Thursday, December 1, 2011

Zelda: Skyward Sword II

Originally written 11/30/11 @ 9:30pm
I am roughly six or so hours into Skyward Sword.  The predictions and ratings for this game have been extremely positive and high; I think IGN even gave it a 10.0/10.o, something that hasn't happened for a Zelda game since Ocarina of Time (my personal favorite Zelda game and video game in genera--I could play that game over and over again, which I have).  I am enjoying it very much indeed.  It is has been a very playful and intriguing experience so far.  Many side-quests have been brought to light, but have not fully been revealed, such as the bug-catching, the upgrading and synthesizing of items, and a trade relay of sorts.  Not revealing all is a staple of the Zelda series and it works very well for the series, from a game play point of view as well as from a characterization view.  For example, Link is a very kindhearted hero; he would do anything for anybody without expecting a reward, but the player will typically expect a reward for doing all the tedious and oftentimes long quests.  The items collected by doing these mundane tasks are usually very valuable to Link on his big adventure but I feel like Link would still do them regardless of whether or not he got a reward--that's his character and nature.  As a concrete example, last night I met a demon name Bartreaux who only longs to be a human, so much so that he befriends a small child just to possibly get a taste for humanity.  When Link stumbles upon him in the middle of the night, he begs Link to gather Gratitude Stones, which will turn him into a human.  Link naturally agrees; after all, how could one such as he deny this monster such a heart-wrenching plea?  Simple, right?  WRONG.  There are eighty of these Gratitude Crystal things, and guess how you get them.  Yes, by doing random acts of kindness that would otherwise distract our hero from finding his beloved childhood friend and girlfriend from certain death.  "Hey, Link! Would you mind delivering this medicine so my idiot sister can heal her giant bird because I can't possibly take a break from simply walking around in circles all day to do it?  Thanks, pal!"  Jeez......

I have no idea what brought that on, because I generally like and even admire, embarrassingly so, Link's personality.  He's a very selfless character in my eyes, and I enjoy that in a protagonist.  The romantic side of me also likes that, too.  But still; the guy just wants to find his girlfriend, thereby saving the world as well, and then go home.  Leave the poor bloke alone and let him fulfill his destiny.

Again, I digress; this game had very high potential and was rumored before its release that it would dethrone Ocarina of Time from being the most revered Zelda title.  For me, that has yet to be seen.  As I said, I am immensely enjoying this game.  I love the story so far (see my previous post concerning Ghirahim), the design and style of the graphics are playful and colorful, yet are mature enough to be real.  The story has imaginative elements to it, especially with its contrasting settings of Skyloft (which is an island floating in the sky) and the "dreaded" area known as the surface to those living in Skyloft.  I do believe that the surface is nothing more than Hyrule itself, but as we all know, Hyrule is indeed a dangerous and exciting place.   Also concerning the plot and characters, with Ghirahim's mannerisms and pattern of speech it looks like he will indeed shape up to the villain that I long for him to be.

I begin the next Temple probably Friday because I have a Christmas party to attend tomorrow night and student teaching beforehand till at least 2:30, and I want to try to squeeze in a run as well.

Written 12/1/11 @ 6:20 pm
The second temple is called the Earth Temple and has volcano theme to it.  It was a rather short dungeon, but the boss….  Oh, the boss.  It’s this demon ball of fire hotter than the blazes of hell itself because it cost somewhere around two or so hearts if you touched him and then of course you caught fire which then drained your health even more.  LORD. 

Speaking of ‘lords’ Ghirahim graces you with his presence yet again.  This time to vent to you that his minions who had just captured Zelda allowed her to escape.  She was rescued by a “goddess-sent dog.”  Now it is implied that he is speaking of a female person; what is a female dog?  That’s right; a bitch.  That is as close to swearing that I have ever seen a Zelda game get, and it was awesome.  And you know that if Ghirahim (who I like to call Lord Fancy Pants) was really ranting in real life, he totally would have said bitch.  Yeah.  

So I beat the boss, called Scaldera, and we go and meet Zelda and her assistant, Impa.  Her name is not revealed but if you are at all familiar with the series, you know this is Impa.  And man, this Impa kicks ass.  In a nutshell, she gets extremely angry at Link.  “You took entirely too long to arrive here.  You were late,” she says, and if she had not come when she did, Zelda would be in the hands of those opposing them.  She meant business, and was very skeptical of the goddess’s selection of a hero.  Her bottom line: grow a pair and defend Her Grace (Zelda) like you’re supposed to.  

I love Impa.  She is an excellent plot device used to get Link’s rear in gear and stop traipsing through Mamby-Pamby Land.  What was so great about the detail this game has is that the player van see how genuinely hurt and angered Link was by her statements.  And her character design!  Fabulous!  Her boobs aren’t all over the place like in Ocarina of Time and she has a true warrior’s attire.  Not that she didn’t in Ocarina but it is very different, yet still very Impa. 

Our next stop is to Lanayru province, which is a desert.  The desert in previous Zelda titles has always been a place of great momentum to the plot.  Also, this will be the third dungeon, so I am expecting more to be revealed about Ghirahim and his master plan—OOH.  Also, Lord Fancy Pants mentioned that he “needs to spirit maiden to resurrect his master.”  I hope that means Ganondorf.  Based on A Link to the Past’s events and villain’s name (Agahnim), I am guessing that to be true.  But we shall see. 

Here is who I think is Impa:

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