fake him out was pretty tricky, then deflecting his sword was juuust hard enough to be engaging. It really asked a lot of the player, much more than "Hit it in the eye three times with a Deku Stick." Had to use a potion, even.

Poor you, Rick. My advice would be to just play the game and not worry about the ending. You'll get there eventually, probably. Enjoy the ride. Also, I was having a little issue with using items, but that's because I just got done with Twilight Princess and it's pretty different. Like, I'd pull up the menu when I used my slingshot because, in the last one, holding B was a way to shoot a little faster. I think I got it, now, though. Trying to shoot the beetle through an impossible gap got me pretty used to Tap B, Press A. Being able to move around without holding Z is a pretty great change, too.

I'm afraid that I'm not quick enough with swordplay. These Bokoblins are blocking my strikes pretty often. I can trick them, but sometimes, they just switch their guard as I'm moving my blade over to change the position.

Mainly, I just knock them down with a Skyward Slash before finishing them off.

Dammit I wish I had a Wii again... I wanna play this game :(

UGH I'm loving this game but they crammed a lot of time-wasting filler nonsense that is just infuriating. Spirit vessels, collect ____ number of ____ before you can enter the temple, revisit this temple before you can go to this temple, protect ____ up the mountain that you start at the bottom of for NO FUCKING REASON before you can enter this temple.

I really want to kick someone's ass for this shit.

I have this game and now no longer hate you all. Only Krylo now.

Loving it so far except the flying. Hurts my wrists.

That is dangerously close to a "I just flew here from [where ever] and boy are my arms tired" joke.

Got to where I thought was almost the end and HRRRRNGHFUCK more fillershitz.

edit: AUGHFUCK we took all your items away and put them into a bunch of different treasure chests have fun stealthing around like a dumbass bullshit is the worst kind of fillershitz

edit2: Beat it this morning. Really good game that gets boring as fuck at some parts. The parts are short, but they Keep. Fucking. Happening. Final boss fights are great.

I only just beat the Earth Temple but the game has done a great job at making me actually worry about Zelda so far.

I know because I spent two hours helping my mom buy it online...
 

I'm getting this for Christmas!

I finally went to get my game yesterday!...and now, I'll have to wait for a whole week before I can play it.

I am assuming, "Yes!", but why not ask.
 

Probably.

Meanwhile...

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv...nsnao1_500.jpg

Played this for a few hours today. Just got my Link outfit.

Initial feelings are those of disappointment, to be honest. First of all there's the fact that I JUST GOT MY LINK OUTFIT. Talk talk talk talk. This was especially obnoxious when trying to find my bird and I walk up behind the dude saying its in a pen, and then Zelda is like, man those guys probably did something with your bird. Thank you. I had not figured that out. Then I have no further direction so I'm like 'Fuck it lets just run around looking for a pen' then I hit a wall where I get a cutscene of my bird behind it and I have to go back to the swording school to get my sword, where some guys tell me my bird is WHERE I ALREADY KNOW MY BIRD IS before I can get my sword. Assholes. Just give me a goddamn sword.

Secondly, the camera is fucking terrible. Like it's still the nineties or something. Jesus.

Thirdly, fuck flying that bird around. Just fuck it.

Swording stuff seems like it might be pretty good for the most part, and hopefully the game will pick up some in that regard from this point on, but man I'd rather play the tutorial of FFXIII again than do this ever again.

Edit: Also being a massive asshole in every dialogue option was pretty good, I guess. "I made it myself, how do I look!" "Uhhh...." Excellent.

I didn't have any problems with the camera. The abundance of talking was a major problem, I agree. Flying I totally fucking hated at first but I quickly got used to it and stopped hating it.

The camera is literally never behind Link until I tap Z. It then only remains there until the first time I turn. It doesn't seem to track Link at ALL. This was especially noticeable when hopping across to the waterfall and I had to stop and realign the camera for each jump when in every other game released in the last ten years the camera just kind of follows you of its own accord.

Maybe there is some black magic to make the camera obey you better? If there is please tell me.

Man, I dunno. Like, I think I vaguely recall the camera following me somewhat and just having to realign it every once in a while? I could check, but I'm not really in the mood to play more Zelda. I dunno. I just remember that the camera wasn't even a blip on my, "Stuff that bugs the shit out of me about Skyward Sword," radar.

I think I know how I can make you very angry, Liz.

Dodoh. Fledge.

Those names should inspire you to a most potent hate.

Man, I never even did Dodoh's sidequest, and Fledge is awesome.

I haven't done almost any sidequests at all.

The story kinda inspires a sense of urgency that makes me not want to stop and smell the roses.