Zelda Skyward Sword, Overrated, and why Twilight Princess is Better

Last night I completed The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I've had it since Christmas. I know right? Why did it take me this long to beat it? Oh there are reasons, which I will explore very soon. (I was never stuck on any level, just in case you thought that was a reason.) No you see, the latest Zelda game is overrated. Yes, I just called the game that got perfect scores almost everywhere overrated. I'm not here to say the game is bad, it's quite a good game really. But one of the best games ever? One of the best Zelda games ever? I don't think so. The game is slow, it's often times boring, and some levels really tempt you to look up a walkthrough somewhere for the sheer annoyance of them.

There are two main types of Nintendo games. There's the Mario styled ones, where everything is rather straightforward and you keep going straight while jumping over obstacles to reach your destination, then there's the heavily puzzle-themed Zelda styled ones. Whereas Mario relies on its fun gameplay and worlds, Zelda relies more on its stories. Skyward Sword is a big game, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Zelda series, and also serving as a prequel to the franchise. I'm going to be honest and say I really don't like these type of games. Twilight Princess I enjoyed, which I'll talk more about soon, but games like Kingdom Hearts get on my nerves. Too many side-quests when the game should just get to the blasted point. Who the heck wants to collect coconuts and mushrooms? Those type of games dwell on those little annoying side-quests or mini-quests too long. Skyward Sword suffers from this. Sometimes I went whole weeks without playing, a lot of the time it was more of a chore than having fun. Do I have to mention it? Yes, yes I do.

THE TADTONES LEVEL

Oh my gosh, this level is the one where you have to obtain a bunch of tadtone things for the Water Goddess. It is also the most useless level I have ever seen in a video game. It serves no purpose other than to annoy the player. It's, it's just there to buy more time. When you play a game, you're there to have fun, not to go underwater and search for tadpole-looking things. I wouldn't be complaining about this if it was a 1 2 3 thing, but nope, it takes awhile. It's like this game wants to keep you from reaching your destination as much as possible so you could die enjoy the scenery. Again, often the game feels like a chore rather than a fun adventure. Now, about Twilight Princess...

When you hear about Zelda, the ones that usually come to mind are Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and now this game. However, unlike the others, you'll notice that Twilight Princess is often regarded as the 'black sheep' of the main Zelda games. It's the one that gets the most negative reviews out of them, everyone pretty much thinks this game is better (far superior) than Twilight Princess. Not me. You see, Twilight Princess was more fun to play. It didn't bother dwelling on side or mini-quests that much, and the intro wasn't overly long. The story was kept at a better pace, it felt like you were advancing pretty fast, unlike Skyward Sword, where the story stands still sometimes. In Twilight Princess, the villain Zant is established better than Ghirahim, who only made occasional appearances every now and then. Skyward Sword could have done a lot of a better job with him, they could have made him more of a focus rather than popping up only like five times during the 30 hour game. Twilight Princess made you feel like you were in the story rather than just playing it. Also in TP, you actually feel for Link and want him to succeed. His growth there makes him a better character than the one in Skyward Sword, it just felt like he was a plot device used to get through the story there. And don't get me started on the disappointing final boss. First off, I actually like Demise, he was a great character. I would have liked to see more of him. Unlike Twilight Princess, the final boss fight is unsatisfying. Twilight Princess had the most epic final boss battle I have ever seen in a video game, it felt like you were right there, it felt like it was all up to the player, and most of all, it felt like the end. The final battle with Demise feels rather shoehorned in, there's no level of 'epic' to it. The battle with Ghirahim had more of an 'end' feel. (Mainly thanks to the music.) The final battle with Demise felt like something from the middle of the game, not as the final one.

I'm not saying Skyward Sword is a bad game, but perfect scores? Best Zelda game ever? The game is often devoid of one thing: fun. There are too many things happening when the player just wants to see the story progress. See, I didn't bother doing any of the optional side-quests. Why? I didn't care. I had no incentive to do so. In Twilight Princess, you cared for the characters, here you really don't care at all about the optional side-quests. I will continue to buy future Zelda games, I can only hope that they become more 'direct' in the way the story and quests goes. A little puzzle is for good measure of course, but when something like this game takes it too far, it loses the core reason why we play these games: to have fun.