Nintendo Releases The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword 138
mayberry42 writes "Finally, the wait is over — for European fans, anyway. After months (well, over a year) of delays, the latest adventure of Link is finally out. Reviews for the game are consistently favorable. Famitsu magazine has given it a perfect score. IGN says it's 'the greatest Zelda game ever created,' and even the best game for the Wii. Of course, some of you may have already known this, given that it has already been hacked to run on an emulator (and yes, it looks even better in HD). I would love to hear the opinions of you Europeans who've played it. Is it as good as they say?"
(Skyward Sword doesn't come out in the U.S. until Sunday, and not until next week for Japan and Australia.) While still complimentary, Giant Bomb's review goes into a bit more depth on the game's shortcomings.
Meh... (Score:5, Funny)
>I would love to hear the opinions of you Europeans who've played it. Is it as good as they say?
Nah. It is a silly game. Running around in a silly hat with a sword, packed with all sorts of unrealistic creatures and someone has apparently built all sorts of puzzles into the world. Who would do such a thing? Totally unrealistic and stupid. You'd probably want to give this one a miss.
First! (Score:3, Insightful)
It's nice to get the first last for once, but I have to say that I don't understand why developers still release their games at different dates in different regions. Especially with the internet, reviews are going to be coming out as soon as the game is out anyway, which if the game is bad will reduce sales in the regions where the game comes out later (not that this is a concern in this case).
Re:First! (Score:5, Informative)
i18n, mostly. Translating the story, translating the script, hiring voice actors to say the lines, re-doing UI elements in case stuff doesn't fit (like it often doesn't), doing culture checks etc. (some gestures may be considered obscene, some graphics may be illegal, etc.).
Doing 20+ languages simultaneously would drive anyone up the wall - a problem in one language then has to be fixed, and the fix tested on all the other languages to make sure they still work correctly, etc.
At least, you do Japanese first (easy, Nintendo's native). Then you do English(/French) for North America (maybe Spanish as well). Then you pick either Europe and do the other languages, or Asia and its languages.
Imagine the chaos caused if a worldwide release is held up because someone discovered a bug in some little used language.
Also, doing this allows the disc pressers time to press discs so they're not having to make millions of copies in a month, but hundreds of thousands as the demand ripples through the world.
Re:First! (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:First! (Score:5, Funny)
Oops, formatting fail:
fixed
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This seems to be nearly simultaneous, and gp was talking about the general case, which ggp was asking about. Your data suggests they completed all localization, probably during the year-long delay, and are more likely avoiding other big game launches in the region. For this specific case, which was not even the subject of gp or ggp post.
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Where this really, really tends to suck is in the UK. We have to wait for the European release to be ready, due to localisation issues, but when we do finally get it, the game is still in American rather than English :(
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We get signal!
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correction... set up us the bomb
Re:First! (Score:5, Informative)
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Indeed, but that doesn't explain why Nintendo puts out its big games on Sunday in North America, since Tuesday is "the day of the week" in general as far as I know.
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It's due to shipping schedules. In Europe games arrive in stores on Thursdays (this also applies to re-stocking if something sells out). Hence release dates are put on Fridays so the stores have enough time to unpack the goods and put them on shelves. Some stores just put stuff on the shelves as it arrives, others wait for the official date. When games get released on unconventional dates (e.g. a Tuesday) that confuses retailers because it means their usual handling schedule doesn't apply. E.g. Space Marine
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In the US Nintendo has a policy of releasing games on Sundays. I think it has to do with not wanting children to skip school for the games or something. That's not possible in Europe since at least Germany doesn't allow stores to open on Sundays outside of special occasions and I'm sure plenty of other countries also shut down stores on Sundays. Can't release a game when stores are closed.
Re:Slashdot is way behind (Score:4, Informative)
I believe it's the E3 demo that has been out for weeks, not the full game.
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Zombie Zelda (Score:2)
Time to put this one to rest.
Re:Zombie Zelda (Score:4, Funny)
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Insert scathing comment about pot-addled teenager who only grew up with casual gaming and has a limited view about gaming in general, but feels he's an expert because he played Pokemon and WoW a lot.
Re:Zombie Zelda (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't like it? Don't play it.
I get sick of military themed shooters, so I don't play them. See how that works?
--Jeremy
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
It has nothing to do with "save the princess." Its about game play.
Table Tennis has NO plot at all and is just a ball bouncing a short distance! Yet somehow it is in the Olympics?
Golf involves different hills of the same grass that you play fetch with yourself in...
Football involves the same thing over and over...
Checkers has almost no purpose. yet people still play it.
Pinball has only 2 buttons and you just watch a rolling ball the whole time!
Video games are not a "sport" (neither is golf) but that does not mean they can't involve developing skills and have enough depth to entertain somebody who has developed the skills.
New movies largely suck; video game movies largely suck even when some of them now out perform Hollywood. Many people do not want an interactive movie that is drawn out for 10x the length of time; I know I do not.
Zelda is as far as I'm willing to stretch it; the puzzles are fun and the premises are simple. Batman is a good game but its a slow motion ok movie I just am not willing to put my time into finish. If I want to fight against depressing situations I'll break out a mindless shooter. Better yet, do something in the real world rather than appease your humanity by proxy... your subconscious does not know the difference which is why escapes work so well as a substitute.
I'll stop Zelda when they think we are too stupid to read, like most games.
Re:Zombie Zelda (Score:5, Insightful)
You know there is a difference between artwork and technical graphics right?
You can push more polygons at a higher resolution, you can have the best technical engine in the world, but if it's boring and uninspired, then well, it doesn't matter how much AA you've got.
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Some of us are old enough to remember when games were about gameplay rather than shiny graphics. Rise of the Robots anyone? Of course, the reverse is true these days.
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Lol. The game has neither. And many visually stunning games have great gameplay, this is what most people call a great game in more than one aspect.
Very good game (Score:2)
Re:Very good game (Score:5, Funny)
a japanese light saber
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WTF is a light sabel?
Underweight ferret.
motion plus (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:motion plus (Score:5, Informative)
It works decent enough. It is sometimes a little off (for example, a spider enemy needs a thrust to kill, but the Wii Motion generally picks up a thrust as an overarm swing), though for the most part it gets better as you get used to avoiding certain gestures.
One partciular annoying factor is having to recalibrate the controler every now and again. When your character starts swinging the sword in the opposite direction from you, you know its time.
Also, you may have a lot of headaches if you use a third party controller with this game.
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To me using a third party controller is asking for trouble. The feel is never right, and I worry about the analog components being poorly calibrated. The only good one I owned was the AsciiPad for SNES, but that was pure digital.
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Thus far, the only decent Motion Plus game (as opposed to collection of mini games like Wii Sports Resort) is Red Steel 2 which is a lot of fun, but too short, w/ only Challenge Mode after beating the game).
That said, IR pointing games are fun and I've enjoyed:
Red Steel 2
Marvel Ultimate Alliance (doing attacks by moving the Wii Remote is engaging)
The Conduit
Link's Crossbow Training
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Typical button-mashing games don't interest me --- I spend too much time at work sitting.
Looking forward to
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There's Zangeki no Reginleiv but not even NoE is bringing that one to the West. It doesn't use the M+ all that much (mostly relies on IR but the M+ keeps it more accurate when the cursor goes off-screen) but it's clearly a game that wouldn't work as well with any other input device. You pretty much draw lines on the screen that your attack goes along but those lines only draw when you're moving the controller quickly. Also it goes pretty silly with its weapon ranges (a sword can cut stuff at 20 meters range
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It's a gimmick, nothing more nothing less. Oddly I don't know anyone that owns a wii, so hell if I know where the sales are coming from. Parents with small kids maybe? I guess that's the only thing that could do it. Most people I know are too tired by the time they get home from work, to do more activity to relax in front of their favorite game.
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According to Nielsen, the main demographics are boys 6-11 and women 25-34.
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only if you are so closed minded you can't find a single game where a different interface would improve gaming.... for example all games you used to play in the arcade as a kid (unless you are too young to recall) that worked with control schematics different than a controller allows....
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How is it "ruining" gaming if you never use it? Did you see the sales results for MW3? Yeah, motion controls TOTALLY jacked the sales this time around. Didn't they? Hello?
Because it's making a lot of money in the casual market, which other companies see and try to copy, which forces the horrible motion controls and other casual friendly junk in to the games we DO play. Just look at the effect that casual gaming has had on what used to be deep, rich, and complex RPGs on the PC.
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which rpg did you used to play that is so deep and rich you can't play it now? how often did those games come out? what, are you the guy who recalls diablo and believes every game should be of equal quality?
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which rpg did you used to play that is so deep and rich you can't play it now? how often did those games come out? what, are you the guy who recalls diablo and believes every game should be of equal quality?
Look at the evolution of the Elder Scrolls games. We went from a high point of Morrowind, to a greatly simplified Oblvion, which decayed even further in Skyrim. Skyrim doesn't even have stats like strength, slots for weapons and armor are significantly reduced, and dungeon design is flat with only one route though. Fallout is another example. So is the X-com series. I can go on and on if you would like.
Diablo was hardly deep and rich, it had an extremely simple stat and skill system and just barely qua
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And I suggest you try this zelda with your hated motion-control. It might surprise you.
This will actually be the first Zelda game I don't buy (or have bought for me, in the case Zelda to ALTTP, since I was a kid at the time) and , for just that reason. It's not some sort of hardcore-gamer crusade against "waggle," either. 20-*mumble* years of pre-ergonomic keyboarding have done their damage, and I don't want to, and can't, do "1:1 sword control." So no matter how intriguing it might be that they've finally changed around things like "fight the boss with the item from this dungeon" that they'
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BAWWWWW
QQ Moar.
I understand that you're a PC gamer that's used to having superb Logitech mice and some odd brand of keyboard that you use to ABSOLUTELY DOMINATE on CoD#345343, but for god's sake will you shut the hell up about the Wiimote? It's fine as-is and works just fine for it's intended market. Just because YOU don't like it doesn't mean it's a bad piece of hardware.
Oh, I forgot, you're a "true" gamer who knows what's best for the "true" and "hardcore" gamer, for whom video games should only exist.
Hey
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I don't like motion control either, but you really should read some of the reviews for Skyward Sword. They almost unanimously state that this is the first game to actually have a good implementation of motion controls in a game.
I'm not going to buy it either, but I'm interested to try it at a friend's house to see how true these reviews are.
Re:Nope. (Score:4, Interesting)
It's a bad input method when the game is designed for pressing buttons and those buttons get arbitrarily replaced by gestures. Of course it doesn't improve games that aren't using it properly, just like an analog stick doesn't improve 2D fighting games or pinball games.
Motion controls are an analog input. Using them like that makes them work. Wii Sports uses analog input, it doesn't just check if you swing the controller but how you do it and that influences the outcome (e.g. how you hit the ball). Sports games in general did benefit the most from the motion controls because they're based on a game design where skill with the tool you're using is a crucial element of the gameplay and previous control methods had to build convoluted replacement systems to challenge the player.
However most current game designs simply presuppose that you are perfect with your tools and only hit a button to use them. Your character will never swing his sword wrong, hold his gun wrong or fail to grab that bar he jumped towards. Of course mapping that to motion controls will go wrong and lead to a "loss of precision". Change the game design to make that loss of precision a part of the challenge: If the player holds the sword wrong while swinging it doesn't cut as well, if the player holds the gun wrong then he will miss his target and if the player doesn't grab that bar then he falls.
Of course all this is separate from the IR pointer controls which are the second best way of controlling an FPS game (the mouse is of course more accurate). Some freaks claim that dual analogs are better but that's simply their inexperience with pointer controls talking, they've played with dual analogs for decades, try five minutes of pointer controls and then just switch to analog controls while whining about the IR pointer. Yes, the shitty default controls in most Wii FPSes and the included statement that you're supposed to tweak that shit yourself are horrible. However once you've found a setup that works (near-zero bounding boxes work for me) it's much quicker and more precise than analog stick aiming. The Wiimote is the only console controller that actually uses that IR pointer scheme (the Move uses some trickery, it's better for spotting where you're holding the controller but worse for spotting where you're pointing it) so the other motion control systems simply cannot replicate that accuracy despite being attached to systems with WAY more first person shooters.
Die by the Sword (Score:4, Interesting)
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Europe... first? (Score:2)
Skyward Sword doesn't come out in the U.S. until Sunday, and not until next week for Japan and Australia.)
What is this madness? Perhaps I started gaming in the 90s, but I always thought that games were released in the country they were made first, then either America or Japan (whichever one didn't make it), then Europe a month or three later (and then Australia gets a new game whenever there's a chilly breeze in hell). Has Nintendo moved their HQ and developers to Europe without me noticing?
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Hardcore Nintendo games tend to go to Japan first, then Europe, then not to America at all. It's a trend that I IGN wrote an article on not too long back. My how times have changed, eh?
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Makes a bit of sense from a profit perspective though.
New games in Australia cost about $110 AUD (112USD) whereas games in the US tend to be about $50... I know which I'd sell to for more profit per item.
sure discs might be cheap as chips to manufacture, but storage/distribution etc still cost.
Re:Europe... first? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they just wanted to get the money from the Europeans while it's still worth something. ;-)
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True, but there's almost never more than a few days between the various regions' release these days, so I don't think Europe being 'first' really matters. It's only first by a couple of days, not like in the 90s when there could be months apart. Plus with things like Steam/XBLA/other digital distribution, it makes no sense to stagger releases by too much.
It was like that in Australia in the 90s, but these days we get releases of games and movies on the same date as everywhere else usually. A day or two late
best zelda.... ever? (Score:2)
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Re:best zelda.... ever? (Score:5, Insightful)
Twilight Hack (Score:3)
You didn't think Twilight Princess was better than Link to the Past?
Back in the Wii Menu 3.x days, Twilight Princess let you install the Homebrew Channel and start Snes9x GX to run the copy of A Link to the Past that you dumped with your Retrode adapter. (In 4.x, the go-to games are the Lego series and Super Smash Bros. Brawl if for some reason you can't use Bannerbomb 4.0, Bannerbomb 4.2, or LetterBomb 4.3.)
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Sure you can ride around a huge field but in LttP the world was big without resorting to huge empty spaces. The tile graphics let them put interesting stuff on every screen.
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Oh... (Score:1)
Played the demo at Target (Score:3, Informative)
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With a few bucks and a decent PC and you can play in HD.
I don't have a compatible Bluetooth chipset (at least, it's not on the compatibility list), and I don't want to rig up my own LEDs or candles or what not, but for about $25 (price of a wireless sensor bar and compatible bluetooth kajigger), I might give Dolphin a shot for Skyward Sword.
How do I dumped Wii game? (Score:2)
With a few bucks and a decent PC and you can play in HD.
So I have a PC and a Wii, and I've letterbombed it to install Homebrew Channel. What software would I need to run on the Wii to copy a game disc to a PC to run it in Dolphin?
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A few PC DVD drives are capable of reading the Wii discs, but odds are you don't have one that is.
You need a USB loader channel and either an external hard drive, or a SD card with enough free space to hold the image. Dump the image and physically move it to your PC.
Or you could just download it from someone else who's done the same.
A tutorial that covers all you need (and much more):
http://gwht.wikidot.com/ [wikidot.com]
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I worked at target for a while and Target's setup for the Wii tends to look exceptionally fugly. (I'm not sure if that is the effect of component cables.) Though you would think that modern HDTVs would be able to cheaply include some kind of filter to emulate the look of old SDTVs. You can blame SD equipment, but shouldn't you be partially blaming the equipment made to display the SD signal?
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Something I saw on ESPN today (Score:2)
"The Legend of Zelda: The Rise of Tim Tebow"
Probably have to be an NFL fan to get it.
You can't go home again (Score:4, Insightful)
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Lttp did, and Ocarina did, and Twilight Princess almost did. Just from the demo, I can tell you this game is going to rule all sorts of awesome.
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Wind Waker definitely brought that feeling back for me. Especially given the cartoony graphics. Despite its flaws, that game felt amazing.
LttP or OoT probably would have, except I didn't play them until a long time after they came out (OoT on Gamecube and LttP on Wii Virtual Console).
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Give it up. A new Zelda game will never recreate that experience of firing up The Legend of Zelda on your NES for the first time when you were 10 years-old.
Perhaps not, but then again no new games can reproduce the nostalgic effects of a 25 year old game, however good they may be. Having said that, classics do have to start somewhere. Give it time and it just may become the next A Link To The Past...or Twilight Princess.
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That's definitely true. But maybe that's not what the adults who are interested in this game are looking for. Perhaps, they're hoping a feeling similar to jumping on the horse and riding through the plains the first time in Ocarina of Time at age 17. Or, maybe they just like to play any game that's good, and this game is likely to be good.
It's sad we live in a world where people feel the need to drag others down. In a world teetering on the edge of a double-dip recession, where most 1st world households are
Shameless plug... (Score:4, Interesting)
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/320/3/0/if_you_like_zelda_2_by_dungeonboss-d4gdo3k.png [deviantart.net]
Operation Rainfall [blogspot.com]
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Xenoblade is great but isn't the jury still out on Last Story and especially Pandora's Tower?
There's a skyward sword... (Score:1)
In my pants.
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Yep, it's on your Wii.
Started it last night... (Score:5, Informative)
I picked up a copy yesterday and started it last night. Verdict so far? It's ok - pretty good. Heading for a 7/10 or 8/10 kind of score.
It's difficult stepping back to Wii level graphics these days. I didn't notice the difference so much early in the console cycle, but Wii games really do look very grim indeed next to anything else around. The artwork goes some way to compensating - it's very good in places. That said, it doesn't have the really strong visual style we've seen from other games over the last few years; Ratchet & Clank, Gears of War, Dark Souls, Mirror's Edge etc have all carved out really distinctive art styles - and have done so on better hardware. Even on the Wii, Xenoblade Chronicles has had more visual impact. There's just a bit too much "generic fantasy" around Skyward Sword (which is a criticism that can be levelled at a lot of the recent Final Fantasy spin-offs from Square-Enix).
The controls are undoubtedly better than Twilight Princess. There are occasional issues with the motion sensing refusing to register an attack at all, but they're the exception rather than the norm now. That said, I know this is a point about the Wii in general, rather than this game in particular, but I remain unconvinced that motion controls really add as much immersion as they were supposed to. There's that same "lack of connection" feeling that has always undermined motion gaming, be it on the Wii, PS Move or Kinect.
To be honest, if Zelda has one really, overwhelmingly huge problem, it's called "Dark Souls". I know that stylistically, the games are worlds apart (Zelda being a bright, colourful fantasy, while Dark Souls shares its palette with the original Quake) - but they are very similar in gameplay style - the same mix of exploration, combat, back-tracking and problem solving. And in every respect, Dark Souls is infinitely superior; not just to Skyward Sword, but to pretty much everything else in the genre. It's a pity that the reviews focussed so much on the difficulty (insanely hard though it is), because there is a supremely awesome game in there as well - and one that took me 79 hours to beat. The game's melee combat sets the new standard for this genre, with a real and distinctive sense of weight and mass to every weapon. After that, a bit of Wii-mote waggling, even with the Plus enhancements, just feels a bit limp.
Sorry, the text above is more negative than intended. This is a fun game. It's not kept up with the competition, but if you haven't played the competition yet, that might not matter to you.
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Amen to that...Dark Souls is my personal Game of The Year, put close to 65 hours into this game and it never got boring!
Uncharted 3 und Skyrim were okay, but Dark Souls really delivered this year!
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It has however leap-frogged the competition in the one area which matters to me, gameplay / controls.
I've had my fill of sitting and mashing buttons.
I'm hoping to enjoy Skyward Sword until someone creates an open-ended RPG w/ full character creation / customization (a wider variety of weapons would be a nice bonus) and a persistent on-line environment that has motion controls as good as or better than Skyward Sword.
William
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Erm... really, no. My whole point was that in terms of gameplay and control, Skyward Sword has fallen behind the competition.
The biggest competition this year in this genre is Dark Souls. Not the only competition, but certainly the one that needs to be reflected upon. In terms of fish in the pond, Dark Souls is the huge, great genre-redefining megalodon.
And believe me, Dark Souls is not about button-mashing. Button mash and die. In fact, die anyway, whether you button mash or not. But if you don't button ma
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I find the Wii Motion Plus controls to have precise controls, and I _don't_ want control reduced to just pushing buttons and I _do_ like standing and swinging the Wii Remote, or manipulating it to pretend to use a bow (when I can't get to the range to shoot).
The Dark Souls controls seem to not be universally praised, ``Dark Souls wants you to deal with its awkward controls.'' and reduce to just button-mashing, ``Lock on is handled with R3, you have two main attacks (light and heavy) mapped to R1 and R2 (or
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Dark Souls controls are awkward in two areas - the button combos needed for kick attacks/forward leap attacks and the lock-on controls. The latter have, allegedly, been fixed in a patch that released today.
And no, honestly, no, it is not button mashing. Seriously. Watch some basic gameplay videos. Each attack takes a long time - even with a fairly fast 1 handed weapon. If you launch even 1 attack more than you ought to against most of the game's enemies, they will punish you for it brutally (instant death i
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I think we mean different things by ``button-mashing'' --- to me it's any activity which happens when one presses a button, to you, I believe that it's wildly pressing a button, and Dark Souls isn't button-mashing since it requires strategizing and planning of which button to press when. I want motion controls. I want to stand and pretend to use weapons (and practice using weapons which I do use --- Wii Sports Resort's archery has actually helped me improve my focus when using my recurve and horse bows) ---
Played it the last few days (Score:1)
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obviously you've never played zelda in your life, am I wrong ?
I wont even address what you said because you simply suck.
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Amidst the obvious trolling, there is a point; Zelda has become very stale with beat dungeon, get item to get to next dungeon, repeat formula. I don't know if this one fixed that issue, but I haven't seen anything indicating it has.
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why such a feeling? even the second zelda didn't require you to go through the dungeons in order, but doing so would make life easier. I know, as a 6 year old, it was hard to do something else, but when I did it recently, it wasn't that hard to do it out of order....
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which game would you buy for your kids? zelda was one of the original "great" games, next to final fantasy. and for kids, it's a great introduction to story telling games, which are becoming more and more rare now.
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Actually what's really weird is that Japan is last. You know, Nintendo being Japanese and all.
Most games just get released for Japan & US first (i.e. NTSC countries), followed by Europe/Australia/NZ (PAL countries) shortly after. Which makes sense - they are two different versions of the game disc. This release schedule is odd though because it's releasing in some PAL territories first (Europe), then an NTSC (US), then another PAL and another NTSC (Australia, Japan)...
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