Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
AKA The Legend of Groose | 30th December 2011
This is just going to be gushing about Skyward Sword isn’t it? Yup.
Where do I begin? This was one of the best games I've played? It's no secret that I'm a Zelda fan. I didn't grow up with it (that was Mario instead) but my first Zelda was Wind Waker, and it's also my favourite. That might say a lot of things about me, but it was a beautiful game and it truly felt like an adventure. Thanks to The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition, I was also able to experience Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, which also became one of my favourites. I've played a lot of Zeldas, including the DS titles and Minish Cap but sadly I've never played the Oracles games and the first three, if I remember correctly. Either way, I think I've played enough Zelda titles to know the formula and while I have played a lot of Zelda games, it has not become stale for me. Still, Skyward Sword was a breath of fresh air, it built upon flaws that I wasn't even aware of in the series. Know how some of the items gather dust in your inventory once you've used them to complete the dungeon and beat the boss in it? One of my favourite features of Skyward Sword was definitely how the environment utilised so many of your tools so you could cycle through them. It felt like the whole world was a dungeon, and when you love exploring, that's never a bad thing!
Spoilers for the entire game start here!
Skyward Sword is a beautiful, epic adventure. There are just so many emotions I have for it, and I've only finished it a couple of weeks ago. These aren’t nostalgia goggles, I genuinely believe that Skyward Sword is a beautiful gem that any Zelda fan should and has to play!
It's been sold as the origin story that the Zelda series had always needed. I've never been very bothered about the timeline... I just like playing Zelda games for the wonderful sense of adventure you get trekking through dungeons and battling enemies as you save Hyrule or whatever land you're in. I think Skyward Sword is going to be a rather hard game to beat now that it's improved a lot of staples of the series.
I've done a lot of gushing now, haven't I? I'll try and tone it down as I talk about the game xD... The graphics are your typical Wii fare, but I thought it was rather genius to play to its technical weakness. The watercolour texture that they used makes far away landscapes incredibly beautiful. I'll admit I was very lukewarm to the game when it was first announced because the palette was awful but I'm glad that they've improved the backgrounds and colours. It makes for a wonderfully expressive cast, and I know the graphics look 'kiddy', but look at Ghirahim. I seriously don't think any other villain lovingly described how he was going to torture you as a prep talk before a boss fight. He was the villain I came to really love to hate. I think his final form was one of the best boss fights I had ever played in the series: just imagine this music playing as you've just ran down what seems like a never ending road, smacking down an army of mooks and he's the only thing standing in the way in saving your childhood friend. The atmosphere was amazing, everything was coated in orange and black and there was a real sense of urgency. Granted I was trying to finish the game before I had a weekend trip to my friend's but the urgency was still there!
I'll admit I cry easily, I'm a huge sap, but one of the most emotional scenes in the game was definitely where Zelda asked Link to wake her up from her slumber. That crushed look that Link had as she was sealed away was heart breaking, and I'm thankful that the graphics system was able to express that look.
Aside from the graphics system, one feature that needs to be stressed is the motion system. I'm aware that not everyone likes waggle. I once tried playing it lazily, like laid down on my bed, and it was really hard rofl. I can only play it sitting down, but seriously, sometimes the game just grips you to the edge of your seat! There's some amazing boss fights in this game, and the sword fighting system is fantastic. I tried starting No More Heroes after beating this game but was sad about the swordplay system ;n;... The Motion Plus system means that Link's sword matches your movements and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a wonderfully precise system that means that even normal enemies can't be beat by the normal slashing. You have to angle your shots carefully, and it's all the more satisfying when you beat an enemy. I just wish I could say the same for tilting movements though. I loathed sky diving because I was so bad at it. Flying was also incredibly hard to do, sometimes when I came back after a break, my loftwing would just swerve over to one side and it was rather frustrating...
Another flaw I want to point out is the disappointing lack of a range of areas to explore. Like I said, I love exploring in Zelda games, so I'm sad we're restricted to just three areas of the surface world. That's not to mention that the sky only had Skyloft to explore. People complained about Wind Waker and its sailing, but I generally liked exploring and filling in my sea chart, discovering little islands and seeing what was there. Still, I'll give them points for the creative recycling of those areas, with new items opening up previously inaccessible areas. Would it have hurt to have added more sky islands though? The sky area felt empty as a result, not to add that flying was rather tricky at times.
I can't fault the dungeons however. From the Lanaryu Mining Facility to Ancient Cistern, the dungeons are amazing in visual style and design. There was a lot to do in gameplay, I think I can definitely say that the Silent Realms were some of my favourite parts. They were scary as hell, and I was pumped full of adrenaline when they were over, but I was sad that they were in a way. There's a sense of vulnerability when you're forced to look for goddesses' tears without any tools or equipment, relying on your little legs to run as fast as you can. Seriously, I once watched one of the Guardians sharpen its swords as it came towards me ahhhhhh!! Once I realised that the rest of the tears were on the other side of Skyloft and yup, I was still crazy and ran like hell, with that incessant music in the background and yet I still managed to get there before any of them got me ;A; One of the most stressful situations in this game, I tell ya. Anyway, enough gushing!
+ Sword fighting is amazing and precise, expressive characters, reuse of equipment in clever dungeons, impressive soundtrack, dat Zelda feel
- Motion controls can be wonky, lack of diverse areas, sky potion is bare, The Imprisoned is stupid, why does it have to endddd ;_;
These days, I don't really have much time to rewatch or replay games or anime, but this is definitely a game I want to replay in Hero Mode someday. Skyward Sword was a wonderfully epic adventure, one packed with emotions and surprises, and one that sadly had to have a The End.
Series: Mawaru Penguindrum
DESTINY! | 29th December 2011
It's... hard to describe Mawaru Penguindrum. At once confusing and compelling, I totally started watching the show because of the lure of penguins. Why penguins? That's just one of the many questions that isn't really answered even when the series has been completed. I am aware there are a series of light novels, and I'll read the translation for them one day, but I’ve only watched the anime series while it was airing from about episode 13 or so. Forgive me for any glaring errors since I'll talk from memory...
Spoilers exist from this point! {I need a more effective blogging system, but I'll worry about that once I have more entries to sort out ^^;)
Like I said, I began the show because it included penguins, and penguins are one of my favourite animals ;~; But what actually hooked me was how amazing the presentation of the series was. I had heard that the director was the same as the one for Utena, a show I've been meaning to watch... I'm not sure if it's a main staple of his work, but I have to say that watching Penguindrum has easily pushed Utena up my to-watch list. Penguindrum is a blast of colours and sounds; for example, there's a healthy smattering of stars in the first few episodes, seemingly floating along amongst beautifully vibrant backgrounds. The atmosphere is entirely whimsical and breathtaking, you really do feel like you're about to witness a beautiful fairy tale right before your eyes. I think that only highlights how the transition to themes of parental abandonment in the second half of Penguindrum was rather damn creepy. You can already see dark undertones bubbling underneath Ringo's story. Sure, she seems like a feisty stalker, but underneath lay her desire to become her deceased sister in the hope that it would bring back her separated parents. Once Ringo's crazy arc was finished though, the themes of terrorism and abandoned children show a shift in the story’s mood to darker tones. Seeing the Takakura family struggle so much actually hurt. At the end of the day, you really wish those three could just live happily ever after. Looking back, I'm not sure if I would have liked such a big focus on Ringo. I love the girl, but I'd rather had a few more episodes to flesh out remaining mysteries that never got solved: like who exactly was the Princess of the Crystal? What I got from watching was that Momoka was split into the two penguin hats... but the personality that possessed Himari was so different from her...
Most of the characters were fleshed out well, but Tabuki for instance only had that one episode to talk about his past. I think Yuri had a good background episode, one that was incredibly shocking, but Tabuki had been really air headed so far and suddenly he was plotting revenge - it was an incredibly jarring contrast to his previous behaviour. His episode can also be an example of where Penguindrum is weakest. As beautiful and vibrant as Penguindrum can be, metaphors alone can’t tell a compressible story. In Tabuki's episode, I was really confused about what happened in between the scene when Kanba held up the pulley and when Tabuki saved Himari ?_?... It's good being stylish, but when style has little substance, it can't hold up. I can't help but walk away from Penguindrum feeling confused. There were quite a few things that were too figurative and couldn't really be pinned down… like what was the Child Broiler? The final episode took this weakness to its extreme. You can clearly tell the genre was fantasy when Himari walked up steps with floating glass shards cutting her arms as she soldiered on. I understood that they were the pain and punishment she had to go through, but Ringo bursting into flames… wasn’t really explained… It is beautiful to see a curtain develop into a rose shape, but you can’t help but think wtfff is going onnn with some of these scenes.
+ Beautiful presentation, vibrant colours, likable characters, penguins, HHH covers used for endings were rather good (Grey Wednesday ♥)
- Can be confusing, too many questions unanswered
I enjoyed watching Mawaru Penguindrum simply for the fact that it was presented in such a beautiful way. Maybe rewatching will help answer some questions, but sometimes I wished it would be more point blank rather than metaphorical...
Reboot!
28th December 2011
I apologise for being very absent for Nightingale! I still don't really have much of an idea of what to do with the place, but I decided to try this place out as a blog. I was recently thinking about how Myanimelist was really good for logging what episode of anime you're up to, but I wanted to write a little note to myself of what I thought of the anime once I finished... and wasn't really sure where to go! I really like reading anime blogs and general discussions because it makes you go a lot deeper under the surface for stuff you probably missed during viewing... but you know, I might just end up waffling about the last series I just watched ahaha orz. Maybe it'll be useful and/or interesting for you, dear reader, if you stumble across this site... But for now, enjoy this very lazy layout I just made... I got embarrassed looking at my 5+ month old layout and needed something that wasn't stressful since I should be revising ^^; Anyway, I hope my plan goes well and I write a lot of thoughts for anime and video games or whatever I decide to blog about! Enjoy your visit ♥