Welcome to Gaia! ::

Wayne - I'm finished with The Imprisoned, I just thought it was really stupid how I had to fight him twice in like two hours. How do you not have to ******** with his toes? I thought the only things you could do were stun him with the Groosenator, then destroy his toes so you could get at his head - after tediously making your way around him since his arms are too fat to be able to get by him while standing on the same level. Or can you just land on his head while he's walking at any time? Also, once, during the little cutscene where he falls over, I noticed Link automatically run underneath him so he'd be at his head once he fell over, so I didn't have to worry about that. I was like wtf, why doesn't he always just do that?

It's the gameplay that really matters to me. The cutscenes are nice, whatever, I don't really care about them or the story a whole lot, tbh. I mean I'm pretty close to the end and nothing about it has really blew my mind. I'm pretty indifferent about what that reviewer had to say about them. Now that I think about it, there are actually very few games where I really cared about the story. I mean I guess you're right that this is the most character development a ZELDA game has seen, but it still pales in comparison to what some other games have had to offer in terms of story, characters etc. I mean, it's just around average, maybe a little better, I think. And I definitely agree that Fi isn't a dealbreaker at all.

Anyway, there's a whole shitload of collecting in SS. Just collecting small things like ingredients for upgrades (which I never just happen to have enough for when it seems like it'd actually be helpful at all), tadtones, all your items back once you've lost them, tears in the silent realms, whatever. That's why you have the dowsing ability, which you have to use a LOT. That's not why I like Zelda games. I LOVED Twilight Princess, but the parts where you have to go search for the tears of light just weren't interesting or much fun for me. Likewise, searching for Triforce charts was the worst part of Wind Waker, which is PROBABLY my favorite Zelda game. In Skyward Sword, this kind of collecting and searching is everywhere, and I just don't find it fun. It's the puzzles in the dungeons and the combat and the awesome tools, that's why I play Zelda. You have to do even more of this to upgrade tools, and honestly what I've seen of the upgrades hasn't been that exciting, either, so I don't bother. Oh, your shield can take more abuse, you can carry more ammo for whatever weapon. Whatever, I don't really need this that bad. It''s nice, I guess? Kind of? Surely they could do better. (Or maybe I'm just not familiar enough with the upgrades)

There's quite a bit of overlap with what new items (like the whip) can do, with what staples (like the clawshot). There's not really any reason why he should have both the boomerang and the bow and arrow either. They could have easily just made one item that could do all of this. The gust bellows is pretty shallow and not a very exciting item - you can blow away dust here and there and very rarely anything else. The beetle is pretty much the only new tool here that matters. The potions are nice, but potions have been nice since OoT. There are a couple new ones to make up for the fact that now you have a stamina meter hampering you and your shield can break after being hit like three times. Oh boy. You can also upgrade the potions which is cool but I never have because I didn't have enough ingredients and didn't give enough of a s**t to go searching for said ingredients because I'm so sick of searching for s**t in this game.

It probably has the most boring world of any Zelda game. The sky seems to take forever and a half to get around, and the vast majority of the islands don't have s**t on them. The ones that do could have just been incorporated into Skyloft. There's barely even enemies or anything, and it doesn't have a day-night cycle so I wouldn't call it more exciting than say, Hyrule Field in OoT. The flying controls make it even less enjoyable for me. And then it's like just a big level select screen where you choose from one of three regions. It's not like the exact same thing each time you visit them, of course, but a little more variety would have been exciting. I mean, it's a thing in Zelda games where you visit three different places at the beginning, and then the adventure begins, and you get to visit a bunch of brand new places. Here, it's just the same old three areas, again and again for the entire game, and it just feels a bit like something's missing, like maybe they did this to cut down on the development costs. And fighting Imprisoned and Ghirahim three times each? Come on. I definitely enjoyed fighting every boss in this game for the first time, but I tire of the same old boss, even with small changes.

The visuals are nice. The music is good but I wouldn't say fantastic because most of the soundtrack isn't memorable - it's like a fully orchestrated movie soundtrack where the actual music really fits what's happening so much you don't notice it, but isn't that interesting to listen to so you don't even really notice it. There are a few great pieces in there, though, definitely. Speaking of music, the harp is the shittiest playable musical instrument in the franchise. It almost makes me wonder why even have you "play" it as all you do is wave your wiimote back and forth at certain locations as a sort of Zelda's lullaby to open paths - but with no notes, it just plays automatically.

As for the controls, they're more trouble than they're worth. Controls should be invisible, not the constant focus of everything. It's almost gimmicky how it makes you use them in every possible situation, and while they are pretty accurate, they aren't always, and they ******** up so often that one of the buttons on the Wiimote has to be dedicated to fixing them when they ******** up. Maybe some people like motion controls, so they'll prefer these. For me, I like motion controls that work flawlessly, do not cause frustration, period, and which do not EVER make you do something that feels uncomfortable, such as awkwardly bending your wrist and flapping in order to fly on your loftwing. There's also no default position like on an analog stick, so doing things like turning around while you're moving while flying/swimming, which would normally be basic, can be a bit of a pain. At the very least, they could have offered traditional controls as an option, maybe not for swordplay but for s**t like flying and swimming. And I'm only leaving out swordplay because many of the enemies were obviously designed so that you have to hit them from specific angles, so it would be weird to suddenly not have to worry about that anymore like in every other Zelda game. I do prefer not having to awkwardly position your arm and just jumping straight to the slicing and cutting. There WERE different kinds of slices in other 3D Zelda games. You just pressed the buttons in one way and it'd work every time. There WAS still strategy to the enemies - you have to use a certain tool, or use your shield, or maybe projectiles were the best to use, or you could apply a new technique Link had learned. Enemies and combat can be interesting without "interesting" controls. Also, I miss using the shield a lot in combat. The shield used to be as important as the sword. In this game, you barely have to use it. Not getting the Hylian shield is easier than getting it, even.

It's a good game, for sure, but it's not an amazing Zelda game. It's enjoyable but not THAT enjoyable. I know people will still be able to play Wind Waker in 20 years, but are people still going to be playing Skyward Sword? The controls are probably going to feel so primitive by then, and I can't see them aging well at all. There are just too many things to be dissatisfied with, in SS. I've thought pretty much all Zelda games I've tried were pretty darn good in most ways - aside from the NES ones, which are very outdated anyway - ALttP is when they actually started feeling like Zelda games. This is a game where you either love it or you have a bunch of issues with it, and I don't think most new Zelda games divide people quite as much as Skyward Sword did... I could be wrong. It's good that they always try to mix things up, but this time I don't think the attempt worked out as hot as it has in the past. You can argue with me - I may be lacking knowledge in some areas and I haven't quite completed the game yet (just one more dungeon and a couple more bosses, I think), but for the most part it's just opinion and it probably won't change much.

kk, I shall help brainstorm too. Don't judge me for coming up with shitty names, because I AM pulling many of them out of my a**. Also fun fact: Armino is the spanish word for ermine. :3

Cinnabar
Lavender
Pallet
Viridian
Cerulean
Celadon
Fuschia
Olivine
New Bark
Lilycove
Dewford
Cobalt (or Cobalton)
Newtown (like Newville but also like Newtown, CT where they had the massacre)
Popstar
Outset
Windfall
Skyloft
Kakariko
Crateria
Brinstar
Norfair
Maridia
Tourian
DKJungle
TheGhetto
CoolCity
Fishland
Giantland
World 4
Canaan
Cressia
Gilead
Keystone
Fedic
Eld
Animals
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
Illinois
Galesburg
Norfuk
USA
Virginia
Miami
Beachton
Seaside
New York
Jewville
Nigmouth
Mabase
Galaxy
Universe
Tacotown
ToadTown
Utopia
Dystopia
Steelport
Deserton
Dessert
Starman
Lospass
Catwalk
Fishwalk
NESworld
Slamtown
Ballville
Delfino
City 17
Trash
Bathroom
Digadig
Nowhere

Haha. It's funny because I know he won't like any of the ones I suggest, so the more I say, the less options he has. Oh, but anyone else who happens to like any of those can take them, I don't care. I'm still stuck between Podunk and Koholint, myself. Podunk has a good meaning, but it's from Mother. Koholint doesn't mean s**t but it's from Zelda and it has the word lint in it and I like that because it reminds me of cleanliness and laundry and I'm retarded.

Are you gonna get New Leaf, ILI? I hope everyone in the cult gets it this time. So much better with friends, and you can go to the island and play with three other people! And the more people, the better!

Oh yeah! I'm super excited... But I've subdued it because it didn't have a release date... and then it kept getting delayed... And I didn't want to spoil anything for myself.
That's a cute reason to like Koholint. I like it because Link's Awakening is my favorite Zelda. :3
And I like Podunk because I've always had a vague fondness for the Mother series, even though I haven't played any of them~ sweatdrop

Yeah, Santa Destory is rad.
Char limits are the worst... I'm seldom ever even allowed to be "Brigitte."
Hm... Yeah, lame. Although Smashville isn't really the most creative name either.

So, did anyone else watch the Venture Bros. Season V premiere? mrgreen

Nigmouth it is. And no, I didn't get to watch the season premiere. No cable. How often are they showing a new episode? I might just have to pirate them.

I was thinking Santa Destroy for a town name since I already had the No More Heroes town tune.

Link's Awakening is not a bad favorite. It may be very simple compared to other Zelda games and pretty traditional, but at the same time I can't think of a single flaw. It's also the cutest one that I know of. :3 And the fact that you can actually get something that lets you jump in that game is radical because Link only ever seems to be able to autojump.

Podunk is only in the first Mother, which let me tell you, is the worst RPG I have ever played through. In order to make it enjoyable, I had to:

-Download the ROM for the "easy hack", which gives a bit more exp
-Play it on an emulator on my phone, because RPGs this tedious need to be playable anywhere. I would literally be walking down the street with earphones plugged into my phone, so that I could hear the random battles that I was fighting every two seconds unfold. Because there was no way to avoid them.
-Use a walkthrough. It's ambiguous at points like most NES games, and that's just intolerable when you can't explore without a random battle getting in your way every 10 steps or so/
-Use save states so I wouldn't die, which is a disaster in that game, AND use the speed up x2 feature for shitty battles.

This is a game that I should probably be ashamed to reference in my town name, but at the same time, its soundtrack was totally bangin', and the story and dialogue just make all other NES stories and dialogues seem like jokes. I mean, that's NEVER why you play an NES game, but for Mother it totally is. It's a pretty memorable setting, too. The graphics were adorable too (reminded me of Charlie Brown) and it was just really interesting to play such a primitive sort of RPG (that still had some redeeming features at least). Yeah... it felt like a lot less of a joke than the sequels, too. The atmosphere just felt a lot different.

There's no shame in referencing Link's Awakening, on the other hand. Just a great game, period.

UGH BUT I COULD ALSO NAME MY TOWN MAGICANT >O<