There is no thread on this game? That shocked me. Anyway, there is one now.
I'm playing Zelda: Skyward Sword. I've resisted up to now because the game needs a new hardware gadget, the Wii Motion Plus. Together, they run $70-$90 retail (depending on whether you get just the adapter, or a whole new remote with the functionality built in). But I found a deal on Amazon where I was able to get both together for around $56, and I jumped on it. It seemed perfect to keep the Zelda ball rolling, and finally get to play the one real game in the series that I've missed.
It's a mixed bag. First, the negatives. Wii motion controls. Yeah, OK, you can do some cool things with the sword now. Not quite 1-1 motion, but it's close. Swing at different angles, even thrust forward for stab--cool. But that still saddles you with the very poorly laid out Wiimote/nunchuk functions. I want a gamepad so bad for this thing, and screw the swordplay. It was fine the way it was in WW and (GC) TP. Even more annoyingly, they're using the Motion Plus for everything, including screen pointing. This just blows. It's much less sensitive than the excellent standard functionality the Wii has always had, and it's relative. So you need a greater range of motion to cover the screen, and it doesn't seem as solid. And if you're pointing in the wrong direction when you press a pointer-related button, it tries to be nice to you and recenter, which means you're now way off. All you have to do to correct it is aim at the center and press a button, but this shouldn't even be necessary. It should only recenter if I so choose.
Also, incomprehensibly, the new gadget wants to recalibrate itself every time it comes back from a sleeping state. So if I take a bathroom break, when I get back I have to press a button, lay the thing flat on the table for a few seconds, point at the screen center and click. Every damn time. Stupid beyond belief.
So the first few hours were spent getting used to the odd controls. They work fairly well once that happens, and I was able to get into the game, which seems very worthwhile. If you've played the other 3D Zeldas, you know what to expect. Little has changed as far as the philosophy and overall design. Some past obtuseness has returned, unfortunately--the use of statues to save, rather than saving at any time (which WW and TP allow). But so far, this hasn't been a problem. There are plenty of them around. The world is huge, and the flying mechanic brings a smile to my face. That's despite the disappointing loading break whenever you transition from pedestrian to avian, or back again. It seems the world data changes completely from one form to another.
That brings to mind the general tech limitations. They really show! It's sad that Wind Waker looks better to me than a much newer game designed for this system, rather than a past one. I think the biggest reason is that they're both the same resolution, but SS spreads out those pixels to fill the 16:9 screen, while WW keeps them closer together in a 4:3 window. SS tries to combine the cheerful colors of WW with the more realistic style of TP, and largely succeeds. But the old tech just hurts. Blur and artifacts abound. Pity.
Despite all the baggage, it's still an exciting and compelling world. Skyloft has a lot to see and do, and that's just the starting hub. You can move easily between the sky world and the land below, giving it all a very open feeling. Combat is satisfying and more challenging than usual (not just because of the unfamiliar controls, I think). The most advanced enemies I've met so far will block at different angles, and you need to swing the sword accordingly to get around their defenses. I have yet to enter my very first temple/dungeon, though. That comes next. I quit last night right outside of it. More to come.
More comes! I've played through the first 2 temples now. While I'm still fighting the controls more than most enemies, things are starting to click. I'm getting familiar enough now with what I need to do with arms and wrists to make good things happen. The usual creativity with puzzles and gadgets is here again. The best so far is the beetle, a mechanical flying bug you control by rotating and tilting the remote. It's great for recon and grabbing out-of-reach items. It works to harass the baddies too.
The storyline and characters are spiffy as well. Your helper (like Navi or Midna) is now a spirit that stays in your sword until you call her out. You can then interact with her, typically ask questions on different subjects. She doesn't seem to provide hints as good as Midna's. I actually had to look up how to fight the first temple's boss. He kept grabbing my sword, taking it away from me and hurting me plenty. Nothing I could figure out on my own would change this frustration from repeating ad nauseam. It turns out I had to play games by slowly changing the position of the sword with the remote to distract his seeking hand, then whack him from the opposite direction
I'm now in a desert with cool time-shifting properties. Hitting some crystalline stones brings the area in their vicinity back into the past, with a shift from arid to lush landscape, fossils become live creatures, broken railways now work, and so on. Puzzles here involve properly manipulating these properties. I had to quit before making it into the dungeon. The outside areas so far are huge and disconcerting.
Another fun bit are these metallic big cubes scattered around. If you hit them with a light projectile* from the sword, they shoot up to the sky, and become floating islands you can visit on your bird. Items and challenges start to dot the world above the clouds. Cool stuff.
* By "light projectile" I mean a spinny vortex thing you charge up by pointing the sword straight up, then you fling it forward. The sword mechanics are impressive. They just take a lot of getting used to. They are a new control paradigm entirely, and the hardware/software/wetware involved is just not as mature as our trusty gamepads/experience. Maybe the next gen of such an interface will get us there.