This is definitely more of a technical review than a story-wise review. When I first picked up the Wii-Mote to play as Link, the controls felt very natural. Move the Wii-Mote, slash the sword. Time your nunchuck thrusts right, Link bashes his shield. It was easy.
And then Skyward Sword happened.
Wii-Motion Plus is required for this game. Rather than hack-n-slash as before, now you had to angle your Wii-Mote to not get blocked by the attack. Worse, the controls wouldn't work the way you wanted them too sometimes. Usually, I'd just end up slashing wildly until one attack worked and I killed the baddy in my way.
Now that's just the everyday mooks you're cutting down in a dungeon. What about Bosses and Mini-Bosses?
For Twilight Princess, it's pretty obvious. Almost every boss has a giant "HIT ME RIGHT HERE" spot and you use the new item you got in the dungeon to take it down. Even the mini-bosses have this. While some of them are a bit more challenging than others, it becomes pretty obvious what you have to do.
Skyward Sword on the other hand...
The first Boss you face is Ghirahim, the main villain of the game. Yeah, and you're still figuring out how the motion controls work. Talk about hard. Even the first Mini-Boss is hard. It's a four-armed skeleton that, while having epic music, cuts you to pieces before you can even get a strike in. Some bosses have this "HIT ME RIGHT HERE" spot, but I feel like the designers were trying to move away from that.
At any rate, while there were some fun moments with the Wii-Motion plus controls, I never felt like I had changed as Swordsman. I was still taking stupid hits because the controls didn't follow my movements. Twilight Princess was easier because I didn't have to think as much. Even if I was freaking out, I could still slash my way through the guy and go off to save the world. Skyward Sword didn't allow me that luxury. Freaking out = getting hurt for no good reason.
Twilight Princess wins this round since I felt it was a little easier to do things. Skyward Sword had good potential, and if we can ever get motion controls super precise, that would be a fun remake to do again.
Twilight Princess: 3
Skyward Sword: 3
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Monday, December 2, 2013
And We're Back!
Hey guys! I'm back from the land of NaNoWriMo. I got it done on the 30th, and I'm super proud of myself for pushing myself through the boring parts, and for sticking with it.
I wrote a book in a month. That's pretty awesome, you have to admit.
Anyways, now that I'm back, I'll hopefully be posting more regularly, as well as getting Roxanne's blog off the ground and finishing up her current story and then starting over again.
It's good to be back.
I wrote a book in a month. That's pretty awesome, you have to admit.
Anyways, now that I'm back, I'll hopefully be posting more regularly, as well as getting Roxanne's blog off the ground and finishing up her current story and then starting over again.
It's good to be back.
Skyward Sword vs. Twilight Princess: Plot & Story
The stories of Zelda weren't much beyond, "Quest, get item, kill boss, lather, rinse, repeat" until you killed Ganon. But as the games improved so did the stories. Ocarina of Time has one of the best ratings of all time because of the story it told, and the implications of said story.
So how do the stories of Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess measure up? Let's find out.
Oh yeah, SPOILERS AHOY.
A quick side note: The story is the chronological events while the plot is logical structure that connects the events together. We're going to be looking at both here.
The story of Skyward Sword I've summed up a few times in the previous posts, so I'll just talk about what I liked and didn't like. The first half of the story and plot are all dependent on you following and finding Zelda. You get close to doing so, but then Ghirahim shows up and ruins everything. After the first Gate of Time is destroyed, you quest to find the second one. Which then turns into the power up the sword quest/don't let the Imprisoned win. And THEN after that it becomes the "Wait, you can't have the final boss just yet, let's throw in one more Silent Realm just to mess you up," Song of the Hero quest.
So, all in all, the Plot isn't super great. Each dungeon, while giving you something you need/want to progress, doesn't feel like it's furthering the story. It's just...there. I mean, they wait until the second to last real dungeon, to give you your freakin' bow. Do you have ANY idea how useful that would have been earlier?!
As for the story: The game is pretty good at keeping you involved in the story. I remember I hated taking breaks because I wanted to know what happened next. But there were parts where I was like, "Okay, what's with the dig around to find the next dungeon? Can't I just get there already? There's a story to be told here!"
Twilight Princess's story was a bit longer, mostly because there were more dungeons and more places to go and discover, but there also was good pacing. If you just sat down and followed the plot, no sidequests or anything, you'd find that there's never a dull moment. You're busy going to the next plot point. Find the next Fused Shadow, find the Twilit Bugs, Find the Master Sword, Find the mirror, etc. The game does a good job getting you from point A to B that isn't boring or contrived. And each area you go to has secrets to explore later on when you want to do the sidequests.
The Plot is much better as well. As mentioned above, the transitions from point A to point B don't feel too contrived, though, in the early game, you can't get anywhere because of various reasons. You can tell you can go other places, but the game doesn't want you there just yet. But you don't care too much because you've got such a big area to explore the first time. I'll never forget crossing Hyrule Field for the first time. A random thunderstorm rolled in over the Eldin Province, sort of foreshadowing what was coming. And while it freaked me out a little, I knew it was epic.
Anyways, Twilight Princess's Story may not have as big an impact on the Zelda francise as Skyward Sword (SS being the first chronologically), but the story is a better one, and a more enjoyable one. So Story and Plot goes to Twilight Princess!
Skyward Sword: 3
Twilight Princess: 2
So how do the stories of Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess measure up? Let's find out.
Oh yeah, SPOILERS AHOY.
A quick side note: The story is the chronological events while the plot is logical structure that connects the events together. We're going to be looking at both here.
The story of Skyward Sword I've summed up a few times in the previous posts, so I'll just talk about what I liked and didn't like. The first half of the story and plot are all dependent on you following and finding Zelda. You get close to doing so, but then Ghirahim shows up and ruins everything. After the first Gate of Time is destroyed, you quest to find the second one. Which then turns into the power up the sword quest/don't let the Imprisoned win. And THEN after that it becomes the "Wait, you can't have the final boss just yet, let's throw in one more Silent Realm just to mess you up," Song of the Hero quest.
So, all in all, the Plot isn't super great. Each dungeon, while giving you something you need/want to progress, doesn't feel like it's furthering the story. It's just...there. I mean, they wait until the second to last real dungeon, to give you your freakin' bow. Do you have ANY idea how useful that would have been earlier?!
As for the story: The game is pretty good at keeping you involved in the story. I remember I hated taking breaks because I wanted to know what happened next. But there were parts where I was like, "Okay, what's with the dig around to find the next dungeon? Can't I just get there already? There's a story to be told here!"
Twilight Princess's story was a bit longer, mostly because there were more dungeons and more places to go and discover, but there also was good pacing. If you just sat down and followed the plot, no sidequests or anything, you'd find that there's never a dull moment. You're busy going to the next plot point. Find the next Fused Shadow, find the Twilit Bugs, Find the Master Sword, Find the mirror, etc. The game does a good job getting you from point A to B that isn't boring or contrived. And each area you go to has secrets to explore later on when you want to do the sidequests.
The Plot is much better as well. As mentioned above, the transitions from point A to point B don't feel too contrived, though, in the early game, you can't get anywhere because of various reasons. You can tell you can go other places, but the game doesn't want you there just yet. But you don't care too much because you've got such a big area to explore the first time. I'll never forget crossing Hyrule Field for the first time. A random thunderstorm rolled in over the Eldin Province, sort of foreshadowing what was coming. And while it freaked me out a little, I knew it was epic.
Anyways, Twilight Princess's Story may not have as big an impact on the Zelda francise as Skyward Sword (SS being the first chronologically), but the story is a better one, and a more enjoyable one. So Story and Plot goes to Twilight Princess!
Skyward Sword: 3
Twilight Princess: 2
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