Please do not vote if you have not played both games for at least 20 hours apiece.
I'm definining "a substantial amount of both" as at least 20 hours. How Long To Beat has Skyward at 38 hours on average for a regular playthrough and BOTW at 46.5 hours for the same. So, 20 hours seems like plenty of time to see a good amount of what each game has to offer.
So, in one corner, BOTW, the ever popular, universally acclaimed open world take on the Zelda series. One of the best selling games in the series and a pioneer in emergent gaming.
In the other corner, the very well reviewed but undoubtedly polarizing Skyward Sword, touted for its immersive motion controls*, epic dungeons and compelling origin story for the entire series.
(*I understand the game is also maligned for its motion controls. Personally I had much better luck using a Wiimote Plus than a Wiimote with the Plus accessory attached. I was terrible at the game at first and thought I was supposed to be making lots of quick waggle-type movements and at the previous forum many posters bestowed me with some excellent tips and I was able to get much more into it after that, and came to love the controls.)
I'm definining "a substantial amount of both" as at least 20 hours. How Long To Beat has Skyward at 38 hours on average for a regular playthrough and BOTW at 46.5 hours for the same. So, 20 hours seems like plenty of time to see a good amount of what each game has to offer.
So, in one corner, BOTW, the ever popular, universally acclaimed open world take on the Zelda series. One of the best selling games in the series and a pioneer in emergent gaming.
In the other corner, the very well reviewed but undoubtedly polarizing Skyward Sword, touted for its immersive motion controls*, epic dungeons and compelling origin story for the entire series.
(*I understand the game is also maligned for its motion controls. Personally I had much better luck using a Wiimote Plus than a Wiimote with the Plus accessory attached. I was terrible at the game at first and thought I was supposed to be making lots of quick waggle-type movements and at the previous forum many posters bestowed me with some excellent tips and I was able to get much more into it after that, and came to love the controls.)
(Please note I wrote this in 09/2014.)
My wife and I have been playing the game for several weeks, and we beat it a couple of days ago. (There are going to be unmarked spoilers in this post, BTW.) We ended up clocking 90+ hours on the save file, although we semi-regularly left it paused for multiple hours, so I'd say a good 20 or so hours of that is from the game sitting there paused, calling to us to forget about meals and sleep and to come play it some more. So 70ish hours is probably more accurate, which I'd say is quite a lengthy Zelda game. We did complete all of the sidequests (excepting optional games which we at least tried out), rescued Batreaux, collected all pieces of heart, completed each Goddess Cube and respective treasure chest, and upgraded all necessary equipment.
As I said, I don't even know where to start, really. I guess I should say first and foremost that I absolutely loved the game and it's certain to be one of my favorite Zeldas, although I've finished it too recently to have the perspective just yet to know where I'd rank it overall in the games I've played in the series (pretty much all of them except 1/2 and the DS ones).
To me, what made the game so special is what I understand was a turn-off for a lot of players. Rather than vast, open and connected spaces to explore, the game sections off various chunks of the world into explorable puzzles to be solved, like outdoor dungeons. I like NPCs as much as the next person. Heck, I love the sidequests in Majora's Mask, which really make the game for me. But I felt like this game had a great and different idea for how to explore a world in Zelda. I'm not sure it's important to me that every subsequent Zelda follow this same philosophy--one thing I love about the franchise is that it's always reinventing itself--but it worked really well for me, here. I love that you revisit these puzzling areas in new and creative ways, be it through use of a new item, or those amazing forays into the Silent Realm.
Though flying, like swordplay, took me some practice to get used to, I came to really enjoy my time soaring through The Sky. It's a bit like sailing in Wind Waker. I will say I was hoping the upgrade air-spin move would help me to fly around more quickly, a la the Swift Sail, but you fly around decently quickly to begin with so that wasn't too much of a disappointment. I liked exploring the islands, especially once the Thunderhead was unlocked. The Lumpy Pumpkin was a neat little locale to check out, and Skyloft itself felt like a large combination of Windfall Island and Kakariko Village (the OoT version), plenty lively and the NPCs were definitely plenty diverse and engaging.
Specifically, I loved the Batreaux sidequest. I thought it was endlessly fascinating that his human form ended up being a person who looked pretty much exactly like he did as a "monster." Just goes to show that (a) it's possible people would have accepted him as he already was and (b) the grass is often greener on the other side, and I guess (c) if the people of SkyLoft really were terrified of Batreaux in his original form but accepted him as a human, that says something interesting to me about xenophobia and how a slight change in a person's appearance is enough for acceptance or rejection, as we often see in real life. It actually makes me think of that movie Focus, where William H. Macy plays a man who gets a new pair of glasses and is accused by anti-Semites of being Jewish because of that small change in his appearances. Anyway, I enjoyed the Batreaux sidequests quite a bit. The individual NPC gratitude crystal quests helped add flavor to Skyloft and reminded me of a cross between the Bomber's Notebook and Kinstone Fusion sidequests in MM and MC, respectively.
I'm really jumping around here quite a bit, so I'll talk a bit about bosses. This game has some of the most epic and memorable bosses of any Zelda I've played, and that's really saying something. Even though a battle like Tentalus wasn't terribly difficult, it was plenty epic and cinematic to play through. I'd say Koloktos was my overall fave, though it's hard to pick. The Ghirahim battles were extraordinarily visceral and really relied on your swordsmanship (which took some time to learn, as did the controls in general, but felt so good once you got the hang of 'em), even more so than the final battle with Demise. I did 8/10 Thunder Dragon battles to get the Hylian Shield. Koloktos was my final battle and I landed the final blow with 1/2 heart to my name. Just brutal! Totally satisfying, though.
What can I say of the twist with Impa? I hoped I was right in predicting it and it was so satisfying when it was revealed. It revealed hidden depths to her character and deepened the importance of Groose to the overall plot. It's endlessly fascinating to me to try to parse out the Zelda lore, and connections like this (past to future Impa) really strike a chord with me. I presume as well that just as the Zoras and Kokiri one day evolve into the Ritos and Koroks of the Great Sea, the Parella and Kikwis would one day become Zoras and Kokiri. Really neat touch with the timeline placement, there. Same thing with Demise's hatred reincarnating as Ganon (and presumably others). I believe this was also the first time Zelda was confirmed to be the descendant/reincarnation of Hylia, although I might be mistaken about that.
I suppose now's as good a time as any to talk about Fi, who's always a polarizing figure around these parts. Going in I was armed with the knowledge of how much a lot of people disliked her as a companion, so maybe I just kind of knew what to expect, but I really actually liked her character, and I didn't find her too grating or intrusive at all, and not anything worse than other Zelda companions. Sure, on occasion she told me r e a l l y slowly about the Wiimote batteries being low, but in general she wasn't too bad, and I found her interpretive dances kind of hilarious, and I liked the bond between her and the player. I like that she is within the Master Sword now, protecting future Links and allowing them to wield its full power. I like that she and Ghirahim are subtly revealed to be two sides of the same coin, each serving their own Master, one the picture of poise and calm, the other filled with delusion and unbridled madness.
I'm sure there are other things I could still talk about. The epic dungeons, which I barely touched upon, from the brilliant Timeshift Stone mechanics in the Lanayru Mining Facility to the Buddhist minimalism of the Ancient Cistern, to the modular brilliance of Sky Keep. The OST, which was Zelda music at its classic, sweeping best. The various collectable bugs and treasure with their subtle interactions with the environment (I had to look up in the guide to find out I could collect bird feathers and bees!), the delight of catching a string of Tadtones successfully, and the satisfying click of correctly deciphering the placement of a thematic Boss Key, be it an Ancient Circuit or a Blessed Idol. For now, though, I'll just leave it at this: this is a great Zelda game, and I loved every minute of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRbROTdOgj0
My wife and I have been playing the game for several weeks, and we beat it a couple of days ago. (There are going to be unmarked spoilers in this post, BTW.) We ended up clocking 90+ hours on the save file, although we semi-regularly left it paused for multiple hours, so I'd say a good 20 or so hours of that is from the game sitting there paused, calling to us to forget about meals and sleep and to come play it some more. So 70ish hours is probably more accurate, which I'd say is quite a lengthy Zelda game. We did complete all of the sidequests (excepting optional games which we at least tried out), rescued Batreaux, collected all pieces of heart, completed each Goddess Cube and respective treasure chest, and upgraded all necessary equipment.
As I said, I don't even know where to start, really. I guess I should say first and foremost that I absolutely loved the game and it's certain to be one of my favorite Zeldas, although I've finished it too recently to have the perspective just yet to know where I'd rank it overall in the games I've played in the series (pretty much all of them except 1/2 and the DS ones).
To me, what made the game so special is what I understand was a turn-off for a lot of players. Rather than vast, open and connected spaces to explore, the game sections off various chunks of the world into explorable puzzles to be solved, like outdoor dungeons. I like NPCs as much as the next person. Heck, I love the sidequests in Majora's Mask, which really make the game for me. But I felt like this game had a great and different idea for how to explore a world in Zelda. I'm not sure it's important to me that every subsequent Zelda follow this same philosophy--one thing I love about the franchise is that it's always reinventing itself--but it worked really well for me, here. I love that you revisit these puzzling areas in new and creative ways, be it through use of a new item, or those amazing forays into the Silent Realm.
Though flying, like swordplay, took me some practice to get used to, I came to really enjoy my time soaring through The Sky. It's a bit like sailing in Wind Waker. I will say I was hoping the upgrade air-spin move would help me to fly around more quickly, a la the Swift Sail, but you fly around decently quickly to begin with so that wasn't too much of a disappointment. I liked exploring the islands, especially once the Thunderhead was unlocked. The Lumpy Pumpkin was a neat little locale to check out, and Skyloft itself felt like a large combination of Windfall Island and Kakariko Village (the OoT version), plenty lively and the NPCs were definitely plenty diverse and engaging.
Specifically, I loved the Batreaux sidequest. I thought it was endlessly fascinating that his human form ended up being a person who looked pretty much exactly like he did as a "monster." Just goes to show that (a) it's possible people would have accepted him as he already was and (b) the grass is often greener on the other side, and I guess (c) if the people of SkyLoft really were terrified of Batreaux in his original form but accepted him as a human, that says something interesting to me about xenophobia and how a slight change in a person's appearance is enough for acceptance or rejection, as we often see in real life. It actually makes me think of that movie Focus, where William H. Macy plays a man who gets a new pair of glasses and is accused by anti-Semites of being Jewish because of that small change in his appearances. Anyway, I enjoyed the Batreaux sidequests quite a bit. The individual NPC gratitude crystal quests helped add flavor to Skyloft and reminded me of a cross between the Bomber's Notebook and Kinstone Fusion sidequests in MM and MC, respectively.
I'm really jumping around here quite a bit, so I'll talk a bit about bosses. This game has some of the most epic and memorable bosses of any Zelda I've played, and that's really saying something. Even though a battle like Tentalus wasn't terribly difficult, it was plenty epic and cinematic to play through. I'd say Koloktos was my overall fave, though it's hard to pick. The Ghirahim battles were extraordinarily visceral and really relied on your swordsmanship (which took some time to learn, as did the controls in general, but felt so good once you got the hang of 'em), even more so than the final battle with Demise. I did 8/10 Thunder Dragon battles to get the Hylian Shield. Koloktos was my final battle and I landed the final blow with 1/2 heart to my name. Just brutal! Totally satisfying, though.
What can I say of the twist with Impa? I hoped I was right in predicting it and it was so satisfying when it was revealed. It revealed hidden depths to her character and deepened the importance of Groose to the overall plot. It's endlessly fascinating to me to try to parse out the Zelda lore, and connections like this (past to future Impa) really strike a chord with me. I presume as well that just as the Zoras and Kokiri one day evolve into the Ritos and Koroks of the Great Sea, the Parella and Kikwis would one day become Zoras and Kokiri. Really neat touch with the timeline placement, there. Same thing with Demise's hatred reincarnating as Ganon (and presumably others). I believe this was also the first time Zelda was confirmed to be the descendant/reincarnation of Hylia, although I might be mistaken about that.
I suppose now's as good a time as any to talk about Fi, who's always a polarizing figure around these parts. Going in I was armed with the knowledge of how much a lot of people disliked her as a companion, so maybe I just kind of knew what to expect, but I really actually liked her character, and I didn't find her too grating or intrusive at all, and not anything worse than other Zelda companions. Sure, on occasion she told me r e a l l y slowly about the Wiimote batteries being low, but in general she wasn't too bad, and I found her interpretive dances kind of hilarious, and I liked the bond between her and the player. I like that she is within the Master Sword now, protecting future Links and allowing them to wield its full power. I like that she and Ghirahim are subtly revealed to be two sides of the same coin, each serving their own Master, one the picture of poise and calm, the other filled with delusion and unbridled madness.
I'm sure there are other things I could still talk about. The epic dungeons, which I barely touched upon, from the brilliant Timeshift Stone mechanics in the Lanayru Mining Facility to the Buddhist minimalism of the Ancient Cistern, to the modular brilliance of Sky Keep. The OST, which was Zelda music at its classic, sweeping best. The various collectable bugs and treasure with their subtle interactions with the environment (I had to look up in the guide to find out I could collect bird feathers and bees!), the delight of catching a string of Tadtones successfully, and the satisfying click of correctly deciphering the placement of a thematic Boss Key, be it an Ancient Circuit or a Blessed Idol. For now, though, I'll just leave it at this: this is a great Zelda game, and I loved every minute of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRbROTdOgj0
BOTW had to have been one of my most anticipated games of all time, and I'm sure this is true of many reading. I saw quite a bit of what was available in the game from the E3 blowout , which provided a link at the game worthy of the lens of truth, and then went on media blackout for the TGA trailer, January Switch Event trailer, previews, et al.
When the game launched my wife and I dove right in and proceeded to play 110+ hours across Hyrule, picking it up at most every opportunity over the course of a month or so, taking snapshots for our personal Nintendo gallery along the way with the handy in-game camera.
We beat one divine beast (Goron), and mostly focused on exploring the world. We did about half the shrines, got 200+ korok seeds, met an ancient robot, and progressed through a good bit of sidequests and some memories. We also opened probably 75% of the world and explored a decently vast swath of it in great detail, literally seeing the trees for the forests.
As Zelda fans foremost for the dungeons and the story, we found ourselves disappointed with the generic Saturday morning cartoon feeling to the story and the dungeon we played didn't strike our fancy much. I'd say 1/3 of the shrines we enjoyed pretty well, a few we liked a ton, and the rest didn't do much for us. A certain secluded island was one of the highlights, as overcoming that area caused a sharp tingle of excitement.
After seed and shrine hunting for a good long while, we realized it was starting to feel like work. But the alternative to scouring the land in detail was returning to the main story, which seemed even less appealing. So we set aside the game for a time, not even venturing to a sword and shield maze in Akkala.
Several months later, long after the DLC was made available, we tried the game again and utilized the Hero's Path to check out areas we hadn't gone too much. We sort of fell back to our own patterns of korok seed hunting and exploring too many nooks and crannies. So we went back to the main story and beat another divine beast (Zora), and found it a good bit more interesting than the first one we had been to. We also did a bunch of side quests and shrines. We probably added 15 hours or so to our play total. We got to the desert and got bored of the game again around the entrance to Gerudo Town. The game is just not for us, even if the other areas are way more interesting, we just weren't feeling it. The emergent systems are really impressive, but we just prefer a highly curated Zelda experience.
When the game launched my wife and I dove right in and proceeded to play 110+ hours across Hyrule, picking it up at most every opportunity over the course of a month or so, taking snapshots for our personal Nintendo gallery along the way with the handy in-game camera.
We beat one divine beast (Goron), and mostly focused on exploring the world. We did about half the shrines, got 200+ korok seeds, met an ancient robot, and progressed through a good bit of sidequests and some memories. We also opened probably 75% of the world and explored a decently vast swath of it in great detail, literally seeing the trees for the forests.
As Zelda fans foremost for the dungeons and the story, we found ourselves disappointed with the generic Saturday morning cartoon feeling to the story and the dungeon we played didn't strike our fancy much. I'd say 1/3 of the shrines we enjoyed pretty well, a few we liked a ton, and the rest didn't do much for us. A certain secluded island was one of the highlights, as overcoming that area caused a sharp tingle of excitement.
After seed and shrine hunting for a good long while, we realized it was starting to feel like work. But the alternative to scouring the land in detail was returning to the main story, which seemed even less appealing. So we set aside the game for a time, not even venturing to a sword and shield maze in Akkala.
Several months later, long after the DLC was made available, we tried the game again and utilized the Hero's Path to check out areas we hadn't gone too much. We sort of fell back to our own patterns of korok seed hunting and exploring too many nooks and crannies. So we went back to the main story and beat another divine beast (Zora), and found it a good bit more interesting than the first one we had been to. We also did a bunch of side quests and shrines. We probably added 15 hours or so to our play total. We got to the desert and got bored of the game again around the entrance to Gerudo Town. The game is just not for us, even if the other areas are way more interesting, we just weren't feeling it. The emergent systems are really impressive, but we just prefer a highly curated Zelda experience.
